Nam Pho

Thanks to the power of LLMs and AI, my git commit messages are more descriptive than "update".

Algorithms for making interesting organic simulations Article explaining simulation algorithms that produce complex organic behaviours, starting with the classic physarum algorithm from Jeff Jones.

These algorithms would be an interesting basis for a set of homeworks and labs for a parallel programming course. bleuje.com/physarum-exp...

Interesting read. The @wired.com article cites a "new report" but I could not find this original work referenced, can someone provide a link?

NAYA - Modular Keyboard The most revolutionary modular keyboard for digital creators.

Anyone try out this keyboard? My gut is that I want it, a wireless version of the Ergodox, but the price gives me pause. naya.tech

Speedrun Sometimes the best thing to do in school is to get out as soon as you can.

I'm jealous I didn't figure it out myself. www.educationprogress.org/p/speedrun

The calm life method — 5 habits of super calm people The one mental shift that makes life 10x easier (most people fear it)

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” — Lao Tzu

postanly.substack.com/p/the-calm-l...

GW: ultra-fast chromosome-scale visualization of genomics data - Nature Methods Nature Methods - GW: ultra-fast chromosome-scale visualization of genomics data

Tl;dr GW is IGV but faster and with other modern features for genomics visualization. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Opinion | A Surprising Route to the Best Life Possible

"We sometimes think humans operate by a hedonic or utilitarian logic. We seek out pleasure and avoid pain. ... And I think we do operate by that kind of logic a lot of the time — just not when it comes to the most important things in our lives." www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/o...

Turned in my final assignment, this was a rough quarter.

GitHub - npho/GrayMay2025: A super awesome project in celebration of brain tumor awareness month in 2025 with ML/AI. A super awesome project in celebration of brain tumor awareness month in 2025 with ML/AI. - npho/GrayMay2025

Every May is brain tumor awareness month and I spent part of last month working on BrainTumorNet-43M, a PyTorch side project we'll release to Hugging Face that predicts brain tumors from MRI scans with >95% accuracy. Check out our code! #BuildInPublic #ML github.com/npho/GrayMay...

The hidden time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs A decades-old tax rule helped build America's tech economy. A quiet change under Trump helped dismantle it

Helps explain why hiring has been soft, no financial incentives. Hopefully Congress will repeal the Section 174 change soon. qz.com/tech-layoffs...

If your customers don't know what happens underneath because you made their lives easier, things are "opaque" and not "transparent" to your researchers. I notice a lot of folks use the latter in the wrong context re: UX.

Agree 💯, he would've been better off endowing a need based scholarship for students directly.

Opinion | Living to Die Well

"We live alongside death. It speeds down highways recklessly and blooms clandestinely within our bodies. We have no idea when we will meet death, or how." Beautiful prose and a reminder to live your best life in the limited time we all have. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/o...

$1 Million Of Frugal Librarian's Bequest To N.H. School Goes To Football Scoreboard A New Hampshire native, Robert Morin was known for his affection for movies and books. He left $4 million to the University of New Hampshire.

If you want to know why donors are hesitant to give unrestricted donations. www.npr.org/sections/the...

If a news outlet is going to discuss a new scientific publication, could you at least include a link to it so I don't have to Sherlock Holmes the thing based off of the lead author's name and hope it's the same one?

The Romance of Medicine William D. Haggard, M.D., Nashville, Tenn.

"These and other contributions of medicine to the relief of humankind are more thrilling to [a person] of science than all the wars of selfish kings." jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

LLM training without a parallel file system The illustrious Jeff Denworth recently posted a hot take across social media, claiming that training large language models (LLMs) doesn't re...

So you're telling me I could've saved a bunch of money by increasing local node SSD capacity instead of buying a massive flash-based parallel file system? 🤔 blog.glennklockwood.com/2025/02/llm-...

a boy and a girl getting on a yellow school bus ALT: a boy and a girl getting on a yellow school bus

TIL "The Magic School Bus" show of my childhood was funded with an NSF award?! www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...

You're giving me ideas for a future grant proposal. Now we will have to optimize on cluster weight for launch instead of power utilization as we do currently in our terrestrial on-campus data centers.

Starship Troopers Revolutionize Warfighting Boots and armor on the ground anywhere in the world in an hour

Interesting take on the changing dynamics of space-based logistics. If we could deliver anywhere in the world under an hour, I would prefer we revolutionize commercial airlines instead. perfectingequilibrium.substack.com/p/starship-t...

They say the best revenge is a life well lived.

Katy Cowan | Getting Older Isn’t What You Think Getting old creeps up on you. It’s not sudden. There’s no dramatic moment where you wake up and realise you’re “not getting any younger”. No — it’s more like a slow progression. One day, you’re out at...

"It’s a funny thing, ageing. You get clearer on who you are, while also realising how much you still don’t know."

www.katycowan.co.uk/blog/getting...

Apparently it has been shipped since 137 but it was never enabled for me by default. I wasn't aware of the feature until the public announcement I saw when I updated to 138.

This new feature wasn't enabled for me by default, you have to enable browser.tabs.groups.enabled and browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled in about:config in Firefox. The latter isn't discussed in the release but it recommends open tabs to add to your groups. support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tab...

What happens when you leave your career (and identity) behind A deep dive into what you may encounter while navigating the void between the first and second halves of life.

On navigating your career journey, sometimes you need to reinvent yourself and that's scary but OK. #MidlifeCrisis cluesdotlife.substack.com/p/what-happe...

"If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be ... you will never become anything, and that is your reward." ― Oscar Wilde

If You Want to Save Money on Eggs, It Might Be Time to Stop Buying Into a Myth About Them Does it matter whether eggs are brown or white?

I must admit I also fell victim to the white vs brown egg bias without knowing it. It's interesting to know the full back story, worth a read! #TheMoreYouKnow🌈 slate.com/life/2025/04...

How Vietnam earned its world-renowned anticolonial standing | Aeon Essays Vietnam’s potent and storied anticolonialism is founded upon a unique sense of national shame

A thought provoking piece by @kdpham.bsky.social in @aeon.co today about non-Western perspectives on anti-colonial discourse and its intersection with traditional political economy theory. I am not a social scientist but know enough to appreciate reading the essay. aeon.co/essays/how-v...