Programming Throwdown Patrick Wheeler and Jason Gauci

172: Transformers and Large Language Models

Intro topic: Is WFH actually WFC?
News/Links:
Falsehoods Junior Developers Believe about Becoming Seniorhttps://vadimkravcenko.com/shorts/falsehoods-junior-developers-believe-about-becoming-senior/Pure PursuitTutorial with python code: https://wiki.purduesigbots.com/software/control-algorithms/basic-pure-pursuit Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYR7mmcwT2w PID without a PHDhttps://www.wescottdesign.com/articles/pid/pidWithoutAPhd.pdfGoogle releases Gemmahttps://blog.google/technology/developers/gemma-open-models/
Book of the Show
Patrick: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time)https://amzn.to/3uEhg6vJason: How to Make a Video Game All By Yourselfhttps://amzn.to/3UZtP7b
Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h

Tool of the Show
Patrick: Stadia Controller Wifi to Bluetooth Unlockhttps://stadia.google.com/controller/index_en_US.htmlJason: FUSE and SSHFShttps://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-sshfs-to-mount-remote-file-systems-over-ssh
Topic: Transformers and Large Language Models
How neural networks store informationLatent variablesTransformersEncoders & DecodersAttention LayersHistoryRNNVanishing Gradient ProblemLSTMShort term (gradient explodes), Long term (gradient vanishes)Differentiable algebraKey-Query-ValueSelf AttentionSelf-Supervised Learning & Forward ModelsHuman FeedbackReinforcement Learning from Human FeedbackDirect Policy Optimization (Pairwise Ranking)



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Intro topic: Monitor setups
News/Links:
BlueScuti, Willis, beats Tetrishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJ5UuknsHUPalWorld accused of being an AI Producthttps://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/01/22/palworld-accused-of-using-genai-with-no-evidence-so-far/?sh=26a9651b42394 Billion if-statements to determine if a number is even or oddhttps://andreasjhkarlsson.github.io/jekyll/update/2023/12/27/4-billion-if-statements.htmlSeamless M4Thttps://ai.meta.com/blog/seamless-m4t/
Book of the Show
Patrick:Foundation by Isaac Asimovhttps://amzn.to/3SrmgnPJason: Propaganda by Edward Bernayshttps://amzn.to/47JUCXJ
Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h

Tool of the Show
Patrick: The Room Gamehttps://www.fireproofgames.com/games/the-roomJason:Incredibuildhttps://www.incredibuild.com/
Topic: Compilers and Interpreters (Request by Jessica W.)
Machine CodeArchitecture SpecificAssemblySingle vs Two Pass CompilerHigh level LanguagesIntermediate RepresentationJVM ByteCode vs Machine Code for portabilityScripting/InterpretersJITProfile Guided OptimizationResourceshttps://www.craftinginterpreters.com/https://nandgame.com/Turing Complete


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Predictions:Jason 
VR for WorkLowering AI training cost/ improved efficiencyRISC-V takeoff
Patrick
Ai claim of AGIAi peer reviewerAi Video GeneratorMore space vehicles reaching orbit
Early career, finding role at FAANG, liaising vs shipping code. Startup?
3 part. 1. How and when current hype for AI will end? 2. Shape of the show 3. Upcoming in tech
What are essential programmer knowledge items?
CS Student, how to organize life and goals? What purpose life should serve?
What kind of programmer were you in college?
Happy Holidays!


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Intro topic: Testing your car battery
News/Links:
Tech Layoffs still going onhttps://www.sfchronicle.com/tech/article/google-layoffs-california-companies-18465600.php Real-time dreamy Cloudscapes with Volumetric Raymarchinghttps://blog.maximeheckel.com/posts/real-time-cloudscapes-with-volumetric-raymarching/Robot Rascalshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Rascals Meta Quest 3 https://www.theverge.com/23906313/meta-quest-3-review-vr-mixed-reality-headsetBook of the Show
Patrick:HyperLogLog Paperhttps://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/40671.pdf Jason: Eureka! NVIDIA Research Breakthrough Puts New Spin on Robot Learning https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2023/10/20/eureka-robotics-research/ Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h

Tool of the Show
Patrick: Techtonica: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457320/Techtonica/ Jason:ESP32 development board: https://amzn.to/3Qpmb20 WEMOS

Topic: HyperLogLog
MotivationCardinality CountingLinearCountingHash + expectation of collision based on how fullBloom FilterLogLogUse first N bits as bucketUse max sequential 0s in each bucketAverageHyperLogLogHandle empty bucketsUse correction factor like linear counting for low counts (number of empty buckets) and high countsDistributing
Transfer bucket counts


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Intro topic: What are expectations on developers that have nothing to do with programming
News/Links:
Pushing for a lower dev estimate is like negotiating weather with a Meteorologisthttps://smartguess.is/blog/your-estimate-is-less-than-that/Announcing python in excelhttps://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/announcing-python-in-excel-combining-the-power-of-python-and-the/ba-p/38934397 Habits of Highly Effective Software Engineershttps://makingsmallercircles.com/articles/7-habits-of-highly-effective-software-engineers/Raspberry pi 5 begins shippinghttps://www.phoronix.com/news/Raspberry-Pi-5-ShippingBook of the Show
Patrick:Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Illustrated Editionhttps://amzn.to/3St3L35Jason: The Pete and Sebastian Showhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pete-and-sebastian-show/id570256898Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h

Tool of the Show
Patrick: Obsidianobsidian.mdJason:Ink by Inklehttps://github.com/inkle/ink
Topic: Godot
What is a game engine?Graphics, animation, particle effectsTilemapsEntity component systemsPhysicsSoundI/OInput handling (touchscreen, joystick)GDScriptWhy use a game engine?PortabilityAllow for testing individual components of the gameLibraries for ads, in-app-purchasesGodotOpen sourceFocused on 2-D but now many 3-D featuresGreat development environmentAI HeroStarted in phaser (development rut)Moved to Godot, rapid prototyping


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Intro topic: Jogging Metrics
News/Links:
Unholy LLMhttps://huggingface.co/Undi95/Unholy-v1-12L-13B The reverse red herring  https://www.blameless.com/blog/the-reverse-red-herringThe "ens–tification" of TikTokhttps://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/ Response letter to Godot is not the new Unityhttps://sampruden.github.io/posts/godot-is-not-the-new-unity/https://gist.github.com/reduz/cb05fe96079e46785f08a79ec3b0ef21Book of the Show
Patrick:Math Games with Bad Drawings by Ben Orlinhttps://amzn.to/48qlg9AJason: The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirateshttps://amzn.to/3LChBffPatreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h

Tool of the Show
Patrick: Factorio (Desktop Game)Jason:AI Hero (iOS and Android)

Topic: Desktop user interfaces
What is a user interface?Web and Mobile UI toolkitsDesktop optionsQtCross platform, custom UI elementsQt creator, code generatorWxWidgetsCross platform, uses native UI elements WxFormDesigner, code generationCan look different on different operating systemsElectronLocal nodejs webserverHtml/JavaScript technologyRequires interprocess communication to use other languages  Jupyter notebooksMathematica-like notebook Not for distribution StreamlitPython to web compilerGame EnginesUnity, Godot, UnrealTips for building desktop UIUI is slow (startup time, interaction time)Separate the UI from the engine & business logic


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