mbrundle

Just gave this a try and I really like it. Was able to interact with Eve via iMessage and web UI to download a sample healthcare dataset and run some analyses on it. (Currently it's a bit unpredictable about which UI it returns results to, but if that gets fixed then this would be great for doing development on the move.) Also set it up to run some scheduled news summarisation tasks. I like how it allows for safe experimentation on OpenClaw functionality. Like others on this thread, I'm a bit hesitant about connecting to email services without knowing more about the developer and how they use data from connected services, but there's a lot of interesting things you can do with this even without connecting to anything. (The free credits are v helpful too, although the underlying Claude models burn through them quickly.) Thanks zachdive for sharing this, I had fun trying it out!

I had an idea to screen the YouTube videos that kids watch through a suitable LLM to assess whether the content was child friendly. There’s an emerging issue with insidious messaging / themes creeping into child-focused content that looks completely innocent on the surface, and I wondered if the current generation of LLMs can pick up on this. (Initial tests seem encouraging.)

The article says that the landing was delayed from 4.24pm to 6.24pm because they were troubleshooting their ranging laser which had last minute issues. The solve involved switching to an experimental NASA laser. I think it’s really impressive how they managed to do this in just two hours. Really exciting news!

Cybershoes are fun but limited. They have to be used whilst seated (and it came with a dedicated stool for this). Also game support is limited. There’s a list of supported games on the site, and I don’t think anything new has been added for several years. My guess is that it needs developers to write to its API, so it can’t serve as a drop-in replacement for any game with free locomotion. (If the Freeaim can support this, that’d be a good selling point.)

Having said that, I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment from using them to walk across the world in Skyrim VR. The movement required (rolling your feet back towards you) is different to walking but feels convincing enough when you’re in the game.

This reminds me of the scene in The Abyss where the rat is forced to breathe in oxygen-rich perfluorocarbons[1]. I think this idea of introducing oxygen through perfluorocarbons has been explored but not sure it’s made much headway in humans to date [2]. This paper seems like a clever idea to introduce the liquid anally where oxygen can diffuse through the linings, and to also use same liquid (because of its viscosity) to scrub the intestines of mucus, to facilitate the oxygen diffusion process.

[1] https://filmschoolrejects.com/the-abyss-breathing-fluid/?amp

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing

That’s simply awful, I’m really sorry to hear that!

I spent a year as a stay at home dad (with our son who was 1 yr old at the time). The first few months were spent in Palo Alto, CA, and the rest in London, UK. We would go out to parks all over the place, and I never had any problems like this. Other parents always seemed happy to chat. I did expect problems since my son looks very different to me (fair skinned and blonde, whilst I’m a typical Pakistani Asian guy, brown skin, black hair - this kid inherited a lot of his looks from my wife). Often I’d get questioned by immigration officials when flying alone with him, and I’d have to take a letter from my wife attesting to our trip being known about and approved by her. But that was the only time it was an issue. I don’t think I would have lasted long if I encountered what you have, and I can’t imagine how you’ve dealt with it for as long as you have. If there’s anything I can do to support, please let me know.

How do you identify linked files?

Does anyone know how to find this site? I wanted to suggest that they include instructions on how to set up Tor Browser by default in their template, for people who don’t know that it’s possible to circumvent the content controls.

I’ve been a keen gamer since a kid. Now a dad, I’m in a similar position where I rarely have time to play. But I adore the Oculus Quest 2! I’ve just completed Resident Evil 4 (it took several weeks, but it’s the first time I’ve completed a AAA game in years). The immersion is amazing, I haven’t been this absorbed in a game in a long time. Fighting your way through a fully realised VR environment (massive castles, underground caverns etc) is something new to me. I found that most console games are too complex for me to get back into after a week or two away - the mental effort needed to remember the controls puts me off after a long day of work followed by looking after the kids - but RE4 VR doesn’t have this problem. It’s very intuitive - you grab weapons from different points on your body, reload with physical motions, and there’s only a few actions that map to button presses, so it’s made it easy to pick it up again after a break. I’m looking forward to seeing this platform develop. Bonus: I tell the kids they can’t use it till they’re teenagers, so whilst they hog the PS4 for Minecraft, the Quest is exclusively for my use. :)

I think that this does fill a genuine gap for people who can’t get out easily, or who find standard exercise to be boring.

I can’t run, my knees are too bad. I can’t to the gym easily, since it’s hard to find someone to care for my young kids (my other half works crazy lawyer hours). But I can do an hour of exercise before the kids wake up, and the Quest 2 is much more enjoyable than doing a set of regular exercises (though I do mix those in too). I get a good workout from doing a mix of shadow boxing with FitXR (or the Thrill of the Fight if I have enough space), Beat Saber and Pistol Whip, and it barely feels like exercise while I’m doing it. It’s been particularly helpful during the recent lockdowns.

I wouldn’t call it “augmented reality” - they’re projecting different track layouts onto the ground - but still a neat idea. Wonder if anyone has seen or tried anything else like this.

Second para is interesting reading. No further details given, but it’s written by someone who’s allegedly on the front lines of covid treatment, and it leaves me curious about whether there is a greater chance of an adverse effect to the vaccine amongst populations that have been heavily exposed to the virus already.

“Nevertheless, what I am currently struggling with is the failure to report the reality of the morbidity caused by our current vaccination program within the health service and staff population. The levels of sickness after vaccination is unprecedented and staff are getting very sick and some with neurological symptoms which is having a huge impact on the health service function. Even the young and healthy are off for days, some for weeks, and some requiring medical treatment. Whole teams are being taken out as they went to get vaccinated together.”

Similar to this. Have three young kids. Don’t watch any tv, Netflix, etc. Every chance I get (e.g. before going to sleep, on the tube), I read books on the kindle app on my phone. It’s surprising how much you can get through as long as you’re consistent. Phone particularly helps when trying to read when lying next to a kid at bedtime to get them to sleep, can still read under the covers in the dark with the backlight.

For anyone interested in learning more, I highly recommend Doudna’s book, “A Crack in Creation” - very readable explanation of the process leading to discovering CRISPR/Cas9. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crack-Creation-Editing-Unthinkable-...

Just added my LinkedIn link to my profile, hope that helps.

Nice to meet other P/T tech dads-of-three, we’re a rare breed! Have sent you an email to say hi. : )

I don’t think we’ve worked with anyone in Canada in our team, however it’s a huge company With multiple DS teams, and some may be open to this. Feel free to send a CV and I can forward to the appropriate hiring partner.

Yes, my salary has been pro rated 80% at every job where I’ve had this arrangement - that’s always been agreed upfront. One interesting thing I noticed is that several employers were open to interviewing even after I made it clear that I can only do 4d/week, it turned off fewer companies than I thought it might. After my initial experience, I found it better to declare it up front, because there was one case where I only mentioned it at the final interview and the CEO, who literally had his pen out to write down an offer, promptly sheaved it again and said he couldn’t work with that arrangement. All of my part time roles have been in the UK, and I’ve wondered whether it’s a little easier for European employers to accommodate these arrangements (vs in the US).

I’ve been working 4d/week for the last 5 years as a Data Scientist. I first proposed it during salary negotiations with a small startup, who were surprised by it but were willing to give it a go. It worked out really well, and once I had that under my belt, I was able to ask for the same arrangement at subsequent job interviews - I would make a point to raise this up front, and it proved a good way to filter out companies that likely wouldn’t have been a good work/life fit. (I look after three young kids outside of work; wife is a corporate lawyer who has to work 24/7, so my 4d/wk schedule is important in maintaining some semblance of balance for the kids).

Now I’m at a multinational (a publicly listed health data company) and the arrangement continues to work well, even though I now manage a team of 8 data scientists. I’ve had colleagues who’ve dropped from 5 to 3d/wk, the company seems very flexible around this type of arrangement. At the startups I felt that I had to squeeze in 5d of work in 4d at times, whereas here the workload has felt more commensurate with the hours I have available (and my manager often checks in to make sure this is the case).

Overall I love having an extra day to the weekend (I take the kids out to places in London on Fridays when it’s considerably less busy). My colleagues with similar arrangements used this to split their working weeks in half, and that worked well for them.

Happy to answer any questions.

Likewise, I’d love to learn more about what you’re doing! I’ve found the learning-by-doing paradigm has worked for me (e.g. with learning ML concepts by applying them alongside reading theory, rather than after) and your simulation driven learning using cutting edge tech and applications (like your protein folding example) is a very intriguing extension of that idea. Email also in profile.

IQVIA | Data Scientist | Full-time | Onsite | London, UK

IQVIA is one of the largest healthcare data companies, and it specialises in providing analytics based on that data. Our team is looking for a DS to join our team which specialises in building ML models to predict patients with (for example) rare disease diagnoses. If you're looking to get into healthcare data science then this is a very interesting role, I've learnt a great deal and improved a lot as a DS since joining a year ago.

Vacancy page: https://iqvia.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/IQVIA/job/London-United-...

Blog post about the job: https://medium.com/@IQVIAPredictiveAnalytics/a-day-in-the-li... (has my contact details if you'd like to contact me for more info)

For the last four years I’ve been a data scientist whilst working a 4 day week. I look after our 3 young kids on Friday - my wife is a corporate lawyer who works 24/7 so this arrangement lets our kids have a bit more parent time. The kids and I have a lot of fun going to places in central London that I would typically avoid due to high crowds on weekends.

I don’t think my career has had a negative impact - all the companies (a mix of v early startups and large multinationals) have been very supportive, and I’ve managed to do some of my best professional work during this time.

The work life balance is really great this way. It’s clearly not an option if you need that fifth day to pay the bills, but if that’s not the case then it’s worth considering. One slight negative is not having time to learn new skills or work on side projects in the evenings - I’m too exhausted! - but I’ve also been lucky to be able to learn everything I need on the job, so it hasn’t mattered much up till now.

At first glance, this new tracer seems to yield a lower normal tissue uptake, and the reduced background signal could make it easier to locate tumours. FDG gets taken up by several organs inc heart and brain, whereas this tracer doesn’t appear to do so to that extent.

I used to work at a Series A funded biotech startup. I’d consulted for them for free for 2 years, then joined full time after they got the funding, then it all fell to pieces. Investor pressure led to CEO putting huge pressure on team, and (along with many others) I cracked and left.

Fallback option was to help my best friend from school to build a tech startup. We lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic but we’d talked about this during my last few months at the biotech and we figured it’d work. It was being built with Ruby on Rails which I hadn’t touched - last time I did any web development was 6 years ago with LAMP - but I was excited to get back into tech and learn.

When I started working on this new startup, it went wrong very quickly. I was working from home and quickly felt isolated and sad. I noticed that my anxiety levels were shooting through the roof. I felt I wasn’t learning RoR anywhere near quickly enough to get to grips with our core business problem (which was to build a new search engine for technical staff). And since I was working with my friend, who had literally busted his arse for a year to raise funding for us, I felt utterly trapped. My head was telling me to get the hell out and take a long long break to destress. But that would totally wreck his business opportunity - his funding was contingent on having a tech team (me) ready to go immediately.

Eventually I did quit. I found myself utterly helpless and reliant on my wife’s income for the first time. I was now relegated to stay at home dad status, which I’d done everything to avoid as my career had always been important to me. That was rock bottom. In real terms it could have been much worse, but mentally that’s about as low and trapped as I’ve ever been, and I honestly didn’t think I’d ever find a way back into any meaningful career.

Long story short - I took a year out to spend with my kid. Wife got a one year transfer to London, which was an amazing blessing in disguise because it was a tonne of fun to explore the city with my kid. Finally inched back into tech, did two boot camps, rediscovered my love of coding, got a job, and gradually got back on track. It’s taken 5 years and is in many ways an ongoing process, but I did manage to get out of that trapped situation.

I find it truly amazing that New Horizons was able to take photos of a 20 mile object whilst flying past at ~8 miles/sec - that’s an incredibly small space and time window within which to capture the images. Does anyone know how NASA manages to pilot spacecraft with this level of precision? What kind of engineering processes do you need to enable this?

There are many free hotlines available for people in this situation.

UK: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/suicide/

Other countries: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

Interesting concept. I like the fact that it comes with specific compound sachets (e.g. lactose, fructose) so you can systematically test for specific intolerances.

Wow! How did they attempt to justify this?

I wonder how this works in practice - would they have high-magnification cameras raster-scanning the crowds and supplying the images to a facial recognition model?

I get this perspective in principle, but you have to be careful - I've seen cases where the wording of what construes a competing company / product / service in a non-compete is so broad that it could block me from doing any work in my profession at all. And I've also seen companies where contracts with questionable language were agreed and signed in good faith, but were later weaponised when things turned sour. These days I'll always ask for the contracts as soon as I receive an offer, read the clauses carefully and push back ASAP where needed with my own redlined version. Most times it works out fine, and once I received a bad reaction that led me to walk away. (A bullet dodged, IMHO.)