@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

dave_andersen

@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io

Computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Co-founder & CTO, Enriched Ag. he/him.

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inquiline, to random
@inquiline@union.place avatar

TFW you finish grades and get to do... taxes and overdue reviewing

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@inquiline It must be an academic disease. I spent today doing taxes too. How does anyone expect us to get taxes done in April before the end of the school year?

mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

Been thinking about getting some sort of Android tablet to read comics on, but worried my preferred feature set ("rectangular screen" "rectangular means the edges of the displayable area are ninety degree angles. that's not a rectangle" "cheap, like tablets were five years ago back when you could still get tablets with rectangular screens" "preferably not Samsung") might reduce the pool of available devices to zero

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@mcc AliExpress has you covered but goodness knows exactly what you'll get. But they look rectangular and cheap.

dave_andersen, to Pittsburgh
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

Hah! Just when I was complaining yesterday about the lack of regional solar to absorb some of that hot day electricity demand peak, along comes Summer Lee digging up $2m to put a solar farm on the nine mile run slag heap area.

https://triblive.com/local/epa-earmarks-2m-to-convert-pittsburgh-slag-heaps-to-solar-farm/

Awesome use - the place is horribly contaminated, and this will cover it and reduce stress on transmission lines into squirrel hill. ♥️

dave_andersen, to random
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

Wow - I had no idea about this bit of history. [cw: corporation-sponsored violence.]

https://www.unionprogress.com/2024/05/19/birthplace-of-the-middle-class-is-a-doorway-with-a-brutal-history/

mattblaze, to photography
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

31-41 Union Square West, NYC, 2024.

All the pixels, each of which will be famous for 15 minutes, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/53731622110

#photography

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@huitema @mattblaze I think we're used to seeing the tops of buildings foreshortened in classical (and human at street level) perspective, so seeing them in a clearly 3d perspective with non-converging lines makes us feel like they must actually be getting wider as they go up.

whitequark, to random
@whitequark@mastodon.social avatar

found some extremely Normal code in one of my projects

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@whitequark but it does seem like there's something wrong with vs code.

dave_andersen, to Pittsburgh
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

https://youtu.be/ZXTO2lJwc54?si=frRy-B8pcLTvU8mE

(H/T to CMU PhD student Matt Butrovich for capturing this. Tornado was around Aspinwall at 4:40pm; now things are spicy in Monroeville)

dave_andersen, to random
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

I feel much more topologically complete now.

(My ACME Klein Bottle arrived, in a box with hand labeled fragile indicators.)

image/jpeg

dave_andersen, to random
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

One thing that makes it harder to see an aurora is light pollution. Tonight's a great night to turn off your outdoor lights. I mean, every night is a good night to, but tonight you get a double bonus.

dave_andersen, to random
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

shit shit shit shit shit. Dealt with my first set of AI-generated-code plagiarism cases this semester.

Dear students: LLMs are terrible plagiarists and they do not give a damn (or have any capacity to care or avoid doing so) if they get you in deep doodoo by reproducing verbatim code from existing repositories on github or from web pages. And on assignments, it's quite likely to happen.

We didn't identify these cases by using an AI detector: They were identical to a source on the web!

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@jimgon I think it's a little tricky. On one hand, most problems you're solving in the real world are more unique than class assignments. On the other hand, the sub-problems you often repeat are definitely not unique. I'd be extremely wary.

(I should say that I personally use Copilot and like it - but I use it a line at a time as a smart autocomplete and don't let it generate entire functions for me.)

dev, to random
@dev@discuss.systems avatar

Me, a year ago: I’m so glad they’re building high density housing right in downtown. Without the parking minimums, it’ll be perfect for students and transit, this kind of high density walkable urbanism is what’s needed.

Me, checking the status in a year: no, not like that

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@regehr @dan @dev @lzg

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@dev @regehr @dan @lzg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mett

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@dev @regehr @dan @lzg oh man that's a good idea. with capers for the eyes and nose. Ein lachsigel!

totally going to make one some day. :)

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@dev @regehr @dan @lzg der Igel -> hedgehog. Chopped raw salmon in the shape of a hedgehog.

You know .. because hedgehogs are poke-y.

dave_andersen, to Pittsburgh
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

Went to dinner at smoke taqueria tonight (both the smoked mushroom and grilled cabbage tacos were excellent). But what really made me laugh was their bathroom decor. Zoom in and read the sign.

dave_andersen, to random
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

Well, this will be an interesting way to throw away money. :-) I decided to invest (a small amount) in kagi.com - the search engine I've been using since last year.

I remain very happy having switched, but I still !g (have it direct to google) for geo-related queries, something I hope they'll improve upon in the longer term. I love that I can downrank specific sites like pinterest or geeksforgeeks that annoy the hell out of me.

Most early-stage investments lose, but I'm intrigued to watch. 🤓

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@jbigham 😿

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@jbigham They're a little odd in that sense - they're building up their own index, but they vector most queries also to, I think, both Google and Bing, and then rank within that entire set of sources. I believe they plan to keep expanding the self-index part of it as they grow.

What will be interesting is that right now, Kagi's too small for SEO asshats to pay attention to. If they grow large enough, will they inevitably suck, or does subscription guard against enshittification?

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@jbigham Ah, there it is: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/search-details/search-sources.html

> Internal ... web index [Teclis] and news index [TinyGem]

> External: Our data includes anonymized API calls to traditional search indexes like Google, Yandex, Mojeek and Brave, specialized search engines like Marginalia, and sources of vertical information like Wolfram Alpha, Apple, Wikipedia, Open Meteo, Yelp, TripAdvisor and other APIs.

dave_andersen, to random
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

For a mix of work and personal, I decided my life needed an antenna analyzer/ VNA. Amusing to be able to characterize the random Amazon-acquired PCB adsb antenna. (Ads-b receiver shown in its two-year "temporary" indoor location).

It's amazing to me that one can get a ~1ghz VNA for under $100.

image/jpeg

vaurora, to random
@vaurora@wandering.shop avatar

A friend recommended a newsletter for executives in tech and today's issue had a link to a blog post advising tech leaders on how to get better at asking questions. It had this... illustration...

I am confident the author had no idea how much this graphic torpedoed my trust in them. I am realizing that often people who use AI art don't understand how art works

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@vaurora @grimalkina I'm working on mastering compliiiixitty.

grimalkina, to random
@grimalkina@mastodon.social avatar

I want to see absolutely no sensible and practical advice here. What programming language should I start vaguely and in a chill way teaching myself if I just want to experience something fun or elegant or interesting in and of itself, assuming I have no goal for using it to do anything really (outside of learning)

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@grimalkina It's a little too late to usefully chime in, but my answer is actually questions back to you:

(a) What programming language(s) do you already know and how well?

(b) What do you find fun in programming, or in computers? Would you rather write things that feel like math, or that feel like assembling tinkertoys?

(c) Mainline or weird?

Like, "elegant" + tinkertoys could be @mcc 's lua suggestion. "elegant" + mathy could be Haskell or ML or OCaml.

Hope you land on a fun answer!

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I haven't really kept up with DARPA. I remember they used to lurk around my college when I was in undergrad trying to get young CS/engineers. Everyone was sort of creeped out by them, "You're going to be making weapons of war, they are totally DOD funded. That's the dark side."

They had gaming nights and stuff to try to convince us otherwise.

But... have they made any truly heinous weapons yet? Or did they pull the best move ever and take all the DOD money and make cool if ominous robots?

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@grrrr_shark @futurebird It was DARPA too. After 9/11 (and during other wars), DARPA's focus and funding collapsed from long-term to much shorter-term, with money shifting away from universities to major defense contractors. In Afghanistan & Iraq they spent a lot of focus on counter-IED research, for example.

DARPA's initial mission is to "prevent technological surprise" - they were created post-Sputnik. This generally means farther-out research, though what that means changes over time.

w7voa, to random
@w7voa@journa.host avatar

A day after President Biden and his motorcade in Pennsylvania went to a Sheetz, they’ve just arrived at a Wawa in the Keystone State. Context: https://www.abc27.com/digital-originals/the-real-battle-of-pennsylvania-sheetz-vs-wawa/

dave_andersen,
@dave_andersen@hachyderm.io avatar

@Jonathanglick @w7voa credit to Fetterman for sticking to his pro-Sheetz position even when running for statewide office.

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