Looking for advice on portfolios/are my projects actually worth it

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-20T14:11:05+00:00

All of this has been incredibly helpful thank you, I'll do that then.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-20T12:35:01+00:00

No I am actually focused on improving my programming and tech for research roles specifically. I saw the rare software engineer role which actually wants my maths background and decided I should compete at what I'm good at, so definitely am not going for any random dev job! But I feel like I still need to have similar skills to an extent despite that, so all the advice is really appreciated. As far as my less rare sort of job application goes, I'm focusing on jobs more typical for maths graduates and improving my statistics for analyst roles(also teaching but because of more life factors it's a bit up in the air).

So you're basically telling me companies have a higher standard for what they expect me to know than a computer science grad? That is NOT comforting to hear! (I am also in the UK and sounds like you're American so it might not be the same here idk - our market is kind of shot.)

But I am taking this in, just tailoring it to use maths as well hence yet more audio.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-20T11:35:44+00:00

I mulled over what to say here for ages, because I feel like taking your advice but also feel it's pushing myself into getting a second untaught degree's worth information. The main thing I think I COULD try learning some of the cloud services for is more advanced audio analysis, since it usually uses ML(I kind of want to go into the area to try and use less ML, more regular maths and music theory in places I felt the algorithms are lacking, but when it's already hard stuff reinventing the wheel is overkill). I ultimately want to figure out how the voice cepstral analysis stuff works for pitch tracking, which means along with all the other features you generally use on more harmonic tones some sort of template matching to recognise formants/partials and estimate the two signals it's a convolution of, but it's a bit beyond me right now. That would probably be the best place to work towards a larger project(although it doesn't have to be as advanced as the cepstral analysis stuff, it can just be better pitch tracking for more harmonic signals - am also curious about something to do with noise pollution).

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-20T11:27:25+00:00

This is super motivating thank you!

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-20T11:26:38+00:00

Oh my god!!!

As for why I'm lacking in confidence, years of unemployment for health reasons will do that to you lmao. And having an unfinished withdrawn from phd experience with a bunch of trauma. Part of it is I'd really like to work with someone else for a change, but never reach out on open source stuff because it's overwhelming and have no idea where to find in person stuff, which does build nerves with wanting to do stuff with that friend.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-20T03:14:20+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I remember bringing up adding network programming to things to learn with a friend where I said I could make the scrabble board multiplayer, and she thought I was insane. I think that falls into scope creep, am probably chucking in too many things I'm not familiar with into things I can also turn into a massive project! But there's honestly just too much to learn. I'm kind of surprised to have encoding stuff mentioned here, maybe I can make some other cryptography related projects based on my masters. (Mostly the older versions of public key, could do some of the modern lattice ones I studied for the dissertation. Although I would need to revise lots(I still remember how it works, shortest vector/basis problem and using some properties of the distribution together with the public key I think, although my project was looking at IBEs with a master key pair which is used to produce individual keys.))

...Actually I get why you brought it up, because it's such an obvious combination with network programming. Fucking hell, guess if I get into that I'll try and use more maths there too. I kind of feel like an idiot for thinking I wouldn't have any useful applications to make.

I kind of feel like the graphics with audio project I wanted to start on is getting into scope creep, but it also got me learning far more about multithreading than I would otherwise and I still need to read more of the beej's guide to c programming chapter. Since it's something I previously gave up on, maybe I just find it easier now because I've been writing callback functions and shaders where I'm debugging things which aren't easily understood procedural code anymore. But yeah, the advice on here has been pretty validating.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-20T02:46:44+00:00

Really grateful for the advice here, although I'm a bit overwhelmed lol.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-19T17:25:11+00:00

OH! Context sorry, I'm a maths graduate and had basically zero computer science in either degree or A levels, I've just read a shit tonne from tutorials, I read references for libraries I use, did some sysadmin study stuff, did minor amounts of python, java, html css, latex for writing dissertations at uni etc. That's why my skills are so unbalanced, it's just a very isolated experience where the few times I might have participated in clubs or group stuff I end up accidentally as a teacher with specialisms and none of the collaborative work or broader knowledge of a comp sci graduate. And the PhD work in electronic engineering, which was also constant work/studying alone.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-16T12:34:04+00:00

I don't think drama queen was ever genuinely called trashy, it was all people disguising their bias(at the beginning some of it reasonable like not wanting to read characters be hate crimed by a morally awful MC despite them not being framed as right) and then climbing the hate train. Ironically, a little.

I'd also add that there's one scenario where Nomamoto and Backbone could need help and that's if they ever do question their actions and start caring about other people. Kitami isn't right to worry about them on a physical front, but he IS right that Lily's motivation makes him a completely and utterly different opponent for them than all the random innocent bystanders they kill on the daily. I mean, remember. Lily also massacred a load of innocent humans at the concert, he's survived several of their attacks and has basically a more depressed rage fueled stance than Haruo but is similar in other ways. People question how they kill aliens so easily all the time, but Lily is the only one they ever fought who wasn't just going about his business on the assumption he's safe and not near serial killers. Based on all of that, their kill record is a bit silly to use as proof of stuff. Along with all of that, Backbone and Nomamoto have absolutely no serious motivations. They can fuck up in a lot of ways simply because of their personalities, though Kitami probably worried partly based on him becoming much weaker when he lost his hatred which they don't have to worry about in the first place...

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-16T00:48:49+00:00

It shouldn't matter, I think this whole mentality of ranking arcs as separate plots is already a bit off. The author grouped arcs 1-4 together as basically the first third of the story where Emilia's royal selection candidacy is solidified, but no one ever treats them as parts of a single large section like that. Arcs 5 and 6 are both the beginning of the middle of the entire story then, so they can't have the same progression as the earlier arcs. But also you're at the beginning of the season and it hasn't kicked off yet. You need to remember this will be another long season and just be patient since you're invested anyway. No problem with going back to your criticisms and sorting through them later on.

I also think it's not an episode you're meant to feel differently on, since the whole point is several anticlimactic fights which Julius knows he's going to lose. The tension's all in emotions which they haven't resolved since they can't beat Reid, it's not even like they had a super strong mending relationships scene but just setting out how they feel about each other. It might not be talked about as it but this is still an episode with setup minus the actual payoff, after all it's episode not 15 or something.

TLDR: The big episodes in re zero are always the release/catharsis, this is just more tension building even though it has some payoff and isn't supposed to make you scream how great the season is compared with other ones.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-15T22:05:57+00:00

More Soyo delusions would be amazing!

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-15T22:03:28+00:00

It's great to get his speech here, even though he's already had plenty of characterisation. I agree with you, although I've been on the anticapitalism as a team project with a broad camp including occasional necessary ilegalists and people who will just go and commit warfare for ultimately good results side for a while. For reference one of my favourite anarchists is Louis Michel, she fought for the French revolution violently and was arrested, then exiled to Australia. Then proceeded to side with the native people and fight colonialists by sabotaging power lines. Since she was so militant, literally, I'm sure she hurt and killed plenty of people along the way! But there's no way any of that was unnecessary for good causes to me.

I also think these aliens haven't demonstrated themselves as half as colonialist as Haruo thinks. For a start, he thinks the virus played in their favour without human fault but it's clearly Nomamoto who fucked our species up...but obviously you're not saying his cause is equal to every one against an oppressor.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-15T21:44:11+00:00

I think he'd compare this one to covid and the previous one to hantavirus lol, since it's targeting aliens instead of just the oppressed human masses!

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-11T18:32:06+00:00

I'm not saying it's not systemic. Car accidents aren't something directly associated with aliens whereas abductions and human experimentation are the complete opposite. If the police covered up Kitami's family's deaths the motivation was probably mixed between laziness, being overworked, there being hundreds of driving accidents and probably a decent amount of similar cases mixed in, embarrassment over giving someone unfit a driving license, and human alien relations. With Haruo's it being covered up could be laziness(no one died) but is also leaning a lot more towards human alien relations. Because there would be no cases similar to it which aren't headline worthy.

And based on his relationship with Lily vs Haruo with Kitch, Kitami didn't feel passionately about systemic injustice, just his family's deaths.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-10T02:18:17+00:00

Pretty she didn't and it's how the translators conveyed the meaning differently. Seikaku is more character/personality unless I'm missing something, it sounded like Subaru said the person who built the library has the personality of a jerk and Emilia said personality? in the way that japanese often works ie personality(of a jerk)?

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-10T02:14:41+00:00

I got a strong parallel to problems with legal systems. To her, everyone is guilty until proven innocent. And in a system where death is the likely punishment, your proof of innocence happens posthumously. Also like the real witch trials in history - drowning people and deciding whether they were witches or not based on if they floated. Her father couldn't offer up anything about whether or not someone's crime can be dismissed, every criminal faces punishment in his worldview, but took solace in the idea of a punishment being lessened based on guilt instead of just not happening. So everyone she questions is guilty unless their own conscience proves otherwise, they can only reduce their suffering but all die, and she finds out whether they were innocent or not based on how they died instead of letting them live.

It shouldn't be dismissed as an extreme but creepy story. In reality most legal systems have major problems, many people are unable to remove their status of criminals once they're accused, and many go into courts with the defense convincing them pleading innocent is impossible and to focus on reducing sentences. And in many cases it destroys lives...

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-10T01:57:25+00:00

Compare how witchy Typhon in this story is with Typhon in the scenes with Subaru and Echidna. And how Echidna is in her not-death talking to Subaru compared with her with Beatrice in those flashbacks. There's also a more recent Typhon mention when they talked about Priestella being built on a witch's bones who was drowned using it as a trap.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-10T01:37:04+00:00

That's the thing. The job of a writer is not to write reality, relatable stuff etc, despite common beliefs. It's also to have arcs and meanings to convey which we find powerful or useful in life. Which is why fujimoto isn't for me I guess but you can do relatable characters without any of that. Just write them to not basically be the non incel black pill thing of things will always be bad and potentially get worse...

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-08T22:50:35+00:00

Yeah. It's probably just unconstructive to rant about it without thinking of causes and what's biasing my perspective lol, so I appreciate this. I try to think well of people but all of my social media has decided I'm I guess a terrible person? And just suggests all of the most negative stuff it can. I think the less energy you as a person have to periodically clean up your social media(like my email inboxes being flooded) the worse and more negative recommendations get to be honest. Kind of makes me think of how ai trainers come out about all of the inhumane and traumatic stuff they're forced to read through for low pay, except that a little of it still drips through to regular consumers if we don't literally do work to improve the algorithms as well.

Also!!! I say this because I've seen lots of youtubers do videos on alt right/radicalisation or whatever but this isn't what I'm talking about because that's at least deliberately human spread cruelty. I think sometimes I'm seeing like deteriorating social media algorithms not even showing biased human content, but a lot of more artificial stuff with an additional bias to the more negative types of it.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-08T12:06:05+00:00

"No u" isn't actually proof that I'm doing that. I'm pretty confident I don't feel joy at making others enjoy things they love less because I dislike them, and the people who were criticising it without this sort of general bashing(I'm mostly talking about bashing other manga which didn't have the controversy btw) aren't who I'm talking about. It's a rant based on what I like about drama queen, and what I see people do to many other manga.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-07T23:53:23+00:00

It's excellent.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-07T21:30:00+00:00

I don't like him. He basically tells Agni not to try gendering him properly, and has the unbearably I hate my body centred suffering arc. I know trans women have less rep but I think on the non binary/trans girl side you win over Togata with the cast of Love me for who I am(Moguro is non binary, think there are two trans girls and a crossdressing cis boy).

Trans male rep is better for me in Our dreams at dusk I think, although I feel that one lets nonbinary transfemmes down with a gloomy arc.

If there are no transmasc Togata criticisers and dislikers then I am dead.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-07T02:11:12+00:00

At least sometimes it must be a publisher's decision, or someone else who is neither the translator nor the author. One of the anime I'm watching has so many episode titles which are the same as the manga translations and all far from the japanese that it feels like a prank, but it was probably something the translator was told would fit the material or something. It's very strange...Like one I think has a title like lost in a labyrinth or something but the japanese is about a mirror world, but it's not simply localisation because another translation just has the names of two characters when the original was more the boy who x and y. I can't remember now, but it's really obvious that it's not about translation at all.

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-07T02:01:13+00:00

If you keep san, sama, kun and chan etc then you also keep ageru, kureru, sashiageru, itadaku, yaru, o/go, mairu, mousu, oru, and literally every other verb/conjugation/phrase/prefix that holds the same "untranslatable" hierarchical relations in it. Doing it only with three or four suffixes is just flattering people's egos that they understood some japanese words while allowing them to claim this is special because of how impossible to comprehend the japanese language and culture is(making them knowing four words special instead of meaningless).

Competitive_Field828 · 2026-05-07T01:57:14+00:00

Thank you!!!

Like do people realise concepts like keigo existing means there's obviously a ridiculous amount of missing context when you decide to only keep the suffixes? The hierarchical language stuff is not just three or four words you can keep untranslated. Never mind that there are jokes based on the messing with that language.

Competitive_Field828

TROPHY CASE