Dale Lane

New #MLforKids worksheet where students create a GenAI-enabled guide to the UK in #Scratch It is about how tool calling transformed how we use language models. Students create their own simple tools that let the model control Scratch sprites. machinelearningforkids.co.uk#!/worksheets...

A #Flink pull request of mine got merged this week. 🎉 It was one of those problems where you draw diagrams and sketches to figure out how to approach it. I couldn't bring myself to delete those notes now it's done, so I went the other way and tidied them into a post instead

Disappointingly small number of clocks to update this morning in return for an extra hour's sleep: watch, oven, car It'll still end up being weeks before I get around to doing the car though!

we're in #Playdate Season 3, so new Playdate games are making up a lot of #BackloggdWeekly this week!

You can get Super Noodles in pots, and you can get Pot Noodles in blocks in a packet. This feels somehow unnatural.

our youngest daughter starts Uni this month - we're moving her into halls today. It's exciting but the impending prospect of an empty nest is already starting to hit

To tell if a maze is solvable, just hang it by its corners If it tears into pieces, you’ve found a solution

I've been looking into how #Flink session clusters could fetch jars for new jobs from remote storage, to avoid submitters needing to upload them to the job manager first.

brought F to IKEA for a getting-ready-to-start-Uni evening shopping trip I thought we were being terribly organised and early, but it turns out this was not an original thought

Thanks to the UK Gov for making Bluesky entertaining this evening

I watched a *lot* of films over the last week (it's too hot to go outside) #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched

Poorly timed notification from the range there 🤦🏻‍♀️

fucking hell andy was that necessary

I had a look at the server request logs for #MLforKids yesterday and it's probably a sign of my naivety that I was so surprised by the constant level of malicious traffic the site gets.

giving Warframe a try - it's got an off-putting dozen-years-old game with dense lore and complex systems vibe that is a little daunting, but I'm gonna give it a chance

my only complaint about the new series of Ted Lasso is that they're only giving us one episode at a time :(

I'm exploring how the #Flink Operator could better serve small isolated jobs that don't need a distributed multi-pod cluster. FlinkMiniCluster could give us a single-pod model but still keep the Operator's lifecycle and checkpoint tooling.

we lost power in the office! I spent half-an-hour trying to work offline in the hope it would be a temporary blip, but I give up - time to head home

I like this - accessible descriptions of LLMs (that goes beyond the usual next-word-predictor metaphor) are a good thing

"Searching" is a great film. It's told entirely through screen recordings - a really interesting way to tell a story. (It's a great story and well acted too... but the format works so well)

Spider-Man was... fine. But holy hell, the clumsily heavy-handed product placement for those folding Samsung phones... 🤦‍♂️ boxd.it/fzKFJD

I've got the office to myself today. Large open-plan floor... 40 desks... just me. It's a little eerie. (Combination of some people being on vacation this week, some people being ill today, plus Friday is always quieter in the office anyway as people WAH)

I have a few weeks left on an Apple TV trial, so my #LastFourWatched for the next few #LetterboxdFriday are going to be a bit Apple-dominated

started my day off with a few hours of driving - just arrived at eldest daughter's uni flat to bring her stuff back for the summer on the plus side, I've been learning a lot of interesting stuff about Disney on the way

Murderbot's latest escapades have arrived in Platform Decay by @marthawells.com! More incredibly satisfying explosive action, humour, and a heartwarming core. We all love #Murderbot 🤖 #SFF 💙📚🪐

I love the idea of this (dedicated console-only laptop setup for distraction-free writing). I've got absolutely no need for it, as I rarely write anything that isn't dependent on all the things this removes. But I still love the idea

"The labour we delight in physics pain" (Macbeth) Finished my first week in my new job. And it's been a great week - as Macbeth would say, it physic'd my pain ;-)

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#MLforKids now supports tool calling in language model projects Students create tools using #Scratch code blocks. Tools auto register with the model, and become available for the model to use. Tools can get info from the Scratch project, control sprites, use Scratch variables as memory, and more

I just finished "Unhinged" - the new game from Netflix. It's brilliantly creative and imaginative - absolutely worth a try (you just need a Netflix subscription and a phone) It's only short, so hard to say much without spoilers, but if you don't mind that I've described it here

Sunday. Coffee made in the Hoop. Fresh warm bread from the bread machine.

I've added support for tool calling in #MLforKids language models projects! Students create tools in #Scratch using normal Scratch code. Tools auto register with the loaded model, and become available for the model to use. Tools can get info from the Scratch project, as well as control sprites

I enjoyed Project Hail Mary so much more than I expected - after finding the book a bit disappointing last year. The Grace/Rocky dynamic was somehow so much more charming in movie form... or maybe I was just in the right mood for it this time around 🤷 #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched

I must be getting old and inflexible I got a new MacBook this afternoon, and my muscle memory is fighting against the different keyboard layout. If you could watch me typing right now, you'd think I hadn't used a computer before

I'm in Southampton for a dev meetup to listen to @kevlin.bsky.social talk about the difference between null, zero, empty, etc. The talk is called "Much Ado About Nothing" which my wife saw in our calendar, mixed up with a separate conversation, and assumed we were going to the theatre tonight. oops

👋We've got 4 wonderfully chaotic Catalog games to share with you today. All available in the Catalog app on your Playdate, or via the web at play.date/catalog 💛

I wrote a ramble about my daily ramble (_yes, I am pleased with that pun_). I even managed to crowbar in a reference to Sir Isaac Newton.

getting the train home from London. Trains are obviously all running smoothly and on-time, with no cancellations or delays, and when you find a train, it is cool and comfortable with plenty of seating. 😏

Finished! I survived... and more impressively, so did the students. Listening to me talk is a challenging enough feat on a good day, but doing it while sat in a furnace is frankly heroic. 🫠 They were a lovely bunch - I had fun today.

I'm in London this morning, for a STEM event that the University of Westminster are hosting for local schools. I'll be talking, perhaps unsurprisingly, about generative AI

😈 on my shoulder: "loook... the Portal games are on sale on Switch" 😇 on my shoulder: "you've already played & completed Portal multiple times, you don't need to buy it again" you know the devil is going to win this argument...

Where you can find me speaking this month (in fact, next week): Developer South Coast, Thursday 9th July, Southampton www.meetup.com/developersou... re:connect, Friday 10th July, Bournemouth reconnectconference.co.uk

There are a couple pigeons setting up a nest on the other side of the window next to my desk. It's the same spot that some pigeons used a few years ago. We'll have an office "pet" again! 😄

I finished Gunbrella - a 2-D platformer where you're equipped with a combined gun+umbrella. You can shoot with it. You can float with it like Mary Poppins. You can open it and use it as a shield like Batfink. Sounds a bit weird now I'm trying to explain it. backloggd.com/u/dalelane/r...

DOOM looks like MOOD in the mirror (I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice this, but now I've noticed it I can't un-see it!)

I have news! I'm joining Confluent to work on #Flink. 🎉 🥳 It's been an odd couple months trying to work out what I'm going to do next, and I owe a huge thanks to a lot of people who went out of their way to help me find options. dalelane.co.uk/blog/?p=6083

fun end to the afternoon - I got to tag along on the tour of the Hursley Data Centre that my work experience student went on. The sophistication of the tech behind how the data centre is powered, cooled, and monitored is kind of mind blowing 🤓

I normally pass a few ducks on my way into the office. This morning, there were a little more of them than usual!