Writing code is cheap now - Agentic Engineering Patterns. Some good points by Simon:

Coding agent tools can help with most of this, but there is still a substantial burden on the developer driving those tools to ensure that the produced code is good code for the subset of good that's needed for the current project.

We need to build new habits #

The challenge is to develop new personal and organizational habits that respond to the affordances and opportunities of agentic engineering.

These best practices are still being figured out across our industry. I'm still figuring them out myself.

I always wanted a simple way to run some code examples in my blog posts and see output in the browser - like jupyter / marimo / observable notebooks.

I had the right idea - use Astro and Svelte to have a simple coderunner component - and Claude Code magicked it into being.

Weekend experiments with AI agentic coding using opencode.ai and Zed.

Why opencode when Claude Code is the current talk of the town? Code uses up credits fast, and I don't have a claude subscription, and opencode is opensource and looks promising. There is also goose which looks promising.

This is clever - Mastra has launched a how to build agents course as a MCP. Notes on the course.

Instal an MCP capable ide - I went with Cursor: brew install --cask cursor and then the Mastra MCP: npx create-mastra@latest --default -m cursor

Karpathy has a video explainer on LLMs for a general audience. I can't think of a better and more accessible introduction to LLMs. Its helpful to know what are embeddings beforehand to better understand LLMs.

Wow. I picked this up sight unseen from a recommendation on reddit. Great holiday read, and different. The aliens are refreshingly different and the middle half of the book is quite a ride.

4 stars as there are two strong whiffs of deus ex machina in the plot, which I'll leave for the reader.

This is a tricky recipe - sometimes it turns out awesome, other times no one wants to eat it.

• Brussels sprouts
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp curry leaves
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1-2 chillis, chopped
• 50g dessicated coconut
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 lemon (juiced)

uv looks like a very promising new python package manager. Its fast, does global python tool installs, and has sensible defaults.

The only downside against conda is that uv only installs python tools, while conda can install other apps and tools.

This khichri recipe is modified for backpacking, at home this would include a bhaagar and a few different steps. Normally you would have a seperate pot for rinsing and soaking, and another one for frying, but here we have just the one larger pot and one smaller frypan.

• 3/4 cup mixed dhal - a even mix of mung and masoor
• 3/4 cup basmati rice
• 1 tomatoes chopped
• 1 onion, diced
• 1-2 garlic
• a tiny bit of ginger
• 1 fresh chillis chopped (optional)
• 1/2 coriander, chopped

python-dotenv makes it easy to read in secrets from env or a .env file in the project folder.

from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()  # take environment variables

Number format: 0,"k"

• benlcollins.com - weekly google sheets tips

The Joe Walker podcast has a great interview with Katalin Karikó, one of the scientists/founders behind mRNA technology.

Some standouts in the coversation - the path from communist Hungary to US, not getting grant funding over and over again, a great explanation of mRNA, women in science... lots more.

A slow start which turns into a great book on race in Australia, and what it means to belong.

I don't like butter chicken, or the many spices or sugar which goes into it. So this is basically a karhai recipe with a bit of added ghee and cream.

1. Seitan based fake chicken, 250 grams
2. 3 tomatoes diced
3. 2 chillis cut into semi-large pieces (4 green or 2 green and 2 red)
4. 2 tbsp plain yoghurt
5. 1/4 cup cream
6. coriander, chopped

tl;dr buy if a google tragic, else for almost any conceivable use any recent ipad is better.

The one thing Android gets right, and the sole reason I bought this tablet, is easy multi-user accounts. Everything else... not so much.

I first started out with scratch, which is pretty awesome and kids can create some pretty awesome (and complex!) projects very quickly. However, I noticed that it is hard to go back and read - the scratch blocks once assembled are hard for the same kid who put them together to quickly read and iterate on.

A concrete example: Deep inside a scratch game, I tried to help a kid update the code for an input method - but it involved moving so many blocks that it was a real pain. Kid coded Scratch is like lego - to tinker with code you need to almost break apart the whole thing.

Matthieu Aikins follows a brown refugee from Afghanistan through to Europe. It gives you an inside view of a refugees journey, starting from the why, to the how.

I would have preferred to read an account written by an actual migrant first hand, but they are obviously too busy with a ton of real life issues to be writing books on a very dangerous journey.

A vegetable biryani. Cooked using a round cast iron enamelled casserole.

1. 3 cups basmati rice (500-600g), add 1/2 cup if more ppl - parboiled basmati works great.
2. 400g sweet potato
3. 2 medium size beetroots (1.5 if large)
4. 5-6 tomatoes
5. Chickpea can 400g, drained and rinsed
6. 250g indian paneer, cut into cubes
7. 2 large onions, finely sliced
8. Cashews, small handful

My one and only pasta receipe.

• 6-8 Zuchinnis, sliced into half moons
• 4 tomatoes, rinsed and diced
• garlic, lots of it, 6 cloves diced, ideally fresh
• 1-2 chillis (optional)
• shallots (optional)
• Penne Pasta
• mint, chopped
• parmesan cheese, fancy as you want it to be, shredded or shaved
• salt

This is a book about climate change, all hung about on characters. Now Neal is great at learning things and telling them to you, and I've enjoyed his earlier works, info dumps and all. I like fantastical characters, like Jack, Eliza and Enoch Root in the Baroque Cycle, but this book... has a lot of ideas and interesting exposition on how a thing could practically happen, but don't read it for the ppl.

I did mostly enjoy and finish the book but I'm not even sure it is a book, really this should have been a series of long form articles with a lot of the stuff dropped out of it.

Recipe in progress in an attempt to recreate a vegan version of homestyle aloo keema.

• 350 gms vegan mince, soy/pea/wheat protein based - e.g birds eye mince
• 2 tomatoes diced into cubes (could use peas too instead)
• 1 onion sliced
• 2 green chilis, chopped
• 1 tsp garlic crushed
• 1 tsp ginger minced
• 1/2 tsp tamarind paste (optional)
• coriander, half bunch
• 2-3 medium potatoes, cubed medium small
• 1 tsp zeera (cumin seeds)

Shamsad ki recipe, punjabi style. This is what she makes at home for her family. Its the first time I ever had this dish in Pakistan.

• 2-3 eggs
• 3 small potatoes, diced into biggish pieces
• 1 tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 green chillis
• coriander, chopped

Recipe from Lahore. Smokey yummy goodness.

• 1kg eggplants
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 onions
• 2 green chilli
• 2-3 tbsp desi yoghurt
• 1 lemon
• coriander, chopped

Recipe from Lahore.

• 5-6 tomatoes
• 3 onions
• coriander
• 1 kg bhaigan (eggplants)

A good, easy to read book on how the British exited their Indian empire and left behind a fractured subcontinent.

There are a lot of words on the end of the British empire in India, but many of them suffer from lack of access or a bias towards some of the actors in the bloody saga.

The rise and fall of Arif Naqvi is fascinating, but I found this book a bit wanting.

First, the story itself:

CSS makes sense, I mean, who doesn't want to seperate styling from code? Semantic html has been the web's dream for a long time, but over time as web browsers became operating systems css has grown into a hugely complex kludge of a tool.

🏇 This is where tailwindcss rode to the rescue, by doing the rocket science css behind the scenes and presenting a toolbox full of utilities to use directly in html. The beauty of tailwind, which took me a while to figure out, is that everything beautifully works together and scales with size in a way which is very hard to do directly in css without having to work through browser quirks and conflicting css styles.

https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/walking-tracks/hermitage-foreshore-track

A lovely 5k hike. Good chunks of it feel like you are really out in the bush, and as a bonus there are 3-4 small beaches to swim at.

The basic aloo sabzi. If made right, its awesome. This is the staple breakfast/lunch/camping/everything Pakistani dish.

• 4-6 potatoes
• 2-3 tomatoes chopped
• 1-2 tsp cumin seeds
• coriander, chopped
• optional: two fresh chillis

A very tasty salad, suitable for a side dish or an easy lunch.

• 200-250 grams baby tomatoes, rinsed and halved
• 250 grams mung beans sprouts (rinse)
• 1 cucumber, deseeded and sliced
• 8-10 spring onions, top and tailed and sliced
• coriander, finely chopped
• 2 cm ginger, peeled and tiny diced
• radishes (a bunch or 8ish), finely sliced

It's a awesome political, economical and yes, climate overview of the planet and where its headed. Too much of future looking literature really holds its tongue. This is a no holds barred overview.

A book extract:

The book to read to get a handle of where Australia is today, and how politics works at the state and federal level.

Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud is a no-holds-barred memoir and manifesto from outspoken senator, trouble¬maker and multicultural icon Mehreen Faruqi. As the first Muslim woman in any Australian parliament, Mehreen has a unique and crucial perspective on our politics and democracy. It is a tale of a political outsider fighting for her right and the rights of others like her to be let inside on their terms.

Notes on a lilygo eink board, which didn't get very far, but interesting nonetheless.

Some takeways: a small eink board isn't that useful, no wonder supermarkets are using them for pricing tags. For home use, its better to go big, something like the pimoroni eink display which have built in micropython drivers.

I've been wanting to try out a IOT board to do something for a while, and somebody lent me a mystery ESP8266 based board.

So, this is a log of my journey from never using an IOT device to making it blink lights or something.

Exercise

Many ways to get fit. This is mine.

There are many excellent blog engines out there, but to customise any of them takes so much understanding of how they work, the template and theme engines they use, that its easier to just use them exactly as is with an existing theme.

I wanted my own custom static blog, which played well with jupyter notebooks and markdown files, as well as a reason to do some python coding, so here goes yet another python blogging engine.

Windows 10 gets slow and crufty over time. So once every few years, its good to start afresh.

Reset by:

So many ideas. It's my favourite first contact book. While some of the ideas might be over the top, they keep coming. Whats really impressive is that this is just book 1 of a trilogy and the ideas keep going.

This is a seminal work in science fiction, the kind which only comes once a decade (if so). I still think about the ideas and philosophies in the book

cucumber + mint raita

• 1-2 tsp cumin seeds
• pinch of chilli powder
• 1 big cucumber or 2 smallish
• 1-2 cup indian yoghurt (or more, whatever fits in your bowl)
• half a bunch worth of fresh mint leaves, chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 chilli, chopped (optional, cause a good raita isn't too spicy, the food is.)
• Optional: a bit of fresh coriander, chopped

Recipe from Lahore. Needs some more tips from the original cook.

• 1 cup urud dhal (split black mung beans) - mash ki dhal
• 2 tomatoes diced
• 1 onion sliced and cut a bit more
• 1-2 green chilis, chopped
• 1/2-1 tsp garlic crushed
• 1/2-1 tsp ginger minced
• 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
• coriander, half bunch
• fresh ginger, cut into strips

aka spicy chickpeas with a ton of ginger.

• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• Salt 1 tsp

A faster daal recipe. 30 min, good for 3 ppl, 4 with a small side dish.

• 200 grams mung beans sprouts (rinse)
• 400 grams sprouted lentils (rinse)
• 2-3 tomatoes, diced.
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 2 tsp garlic paste (not heaped)
• 3-4 chilli, chopped
• 1.5 lemons, squeeze the juice
• coriander, chopped

Makes kebabs for frying or grilling. Goes well in burgers.

• 1 can chickpeas, drained, well-rinsed and mashed
• 1 can black beans, drained, well-rinsed and mashed
• 1 red onion, finely diced
• 1 zucchini, grated (around 1-1.5 cups grated)
• 1 beetroot, grated
• 2-3 brussel sprouts, finely chopped (optional)
• 1 bunch finely chopped coriander
• 2 spicy chillis finely chopped
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp sriracha sauce
• 2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp garlic (crushed from bottle)
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt (or 1/2 for salt haters)
• 1 cup quick oats or rolled oats
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

My collection of tips and tricks for using jupyter lab.

Jupyterlab is already installed with Anaconda, but if using miniconda install it by:

Omelette, Pakistani style. If made properly, this is the best omelette.

• 2 organic eggs
• tomato diced
• coriander, diced
• onion, diced
• chilli, diced

Home made recipe from FDT. This is a basic desi karhai receipe which can be used as the base for anything.

1. 5 largish tomatoes
2. big piece of ginger - cut into long strips
3. 4 chillis cut into semi-large pieces (4 green or 2 green and 2 red)
4. plain yoghurt
5. coriander, heaps of it (chopped)
6. optional: paneer or tofu or vegetables (cooked separately and added at the end)
7. optional: boil eggs, slice in half and add towards the end

This is a great statistics primer - Alex Reinhart explains commonly used statistical techniques in use by not just showing how ppl make mistakes, but by explaining them in simple english which actually makes sense, unlike most "real" statistics books.

todo: write as a jupyter notebook showing some of the lessons learned?

ChromeOS supports a built in Linux - running inside a container running insde a VM. Turn it on by going to settings and pressing the on button for Linux (beta). This gives us a bare bones Linux install running Debian 11. So here goes all the things I did to customize it.

Most of these tips are from the reddit crostini wiki, I've put all the ones I'm using in one page for a handy reference.

Andrew Trask is an AI superstar, having come up with the idea for Generative Adverserial Networks (GANS) - one of the most exicting new AI techniques today - in a bar.

In this book he comes down to earth and explains neural networks from scratch to mere mortals. The book is still being written, but whats there so far is a really good easy to understand introduction to neural networks.

This is a awesome read. In many countries, many people have long stopped wondering or caring about how their country actually functions, and this book takes us through a bunch of really useful government functions, from providing food and shelter to the needy to... just about everything you can imagine.

Than along comes a man (Trump) and his political appointee who could care less about reality and are busy throwing spanners in the very system that runs America - the many agencies which DO ALL THE THINGS.

It had been a while since I finished Udacity's Deep Learning course, so as a refresher I signed up for Andrew NG's deeplearning.ai course.

These are my notes for the first course in the series: Neural Networks and Deep Learning.

This was one of Udacity's first computer science MOOC's, and I really liked it. Its a great fast intro to computer science concepts and python.

In particular, I liked that the class both had a cameo by Google's founder and the final project was to build a simple version of Google's original search engine using the pagerank algorithim.

Oh goody, yet another book written through colonial tinted glasses.

It's a well written, easy reading book so I can see why it's so popular, and if it was labeled fictional, I'd give it four stars, for fictional it is, speaking of a world where the British Raj and it's leaders brought civilization to the masses, but the masses turned the wise Brits away even though they were led by that holiest of holy cows, Lord Mountbatten - and this turning away caused mass bloodshed in the process. It's almost a biblical story, and no wonder so many people still think fondly of empire, they probably read books like this one.