Tom Lieber's Microblog

Site Updates

: Congratulations, Obsidian, on graduating to my dock! I installed it for the first-class iCloud sync, …

: Baa baa, terse sheep, have you any wool? Yes.

: I think that cross traffic should stop

: 1,794 pages in Logseq, with 279 embedded images and 156 annotated and deep-linked PDFs… but Obsidian …

: My 3yos call a table of contents the “picking page” because you use it to pick a page to read 💡

: If my 3yo sees an apartment building and asks, “Why are all those houses stuck together?” then …

: “Outside-in” is when you make it itself

: I think about that comic book movie where this magic labyrinthian map appears in the floor for like …

: Is there macOS app that gives me a global hotkey to talk to ChatGPT in a Spotlight-like popup?

: Tomorrow will be a big day, just like yesterday and today, and all too many days lately.

: Thanks to the power of View Source, I’ve embedded WebPPL on a page of my own site! Just a …

: What native macOS (textual) code editors still have some wood behind them? Sublime Text? Nova? …

: If you’re wondering about day 1 using HEY Calendar. The first event I added recurs three days …

: In the near future, upgrades for Mathematica will be available only as part of a subscription to …

: Today’s failed Mathematica experiment: ordering fruit by fiber per unit volume. Use a chat …

: I read Stephen’s whole article on what’s new in Mathematica 14, as usual. Version 13 had so many new …

: The “Cognition” in Probabilistic Models of Cognition 📚 is the hardest part to get across …

: I’ve been re-reading Probabilistic Models of Cognition 📚 for probably the entire decade that …

: Apple Maps question: when I search, then zoom in, results outside the zoomed in area get removed …

: The first time I run a new build of Priorities in Motion after big iOS or macOS or Xcode updates, I …

: This has to be the worst gotcha I’ve ever experienced in Wolfram Language! –∞ < 1 < ∞ …

: I have a few Wolfram Language articles in the works, though it may be a while before I find the time …

: Guess who finally has GPT-4 API access. ➡️☺️⬅️

: I’m working on what feels like my lispiest Mathematica project. One of the pieces I wanted was …

: “Daddy, I can see the wind!” 😳📚

: Quantum Computing for Babies by Chris Ferrie 📚 Writing in short sentences is insufficient to make …

: Bathe the Cat by Alice B. Mcginty 📚 My toddler twins love Bathe the Cat. The cat doesn’t want …

: What’s the story behind this random 2023 release? 🎵

: 📚 The 2023 update of Thinking in SwiftUI answered so many of my questions about how View definitions …

: I read the blog post but I didn’t realize that in a Mathematica chat notebook, every cell is …

: What’s the easiest way to send 700,000 tokens to OpenAI if you don’t care about the result? 😂 GPT-4 is “generally available” but it’s actually only available to accounts that have been …

: Sep 2023 music playlist is a wrap 🎵 I make a new playlist every month and this month I thought I’d like to look back on …

: What a delight. A new album from Dengue Fever. 🎵

: What I do is, I cancel every automatic update request, accidentally spot a news article about a …

: My Steam Deck 🎮 needed a charge and I couldn’t find its usual cable, so I plugged it into the …

: When I write code that I know has noticeable limitations, I used to denote them with TODOs, but …

: Imbroglio’s current Izu mode was such a satisfying nut to crack. 😌

: Currently reading: The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd 📚

: Magna-tiles on a Saturday morning

: Currently reading: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine 📚

: Who remembers Branch? 😃 Maybe they still have the code around and can fill this Twitter-shaped void.

: Yesterday, I wrestled with insecurity about a design I’d proposed at work. I played Anima on …

: Me, staring at an LLM answer: “Hmm. Was the training data that contributed to this answer …

: Introducing Chat Notebooks: Integrating LLMs into the Notebook Paradigm What a time to be alive. I …

: I just created a Google Doc from Mathematica. I feel unstoppable.

: Today I wrote a quick little post about exploring JSON REST APIs in Wolfram Language. I …

: People think that when they turn their eyes from the earth to the sky they see the heavens. The …

: ChucK continues to shine. 🎵 Today’s find: a real-time audio mosaic that plays audio clips from …

: The latest draft of my Wolfram Language tensor math article is up! I get into function minimization …

: Elmo can do no wrong… except the Happy Dance. My kids will not abide it. They yell, “No Happy …

: I just posted a massive new update to my tensor programming article draft, with an expanded …

: I have a big ol’ writing project planned for exploring fundamental ML concepts in Wolfram …

: Look at how dramatically Wolfram is rebranding. In their own marketing email, they introduce the …

: My workflow is nascent, but this is the snippet that allowed me to drop that last Mathematica …

: First they trained ChatGPT to answer questions with Wolfram Language, then they built a library for …

: I’ve been noodling on one to the tune of “Let It Be”: When my planet’s spice is in trouble It’s time …

: These could be exactly the same oil and I don’t care. The containers are SO much fun.

: Research wanders about aimlessly, each researcher seeing just one part of the infinite array of …

: What are some examples of apps that are designed for you to use them for a while, then delete them?

: Just based on the experience of using web sites with “aspx” in the URL, I’m going …

: Beeminder has shepherded me through my 40th strength training workout of the year! I didn’t think I …

: TIL the difference between With and ReplaceAll in Mathematica. I thought this would produce the same …

: Usually when I contradict ChatGPT, I get, “I apologize for the confusion earlier,” but today I …

: So long, Twitter.

: The kids are finally old enough to LOVE roleplay, so I’ve been inventing characters for all their …

: I somehow convinced my wife to sign up for ChatGPT and have a conversation with it to figure out …

: I’ve never been good at playlists, but I dipped my toe in the water a few months ago by starting …

: I think I understand RxJS pretty well now. I even muddled my way through writing a custom …

: Wait… did this work? I just realized that I haven’t received any more of these spam messages since …

: My RSS reader’s “IRL” folder used to be my favorite, but it was almost all Twitter feeds. :/ So …

: As Zen practitioners say, “No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” Everything Is Workable …

: The addicting thing about Tomb of the Mask is that the character moves almost as quickly as I can …

: Does anyone else’s “LTE” symbol like to hide in the upper left notch of their screen? 😂

: I love the opportunism in deep learning. It’s not, “This seems like a good, fast …

: Custom data structures in Mathematica Dear Future Tom, One day, you will once again write yourself into a corner with code like this: …

: Osmos is in Apple Arcade 🙌🏼

: Reaping the competitive advantage of setting my name to “Tom” like an executive with only one …

: Toddler, pointing straight up and screaming: WHAT’S THAT??! Me: The ceiling? Toddler: Ceiling…

: My kids have reached the tattling age! They’re still trying to figure out what it’s for, though… …

: Surprisingly engrossed in this Highway Driving at Night video with the kids

: I pick an energy to impart onto every meeting I run. I often describe it in a few words in a doc …

: Here’s an opinion of mine that holds me back at work: notes are personal enough that everyone …

: feeling cute, might delete later

: It’s a day for sorting laundry by versatility per unit volume

: By the time my kids use computers, learnability probably won’t be much of an issue any more. They’ll …

: Finished reading: The Art of War by Sun Tzu 📚 If anyone asks, I’ve now read The Art of War.

: Can we take a sec to think about how hilarious it is that the main thing you get when you pay for …

: I wish all of me had the persistence of that part of me that periodically asks, “What if you just …

: I did it. I signed up for ChatGPT Plus. Turns out it’s easier overall for me to critically evaluate …

: Finished reading: The Wise Man’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 2) by Patrick Rothfuss 📚 …

: The baby formula shortage is still so out of control. Lawsuits, factories shutting down and spinning …

: A great way to close two years of teaching my kids goat sounds

: I used ChatGPT to help me write a lot of this javascript code. while none of it was tremendously …

: Tiding myself over until The Doors of Stone comes out with machine-generated fanfic. 😂

: You can’t lose with the Myst (2021 Edition) Desktop Background Pack! I seriously felt 12 years …

: Braggoscope is a great example of taking the grunge work out of a coding project by offloading the …

: You should follow @mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io this month, or at least check the 🔥 threads he’s been …

: To everyone I recommended Afrin to lately: I used it once per day for the max three days, and they …

: Grinding 1–3-suit paid off!

: I’ve known the basics of VoiceOver on iOS for a long time now, but I want to get good at it. Can …

: I love that micro.blog interops with Mastodon/ActivityPub! Now, if RSS isn’t your thing, …

: I visited my alma mater in my dream last night. I was excited because this time I was visiting it …

: Apple Watch folks, what do you do about canceling alarms in your sleep? I want to track my sleep, …

: I’m mentally prepared for this to be a phase like everything else, but my 2yos respond so well to …

: My kids love their pretend doctor kit, but are unfortunately too young to appreciate the song I …

: Have I mentioned how ChatGPT has become my favorite thesaurus? Even if I’m not interested at …

: image + OrnsteinUhlenbeckProcess[0, 0.1, 0.3]

: It’s probably true that two kids are harder than one overall, but they wake up and get straight to …

: I don’t know if it matters as much for their development, but my kid parenting habits are …

: “Kvothe is actually the son of Denna and the Chandrian” and other VERY INTERESTING …

: ChatGPT just answered an Angular question I’ve been struggling with for weeks in one shot. It …

: Me: Say “no” Noah: No Me: Sah “ah” Noah: Ah Me: Say “Noah” Noah: …

: I’m all about this kid-friendly Star Wars spin-off whatever-this-is!

: One of my neighbors has an inflatable Nightmare Before Christmas guy dressed up as Santa in their …

:

: Does anyone know any tricks for adding flexibility to Nest’s sensor schedule? I want a …

: HBO removed the majority of Sesame Street from its streaming service. :( The kids probably …

: I used to track water intake with an app that had a “water balance” ratio for each type …

: Ants found our cats’ food bowl. We had a spell of heat that drove them indoors for a couple days. …

: Turning Red has adorable animation and some powerfully emotional moments 👍🏼👍🏼

: My wife loves playing records, but we had to disassemble the living room audio setup when we …

: @State var data: Result<DownloadedData, Error>? nil when downloading, .success when …

: The scale doesn't have to reset at the end of a MagnificationGesture… Examples of SwiftUI’s MagnificationGesture usually look like this: @GestureState var scale: …

: Baby put one of our phones on a box. Me: “Nice! Nice stacking!” Baby looked at me and grinned. Baby: …

: hehe. One of the kids likes to cuddle, but can’t recognize a good one until they’ve experienced it, …

: We find a routine that works and feel heavenly for a while. But then the situation changes and we …

:

: Weird brain thing of the day: these bottles aren’t the same color, and I can see that now, but the …

: I can’t believe that I haven’t gushed online yet about how awesome it is that every …

: I moved my son off my lap so I could get up and carry him to his crib. I nearly cried when he rolled …

: Now that their emotional range has moved beyond Crying and Not Crying, I can finally empathize with …

: Apparently all the babies in our daycare woke up last night. What happened in our area? 😬

: The twins are finally aware enough that they wake each other up in the middle of the night, and …

: My wife’s theory is that dads are “dada” because that’s one of the first sounds a baby makes. Like, …

: Baby learned to yell while inhaling, which sounds a lot like choking. Cool cool cool. 🥴

: I don’t know much about battery tech. When the Apple Watch’s charge ring is full but the lightning …

: My todo software caches my priorities, but there’s no good way to know when they’re …

: I guess this is it. I just imported all my notes into a local federated wiki.

: I touched my son’s foot and not only did he look down to see what was going on, but my baby boy …

: If you generate white noise for long enough, you eventually get the sound of someone reading …

: We just got back home from a weekend trip with our 5mo twins—it went off without a hitch and now I …

: I love Safari’s courage to make cookies per-tab in incognito mode. It’s way clearer how long they’ll …

: A gene encodes a protein, and many proteins… feed back into the genome. They actually bind to the …

: The amount of sediment I just found behind my bathroom sink’s aerator is unreal. I hope our water …

: New favorite awk one-liner: !x[$0]++ Prints only lines that haven’t been seen before in the …

: This iOS Shortcut is quite handy for desk-bound Californians like myself. I fine-tuned the …

: This morning my kid was in a bouncer by my feet, but couldn’t see me. They started to get audibly …

: Awake Tom’s imagination, not so interesting. But dreaming Tom can imagine a monopoly …

: DoorDash LOVES last night’s order. Can’t get enough. It’s been sending every notification on a loop …

: I’m always amazed at how much easier it is to take care of the twins on the road than at home. …

: Baby feeding times make excellent tea leaves

: I made a face and one of my babies laughed! I’ve waited so long for this! (If you don’t know—like I …

: I installed a Ring video doorbell, but it wouldn’t ring my NuTone LA-12 mechanical chime. Here’s …

: I can’t do any deep work while holding a kid, but I can play hecka Holedown

: I finally came across an iOS app that I can run on my Mac: Baby Tracker! Text and time input is a …

: Six years ago this week, the snails were out…

: There are too few of Covey’s quadrants! I had to subdivide the “urgency” axis for my personal tasks: …

: In an attempt to liberate myself from breakfast out, I’m making breakfast sandwiches. I have the …

: Every single agile team I’ve ever worked on has had a conversation about increasing velocity at some …

: My "later" tool gets support for spaced repetition! I wrote about a tool I use called later that I invoke like later 3 to add the contents of stdin to …

: A useful building block for an Acme-based productivity system I’ve been keeping this snippet in my Acme tag: |later 1. When I select some text and swipe …

: How come there aren’t tiny garage door openers? Like, small enough to fit in a back pocket?

: a big, fast flow

: big, dramatic flow

: Slowly rotating flow

: Accidentally made that one scene from FernGully…

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: This end-user machine learning model training platform makes it look almost TOO easy.

: I love the corner of YouTube that’s just visualizations of general relativity, and this video …

: When CloudKit JS was announced, I wrote about why we needed something like it and how I hoped it …

: I’m “icing my lower back for an injury I don’t know what it was but it’s getting progressively worse …

: Two factions within me, at war: 1) There’s nothing left to do here, just explore the next zone. 2) …

: Start a timer, sort a list, stop the timer. Start a timer, train an ML model to predict an item’s …

: A slow version of the animation from the other day, fit for a lowfi soundtrack with weather noises

: When artists talk about how they use machine learning, I can’t get enough. This is a clip from …

: Unreal how I find stuff these days. I searched Google Photos for “HCC” (after some trial …

: I decided to make some graphics today. Okay, good night!

: I zip around town on a Segway Z10, but if offices were still open, I’d definitely get a …

: A lot of my dreams take place in this grimy, cozy city world. It’s a tan place with plenty of …

: The work of an almost sixty people team is summarized each month in a recap post, with a mini …

: Why did I open Facebook again.

: I can’t normally visualize, but on the edge of consciousness and sleep, sometimes I experience …

: I used to underestimate the importance of context in machine perception, but then I read (and …

: I said on a mailing list that I liked Hey and trusted that it would be maintained and improve over …

: ‪Well, I had my first “forgot my mask” stress dream.‬ ‪Thanks, 2020!®‬

: Some sites show you alerts when you should refresh the page to get a new version. Complice shows a …

: ‪MIT is inviting a subset of students back in the fall, starting with rising seniors and people that …

: In case this helps anyone else: I’ve found that the best way to get a non-music audio file …

: People have multiple interests! I somehow accidentally ended up with 2 Medium accounts. They get …

: There’s a difference between something I feel bad about not doing, and something I actually …

: Using velocity to estimate the delivery of a substantial long term project spanning numerous sprints …

: Pro tip: Instead of spending time in your daily talking about status updates that could easily be a …

: "Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop" (emphasis mine) In my police academy class, we had a clique of around six trainees who routinely …

: The inertia that resists fixing the police is not legal Emphasis mine: In address to the Americans who’ve repeatedly felt cynical about progress whether in …

: What “abolish the police” means and why we want it Philip and Thenjiwe McHarris note all the reform efforts by the Minneapolis police — none of which …

: Speaking of downtime, does Micro.blog have an SLA? 😅

: If there’s nothing to do—if nothing is meaningful—then you are free to self-direct. … Grinding …

: If you make your own app with just a view or two, with no tracking or ads, and relying on …

: Using my shell primarily in Acme has reset my perspective of terminal emulators. Now, opening …

: Your mask slows down the air coming from your mouth, significantly reducing the chance you’ll …

: There’s a delay between a date being selected in SwiftUI’s DatePicker and the binding …

: I don’t think I’ve seen such a dramatic illustration of GAN training instability before. …

: Setting .colorScheme(.dark) inverts your SwiftUI view’s colors, but still paints them on a …

: The most fun and useful apps all have this icon

: So… ebay.com scans your computer for open ports when you visit. I’m sure it’s not just …

: How and why to you might need to use AnyView in SwiftUI AnyView is my biggest pet peeve in SwiftUI because: It doesn’t come up in Apple’s …

: Very simply binding an iCloud key/value store item in SwiftUI I had a @State variable in a SwiftUI view that I wanted to persist using iCloud’s key/value …

: I was pretty sure micro.blog understood me, then I read @manton’s post about ownership and I …

: It took embarrassingly long to figure out why so many people were sending each other cash via that …

: Hey, local-first peeps. 👋🏼 When Dropbox and Google both dropped their non-file sync APIs, I don’t …

: A mirror doesn't really flip everything left-to-right If you write a word on a piece of paper and present it to a mirror, it looks backwards in the …

: This cat has a favorite spot and it’s the trip hazard zone right behind a closed door. But she’s so …

: There’s an iOS app I (used to) use whose UI is 95% gamification, so I rewrote the remaining 5% …

: Rewatching Evangelion (now on Netflix!), I’m struck by the sophistication of the character …

: Took a night ride down a new (short) trail with my wife. By pure chance, LP ZERO on shuffle made it …

: Chess-augmented sudoku rules lead to a half hour of lovely puzzle-solving. yoav shoham sums up the …

: The command line “calendar” tool silently ignores syntax errors by just never showing you reminders …

: Are there any tricks to finding a home’s fuse box in the US? It’s always been obvious before, but in …

: Imbroglio Animal Crossing: New Horizons Tetris 99 I think I’m nearing another one of those phases …

: Wondering about Micro.blog: How often does Discover refresh? It hasn’t changed since I signed up, …

: I’m in love with this book, and keep coming back to read it again. It’s so playful and makes such …

: Hey, first post! I was lured in by the prospect of being able to post by writing to my own hosted …