@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

dabeaz

@dabeaz@mastodon.social

Free-range computer scientist living in Evanston, Illinois. Former academic. I teach computer science courses, but you'll probably find me yapping on about bikes, dogs, and other random stuff here. I wrote the Python Cookbook, 3rd Ed (O'Reilly) and Python Distilled (Addison-Wesley). Teaching CSCI 1730, Design and Implementation of Programming Languages at Brown.edu in Fall 2023!

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dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

Note to self: "I'm sorry" is not the most tactful response when other parents say they're working on a project related to AI-- correct though it may be.

dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

Sure, there's bike riding. And early morning bike riding into the sunrise. And early morning bike riding into the sunrise in the crisp clear air after a rainstorm. But then there's early morning bike riding into the sunrise in the crisp clear air after a rainstorm under the wispy skies of an aurora borealis. In Chicago. Sublime.

Aurora borealis with Ba'hai Temple (Wilmette) in foreground.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

Early morning in this case being about 3:40am. May need a nap later...

dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

Caught a glimpse of the aurora in the northern Chicago suburbs. Clouds have moved in though---so, might have to go out bike riding at 3am to see if I can get a better glimpse once it clears later.

faassen, to programming
@faassen@fosstodon.org avatar

Lukewarm take: we need more lukewarm takes in programming

#programming

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@faassen No, not lukewarm takes. Lukewarm types.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@faassen Eh, Meh.

jmsdnns, to random
@jmsdnns@mastodon.social avatar

📺 Rick Beato interviewed the bass player I was raving about this morning, from the WILLOW tiny desk video

Her name is MOHINI DEY

It is rare for someone to be as talented as she is... I mean, as far as bass goes, she's right there with someone like Les Claypool. She is THAT good!

https://youtu.be/OJTXqHxt_UU

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@jmsdnns That interview is amazing. Thanks for sharing!

dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

A bit sad about missing yet another PyCon (coming up soon), but mid-May is peak parenting season with all of the end-of-school events. And given the choice, gotta go with the kids.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@chrisjrn June is summer band season though. Hmmm.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@webology I thought that it would be harder with younger kids, but the older kids are so much more challenging on scheduling. Especially with all of the extracurricular activities in high school.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@webology Yeah, the weekends are always a mess. I figure that Python will probably stick around for awhile. The kids, not so much. So, I'm going to enjoy them while they're still at home. Time flies.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@webology I must admit I'm looking at the map and doing a bit of mental calculus about the drive from Chicago to Pittsburgh. "Maybe I could gate crash PyCon" goes through my mind. Nah. That would just be nuts.

dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

Current dilemma: Work on code? Or break out the pressure washer and go outside?

sanityinc, to cycling
@sanityinc@hachyderm.io avatar

Mulling getting back into after many years away from it, but the idea of throwing several thousand euros at a decent bike is harshing the buzz. Still have a 1998 racer with Dura-Ace that got a dinged frame when a car knocked me off and broke my foot in 2015, the last time I rode.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@sanityinc Saw a guy I know on the side of the road fiddling with something on the drive train of his expensive new road bike. I called out "you okay?" as I neared. He yelled back, "yeah, just some software thing." I'd say good call on keeping the old bike.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@sanityinc @oook I'm still sad about cracking the frame on my steel bike back in 2019. Don't know if anything cracked on the deer.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@sanityinc @oook Oh, I didn't say that ;-). Multiple cracks on me too.

AlSweigart, to random
@AlSweigart@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    dabeaz,
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    @AlSweigart Yes.

    dabeaz, to random
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    I know I've been a bit checked out lately, but I saw some diagram about Python packaging the other day and I literally recognized none of the words written down on it.

    dabeaz,
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    @brohrer Not really, but I was perhaps a bit taken back. I mean, I still casually follow a fair bit of Python stuff, but this was more like WTF?!?!

    In any event, I've only got a limited number of brain cells. I'd say that about 75% of them are devoted to keeping track of the high-school kid's schedule. The other 25% aren't interested in packaging.

    dabeaz,
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    @christmastree I no longer know either of those words...

    slampoud, to random
    @slampoud@mastodon.cloud avatar

    So I was gonna tell you about how I finally extricated myself from my job and i’m going to take a couple months to decompress and then start looking for something new … except I’ve had my chill utterly fucked by the experience of trying to buy health insurance on covered California, which decided it can’t verify my citizenship and I need a state hearing if I want to proceed.

    dabeaz,
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    @slampoud WTAF?!?

    dabeaz, to random
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    A few weeks back, I showed kid the insides of an Apple 2 and then a box of similarly looking electronic components. He picks out a 7-segment LED and says I want to do something with this.

    I'm not sure he knew what he was getting into because all I've got are NAND gates. Figuring out how to represent decimal numbers in binary and displaying a corresponding decimal digit from scratch has proven to be much more involved than it looks. It's actually been a pretty awesome project.

    dabeaz,
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    After finally getting digits 0-7 to display, kid wanted to see the digits count. So, a bit more coding with NAND gates--implementing increment directly from a truth table. Finally, "lucky for you kid, I just happen to have a quad-input flip-flop and a 555 timer (as one does)."

    So we finally ended up with this beautiful rat's nest of work, slowly counting digits.

    Thus concluding the first lesson on "how do computers work?"

    dabeaz,
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    @djmitche Nice! I remember seeing stuff like that in the Radio Shack catalog back in the day.

    dabeaz,
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    @neirbowj Nice! Oh my, was that "bomb" incident all the way back in 2002? Yikes! I must admit that one of the appeals of a project like this is just how scary the end result looks. Nobody else (especially teachers and parents) know what's going on with it.

    dabeaz,
    @dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

    @neirbowj Whew! I know I've been getting old and time flies, but at least it hasn't flown THAT much. Yet.

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