Slow Learner's Quest

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Vibe-coding the MIT Course Catalogue

  1. Go to the MIT Course Picker website
  2. Copy this code into the console.
[...document.querySelectorAll(".course-name")]
.map((e) => e.closest(".course-lens"))
.map((d) => ({
  title: d.querySelector(".course-name")?.textContent,
  description: d.querySelector(".course-description")?.textContent,
  semester: d.querySelector(".course-semester")?.textContent,
  prereq: d.querySelector(`[data-ex-content=".prereqs"]`)?.textContent,
  instructor: d.querySelector(".course-instructor")?.textContent,
  units: d.querySelector(`[data-ex-content=".units"]`)?.textContent,
  level: d.querySelector(`[data-ex-content=".level"]`)?.textContent,
}));

You don’t need a complex scraper. Query selection will always get the job done.

link #vibe coding #scraping

Many people don’t know that the terms right wing and left wing refer to the sides of parliament during the French revolution. The right wing supported the monarchy. The core principle of conservatism is hierarchy. They believe some people are better than others. They fundamentally can’t believe in democracy and so always work to elevate a few over others. Kings, dictators, autocrats, theocrats, racists, fascists, all work on the same vertical thinking. A long as they aren’t at the bottom of the social hierarchy, they are happy and work to keep everyone else in their place. Women and minorities at the bottom, the wealthy and powerful at the top.

quote #politics

Your Doctor’s Screen Time Is Hobbling Health Care

localghost3000:

I worked in health care tech for about 5 years. AI driven before it was cool. Took processes that normally took years down to a couple hours. Cutting edge stuff.

What struck me over the years was the open hostility we faced from the staff. The admins would buy our product, then have us come do trainings. The clinicians seemed to resent every second of it and would just never use the tool.

Towards the end of my tenure there, a PM said to me “the last thing these people want is to have to learn yet another workflow”. Which is when the penny dropped for me that our tool was just one of a bazillion being force fed to these poor people. They want to spend their time with patients not a screen.

Despite it being the most mission driven I have ever felt about a product (we were literally trying to help cure cancer lol). I’ll never work in health care again. Like education, it’s a quagmire.

quote #digital healthcare #ai

Hopeful-Extent-693:

Once you allow yourself to “see it” dentistry is not difficult. Divid it up in three groups, two are infection, decay and gum disease and the third is mechanical, i.e. the bite. Examine for decay, is it through the enamel, is it large, small, how would you have it fixed in your own mouth. Second infection is gum disease, is it gingivitis, periodontitis, ALWAYS start with a cleaning or SRP. Don’t make it so hard on yourself!!!

quote #treatment planning #dentistry

Ollama launches a new front-end app

I’ve just tried it now. It’s nice to be able to manage chats now. I asked llama3.2:3b to write a 2048 clone. I miss the Claude artefacts option.

I guess the llm CLI app will be phased out now.

I need to really try my own hand at making one of these. It doesn’t seem too hard.

In fact, thorum says that it’s easier than ever:

If you’re a power user of these LLMs and have coding experience, I actually recommend just whipping together your own bespoke chat UI that you can customize however you like. Grab any OpenAI compatible endpoint for inference and a frontend component framework (many of which have added standard Chat components) - the rest is almost trivial. I threw one together in a week with Gemini’s assistance and now I use it every day. Is it production ready? Hell no but it works exactly how I want it to and whenever I find myself saying “I wish it could do XYZ…” I just add it.

Looking at Bolt for a native Mac experience.

Conspiracy theories:

Sure, those are all difficult problems. Problems that single devs are dealing with every day and figuring out. Why is it so hard for Ollama?

What seems to be true is that Ollama wants to be a solution that drives the narrative and wants to choose for its users rather than with them. It uses a proprietary model library, it built itself on llama.cpp and didn’t upstream its changes, it converted the standard gguf model weights into some unusable file type that only worked with itself, etc.

Sorry but I don’t buy it. These are not intractable problems to deal with. These are excuses by former docker creators looking to destroy another ecosystem by attempting to coopt it for their own gain.

These are valid criticisms I’ve hard about Ollama. I guess I never really looked into the history behind the company.

Here’s a good rundown.

Turns out Ollama was in the W21 YC Program. This makes a bit more sense - they’re completely altruistic.

  • See also: The Hacker News Discussion to see people’s reaction. Some people believe that this will be the gateway to connecting to remote servers.
  • See also: A comment about different chat interfaces
post #ai

The important question you should be asking your 7-11 year old patients.  

The early detection of impacted canines is important to minimise future orthodontic treatment. For patients aged 7 to 11 years, all practitioners should assess the position of the unerupted permanent canines as part of the initial examination. If these teeth cannot be palpated buccally, apical to the deciduous canine, a screening OPG is recommended. The OPG can confirm the presence of these teeth as well as their position.  

The three key factors to assess regarding position are:

  • The degree of overlap of the crown of the canine over the root of the lateral incisor

  • The angulation of the canine in relation to a perpendicular line to the midline

  • The vertical height from the occlusal plane.

In most cases, if the tooth is not palpable and is overlapping the lateral root and/or has a steep angulation, early removal of the deciduous canine can assist in normalising the eruption of the permanent canine. Space maintenance is not required for this in the upper arch. This approach also applies to the lower arch; however, space maintenance is required in the lower arch.

quote #dentistry #orthodontics

Dr James Yacyshyn:

Ultimately, everybody in this conversation agreed that there was value in learning and mastering foundational knowledge. Foundational knowledge was not viewed as just a preliminary step, but viewed as a cornerstone of professional growth and development. However, how we defended this point varied.

link #dentistry #ai

Using AI Essay Grading Systems to Improve Writing

AI essay scoring systems are only seen in the context of school, and hence have negative connotations. But they can also be used to improve personal writing, which is actually a useful tool instead.

AI is useful if it is used as an accelerator, and not a replacement, for thinking. Very useful to bounce ideas, rapidly prototype and test hypotheses.

In this framing, I encourage AI usage.

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200 days of Duolingo

As promised in the 100 days update, I am here to celebrate my 200th day streak.

This milestone reflects a change in my Dutch learning journey. I had the opportunity to meet someone who was Dutch, and they discouraged me from continuing to learn. They explained that the Netherlands is too boring and small of a country - arguing that Melbourne is a more exciting city than Amsterdam.. They also said that Dutch has too many quirks and idiosyncrasies, which may deter foreigners. As a result, I decided against studying the language too intensely, and rather focus on my other career pathways. Nevertheless, I was determined to complete a full year streak before moving on from the app.

In regards to the app itself, the criticisms from the previous post remain the same. In the last 3 months, they have not been addressed at all: ads still fail to load intermittently; and the text-to-speech is still buggy. Unfortunately, I would even dare to say that the app has gotten worse since.

I appreciate that the company is constantly looking to improve its app. At the time of writing this post, the current interface has Duo hovering over the most current lesson. I think that this is visually confusing, because it obscures the actual user progress. Additionally, the tooltip hovering over Duo is broken, as part of the tooltip text is obscured. Finally, upon completing a lesson, there is a loading bar animation on the statistics screen before moving on. Though I’m sure there are technical justifications for slowing down the app, it is frustrating from an end user’s perspective.

Despite the criticisms, I still quite enjoy the Duolingo interface. My honest opinions stem from a place of care. I understand that the app is a labour of love from the Duolingo team, and I wish them all the success. In fact, I’m actually thinking of learning a new language once I have finished the Dutch module, so I may continue this update beyond the 300th, 36th and even 400th day mark.

post

Inner Sanctum of the Mind

I have an aversion to sadness.

My body and I have grown to treat it like a virus. Apparently, homeostasis is happiness. And like any other invasion, we want to activate the immune system, and expel melancholy out as soon as possible.

But I am starting to understand that my sadness is chronic. So how can I excise something that has seeped into every pore, bundled with every fibre of my being?

My brain has come up with an amazing solution: Sometimes you have to kill the host to kill the parasite. This explains why I have fantasies of dying. Jumping off buildings. Drowning in a river. Being hit by a car. Overdose. Maybe, if I’m really desperate, I’ll slit my wrists.

Now that I understand my mind is a civil war, can we attempt a truce? Can sadness and I achieve symbiosis? Or will there be the occasional saber rattling; backstabbing coups; and cowardly retreats to our respective drawn boundaries? Time, and hopefully enough medication, can only tell. Until then, I will always pick MAD.

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