Hey all!

      First of all, sorry for the delay in publishing Oct's episode.  There are some pretty intense wildfires close to where we live, but it looks like things are getting under control.  Huge thanks to all the firefighters!

      In this episode Patrick and I talk about teaching kids to code!  We discuss how we learned to code and what are ways to build logic and reasoning skills in kids of all ages.  Also we talk about ways to get kids excited about the fundamentals behind coding and solving problems.  Check out the show notes here: https://www.programmingthrowdown.com/2018/11/episode-83-teaching-kids-to-code.html

      Do you have any good resources for teaching coding to kids?  Let us know in the comments and we'll mention it in the next episode!

      Also this is the last chance to become a Patreon subscriber if you want to be entered in this year's annual give-a-away episode which will happen sometime in Dec!  Last year we had a lot of trouble mailing the tokens to everyone, but our gears are turning around gift ideas for this year.  Either way, a few lucky patrons will get free t-shirts!  Become a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown

      Happy Hacking!

Teaching Kids to Code

Programming Throwdown educates Computer Scientists and Software Engineers on a cavalcade of programming and tech topics. Every show will cover a new programming language, so listeners will be able to speak intelligently about any programming language.

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How To

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 ShowPatrick: 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 ShowPatrick: 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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172: Transformers and Large Language Models

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 ShowPatrick: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 ShowPatrick: 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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171: Compilers and Interpreters

Predictions:
Jason VR for WorkLowering AI training cost/ improved efficiencyRISC-V takeoff
 PatrickAi claim of AGIAi peer reviewerAi Video GeneratorMore space vehicles reaching orbitEarly 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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170: 2023 Holiday Special Live

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-headset

Book of the ShowPatrick: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 ShowPatrick: 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 countsDistributingTransfer bucket counts

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169: HyperLogLog

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-Shipping

Book of the ShowPatrick: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 ShowPatrick: 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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Teaching Kids to Code

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