seandavidfisher

My co-worker and I call AI output like this “an overexertion of words:” the excessive jargon or concept-packing AI tends to do. “Overexertion” here being a collective noun like “a kaleidoscope of butterflies” or “a murder of crows.”

Do you have children?

Love the idea and execution. The spinning record was fun and gave me something to watch while racking my brain. Have you considered adding an “I have no idea” button? I ended up just typing random movies, but having the UI guide the user in some way when they honestly can’t think of a likely movie would be thoughtful.

For instances of this that the system knows about, you could add a response that says, “technically correct but not what I’m looking for.” Similar to how one would do it in real life.

Slack has an “All Unreads” view that you can turn on through preferences.

From the email:

> In 2017, we launched AWS DeepLens to make AI & ML more accessible to developers of all skill levels. With your help, our portfolio of products and services has grown to include new tools for developers to get hands on with AI & ML - including AWS DeepRacer, Amazon SageMaker Studio Lab, Amazon Rekognition, AWS Panorama, and more. Today, we are letting you know that we are retiring AWS DeepLens.

> What this means for you:

> Starting January 31, 2024, you will no longer be able to access AWS DeepLens through the AWS management console, manage DeepLens devices, or access any projects you have created. Until then, you can continue to work on projects and export those you would like to keep by using the step-by-step guide in the AWS DeepLens FAQ. We encourage you to recycle your AWS DeepLens device through the Amazon Recycling Program– Amazon will cover the costs associated with shipping and recycling.

If the layoffs affecting much of Amazon's device division is any indication of broader trends then I wonder if we will soon be under a tsunami of bricked devices as the cloud counterparts are retired. The detritus from software shutting down has historically had minimal impact in the real world. Doing the same with millions of IoT devices seems like such a waste.

So what’s the rest of the story? Who was selected as the Phase IV winner?

The assumption you're looking for is there but relatively inconspicuous. He mentioned a M/M/1/∞ queue but then didn't go into the details about the M/M/1 part. From the Wikipedia page[0]:

> an M/M/1 queue represents the queue length in a system having a single server, where arrivals are determined by a Poisson process...

So the arrival times are not arriving at any fixed rate, but according to a Poisson distribution. In the article he did reference this fact right before the first plot:

> (For the wonks: I used a Poisson arrival process and exponentially distributed processing times)

And then finally, he answered this question more directly in the comments to the article:

> What’s to prevent the system from bouncing between “1 task in processor & 1 task in queue” and “1 task in processor & 2 tasks in queue” while maintaining 100% utilization?

> Nothing! That could totally happen in a queueing system. However, the arrival process would need to be tuned quite precisely to the processing rate. You would need to watch the status of the processor and, when a task finishes, only then insert a new task into the queue. But this implies a shell game: if you always have a task ready to put into the queue when it needs to be padded back out, then isn’t that task in a sense already “queued”?

> Instead, in queueing theory we usually assume a random arrival process: sometimes a minute may pass between arrivals into the queue; sometimes only a second. So the system can’t bounce for arbitrarily long between 1-in-queue and 2-in-queue states. Eventually, one of two things will randomly occur:

> 1. From the 1-in-queue state, the active task finishes processing before a new task arrives, bringing queue size to 0.

> 2. From the 2-in-queue state, a new task arrives in the queue before the active task finishes, causing the queue size to grow to 3.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/M/1_queue

The author addressed this in the comments.

> What’s to prevent the system from bouncing between “1 task in processor & 1 task in queue” and “1 task in processor & 2 tasks in queue” while maintaining 100% utilization?

> Nothing! That could totally happen in a queueing system. However, the arrival process would need to be tuned quite precisely to the processing rate. You would need to watch the status of the processor and, when a task finishes, only then insert a new task into the queue. But this implies a shell game: if you always have a task ready to put into the queue when it needs to be padded back out, then isn’t that task in a sense already “queued”?

> Instead, in queueing theory we usually assume a random arrival process: sometimes a minute may pass between arrivals into the queue; sometimes only a second. So the system can’t bounce for arbitrarily long between 1-in-queue and 2-in-queue states. Eventually, one of two things will randomly occur:

> 1. From the 1-in-queue state, the active task finishes processing before a new task arrives, bringing queue size to 0.

> 2. From the 2-in-queue state, a new task arrives in the queue before the active task finishes, causing the queue size to grow to 3.

Very fun. I like the timer and move limit to add a bit more pressure, but agree with other commenters that it may not always be desirable. My suggestion is to have different modes. A practice mode to learn the mechanics, a “strategic” mode where you can turn off the timer and/or move limit, and a competitive mode when you’re ready to tackle the day’s puzzle.

Official AWS response: https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/AWS-2021-...

Looks great. Does anyone know of similar products in other languages? I’m particularly interested in a C# equivalent.

I've since open-sourced this, contributions welcome.

https://github.com/seanfisher/codenames

This is really well done! Love the subtle animations and the ability to pick cards with the keyboard.

Thanks for sharing! I'll have to try some of those.

I've been working on an online Codenames clone as a side project for virtual get-togethers. It is live and playable[0] and requires 4+ players. I'm planning on open-sourcing it as soon as I find the time. It's been a good excuse to practice some Vue.js and Websocket communication and a lot of fun!

[0] http://codenames.seafish.io

Not to mention the inability to integrate with iCloud Keychain. I have over 500 passwords that work across every app on my phone, my computer, and tablet. That’s a big switching cost for me. Add to that the performance/stuttering that I still seem to get even with Quantum’s improvement, and I can’t see myself switching from Safari anytime soon.

> Previous studies have found that dandelion seeds always have between 90 and 110 bristles, says Nakayama

Those poor research assistants. Imagine counting hundreds of dandelion bristles every day. Probably still not possible with AI/image recognition either.

Is there a way to verify that a search result set is “unpersonalized?” I wouldn’t put it past Google to be able to track you even into an incognito window.

If we’re getting pedantic about linguistics, wouldn’t that be, “it would perform terribly” instead of “it would perform terrible”?

Would these be able to be used on drones?

Currently drones have restrictions from the FAA that would make this fairly difficult. One regulation is that you must fly with line of sight, meaning the pilot or a spotter must see the drone at all times. If you can see the drone you'll probably be able to see the dog. I would say revisit this idea once we have true autonomous drones.

Wait, your build times increased on the CI server? What makes that worth it?

One step closer to my dream of "Wordpress on Lambda"!

What other projects exist to run a blog on Lambda? Apart from going full in on a locally-compiled static site that I just upload to S3, that is? (Hugo, Hexo, Jekyll, etc) I'm imagining a full admin web interface that uses a Lambda-driven API, themes, a front page with dynamically generated content from the Lambda-driven API, etc.

Looks really interesting. PHP may not be the "hip" language to use (although it's getting better), but it's so popular and accessible that disregarding it as a legitimate option for new projects is myopic.

Thanks for sharing -- great ideas. I've often heard the admonition to charge more.

I have a relative who owns a photography business. After years of taking pictures at family events for free he decided to start charging. How do you balance favors for friends/family with the need to maintain your professional persona and your business?

In my work I have often noticed the difference between programmers who are simply programmers and those who are problem solvers, like you mention. The difference is extraordinary. Thanks for sharing.