Updated October 1, 2024

What David is up to? -------------------- ❗ This is my _****now****_ page - what I'm working on now, looking into now, and interested in now. _Updated as of Oct 2024 from London, UK._ 🔬 Furthering AI/ML in Health ----------------------------- I am looking into quantitative epidemiological methods of assessing behaviors and their relationship with diseases at Imperial College London, within the School of Public Health. I also help out with the Masters programmes that are run in the school (especially the MSc Health Data Analytics and Machine Learning). I am formally working towards a teaching certification within higher education. Accepted as an associate fellow in the Higher Education Academy. 🗞️ Newsletter -------------- I am putting up a waitlist for a newsletter that is planned for 2024/25. This will cover my journey into healthtech, general and generative AI plus local AI events. 👉 Join here for the waitlist. 📖 Current reads and writes --------------------------- * Currently: the Mom test Coffee of the month ------------------- (sponsored post) 🆕! I am now partnered with Coffeeworks, an independent coffee roaster in UK. If you like freshly roasted beans, then check them out! 🕹️ Messing around with DaVinci resolve. Also picking up Typescript. Might do Golang as my next one at somepoint. * * * Frequently Asked Questions: --------------------------- #### Q: What's a /now page? This is inspired by a movement started by a guy called Derek Sivers. I love the idea of a focused page, that is easy to type and find. Read about it here, and I also highlight that the origin story behind this idea is 🔥too! #### Q: How does it differ from the "about" page? The idea of this page is to address two main questions (that I get all the time): * "What are you up to these days?" * "I would like to align with your interests, can you help me with this?" I use this page as a self-check on myself. Recently coming back to it has let me refresh what I was thinking just a month ago (boy, do I need a dose of FOCUS). So if you do get referred to this page, don't take it personally. I do acknowledge your kind connection but just don't have the mental capacity to act on it now (perhaps in the future!). The __about page__ is a more historical viewpoint with an emphasis on timelines. I might be working on something tangential at any point, so this page is a nice section for things. (And saves you a a minute or two of scrolling past a story to get to present-day events). I try to keep this page updated, and it personally helps me prioritize what's happening currently. Whenever I think of taking up another project, or am shifting/pivoting my direction of focus - I can come back here and review everything.

Updated October 1, 2024

What I’m up to right now. --------------------------- * * * Here are the things I’m currently focused on, in no particular order: **Triathlon training.** 2022 was the start of my triathlon journey. It began with a couple of olympic tri’s and gave me the hunger to progress. I enjoy the multi discipline activities which mixes up my week and has given me the opportunity to improve my lesser skills (bike and swim). Last year; 2023, I raced my first Ironman (70.3) – 2025 is the year I’ll attempt a full Ironman(!!!)… just saying that makes me shudder, training has started already. **Married life.** This year was full on organising a wedding in 6 months. We had the best day with our friends and family in Morocco – it was perfect. Married life now in full swing. **Reading / Listening.** Current list: My nose tastes like swimming pools, by my good friend Sam Lightfinch Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry Recently completed: Never finished, another inspiring read by David Goggins Amerzonia: A Savage Journey Through The Americas Will, by Will Smith (Find a better book!) Can’t hurt me, David Goggins **Business.** This year has been steady, a healthy work / life balance. At one point I facilitated 4 workshops in one month from Sheffield and The Lake District to The Midlands and Cotswolds for a mix of clients; A law firm, a business with an app created to improve medical tracking in schools and trusts, an environmental company focusing on improving the local water quality and a trust website redesign. The latest website went live this year which was a pleasure to work on: otilloswimrun.com & gruvi.tv **Travelling.** What a year. We started the year the other side of the world, the ‘now wife’ was offered a secondment in Australia for 6 weeks. Naturally, I joined her – you must take these opportunities! Of course, we sandwiched that with trips to The Phillipines and Borneo. We had a couple of trips to Morocco – to check out the wedding venue and of course for the ceremony. We have one final trip to see our friends get married in Vegas. * * * This page is inspired by Derek Siver’s now page suggestion. _Last updated, Oct 2024._

Updated September 30, 2024

The AI platform for vision, audio, and document data --------------------------------------------------------- Create high quality datasets and build better models by curating and annotating data, tracking experiments, and evaluating models in one place Over 45,000 data scientists and 800 organizations use DagsHub Bring structure to your unstructured ML projects ------------------------------------------------ DagsHub easily integrates with your MLOps stack ----------------------------------------------- Over 35,000 data scientists and 700 teams build ML with Dagshub --------------------------------------------------------------- Since we started using Dagshub, we have been able to significantly reduce the time it takes to run experiments. With streamlined experiment management and version control capabilities, we can quickly iterate and optimize our models, leading to faster results and more efficient workflows. This has been a game-changer for our team at Mana.bio. DagsHub has been an integral part of our success. We needed an organized framework for our ML workflows and DagsHub’s philosophy and tools made it the perfect fit. We’ve been using DagsHub for a long time and can’t imagine working on ML projects without it. As an ML practitioner and instructor DagsHub is pretty amazing. Designed near perfectly for collaborative data science and just as good for teaching. It has integrations with everything you need: GitHub, MLflow, Label Studio, and DVC. Do yourself a favor and check out DagsHub. It has a small learning curve but once you do one project you’ll have a hard time using anything else. Dagshub has revolutionized Forcura’s ability to manage and extract data that ultimately benefits our clients. Dagshub’s expertise elevates our data operations, providing us the foundation to innovate our core functionality and empower new solutions. See how customers succeed with Dagshub Some cool ML treats for you to check out ------------------------------------------

Updated September 30, 2024

This /now page highlights a few things that I'm working on and interested in now. * Living in Minneapolis, MN * Working as a Lead Mobile Engineer * Working on sparkles: a micropub client watching -------- * The Great British Bake Off * The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power * New Girl * Taskmaster * Twin Peaks For movie watch history, see /watched playing ------- * No Man's Sky * The Simpsons: Hit & Run * SP Football Life 2024 reading ------- * The Collected Raffles by E. W. Hornung For full read history, see /read other links ----------- * /changelog Last updated: Sep 30, 2024

Updated September 30, 2024

Sobre mim --------- Com mais de 10 anos de experiência em desenvolvimento web, descobri minha paixão por acessibilidade digital ao perceber como pequenas mudanças no código podem fazer uma enorme diferença na vida das pessoas. Hoje, dedico meu trabalho a tornar a web mais inclusiva, ajudando pequenos empreendedores a alcançarem mais pessoas através de sites e aplicações verdadeiramente acessíveis. Além do desenvolvimento, compartilho conhecimento através de palestras e consultorias, acreditando que a educação é o primeiro passo para uma web mais inclusiva. Serviços -------- Soluções que ofereço aos meus clientes. Últimos trabalhos ----------------- Blog ---- Artigos sobre acessibilidade, Obsidian, organização e opiniões pessoais. ### O que é blogroll? Publicado 11 setembro, 2024 em Pessoal Nesse artigo vou te mostrar um conceito antigo que vale muito a pena usar no seu blog. Vamos trabalhar juntos? ----------------------- Estou sempre em busca de novos projetos e desafios interessantes. Se você quer tornar seu projeto digital acessível, vamos conversar! Entre em contato

Updated September 30, 2024

(This is a now page. If you have your own site, consider making one too!) Last updated on September 30, 2024. working ------- I recently passed 2 years at Arcol and I’m more excited about it than ever. I get to work on interesting and challenging problems with coworkers that I admire. (We’re hiring! Email me if you’re interested.) climbing, slacklining, and running ---------------------------------- After a multi-year streak of struggling to maintain a regular exercise routine, I’ve finally got one to stick. I’m climbing twice a week, running 2-3 times a week, and getting together with some slackliners in Berkeley every Thursday evening. playing music ------------- Sadly, this has taken the backseat compared to the other two items on this list lately. I’m still spending some time practicing piano and guitar, but not enough to feel like I’m making much progress.

Updated September 29, 2024

👋 I’m Becca, an indie Apple platforms developer by night, software engineering manager by day, Mum, tech tinkerer, reader, runner and occasional gamer. I’m currently working on Chronicling, and mostly active on Mastodon. Before working in tech, I did a PhD in Geophysics at the University of Oxford. You can follow this blog via various feeds, follow occasional updates via my newsletter, or drop me an email. Podcast Appearances ------------------- * 2023-10-03 - Launched with Charlie Chapman - Ep. 67 Chronicling * 2024-09-26 - iPad Pros with Tim Chaten - Ep. 207 Chronicling

Updated September 29, 2024

Indie Developer --------------- My first app, Chronicling, has been out for a little over a year. After adding significant new features with iOS 17 and 18, I’ve been taking the time to work on improving the basics, including onboarding and performance. Speaking -------- I recently had the opportunity to speak at iOSDevUK in Aberystwyth. It was an excellent conference in a beautiful location and I’d love to go back in future. Hopefully I’ll be speaking at another event soon, so I’m keeping the slides fresh… Indie Web --------- I’m enjoying the resurgence of personal websites. I fondly remember the days of StumbleUpon and I’m enjoying dipping my toes in and experimenting with 11ty. A mention in this excellent article by Robb Knight is likely the closest I will ever get to the HackerNews front page! (N.B. I am by no means a web developer, this is all new and fun for me). Reading ------- I was an avid reader as a teenager, but like many people struggled to keep up the pace through university. Many years later I’m enjoying prioritising reading again. I recently read The Riddle of the Labyrinth by Margalit Fox, a history of the decipherment of Linear B. I loved the balance of technical detail on how it is even possible to decipher an unknown language written in an unknown script with the biographical details of the key figures. Alice Kober’s analogue cigarette box “database” was a particular highlight. * * * You can read more about now pages here. _Last Updated: 26th October 2024_

Updated September 29, 2024

Racine, WI 9/29/2024 - The world continues to turn and I continue to have a place in it. In 2023 my vocal group, Bounding Main, lost its youngest member, David Yondorf.  While he and I did not always play nice together his loss was earth-shattering to the group as a whole.  If I recall correctly I believe it was only about six months from his oral cancer diagnosis to our burying him.  It took us about a year to agree to hire a new bass voice, rathern than re-arrange our entire repertoire for four voices.  Understandably, the Twins were in, what I refer to as, the Hamlet Conundrum.  Essentially, is making a change going to be worse than the situation that one is currently in?  After a few auditions and evaluations we brought on Patrick Knapp, Jr., not only a powerful bass voice, but also a former French horn player and a dental instructor at Marquette College in Milwaukee.  He has performed with us all year in 2024, including a modest tour in the Netherlands and he has proven to be talented, eager to support the group and a nice fellow.  Predictably, the gig with NIJL was a bust.  In the midst of the pandemic when the general public was not flying and the commercial aerospace industry was in dire straits, no airline or maintenance organization was willing or able to spend money on capital expendatures like maintenance platforms.  After my one-year consulting contract came to an end we amicably chose to not renew it.  As I've spent the majority of my work career in aerospace, I was unable to step into another opportunity.  Fortunately, the only positive thing about my wife passing away was that I was able to take her Social Security payments until my own become available.  Money is rather tight, but for now it is manageable. I began writing a mystery novel of sorts just before my Maritime Music Directory International project took off.  Since I have been assisted in the project by some generous individuals, I am hoping to be able to return to it no later than the first of 2025.  It is set in my own town of Racine, Wisconsin, and it involves a faux detective agency on 6th Street, sunken ships, hidden locations and what I hope is a cast of engaging characters. A few months ago my sweet, 19-year old cat, Azja, crossed the rainbow bridge.  She was very dear to me and was a constant companion, particularly after Richelle passed away in 2020.  Azja was suffering with some medical issues that made her day-to-day life challenging for her; I am very happy that she is now at peace. * * * Racine, WI 4/15/2021 - I am so very pleased and delighted to say that gig opportunities are returning for Bounding Main.  We actually have several offers from overseas festivals as well as several for domestic festivals in the United States.  After being quarantined for so very long it will be great to be able to get out to perform again.  Go to Bounding Main to see more about my vocal group.  We also have a YouTube channel that I've been working hard on.  I've had a lot of great opportunities to take professional and semi-professional footage and assemble it into internet-ready music videos. On the aerospace side I have been representing a marvelous company from the Netherlands called NIJL Aircraft Docking BV.  They design and produce airframe access and fall protection stands for most of the world's aircraft, including commercial narrow-body and wide-body, military and corporate aircraft.  These are structures that allow mechanics to get around on the outside of an airplane to work on it.  With the pandemic going on and air travel being brought quite low it is very exciting to see the vaccines allowing for an increase in travel and business for our airline customers.  There is a class of company referred to as an MRO - Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul.  These are third-party companies that work to keep aircraft flying, typically for the owners of aircraft, whether airlines, leasing companies or military organizations.  These are also very important companies and I will be attending a trade show that specializes in this kind of work.  It will be the first one that I've gone to in over a year, since last year's event was cancelled.  It will be good to not only get out of the house for a while, but also to revisit important industry contacts and friends that I've made over the decades that I've been in this business. I don't want to dwell on the negative, but my loving wife of sixteen years passed away just before Christmas of 2020.  I include this here because many of us have not been in touch as we might be and you should know this.  You can read her obituary here.  This has been a genuine struggle in all respects.  Not being able to share this loss because of the pandemic has compounded the emotional gravity for me.  I'm doing my best to regroup and find my life again, but it has been very challenging.  Being able to be busy and see people again will certainly help.  Feel free to drop me a line (to let me know that you're okay)  at Rugglesby at Hotmail dot com.

Updated September 28, 2024

Sep 28, 2024 ### Derivative AT a Discontinuity But this is impossible by definition ------------------------------------ Mar 29, 2024 ### Boolean Algebra, Arithmetic POV (written long time ago, publish or languish) Mar 29, 2024 ### discontinuous linear functions Let \\(H > \\mathbb{Nat}\\) be unlimited. Mar 29, 2024 ### Continuous vs Bounded Nonstandard analysis gives a nice link between continuous and bounded functions, which are small and large-scale notions.1 Nov 12, 2023 ### Minimal Surfaces GPT-4 did this in 1 shot. Nov 2, 2023 ### November 2, 2023 Been going through Mosteller’s _50 challenging problems in probability_. Jul 21, 2023 ### NTK reparametrization I’ve been learning about the neural tangent kernel and some things confused me. Jul 8, 2023 ### Kate from Vancouver, please email me You replied to my dissection post and I decided then that I wished to be your friend. You didn’t leave your email, but asked how old I was in earth years. My email is alokbeniwal@gmail.com, please reach out if you see this. Jun 12, 2023 ### ChatGPT Session: Emotions, Etymology, Hyperfiniteness > List as many emotions as you can. Then list their etymologies May 12, 2023 ### Some ChatGPT Sessions No particular theme. Quoted text is me, rest is GPT. Feb 9, 2023 ### 2016 ML thoughts (Old notes from 2016 that I stumbled upon). Jan 28, 2023 ### My biggest takeaway from Redwood Research REMIX I just finished a 1 month research program called REMIX (Redwood Research Mechanistic Interpretability Experiment). Jan 20, 2023 ### finite, actual infinity, potential infinity For a finite set, one can describe a uniform distribution. There isn’t a natural way to do so for a countable set. But for a hyperfinite set, one can describe a uniform distribution through a probability density. So in some ways the countable is “bigger”. Jan 12, 2023 ### Actions and Flows What is an action? Jan 5, 2023 ### PSA: reward is part of the habit loop too The usual setup of a habit is

Updated September 27, 2024

A public declaration of my priorities inspired by Derek Sivers. What I'm doing, what I want to do and what I did recently. While I've been growing steadily on X, and had a good run with writing my long letters here, I'm not satisfied with my consistency at the moment. I've dome a lot of work behind the scenes in the form of journaling, thinking, and talking about my problem to write essays consistently to figure this out. I've recently hit on the idea that what I really wanted always had to be a low priority in comparison to the things that my parents expected me to do and since I've analyzed this deeper I've started to write more. I'll try to understand this problem more deeply and hope I can find back to a consistent publishing schedule as a result of this. Having outlined a potential course or coaching program also helped, as it has given me a great framework for everything I've been thinking about and writing so far. Expect more news on this in 2025. Health ------ Pretty good. Lost a few kg, reduced my body weight and got ready to hit the gym again. Planing on 1 gym sessions per week starting in mid Ocotber. Food's pretty good though I have a few health issues with my gut that I need to figure out and have already scheduled some docot's appointments to get to the bottom of this. Moving outside every single day for about a month now, mostly with daily walks in my noon break. Pretty good with plenty of room to improve still. Work ---- Still working my usual 9-5 in my sales role at an IT company. Always looking for other work-related opportunities that are more aligned with what I do with It's Me Waldi. If you have one in mind or know someone who might, please send them my way. Ideating potential products and services I can create for you all to learn, grow and create the life you want. Expect something new on this in 2025. If you want to help, or try out early versions to give feedback let me know. Current Reading --------------- **Status Games** by Will Storr **The Power of Now** by Eckhart Tolle **Meanings of Life** by Roy Baumeister Lastly, a short reminder: If you want to support me for less than 0.17€/day to help me take this full-time click here. Thanks for reading and being part of this community! :) Last Update: 27.09.2024 Create Your Ideal Future ------------------------ Understand who you are, unlock your potential, and create your ideal future with my weekly letters.

Updated September 26, 2024

How long does Now last? Currently I am * in Taiwan for a three-week research and exchange trip. For more details see @nawiatproject * preparing a catalog book that will show a selection of works since 1990 (supported by VG Bild-Kunst 2024) * developing the project PTC with photo-text combinations further which I began last year * continuing my Minimal Words series with minimalist text-based art My art project ES WIRD for the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society is finished. The opening was on September 26, 2024. (April 2025)

Updated September 25, 2024

VUSec is the Systems and Network Security Group at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and one of the larger groups in the Computer Science department at the VU. Our research covers all aspects of system-level security and reliability, with a focus on memory safety and memory access violations (using software or hardware vulnerabilities). It includes topics such as software hardening, exploitation, binary analysis, dependable systems,  software testing, side channels, and reverse engineering. VUSec is also part of AMSec (Amsterdam Cyber Security Center). Check out the upcoming AMSec events here. The group’s focus is on “research that matters”, by which we mean research that has impact either on the research community, or on society as whole. In the past, we actively contributed to the take-down of criminal infrastructures (botnets), and made available a wide range of tools and systems to benefit researchers and industry alike. Some of our research efforts hit the news and are covered by the national/international press. Academically, we regularly publish our research in the top venues in systems security (S&P, CCS, USENIX Sec, NDSS, etc.). See our publications. We are proud that VUSec has won multiple prestigious grants (ERC, VICI, multiple VENIs), a Dutch Prize for ICT Research, a EuroSys Jochen Liedtke Young Researcher Award, a VMware Early Career Faculty Award, five Pwnie Awards, two ACM SIGSAC Doctoral Dissertation Awards for best Ph.D. in Computer and Information Security worldwide, a Dennis M. Ritchie Ph.D. Award for best Ph.D. in systems worldwide, seven Roger Needham Ph.D. Awards for best Ph.D. in systems in  Europe, three William C. Carter PhD Dissertation Awards for best Ph.D. in Dependability worldwide, and other awards from academia or industry. Most importantly, VUSec puts “computer systems” and “systems security” into the focus of study. ### Gallery VUSec Garden Party A Very VUSec Christmas VUSec Past and Present Past VUSec with dog. Past VUSec without dog. Systems and Network Security Group at VU Amsterdam --------------------------------------------------

Updated September 25, 2024

A bit about Dave, from a few different perspectives – first, the short bio, told in 3rd person, for those of you who like the facts and only the facts. Then a CV of sorts, a running list of some of my proudest moments. And lastly, for those of you who love a chunky narrative, a first-person accounting of backstory. * * * About Dave ---------- ###### (The One Where I Write in Third Person) * * * David B. Holton (Dave) is a creative polymath who has excelled in writing, photography, filmmaking, & theatre. His diverse portfolio includes publishing short fiction, penning scripts for both screen & stage, & writing articles for travel magazines. Dave has consulted on screenplays for studios & talent agencies, performed on-stage for live theatre audiences, & produced long-form YouTube content that has attracted millions of viewers. Recent career highlights include winning “Best Mockumentary Microfilm” at the Austin Comedy Film Festival, being named an “Emerging Voice in Fiction” by Oyster River Pages, & portraying Captain Arthur Barlowe in The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama. Dave leverages a wide-ranging combination of education & practical experience to maximize his impact as a writer, visual storyteller, & creative producer. His education encompasses an extensive self-study curriculum across the arts, a Certificate of Producing for Film & Television from UCLA-Extension, an MBA in Marketing & Entrepreneurship from UNC Chapel Hill, & a BSc in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University. His diverse background includes roles as a field engineer on bridge construction projects and as a management consultant advising Fortune 500 company leaders. Dave’s eclectic portfolio showcases his passion for storytelling across various mediums & his knack for combining creative expression with entrepreneurial innovation. His work is driven by a commitment to excellence & a desire to push the boundaries of traditional storytelling. * * * Notable Achievements -------------------- ### Writing & Visual Storytelling Achievements • Filmmaker: Wrote, directed, acted in, & edited a zero-budget short film during the pandemic that won “Best Mockumentary Microfilm” at the Austin Comedy Film Festival & “Outstanding Achievement” at the Berlin Flash Film Festival. • Theatre Actor: Played the lead role of Sergeant Trotter in Theatre of Dare’s 2022 run of Agatha Christie’s “The Mouse Trap.” Played Captain Arthur Barlowe & several Ensemble Cast roles in The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama 2021 season (70+ shows from May to August). • Photographer: Specialize in Headshots, Portraits, Personal Branding, Behind-the-Scenes, Special Events, & Documentary. Recently published work in issues of F-stop Magazine. • Fiction Writer: Published magical realism short story in September 2020 “Oyster River Pages” literary magazine (was named an “Emerging Voice in Fiction”). • Screenwriter: Finished top 10% in 5 major screenplay contests. Feature film screenplay currently ranked in the top 10% of all Adventure Screenplays on Coverfly.com. • Journalist & Copywriter: Wrote features for “Milepost Magazine” from 2018-20 & advertorials/advertisements for “Outer Banks This Week” magazine from 2017-18. ### Creative Producing & On-Set Production Achievements • Creative Producer: produced a series of long-form YouTube Videos (~20 min) with additional IG & TikTok content & brand integrations for YT Influencer with >8M subscribers. • Assistant Technical Director: Worked behind the scenes leading teams of technicians building sets & lighting towers for The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama 2021 season (May-Aug). • Producer & Assistant Director: 25-min Mockumentary “Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling” (>4M YT views). • Production Coordinator: Full-length Feature Film “Pandora’s Box” for CineTel Films, distributed by Lionsgate. • Producer & Production Manager: Virtual Reality Short Film “Vain,” exhibited at film festivals worldwide. • Line Producer & 1st Assistant Director: 8-episode Web Series “Friendless Five,” distributed on Fullscreen TV. • 2nd Assistant Director: Directed background talent for Ariana Grande’s Music Video, “One Last Time.” • Producer, Co-Director, & Assistant Director: Multiple Short Films for Funny or Die & YouTube. ### Story Analysis • Provided screenplay synopses & recommendations on writers, story premise, & project to Development Executives for Amazon Studios & to the Head of the Story Department for Resolution Talent Agency. • Judged feature film & television series screenwriting contests for Fresh Voices & the Tracking Board. * * * A Bit of Backstory ------------------ ###### (The Long & Winding Version, Told In First Person!) * * * Growing up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I immersed myself in tales of ghost pirates & lost colonists, acting them out with my friends out in the woods & on the sandbars. Fact & fantasy were never too far apart. Storytelling was all around me. After all, on the Outer Banks, everyone knows that Blackbeard’s headless body swam ’round his ship three…no, five… no… seven times before it sank away into the depths. My love of stories followed me right into adulthood, & even as I pursued a degree in Civil Engineering, I hiked across campus to take Creative Writing classes on the side, just for fun. Back then, I still thought of writing as a hobby, so I spent my twenties on a different path: After undergrad, I worked for four years as a field engineer building bridges, then two years earning an MBA, & another two years advising Fortune 500 company CEOs as a management consultant. Neither engineering nor business consulting turned out to be my passion or calling, but they both taught me an incredible amount about working with others, managing complex projects, building a vision & strategy, & executing a plan. In both roles, I learned how to “see all the way to the end” then make the tough choices needed to get from here to there, one small step at a time. Eventually, I decided to make my love of stories & storytelling more than just a side gig, & so I moved to Los Angeles to burrow my way into the entertainment industry. For three years, I cobbled together my own “film school” curriculum from practical experience & classroom instruction. During my first year in LA, I studied Producing for Film, TV, & New Media at UCLA’s Extension program. Then, I spent the next two years working on film productions of all sizes, from features to web series to music videos. I also worked throughout as a freelance script reader for well-known, busy clients like Amazon Studios & Resolution Talent Agency. Overall, it was a wonderful mix of theory & practice & allowed me to explore filmmaking from idea to execution all the way through distribution while meeting & working with a bevy of amazingly talented makers & doers. After several years in Hollywood, I decided it was time to get back to my roots on the Outer Banks’ serene beaches to focus on building my own ideas in fiction & drama from the ground up. In 2017, I made the big move back east, & while I still enjoy visiting the west coast from time to time to catch up with friends & do business, I have been happy to call North Carolina my home base these past few years—I have found the history & culture of the region & my own personal experiences here have been a gold mine for story ideas & inspiration. That said, every now & then, I still get itchy feet… & when that happens, I like to go wandering with my notebooks & my camera in hand to search of new views, ideas & experiences. Whether my wandering is far or near, long or short, I always find what I’m looking for… there are so many stories out there just waiting to be told.

Updated September 24, 2024

##### Mission I ### POLARIS **DAWN** SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the Polaris Dawn mission to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:23 a.m. ET on September 10, 2024. The Polaris Dawn crew successfully completed all four mission pillar objectives before splashing down off the coast of Florida at 3:36 a.m. ET on September 15. Explore ##### Mission II Building upon Polaris Dawn, this mission will continue to expand the boundaries of future human spaceflight missions, in-space communications, and scientific research. Launching soon

Updated September 24, 2024

Hello, I’m David Hoy, a web developer and consultant based in Derry, Ireland. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- My main USP is the 20+ years I’ve spent working at the coal face of sales and marketing. I’ve made a million calls, knocked on a thousand doors, woo’d hundreds of VC’s (a few successfully) and have basically worn every hat available in sales, marketing and digital. I’m obsessed with web engineering and design. I’ve been building websites since the nineties, working on the WordPress platform for the past ten years. I started this web design firm in twenty thirteen to channel my ideas on how things should be built for the web. Outside of my obsession with web engineering I love travelling and most creative arts and I bring these together on my YouTube Channel * * * Want your WordPress project managed properly? --------------------------------------------- Call me on 07516590708 now to book a consultation.

Updated September 24, 2024

I am Ketan Vijayvargiya. I am a Principal Engineer at work. That practically means, at least at my current company, that I am some part each of the following: tech lead, software architect, product manager, security engineer and mentor. You can find my full CV here. Outside work, I self-host a bunch of services for personal use, so that makes me part sysadmin as well. On non-technical front, I care about fitness, travel and personal finance, in that order. I live in the Pacific Northwest with my wife and a ~4 year old son.

Updated September 24, 2024

* I spent the summer recording the audiobook for _Down from the Mountain_ from a blanket fort in my new empty office. (Necessity is the mother of invention? Is that how it goes?) I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to recording, but I am learning. Oh heck, I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to just about everything. But: learning, learning. Adventure, adventure. Life! Are you an audiobook listener? You can listen here. * Now that _Down from the Mountain_ is available for reading and listening in all formats, I am feeling the Great Creative Rest happening. This is where I pause. This is where I do important things that look like I’m not doing anything. Naps. Long walks on the beach. Letting nature speak to my senses in a language that is not words. This is where I refill, regenerate, and get curious about what comes next. * In the meantime, here’s some books I read this summer that touched me deeply: * It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover—for my fellow cycler breakers. I closed the last page and wept with a knowing ache for what it takes. Stunning. * A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci—a look at America’s race issues through the lens of differing characters and outstanding storytelling. * The Book of More Delights by Ross Gay—an endearing collection of personal essays about finding delight in everyday life. Made me want to write my own book of delights. * Did you know when you order from bookshop.org you can support the local bookstore of your choice with every purchase? Long live the brick and mortars! Until next time, McCall (Now Page Inspired by Derek Sivers)

Updated September 23, 2024

This article explores the powerful parallelization and distributed computing capabilities of the HPX framework. Starting with installation on macOS, it walks through configuring, compiling, and testing HPX on a modest machine, highlighting key features like asynchronous programming, task-based parallelism, and HPX components. Whether new to HPX or looking for practical examples, this guide offers a hands-on approach to understanding and utilizing HPX in real-world scenarios. In this article, I’ve rectified some prior assumptions and shed light on utilizing Plugins with ChatGPT. I initially utilized a simple ASP.NET web server to avoid cloud service configurations, only to encounter issues with content-type settings and JSON data parsing. The solution emerged as a middleware, adept at processing incoming data, ensuring smooth communication between ChatGPT and Chat Copilot. In this exploration, we delve into enhancing Chat Copilot’s functionality by integrating custom plugins, opening up a dialogue between the Semantic Kernel and Chat Copilot. Through a practical example, we see how Chat Copilot can seamlessly interact with the plugin to solve a given AI task. This setup forms a foundation for more complex engagements, bringing closer the intertwined future of coding and AI. In this post, we explore the fusion of Semantic Kernel with the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pattern, unraveling a new horizon in AI capabilities. By melding Semantic Kernel’s prowess in understanding relationships between words with RAG’s adeptness in fetching real-world data, we aim to foster models that are not only contextually aware but are also grounded in factual accuracy. Dive in to discover how this amalgamation could be a game-changer in generating more insightful and reliable AI responses. Dive into the realm of “Hooks” in Semantic Kernel, a boon for developers seeking to refine function executions without meddling with the core code. Uncover how Hooks, akin to callbacks, serve as a bridge between events and function operations. Whether it’s tweaking data before it reaches the Lower-Level Machine (LLM) or post-processing results, Hooks emerge as a robust solution. Explore real-world examples, witness Hooks in action, and unearth how they effortlessly dovetail with existing functions, paving the way for seamless executions. Embark on this enlightening journey, and harness the power of Hooks in Semantic Kernel to elevate your coding endeavors. The article elaborates on utilizing Planners with Semantic Kernel to autonomously orchestrate AI tasks based on user requests. It details various Planner types like Basic, Action, Sequential, and Stepwise Planners, explaining their functionalities. Delve into the world of Semantic Kernel, an innovative SDK by Microsoft, designed to bridge the gap between Large Language Models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the diverse software development environments. Explore how Semantic Kernel enhances interaction with LLMs by introducing a structured way to create Plugins and a Planner to manage them. Venture through a practical demonstration of crafting a DevOps Plugin to automate Kubernetes deployment tasks, showcasing the potential of Semantic Kernel in modern software development. In the previous article, we explored the straightforward process of customizing Keycloak’s user interface. Now, let’s dive into the world of SPIs (Service Provider Interfaces) and discover how we can extend Keycloak’s functionalities by implementing our own. To accomplish this, we’ll need the following set of tools:: Apache Maven Eclipse (or any other IDE that supports Java and Maven) Java SDK (download from here and install it before continuing with the article) If you prefer, you have the option to run Keycloak instances using Docker, although it is not mandatory. To simplify the process, I’ve included a set of Dockerfiles \[…\] This is the third article from the series on using Keycloak. While previous ones were dealing with running Keycloak in Kubernetes this one is about templating Keycloak. Therefore, I won’t be describing how a Keycloak instance can be run and what configuration options one should use. Instead, I will focus on building an easy to use environment for templating and designing Keycloak forms. The environment presented here is the same I am using for my professional work. So, everything shown here is based on real-world experience. This should not mean that it’s the “best” one. I am only sharing my \[…\] This is a follow-up to my previous article on how to setup a Keycloak instance with Postgres on k8s. Surprisingly, it was quite popular on HackerNews and received lots of comments. Among them were questions regarding high-availability and failure resistance. In the original article I described a fairly simple setup running Keycloak and Postgres pods which were accessing manually created PersistenceVolumes and Claims. I showed how to do all that both with handcrafted YAMLs as well as with Helm charts. There is also a repository containing YAMLs and configurations, so before you start working with the solution described here, maybe \[…\]

Updated September 22, 2024

_Last updated on 22nd September 2024_ ### ✏️ Art I am writing and drawing my debut graphic novel, tentatitively titled _Absolute Legend, To Be Fair_. It’s a story about men, violence and vulnerability, set in contemporary London. Subscribe to my newsletter for more frequent updates. After five years on Substack, I have moved my newsletter over to a new provider. Here’s a full explanation. ### 🎥 Work It’s a busy year at _The New York Times_, with all that is going on in the world. Alongside politics coverage, I’ve spent the last couple of months on a special series of films about the absurdity of America’s death penalty, which has just been published. You can keep up to date with all my _New York Times_ work here! ### 🇮🇹 Life And a cool side project this year: working to obtain my Italian citizenship, through my great-grandfather. It’s slow progress, but fingers crossed I will be able to make my official application this autumn! Travel-wise, I’ll be spending several weeks in the U.S. in October, partly for business, partly for pleasure. What's a now page? It's a place to tell you what I'm focused on right now! Based on a concept by Derek Sivers.

Updated September 22, 2024

Recent activity --------------- Work is going well, I'm thoroughly enjoying it — earning less than I used to isn't a problem at all. I'd rather be happy doing something that I like, far away from the current state of the industries that I was part of. The garden was good this year, despite an April cold snap that slowed down, and in one case killed, crops. We're preparing for the coming winter. _Updated_ 22 September 2024

Updated September 21, 2024

i’m a **slightly retarded** entrepreneur who **scientifically proved** that San Francisco is a sh\*thole. i like to read, write, **exercise**, and **entertain**. i live on **a ranch** outside of Atlanta, operate a **portfolio** of technology companies, and eat a lot of steak. in September 2020 i **stepped down** as CEO of Fomo.com (**acquired 2022**) and spent 2 years **pursuing music** in Seoul, Korea. i do not “_grab coffee_” or “_hop on the phone_” or respond to every email. i do not have LinkedIn, Facebook, or OnlyFans profiles. i occasionally build web applications for hire. my extended biography is **here**. what i’m up to right now is **here**. to learn more about my \[former\] K-Pop career **go here**.

Updated September 21, 2024

Ahoy! I’m Ben, I live in the United States of America with my wife, Kris, and son, Eli. I hope this page loaded fast for you. Welcome, and enjoy. From a homelab in my garage is a server. Not just any server, but this is the server that brought you this blog. It is running on Ubuntu Linux in a VM on a Proxmox hypervisor. Here are it’s specs: * 28 core Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2690 v4 @ 2.60GHz (2 Sockets) * 512GB Memory * 3 x Intel DC S3700 800GB SSD (1 write cache and 2 read-cache) * 9 x 20TB Seagate Exos X20 20TB RAID-Z2 (ZFS) …uh oh. Looks like one of them is failing. Do not be concerned about crashing this site if you want to link to it. All of the dynamic content is pushed out to Cloudflare’s edge locations using workers, and I have load tested it to 10,000 visitors per second, and my server has easily handled front page traffic from Hacker News, Slashdot, Reddit, without the caching. Welcome to b3n.org | est. 2001 ------------------------------ I created my first blog post on **March 15, 2001**. The blog was hosted from a Red Hat Linux server sitting on the floor in my dorm room, running Apache and PHP using a bunch of PHP scripts I wrote. I have been blogging ever since then. Now it’s running on Ubuntu, OpenLiteSpeed, and WordPress. Other than a few exceptions when I didn’t have good internet, I have hosted the blog from a server at my house. It may be under a desk, in the bedroom closet, and now it’s in the garage. But if you ever drop by for coffee, one thing is certain; somewhere in my house, you will find a server hosting b3n.org. I write about a variety of topics that interest me.  Here are the main categories I post in: ### Computing Posts about technology. My first computer was an Intel 8088 with (8MHz Turbo!) that dad brought home along with a book on QBasic.  I taught myself to program and enjoyed Flight Simulator for DOS (the framerate was not measured in frames per second, but **seconds per frame!**) I’m a huge Unix fan, so I’m running a 14 inch Macbook Pro M1 as my main computer. I studied Computer Science at BIOLA University for 2 semesters. But the CS department was small, and I found out the best professor wouldn’t be teaching CS the following year so I dropped out, and worked part time while getting a B.A. in Computer Systems and minor in Business Administration at CSUSB (which was a lot cheaper!). I’ve worked in the fields of DBA, Systems Administration, and Development. At my current day job I oversee the Applications group which consists of the Software Development and Business Solutions teams. ### Finance I’ve been using Quicken for as long as I can remember.  I started tracking finances with Quicken for DOS since 6th grade (and still track every transaction).  I think the best thing one can do to learn about finance and investing is to read books, I have read over 30 books on investing from authors like John Bogle, William Bernstein, Michael Edleson, Larry Swedroe, Benjamin Graham, Burton Malkiel, Taylor Larimore, David Swensen, and while this doesn’t make me an expert I have a well rounded perspective on it. In general I take an index-fund approach–it is hard to beat the S&P 500. ### Worldview Posts on Christianity, Religion and general Thinking are posted in this category.  My beliefs are founded on the Bible.  I put my trust solely in Jesus Christ the Son of God, who died on the cross to take the penalty for our sins and gives eternal life to anyone who believes in Him. Kootenai Community Church (my church) up in Kootenai, Idaho has excellent preaching and a variety of essays and podcasts.  I enjoy listening to The Briefing in the mornings by Albert Mohler, Answers in Genesis (Ken Ham) has a lot of Creationist resources. My favorite podcast is the Just Thinking Podcast by Darrell B. Harrison and Virgil Walker. And I recently discovered the Grace and Truth Podcast with Owen Strachan. When people ask what my position is on various things, I always hold the Biblical view. E.g. I am a Biblical Creationist. That is I hold to the belief that the Universe was created by God in 6 days as stated in Genesis and the earth is about 6035 years old. I have reformed view of soteriology, dispensational position on end-times, a complementarian view of marriage, etc. Not because I think or want these things to be true, but because that’s what is revealed in the Bible. These are doctrinal statements that most closely match my beliefs. * 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith * KCC Doctrinal Statement ### Nonsense Everything else.  These are misc posts that don’t fit anywhere else. Best resource for this is: Dilbert. …and Calvin and Hobbes of course. Well, take a look around the site for topics you’d be interested in, and sign up for my newsletter if you’re interested in this type of content.

Updated September 21, 2024

21 September 2024 William Martin forwarded me some written feedback on Learn Go With Tests from Kynan Ware which made my day. I get a lot of friendly feedback from people on the work, but this is one of those where the author has taken the time to explain why they enjoyed the book more specifically. > Before reading Learn Go With Tests, I read a Go different book that only had a chapter on the standard library’s testing suite. To say Learn Go With Tests expanded on that chapter would be an understatement. Getting hands on with the standard library and how it works was great and informative. Keep in mind that I do not have really any background in testing anyways, so I needed to be told both what features and patterns exist in a general sense and how they are used; Learn Go With Tests did just that and more. > > I enjoyed seeing the TDD feedback loop in a hands-on way with concrete examples. The author took their time to explain why TDD is valuable in a “show, don’t tell” way. **Initially, the TDD loop seemed tedious and monotonous**, but as I progressed through the book past the simple examples and into more complex territory, I found it to be actually fun, interesting, and very productive to get instant feedback on your work. (The emphasis is mine). I have spent a lot of time directly and indirectly (e.g the book) coaching TDD and this mental leap is often the hardest one. Many people find it boring, many find it "unrealistic" and bemoan how TDD tutorials are often too simplistic, and don't apply in the real world. TDD does work in the real world, but it takes time and practice. In my mind, one goal of TDD is breaking down work well enough so your real work, feels as simple as the examples you learned it with. > This was new to me (surprise!), but I like the idea that TDD is a design tool very much. I’m not going to repeat or summarize the book’s details on why or how it is used as a design tool, but I’ll just say that I ingested this idea and vibe with it very much. It's gratifying this message is coming through to people who read the book, because this is often such a missed point of TDD. Sadly, many believe TDD is merely about achieving test coverage, but in The Why of TDD I write at length how it is so much bigger than that. > The author was also particularly good at answering questions that might come up as they come up. The moment I had a question in my mind, the next sentence addressed it. I thought it was beautifully written. I didn’t have a place for this point in another heading, but I also wanted to mention how much I enjoyed just the overall introduction to testing patterns in general.