Category: Maths
-
A coding saga with Bard
Though but a footnote in the epic of coding with AI, I though it worth musing on my recent experience with Bard. Bard currently uses the LaMDA model, which is capable of generating code, but not optimised for it. The story might be different with Codey as protagonist (or is that antagonist?) I didn’t produce…
-
Smarter Semantle Solvers
A little smarter, anyway. I didn’t expect to pick this up again, but when I occasionally run the first generation solvers online, I’m often equal parts amused and frustrated by rare words thrown up that delay the solution – from amethystine to zigging. The solvers used the first idea that worked; can we make some…
-
I did it my way – hand-rolled navigation with open spatial data
Sure commercial maps app directions are great, but have you ever found the customisation options limited? What if you want to use bike paths and back streets when cycling, or avoid winding roads that might make backseat passengers car-sick on a road trip? The paved route OpenStreetMap and OpenRouteService do provide this type of functionality,…
-
End-to-end simulation hello world!
I’ve talked to many people about how to maximise the utility of a simulator for business decision-making, rather than focussing on the fidelity of reproducing real phenomena. This generally means delivering a custom simulator project lean, in thin, vertical, end-to-end slices. This approach maximises putting learning into action and minimises risk carried forward. For practitioners,…
-
Summertime, and the puzzling is made easier
In between beach trips and bike rides, I whiled away more than a few summer hours on puzzles I found in the various AirBNBs we rented. Returning home, I rediscovered a sliding tile puzzle with a twist called Asteroid Escape, where embedded asteroids prevent certain tiles sliding past each other in certain configurations. With 60…
-
Throwback Thursday
The metaverse is a topic currently, though the concept has a long history. Twenty years ago, in the dotcom era, I was exploring this space, as I was recently reminded. Feeling nostalgic, I dug these projects out of the NAS archives. Tech has moved on, but there’s enduring relevance in what I learned. VO2max (1999)…
-
Second Semantle Solver
In the post Sketching Semantle Solvers, I introduced two methods for solving Semantle word puzzles, but I only wrote up one. The second solver here is based the idea that the target word should appear in the intersection between the cohorts of possible targets generated by each guess. To recap, the first post: introduced the…
-
Sketching Semantle Solvers
Semantle is an online puzzle game in which you make a series of guesses to discover a secret word. Each guess is scored by how “near” it is to the secret target, providing guidance for subsequent guesses, but that’s all the help you get. Fewer guesses is a better result, but hard to achieve, as…
-
Visualising System Dynamics Models
Simulation is a powerful tool for understanding and solving complex problems, but sometimes simulations themselves can be hard to understand. Visualisation is a powerful tool for understanding what simulations are telling us, and also for socialising the limitations and assumptions built into predictions. An approach System dynamics is a simulation paradigm that can be used…
-
Project Slackpose
Another lockdown, another project for body and mind. Slackpose allows me to track my slackline walking and review my technique. Spending 5 minutes on the slackline between meetings is a great way to get away from my desk! I had considered pose estimation for wheelies last year, but decided slackline walking was an easier start,…