Category: R&D
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LLMs as text simulators
I’ve often written here about developing systems that leverage simulation. Simulation combining physical processes, information systems, and crowd behaviours. Simulations that support organisational decision making, customer experiences, and learning. And in late 2025 we were having a moment where more people were starting to describe Large Language Models (LLMs) as simulators of text. Simulation of…
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trippler at Melbourne Python meetup
I recently presented a version of my PyConAU trippler talk at the February 2026 Melbourne Python meetup. I made a few minor updates, such as incorporating the new contingency and multi-destination functionality, and this may have caused me to run a little over time… Running a little over time must have angered whatever deities watch…
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trippler at PyConAU
I was thrilled to be back for my second PyCon AU – with a wonderfully diverse and inclusive group of technologists – presenting on trippler in a talk titled An EV Trip Planner for Australia. I got a great feedback, including a suggestion to incorporate the many very Australian BIG things we might encounter on…
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Tech Lead Journal
The lastest in our series of podcasts on Effective Machine Learning Teams is now live on the excellent Tech Lead Journal by Henry Suryawirawan. Check out the episode titled Building Effective and Thriving ML Teams. It’s been fantastic to talk with many great names in technology recently about EMLT, and I think the variety of…
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An evergreen question: what is an MVP?
I was asked this the other day. My answer was: it depends on the context; it helps to have an example. And the contextual element is probably why this remains an evergreen question. While I have a fresh example in mind I thought I’d quickly plant a stake in the ground for reference. First, it…
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trippler development notes
This is the behind-the-scenes companion post to a resilient charging planner, sharing more on the development process and how the app works, with links back to earlier work. Design philosophy I wanted to focus on the core problem of interactively exploring charging options under varying trip requirements. I wanted a tool that I would use…
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A resilient charging planner
Check out the prototype of trippler, an interactive charging planner for resilient EV road trips. Based on my own EV road trip experience, trippler is as much about easily understanding charging options and contingencies, to reduce charger anxiety, as it is about coming up with a single best plan. If you’re looking for the latest…
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Data complications
Solving EV charger anxiety used maths for better road trips, but skipped over using real data. Let’s fix that, or at least try to… The easy bits To get from A to B in an EV, I used Open Route Service to find a base route to a destination and and Open Charge Map to…
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Solving EV charger anxiety
Many EV adventures are accessible using the charging network in Victoria, but faulty chargers still have the potential to induce charger anxiety on road trips. Planning apps–EV drivers’ constant companions–may not fully solve this when the reported status of chargers is unreliable and faults are prevalent. As a driver, I want resilient plans that already…
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What to expect when you weren’t expecting an R&D project
This was supposed to be a regular digital project that consistently made progress towards the objective… right? Problem statement, some analysis, build a solution bit by bit, deploy, …, nice linear progression… but no… we were wrong! It turned out to be an R&D project. Often R&D projects change direction and sometimes seem to go…