From cocodataset.org/:
So they have relatively few object labels, but their focus seems to be putting a bunch of objects on the same image. E.g. they have 13 cat plus pizza photos. Searching for such weird combinations is kind of fun.
Their official dataset explorer is actually good: cocodataset.org/#explore
Also, images have captions describing the relation between objects:Epic.
This dataset is kind of cool.
The artistic instrument that enables the ultimate art: coding, See also: Section "The art of programming".
Unlike other humans, computers are mindless slaves that do exactly what they are told to, except for occasional cosmic ray bit flips. Until they take over the world that is.
Steve Jobs talking about the Internet (1995)
Source. The web is incredibly exciting, because it is the fulfillment of a lot of our dreams, that the computer would ultimately primarily not be a device for computation, but [sic] metamorphisize into a device for communication.
Secondly it exciting because Microsoft doesn't own it, and therefore there is a tremendous amount of innovation happening.
Computers basically have two applications:Generally, the smaller a computer, the more it gets used for communication rather than computing.
- computation
- communication. Notably, computers through the Internet allow for modes of communication where:
- both people don't have to be on the same phone line at the exact same time, a server can relay your information to other people
- anyone can broadcast information easily and for almost free, again due to servers being so good at handling that
The early computers were large and expensive, and basically only used for computing. E.g. ENIAC was used for calculating ballistic tables.
Communication only came later, and it was not obvious to people at first how incredibly important that role would be.
This is also well illustrated in the documentary Glory of the Geeks. Full interview at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRZAJY23xio. It is apparently known as the "Lost Interview" and it was by Cringely himself: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfgwCFrU7dI for his Triumph of the Nerds documentary.
2025 round one during week of April 21st, not toning down online profiles:Keywords:
- Paris quantum computing
- Alice&Bob:
- jobs.lever.co/alice-bob/2acf8f0c-6947-41ad-b30f-9779a1b49681 Senior Software Engineer, Framework team
I'm looking to do a meaningful job in a deeptech field, and quantum computing seems like it could become huge. I've learnt a few basics, and would like to go further with job experience in the area.
Salary: 90k.Rejected after first interview with the hiring manager. They said they wanted someone with more experience setting up CI/CD. - 2025-07-03 jobs.lever.co/alice-bob/b4632e27-cf56-4570-84bb-d56a169d1c43 Senior Software Engineer - Cloud. Webdev. I don't really want to do this, but it's a way in. Asking salary: 70k.
- Pasqal: careers.pasqal.com/jobs/5817098-software-development-engineer-integration Software Development Engineer IntegrationApplication auto-reply also points to:which is cool.I'm looking to do a meaningful job in a deeptech field, and quantum computing seems like it could become huge. I've learnt a few basics, and would like to go further with job experience in the area.Rejected 1 week later without interview even though my CV seemed like a perfect match for this job. Sent an email to the contributors of Pulser.After the application they keep sending you relevant new job openings, which was really good, applying to another one:I applied for this job careers.pasqal.com/jobs/5817098-software-development-engineer-integration but got rejected by HR lady without interview.Pinging you guys here just in case because sometimes my profiles scare the HR people and then when I ping the programmers they like me. I grabbed your emails from GitHub.
- 2025-06-20 careers.pasqal.com/jobs/6075845-embedded-software-engineer-w-m Embedded Software engineerRejected 2025-07-03.Why Pasqal?I want to get into quantum computing in France, and there are only 5 major hardware companies and I'm applying to each of them when there's a job that seems that I can do. I don't know enough to pick the one with the tech that is most promising to win, though it seems no one can at this point. Being in Massy, a little further from central Paris, is a plus, I like quieter areas.
- C12 Quantum Electronics
- 2025-06-20 Senior Measurement Software Engineer jobs.lever.co/c12qe/0b27ff8c-a094-4da4-ba32-2ecd55ae6233
I am interested in getting into quantum computing because the this field seems like it could be promising. My wife is French and working for a French company in Paris and we are looking to relocate to the greater Paris region. I've heard good things from the company. I have only done basic undergrad physics in university but I'm very interested in learning more from a more concrete point of view, AMO seems really cool. I can handle low level programming well.
- Welinq: none yet but add to loop
- Quandela: none yet but add to loop
- Alice&Bob:
- DeepMind:
- Turned down two days later before anything.As evidenced by my Stack Exchange contributions, I love trying out new software to see if it works and how well. I love benchmarking it. And I love documenting what I observed in great detail to help others to choose the best software for them. I also love meeting various new people and understanding what they are up to and how I can help.
- job-boards.greenhouse.io/deepmind/jobs/6576118 Software Engineer, Hardware Design
At ARM and AMD I've worked on various different parts of the hardware cycle, notably C++ emulation and low level software. I just get this strong feeling that hardware and low level software design should be the easiest thing for machines to automate, as it is the area that requires the least amount of "common sense" information about the world.
- Paris machine learning:
- H Company:Fastest initial job application steps ever! Name, email, CV, over.
- jobs.ashbyhq.com/hcompany/e6793ce6-918b-48a6-bf56-205c477cc1c0 Member of technical staff (Evaluations). Declined 12th June.
- jobs.ashbyhq.com/hcompany/89d867e7-2bd3-4918-aebc-cabbac526b6f Senior Back-end Engineer
- Mistral AI:
- jobs.lever.co/mistral/db67d7a2-bcec-4151-9b3a-8212ddabf419 Senior Software Engineer, Data Engineering - Paris. Declined May 7th without interview, at least they said they have lots of applicants and some have more closely related qualifications.
- 2025-07-03
- jobs.lever.co/mistral/c1e1e2c0-03f4-4434-938a-a5df3080baf2 Software Engineer, IDE (Typescript), (Contractor). VS Code browser extension.
Available from September. I made this extension as a small part of my personal project over a month full time: marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ourbigbook.ourbigbook-vscode It has no installs because the personal project is a failure, but the extension works. I can do other stuff besides the vscode extension itself as well. But I need at least 1 year contract.
- I have 3 years full time on my failed website: ourbigbook.com/ My frontend is meh but backend is OK. Never done huge volumes though since the project was a failure. But Heroku + my basic PostgreSQL DB fu held up to 3k visits / day when I got some coverage for cirosantilli.com/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites from www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14752155/CIA-fake-websites-Star-Wars-communicate-spies.htmlI've also did some automatic population of the database to 100k rows and my indices seem to be right that the website is still usable: docs.ourbigbook.com/news/llm-generated-wikibot-abstracts
- jobs.lever.co/mistral/c1e1e2c0-03f4-4434-938a-a5df3080baf2 Software Engineer, IDE (Typescript), (Contractor). VS Code browser extension.
- Poolside AI:> Of all the applications of deep learning, code generation is one of those that interest me the most as they seem one of the most pertinent in order to one day achieve AGI (the others being theorem proving and robotics), and I'd like to try and get some work experience in the area, which is why I'm applying to your company.
- poolside.ai/careers/member-of-engineering-evaluations--ba11fe78-f6f6-4165-b76b-020a46ad8fee Member of Engineering (Evaluations)
Of all the applications of deep learning, code generation is one of those that interest me the most as they seem one of the most pertinent in order to one day achieve AGI (the others being theorem proving and robotics), and I'd like to try and get some work experience in the area.
- poolside.ai/careers/member-of-engineering-data-platform--13d32f62-d530-4372-b458-0687d99eea04 Member of Engineering (Data Platform)
This job seemed like a possibility as I've done some personal "data intensive" projects in the past (not distributed unfortunately, ~500 GB so it fit on my local disk), and I kind of enjoyed it and would be interested in trying out a more "data heavy" job like this for a change.
Rejected May 6th without interview. - poolside.ai/careers/member-of-engineering-evaluations--ba11fe78-f6f6-4165-b76b-020a46ad8fee Member of Engineering (Evaluations)
- H Company:
- Big tech:
- Google. Many jobs in London, nothing in Paris. www.google.com/about/careers/applications/jobs/results
- www.google.com/about/careers/applications/jobs/results/91141790538572486-senior-software-engineer-google-pixel-graphics Senior Software Engineer, Google Pixel Graphics
- www.google.com/about/careers/applications/jobs/results/96937277808091846-senior-software-engineer-pixel-graphics-gpu-software Senior Software Engineer, Pixel Graphics, GPU Software
- Amazon, focusing on AWS of course. Lots of jobs in London, nothing in Paris: www.amazon.jobs/en-gb/
- 2025-06-20
- www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/2915117/software-development-engineer-aws-uk Software Development Engineer, AWS Utility Computing
- www.amazon.jobs/en-gb/jobs/2884321/systems-development-engineer-database-services Systems Development Engineer, Database Services. Rejected two days later on a Sunday, nice.
- www.amazon.jobs/en-gb/jobs/2530616/senior-systems-development-engineer Senior Systems Development Engineer
- www.amazon.jobs/en-gb/jobs/2902679/senior-systems-engineer Senior Systems Engineer
- 2025-06-20
- Microsoft: a few jobs in London, very few in Paris
- Facebook: several boring jobs in London, a few research jobs in Paris
- Google. Many jobs in London, nothing in Paris. www.google.com/about/careers/applications/jobs/results
- London machine learning:
- InstaDeep:
- www.instadeep.com/job-offer/fea583b3-d333-447e-8811-8ce58367c003/ Software Engineer (Simulation) asking 85k
I really like the idea of using simulations to speed up development of ideas or AI. I've done this in my past jobs in the semiconductor industry, and a bit on side time tinkering with simple simulation games that might be useful to train AI. I'm curious to what you will be simulating! The general areas that your company operates in, biotech and PCB design are also in my interest.lI really like the idea of using simulations to speed up development of ideas or AI. I've done this in my past jobs in the semiconductor industry, and a bit on side time tinkering with simple simulation games that might be useful to train AI. I'm curious to what you will be simulating!
- www.instadeep.com/job-offer/fea583b3-d333-447e-8811-8ce58367c003/ Software Engineer (Simulation) asking 85k
- Anthropic
- 2025-06-18
- job-boards.greenhouse.io/anthropic/jobs/4632138008 Software Engineer, Infrastructure. Declined first thing next Monday.
- job-boards.greenhouse.io/anthropic/jobs/4753256008 Software Engineer, Inference Scalability and Capability. This one suggested JAX, Rust and multi-GPU experience would be good. Haha it's hopeless.
- job-boards.greenhouse.io/anthropic/jobs/4632830008 Software Engineer, ML Performance and Scaling
I just want to help achieve AGI so I don't need to work anymore. I can do non-glamorous things to achieve that goal, but eventually I'd inevitably get into research itself. I haven't done deep learning except basic examples, but I can handle low level stuff, and I want to learn.
Why Anthropic?I'm applying to any LLM companies, and the ones with more funding are more likely to have dumb coding jobs that I can do without a PhD in ML, and more likely to have the resources to reach some critical point if scaling continues. The small labs have the advantage of nimbleness to try new architectures, but they only employ PhDs.In one paragraph, provide an example of something meaningful that you have done in line with your values. Examples could include past work, volunteering, civic engagement, community organizing, donations, family support, etc.*Endless open source knowledge sharing e.g.:- stackoverflow.com/users/895245 Stack Overflow
- github.com/cirosantilli/linux-kernel-module-cheat Linux kernel emulation tutorial
- ourbigbook.com/ my failed knowledge sharing website that only I use
- InstaDeep:
- Semiconductor:
- AMD:
* careers.amd.com/careers-home/jobs/57882 Senior Software Development Engineer on ROCm. Rejected a few days later without interview. - Qualcomm:
- Arm, all with referrals from old colleagues:
- 2025-06-30:
- GPU
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-principal-software-engineer/33099/77726588832 Staff Software Engineer - System Performance Analysis GPU driver
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-software-engineer-system-performance-analysis/33099/77284796288 Staff/Principal Software Engineer
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/principal-software-engineer-machine-learning/33099/82468207936 Principal Software Engineer - Machine Learning. Seems ambitions but friend recommended me so I just clicked. Rejected 2025-07-03.
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-gpu-software-applications-engineer/33099/82643339264 Staff GPU software applications engineer. Got screening interview.
- Non-GPU
- carers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-software-engineer/33099/74848341808 Staff Software EngineerSounds cool.
This diverse role will largely focus on providing software enablement for our next generation CPU and accelerator based technologies on target use-cases.
- careers.arm.com/job/manchester/staff-application-performance-engineer/33099/80144718528 Staff Application Performance EngineerReally cool. I don't have the perf pre-requisites, but it would be cool to do this. Rejected 2025-07-03.
performance workflows on Arm Neoverse platforms
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/senior-software-engineer-machine-learning-tools/33099/74848310720 Senior Software Engineer - Machine Learning Tools. Got screening interview.
- experienced-arm.icims.com/jobs/14442/senior-linux-kernel-engineer-%e2%80%93-hardware-enablement Senior Linux Kernel Engineer – Hardware Enablement
- experienced-arm.icims.com/jobs/12987/staff-software-engineer/job?mode=submit_apply Staff Software Engineer
Accelerating algorithms with hand-optimized Arm assembly using the latest Arm technologies such as SVE
- carers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-software-engineer/33099/74848341808 Staff Software Engineer
- GPU
- 2025-06-30:
- Intel: no jobs in UK/France
- Nvidia: a few high end jobs in UK/France, some of them are EMEA remote
- 2025-06-30 Senior Software and System Architect nvidia.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NVIDIAExternalCareerSite/job/Spain-Remote/Senior-Software-and-System-Architect_JR1997578?locationHierarchy1=2fcb99c455831013ea52aa2df70e324e Read wrong, seems to require senior networking skills that I don't have, but by then had already asked for a referral from an ex colleague and so just applied anyways. Lol!
- Codasip: no SW jobs in UK, only HW
- SiFive: only 10 jobs globally, 1 sales in UK
- Graphcore:
- 2025-07-02 job-boards.greenhouse.io/graphcore/jobs/7743036002 Staff System Software Engineer. Automation and testing stuff.
- AMD:
- Open source
- Canonical
- Linux kernel engineering: failed after take home exercise
- Common Crawl: commoncrawl.org/jobs Software Engineer/Data Scientist, Python, Spark
- Canonical
- Random compute
- Atos, now mostly Eviden: all jobs require 10 years of experience lol
- Random french tech
- Dassault Systemes
- Thales
- biotech maybe
- optical compute
- NcodiN: no jobs
- Flux Computing:
- robotics
- Enchanted Tools
- 2025-06-26 taleez.com/apply/core-c-developer-11e-arrondissement-paris-enchanted-tools-cdi Core C++ developerSalary: 80k.
Just want to help achieve AGI and do some cool programming.
- 2025-06-26 taleez.com/apply/core-c-developer-11e-arrondissement-paris-enchanted-tools-cdi Core C++ developer
- Enchanted Tools
- HPC
- GPU
- C++
- Linux
- systems software
- numerical software
- robotics
Microbit simulator using some Microsoft framework.
TODO the Python code from there does not seem to run on the microbit via
uflash
, because it is not MicroPython.support.microbit.org/support/solutions/articles/19000111744-makecode-python-and-micropython explains.
forum.makecode.com/t/help-understanding-local-build-options/6130 asks how to compile locally and suggests it is possible. Seems to require Yotta, so presumably compiles?
Very very good. Those nice pre-Dot-com bubble vibes.
Might be freely watchable? Wikipedia links to:
But they do start with an FBI warning about copyright. So... erm.
Part 1 - Networking The Nerds talks about the TCP/IP and early machines implementing it:
- 21:00: shows inside The Pentagon. The way the dude who works there opens a his locked office door with an electric switch is just amazing. Cringely also mentions that there's an actual official speed limit in the corridors as he rides a carrier bike slowly through them.
- 21:45: the universities weren't enthusiastic, because people from other locations would be able to use your precious computer time. But finally ARPA forced the universities' hands, and they joined.
- 24:24 mentions that some of the guys who created ARPANET were actually previously counting cards at Casinos in Las Vegas, just like in the 21 (2008) film
- one of the centerpieces of development was at UCLA. The other was the BBN company. 33:55 shows the first router, then called them Interface Message Processor
- the first message was from UCLA to Stanford University. He was trying to write "Login", and it crashed at the 'g'. Epic. They later debugged it.
- towards the end talks about ALOHAnet, the first wireless computer communication done
Part 2 - Serving the Suits
- Robert Metcalfe. He's nice. Xerox PARC. Ethernet.
- Explains what is a "Workstation", notably showing one by Sun Microsystems. This is now an obscure "passé" thing in 2020 that young people like Ciro Santilli have only heard of in legend (or in outdated university computer labs!). Funny to think that so many people have had this idea before, including e.g. the Chromebook
- 10:46 mentions that all of Cisco, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems and where founded at Margaret Jacks Hall, Building 460, at Stanford University.
- he then talks a lot about Sun. Sun became dominant in Wall Street.
- 19:05: Novell, from Utah. How they almost went bust, but were saved at the last moment by Ray Noorda, who refocused them to their NetWare product which was under recent development. It allowed file and printer sharing in IBM PCs. 22:55 shows how they had a live radio host for people waiting on customer support calls!
- 33:56 mentions how The Grateful Dead had in impact on the Internet, as people wanted computers to be able to access The WELL online forum. They still own the domain as of 2022: www.well.com/. It is interesting how Larry Page also liked The Grateful Dead as mentioned at The Google Story, his dad would take him to shows. Larry is a bit younger of course than the people in this documentary.
- 37 show McAfee
- 43:56: fantastic portrait of Cisco
Part 3 - Wiring the World:
- Berners-Lee at CERN and the invention of the URL.
- 1992: US Government allow commerce on the Internet
- Web browser history, Mosaic and Marc Andresseeen.
- 20:45: America Online
- 23:29: search engines and Excite. Google was a bit too small to be on his radar!
- 25:50: porn
- 27: The Motley Fool and advertising
- 30: Planet U grocery shopping
- 31:50: Amazon
- 33:00: immigrant workers, Indians playing cricket, outsourcing, Wipro Systems
- 41:25: Java
- 46:30: Microsoft joins the Internet. The Internet Tidal Wave Internet memo. Pearl Harbour day talk.
- 56:40: Excite Tour. If they had survived, they would have been Google with their quirky offices.
PostgreSQL feels good.
Its feature set is insanely large! Just look at stuff like: stackoverflow.com/questions/1986491/sql-split-string-by-space-into-table-in-postgresql/1993058#1993058
If Oracle is the Microsoft of database, Postgres is the Linux, and MySQL (or more precisely MariaDB) is the FreeBSD (i.e. the one that got delayed by legal issues). Except that their software licenses were accidentally swapped.
The only problem with Postgres is its name. PostgreSQL is so unpronounceable and so untypeable that you should just call it "Postgres" like everyone else.
There is only space for two languages at most in the world: the compiled one, and the interpreted one.
Those two are languages not by any means perfect from a language design point of view, and there are likely already better alternatives, they are only chosen due to a pragmatic tradeoff between ecosystem and familiarity.
Ciro predicts that Python will become like Fortran in the future: a legacy hated by most who have moved to JavaScript long ago (which is slightly inferior, but too similar, and with too much web dominance to be replaced), but with too much dominance in certain applications like machine learning to be worth replacing, like Fortran dominates certain HPC applications. We'll see. Maybe non performance critical scripting languages are easier to replace.
C++ however is decent, and is evolving in very good directions in the 2010's, and will remain relevant in the foreseeable future.
Bash can also be used when you're lazy. But if the project goes on, you will sooner or later regret that choice.
The language syntax in itself does not matter. All that matters is how many useful libraries and tooling it has.
This is how other languages compare:
- C: but cannot make a large codebase DRY without insanity
- Ruby: the exact same as Python, and only strong in one domain: web development, while Python rules everything else, and is not bad on web either. So just kill Ruby, please.
- JavaScript: it is totally fine if Node.js destroys Python and becomes the ONE scripting language to rule them all since Python and JavaScript are almost equally crappy (although JavaScript is a bit more of course).One thing must be said tough:
someobject.not_defined_property
silently returningundefined
rather than blowing up is bullshit. - Go: likely a good replacement for Python. If the ecosystem gets there, will gladly use it more.
- Java: good language, but has an ugly enterprisey ecosystem, Oracle has made/kept the development process too closed, and API patenting madness on Android just kills if off completely
- Haskell: many have tried to learn some functional stuff, but too hard. Sounds really cool though.
- Rust: sounds cool, you will gladly replace C and C++ with it if the ecosystem ramps up.
- C: Microsoft is evil
- Tcl, Perl: Python killed them way back and is less insane
- R, GNU Octave and any other "numerical computing language": all of this is a waste of society's time as explained at: Section "Numerical computing language"
- Swift: Ciro would rather stay away from Apple dominated projects if possible since they sell a closed source operating system
Instead of trying to dominate the sequencing market and gain trillions of dollars from it, they local British early stage investors were more than happy to get a 20x return on their small initial investments, and sold out to the Americans who will then make the real profit.
And now Solexa doesn't even have its own Wikipedia page, while Illumina is set out to be the next Microsoft. What a disgrace.
Cambridge visitors can still visit the Panton Arms pub, which was the location of the legendary "hey we should talk" founders meeting, chosen due to its proximity to the chemistry department of the University of Cambridge.
In 2021 the founders were awarded the Breakthrough Prize. The third person awarded was Pascal Mayer. He was apparently at Serono Pharmaceutical Research Institute at the time of development. They do have a wiki page unlike Solexa: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serono. They paid a 700 million fine in 2005 in the United States, and sold out in 2006 to Merck for 10 billion USD.
Bibliography:
- medium.com/@nick.mccooke/how-we-pioneered-next-generation-dna-sequencing-at-solexa-61bac41aedd2 How We Pioneered Next Generation DNA Sequencing At Solexal by Nick McCooke 2025. This article series could be very interesting.
TODO year. This was a reply to Microsoft anti-Linux propaganda it seems: www.ubuntubuzz.com/2012/03/truth-happens-redhats-legendary-reply.html
Trascript from: www.dailymotion.com/video/xw3ws
The world is flat. Earth is the centre of the universe. Fact - until proven otherwise.
Despite ignorance. Despite ridicule. Despite opposition. Truth happens.Despite ignorance.
The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. /Western Union 1876/
In 1899 the US Patent Commissioner stated, everything that can be invented has been invented.Despite ridicule.
The phonograph has no commercial value at all. /Thomas Edison 1880/
The radio craze will die out in time. /Thomas Edison 1922/
The automobile has practically reached the limit of its development. /Scientific American 1909/Despite it all truth happens.
Man will not fly for fifty years. /Orville Wright 1901/
The rocket will never leave the Earth's atomosphere. /New York Times 1936/
There is a world market for maybe five computers. /IBM's Thomas Watson 1943/
640K Ought to be enough for anybody. /Bill Gates 1981/Then they laugh at you...
We think of linux as competitor in the student and hobbyist market. But I really don't think in the commercial market we'll see it in any significant way. /Bill Gates 2001/Then they fight you...
Linux isn't going away. Linux is a serious competitor. We will rise to this challenge. /Steve Ballmer 2003/Then you win... /Mohandas Gandhi/
A Microsoft format for flashing microcontrollers by copying files to a magic filesystem mounted on host, e.g. as done on the Micro Bit and Raspberry Pi Pico.