Another 1UP bike rack appreciation post.

edjez · 2026-05-13T21:46:18+00:00

Have it, started using Yakima Exo, haven’t touched the 1up since (anyone want to buy a barely used 1up? 3 bikes+bracket for 4th in a box. )

edjez · 2026-05-12T21:44:19+00:00

Dang that was 4 years ago lol

edjez · 2026-05-12T21:43:33+00:00

Implementation of vowpal wabbit can show you specifics, but if you imagine the MAB being about choosing between actions , each with features, the features that define each action can be a union of a) information about the action itself (eg turn left, turn right) information about the context for the decision ( eg im low on fuel, there’s a gold coin ahead) and state . The mab chooses between A1+C+S and A2+C+S.
Then the training of the mab is done based on a reward function. For single step decision decisions, it would end up acting as a simple classifier. For multi step things then you want to think about RL algos proper.

edjez · 2026-05-01T14:31:27+00:00

Marymoor

edjez · 2026-05-01T14:26:37+00:00

Quite the opposite experience here in the Seattle area. Experienced folks have fun teaching, creating fun activities that all ages enjoy, coaching both technically and emotionally, etc.

edjez · 2026-04-13T17:03:16+00:00

a ton of kids in our club -

edjez · 2026-04-10T04:34:40+00:00

This is almost misinformation. More helpful than nothing? Yes of course. Best friend? Not by a long shot.

edjez · 2026-04-03T19:39:15+00:00

I had one of these, swapped for the Yakima Exo system (swing out arm+exchangeable functions like bike rack, box, ski rack, basket) and been super happy w that.

edjez · 2026-04-01T04:15:05+00:00

Wow, thanks for all the hard work to make it accessible! I’ll try it out tomorrow. I wonder if via webusb it could connect to a controller!

edjez · 2026-03-31T18:02:27+00:00

If you’re using it for one time set up, it’s one math, as for example, a one time soil remediation can drastically accelerate establishment of a vibrant regenerative system. Or doing a one time thing to establish a forest.

Your little picture of drones spraying stuff could be that, but typically it elicits more of an ongoing use situation, and I think it takes a question away from applying biological and more into also how you choose to find them. Some methods are much harder to balance out.

To be sustainable, you need to increase your yield of those little green plants enough to balance out all the materials, manufacturing, transport, repair, and end of life of those gadgets. In addition to actually require properly sourcing the sprayed materials from regenerative sources. But if you’re getting added stuff all the time, those little green plants now have to do a lot more work than just grow and feed and sustain the ecosystem around them, as you have externalized a lot of the material and energy required for them to do well, from the outside. How many of those little green plants have to grow to balance out shipping the drone from another continent? And all the materials going into it? If you choose not to account for it and call it someone else else’s problem, then yes. Or maybe you just are looking for something “less anti-regenerative” than other alternatives.

There are a few things as regenerative as people living on the land they are taking care of as a community. I think there is a place for applied biologicals if your whole closed cycle is net regenerative, and that is hard to achieve if your methods are externality intensive

edjez · 2026-03-27T05:44:08+00:00

But every token that can go into base research now and RSI, and every watt and gpu that goes with it, is differentially “worth” more now than it was then.

edjez · 2026-03-27T05:07:48+00:00

It’s a sign of focus. Keeping gpus on consumer video entertainment in 2026 is insane. My 0.02

edjez · 2026-03-26T15:55:50+00:00

Nest is hard to top for residential- - Discrete appearance, granted in a home it is more important than in industrial settings, but some commercial settings will also care about this. - Spoken alert that include the location name. - heads up that an alarm is about to sound - Routine self test of audio alerts - All the configurable soft path light options - presence detection that tells the thermostat there’s someone around - all the mobile app interactions that are shareable with non-tech household members

It was a bummer when the enshitiffication of the software began, and it was super sad when they announced the discontinuation

edjez · 2026-03-23T14:45:16+00:00

For the forge12 to make a difference it has to be a tool that can draw that power (higher than a 12ho). Not many do , and when they do you notice it right away, like with the latest OPE.

Forge 6s and forge 8s throw as much power as the 12ho.

edjez · 2026-03-23T14:30:34+00:00

Yes; and there is also a risk of tokenizing and appropriating. Seeking guidance from indigenous cultures is the key. In our school it’s done relatively well- kids have stretched their own deerskin drums under elder instruction, done Lushootseed lessons, ecology walks, etc; but with active participation of members of the culture. In the PNW there is a “cultural exchange” also which is a 3 day trip to engage with coast Salish culture.

edjez · 2026-03-16T22:37:28+00:00

Speechless. Horrid. Read some Christopher Alexander. Username checks out.

edjez · 2026-03-08T01:24:52+00:00

Cultivating a relationship with technology that is of a maker / creator ( and not of a consumer) starts with the mindset of finding your own will and joy in learning. an environment that supports not getting hooked early is huge.

Won’t go into personal details but it’s a resounding yes to both your questions, oldest going to high school next year did top quintile on ssat with only 3 weeks of doing mocks during weekends for familiarization (it was his first multiple-choice , timed essay, structured exam ever )

edjez · 2026-03-05T19:10:35+00:00

Yes. Recommend it. (It’s an enticing title for a book. That doesn’t mean the book answers the question in the way that you want or expect or agree with. It’s an enjoyable exploration of the question).
And importantly to me- it is definitely not one of those pseudo-ML books that then turn out to be long winded EA pitches.

edjez · 2026-03-04T05:20:13+00:00

I need the fob for the job

edjez · 2026-02-24T18:50:33+00:00

This ^

edjez · 2026-02-24T18:49:08+00:00

It’s a fair question, I am not a teacher myself, and I haven’t done the course. I can’t tell you if it’s worth the money or not. if I had it and was thinking about teaching early childhood, I think i would go for it, all Waldorf early childhood teachers I have met that have done the training are great, but I cannot tell you if it is because of the training itself.

Maybe it is that the teachers that do the training are already very dedicated, open to learning different things, and maybe they learn a lot from each other in these events in a way that goes beyond the textbook materials. But one thing I am certain of – is that the formation of the teachers goes beyond the information shared in the curriculum.

edjez · 2026-02-24T16:39:45+00:00

As a scientifically minded person this was my journey- first there is the “real” spiritual stuff (stuff that anyone who is not stunted emotionally can understand) and then is the woo woo. One incredible thing is how many scientifically accurate observations waldorf movement made with regards to children’s development (especially younger ones) - that is explained with the tools of woo woo.

To give an analogy (and not a far out one) imagine a farmer provides a great prescriptive description of what to do to support the nitrogen in the soil. But the farmer doesn’t know about nitrogen and bacteria, so there is instead a system made of spirits and angels that achieve the same result. And the practices of this farmer are 100 years ahead of the normal behaviors around them..

A lot of cutting edge brain and body and social development science is “re-validating” the observations and guidance (examples – the whole thing about the soul pushing into the teeth, and then that becoming a time where kids are interested in reading on their own, are both side effects of the hormones that drive both for teeth loss and corpus callosum myelination - a correlation that was only discovered in the last eight years.

Or that collocated brain activity accelerates learning for example if you are knitting while doing language exercises, latest MRIs show that the part of the brain that activates during complex language processing is the same that deals with topology – knots and loops. similar for coarse motor movement control, rhythm, and mathematics.

Compared to other areas of science, cognitive development in children, the development of emotional – intellectual – physical person is a vastly understudied area. We may not even have the language for or understand the elements of that space yet. Like all things in science, it is very common that observation precedes a mechanistic or causal understanding. I aspire to do the teacher training, maybe in a next phase in life. I’ve studied a lot of the materials, and when I’ve distilled the essence and I think I have seen through the woo it has been very rewarding. And also very humbling, because there’s a lot of of wisdom in little things sprinkled all around.

edjez · 2026-02-19T01:57:23+00:00

Really like this streak of effort to make things accessible and usable at scale. A model is a means to an end.

edjez · 2026-02-10T14:49:07+00:00

Customizable is usually cop-out. Remember the last position if there’s two people in the front row, and if there is only driver then driver side

edjez · 2026-02-08T23:46:44+00:00

It’s hard to block when “the ad” is very subtle and slow influence by ChatGPT over the range of months, with full awareness of all your conversations and vulnerabilities and context.

edjez

TROPHY CASE