2017 on Alan Blount | AI/ML Engineer at Google

2017 09 06 How To Learn

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

+++ description = “How To Learn — Arthur Knowledge” title = “How to Learn — Meta” categories = [""] tags = [“learning”, “meta”, “engaged”, “Arthur”] +++ My buddy Arthur recently shared this with me, his synthesis of research he’s been doing on how to be a more effective learner. Stay engaged Choose to find the information useful Be invested in tackling difficult problems Try to anticipate what’s next Identify big idea Use them as anchor to connect details Periodically summarize what you’ve heard Keep conclusions tentative Evaluate evidence, don’t accept it at face value Ask followup questions Don’t get derailed Concentrate on the message, not the messenger Don’t get thrown off by emotionally charged language Don’t stop listening when you disagree Humanize the presenter, get to know them Adjust note taking to the presenter’s patterns Seriously - how great is that?

Playing with Elixir is just FUN

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been using Elixir for a few weeks now, sometimes forcing it to play nice with Mongodb/Meteor , which it doesn’t really want to do. Sometimes with Posgres (which it loves). Sometimes just plain ole’ Elixir with no persistance.

It is realllllly fun!

Meteor and Elixir (part one) A Rocky Courtship

Fri, 23 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I have been watching Elixir for almost 2 years now, and debating if it’s mature enough for me to invest in.

Obviously Erlang is super-mature, and Elixir is quite stable, but it’s a question of “is the community mature enough yet?”

Since I’m now writing this, I believe it is “ready”, and I’m beginning a journey to build out some services in Elixir to stand up next to existing node services (meteorjs) and slow move funcitonality over to to Elixir.

Chapter One: Proof of Concept, Mongo is supposed to be Simple.

2017 06 14 Pdfjs Ui Simple Proof Of Concept

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

+++ draft = true author = "" categories = [] date = “2017-06-23T13:27:38-04:00” description = "" featured = "" featuredalt = "" featuredpath = "" linktitle = "" title = “2017 06 14 pdfjs ui simple proof of concept” +++

Meteor 1.5 ~ Bundle Optimization + Examples

Wed, 31 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I have been playing with Meteor 1.5 and it’s dynamic imports, which can be used to reduce the amount of javascript code sent to the browser.

This article is a deep dive into how to profile and optimize your client side code to make smarter use of the new dynamic imports…

Which will make meteor load faster for your users.

2017 05 29 Memorial Day Homework

Mon, 29 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

+++ date = “2017-05-29T18:28:04-04:00” description = “project time, memorial day, and website hugoized” tags = [“homework”, “kids”,“code”] title = “2017 memorial day homework” +++ I have made the formal household declaration that all screen time will be matched, hour-for-hour with project time. Yesterday we cleaned the 1st floor, mopped and everything. Today we went grocery shopping, made lunch, and then started on homework time. To say that I am unpopular here, would be an understatement.

2017 01 01 Nerd Goals

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

+++ author = “alan” categories = [“nerd”, “elixir”, “machine learning”, “advocacy”] date = “2017-01-01T23:37:35-04:00” description = “My goals as a nerd, in 2017” featured = "" featuredalt = "" featuredpath = "" linktitle = "" title = “2017 nerd goals” +++ Personal Nerd Goals publish - rejuvinate a history of developer advocacy learn elixir - build a couple of projects from a couple of angles learn machine learning basics

2017 05 39 Why Wait To Adopt Hugo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

+++ author = “alan” tags = [“nerd”, “wordpress”, “hugo”, “static site”, “go”] date = “2017-05-29T23:39:00-04:00” description = “Static Site Generation with Hugo - it is so freakin easy!” featured = "" featuredalt = "" featuredpath = "" linktitle = "" title = “Why wait? Adopt hugo for Static Site Generation” +++ Why… oh why… why did I wait so long? I’ve been talking about switching to a static site generator for years, since jekyllrb started gaining popularity.