ben_w

@[email protected]
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European software engineer.

Experience mainly with Swift, ObjC, and Java; usual smattering of experience in other languages (IDL, REALbasic [back when it was still called that], Python, PHP, JavaScript, etc.)

Human language knowledge:

- English: native

- German: self taught with apps and podcasts including Duolingo, Clozemaster, Babbel (both their apps and podcasts), EasyGerman, Coffee Break German etc., non-certified CEFR level B1 from three online placement tests where I've scored B1/B1/B2.1 (which matches my self-estimate because I can do normal daily things without having to reach for a translator, but surprises still confound me).

- Esperanto/Greek/Dutch/Spanish: also self-taught, but probably A1 or less, so while I can type ενα τσι και ενα σανδυιχ παρακαλορ without reaching for Google Translate, if I use GT to check my work I find I spelled "tea" and "please" wrong, and when I asked for that in Athens the person behind the counter just corrected me in English.

- Arabic: an attempt was made, to help pass time during the pandemic. I recommend you don't waste time trying to use Duolingo for learning this language.

- Futhark᛬ ᛚᛖᚨᚱᚾᛖᛞ᛬ᚦᛖ᛬ᚨᛚᛈᚺᚨᛒᛖᛏ᛬ᚨᛊ᛬ᚨ᛬ᚲᛁᛞ᛬ᚲᚨᚾ᛬ᚢᚾᛞᛖᚱᛊᛏᚨᚾᛞ᛬ᚦᛖᛗ᛬ᚹᚺᛖᚾ᛬ᚦᛖᚹᛁ᛬ᚨᛈᛈᛖᚨᚱ᛬ᛁᚾ᛬ᚦᛖ᛬ᚺᛟᛒᛒᛁᛏ᛬ᛟᚱ᛬ᛚᛟᚱᛞ᛬ᛟᚠ᛬ᚦᛖ᛬ᚱᛁᛜᛊ᛬ᛒᚢᛏ᛬ᛞᛟᚾᛏ᛬ᚨᛊᚲ᛬ᛗᛖ᛬ᚨᚾᚹᛁᚦᛁᛜ᛬ᚨᛒᛟᚢᛏ᛬ᚦᛖ᛬ᛟᛚᛞ᛬ᚾᛟᚱᛊᛖ᛬ᛚᚨᛜᚢᚨᚷᛖ

Currently:

- In 2024 I stopped working though Brilliant.org courses, not because I've done all of them, but because I've Peter-Principled myself on it: I've done harder and harder courses until I exceeded my competence, which was a lot of stuff, but not the most advanced calculus or group theory stuff: https://benwheatley.github.io/blog/2024/03/11-12.00.16.html

I tried looking at it more recently to see if it was worth re-subscribing, but it seems like the new material is all focussed on k-11 pupils rather than adult learners pushing themselves further, so I suspect I won't go back.

- Still trying to finish editing a SciFi novel: got stuck at 90%, the final 10% is in a rewrite loop where I'm never happy with what I produce

- Looking for working; my main experience is as a senior iPhone app developer, but I am open to be a noob again in some other aspect of software development.

- LLM coding is each of U+1F631 and U+1F92F and yet also sometimes U+1F4A9, I do have experience of code review and can deal with the latter regardless of whether it comes from humans or machines.

--

https://kitsunesoftware.com has all the links to my other stuff
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Show threadben_wFeb 5

We saw partial copies of large or rare documents, and full copies of smaller widely-reproduced documents, not full copies of everything. An e.g. 1 trillion parameter model is not a lossless copy of a ten-petabyte slice of plain text from the internet.

The distinction may not have mattered for copyright laws if things had gone down differently, but the gap between "blurry JPEG of the internet" and "learned stuff" is more obviously important when it comes to e.g. "can it make a working compiler?"

Show threadben_wNov 19

I remember hearing about the variance thing ages ago. Back when I was young enough and naïve enough to trust statements said in official voices without critically assessing them.

With the caveat that IQ tests scores are now provably something one can learn to be good at (because LLMs do much better on public tests than private ones), was the claim about variably actually justified at the time, or was it nonsense even back then?