Caffeine and Lasers
Caffeine and Lasers
Cam
I run a poruidly niche-less blog, where I talk about Science, Culture, Economics, Beer, Coffee, Technology and whatever else I feel like.
Latest Posts
Its kind of wild that Quantum tech has gotten to the point where folks are sharing Open Source schematics for N-V Quantum Magnetomer's with a total BOM of >$250AUD. The construction seems (relatively) accessible as well. Read about it on...
It is well known that Physicists have a special relationship with beer. There is just something magical about the amber fluid. Here I want to discuss the ways in which beer and the desire to improve the brewing process furthered...
1 On the role of technical skills in fighting power I've been reading Yanis Varifakis's Technofeudalism: What killed capitalism and have been thinking about the pessimism a lot of progressives have in opposing oligarchy. Specifically,...
Rating: 🟧 Type: Non-Fiction This is a complicated one to recommend. It was a bit of a slog to read, and parts of it were quite confronting. Without going too much into my own political ideology, I don't think it would be that surprising...
So, what on Earth do I actually work on? Lets explain it at 5 different levels. 1 Primary School I use lasers to talk to astronauts Credit: NASA 2 High School We use lasers to communicate to communicate with satellites and other things...
I dont care about how it works, what do I need to do? Scroll to the bottom, and grab the code and instructions there. Embedding Mastodon Posts into your Static Web Page There are a few tools for embedding Mastodon toots into a webpage....
1 Background A while back, I wrote a quick explainer on how to set up your own RSS feed for your site. It was pretty straightforward, and showed you how to hard-code it. Then I got lazy, updating the feed.xml file every time I wrote a...
How I do My Research (As a PhD Student) It has almost become a cliche amongst a certain kind of PhD student to explain Exactly your research workflow, and why it works. Now it is my turn to add to the pile. The overall "philosophy" (If...
Rating: ⭐ Type: Fiction Cixin does not miss. This short graphic novel which I read in an hour hit me like a sledgehammer with its final panel. Teachers are amazing. Go thank your nearest teacher.
Rating: 🟩 Type: Non-Fiction I've readlly enjoyed his Youtube channel "Gary's Economis" for a while now. In that light I was slightly disappointed that the book was mostly biographic, with not a whole lot of economics. That said,...
Rating: ⭐ Type: Non-Fiction Varoufakis is a surprisingly great writer. The first chapter draws an extremely compelling extended metaphor between physics and philosphy and economics which blew me away. His core thesis is that we have...
Rating: 🟥 Type: Non-Fiction I found this to be less interesting than I hoped. Yep, if you work too hard you will burn out, and there are physiological signs. Idk, maybe some people need a book to tell them this, but I found it obvious...
Rating: ⭐ Type: Fiction Cixin Liu did that really cool thing where he managed to thread the needle between a scathing critique of capital, while also criticising a reactionary authoritarian communist attempt at redistribution
My Wireless Plant Monitor! (Prototype) I just wanted to do a quick write-up on a side project I'm working on and share photos of an early prototype. What is it: I am working on an IoT system to monitor my plants and let me know when they...
Keep Your Ego In Check (Above The Robots) In order to use LLMs effectively, you need a bigger ego than the AI. That's the secret. There's a lot of talk about the rise of "GPT slop" on the internet. People use it as evidence that AI...