Tag: blog

A Sleep Trick for Computer Zombies

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

I have slept more over the last year. My average has increased from under 6 to over 7 hours, and though that’s not Nirvana, it feels better.

My morning routine is fixed. Kids go to school, and the alarm clocks go off at 7. So increasing sleep time can only be achieved by going to bed early. But how so? The former self would play games, code, and watch TV shows or YouTube. Some of these can be very addictive and I would often go to bed after 2am, setting myself up for a difficult morning that would not work without caffeine. Coffee can disrupt sleep even further.

Then I found a saying somewhere, perhaps on Reddit, source unknown:

If it’s not worth doing first thing in the morning, it’s not worth doing last thing in the evening.

Would I start the morning with the next episode of Halo? Hell no. Why am I staying late for it, shut it down. Would I read that book in the morning? What about another game of chess? You only need to overcome each of these urges once, then it’s defused by default.

The quote stuck with me and I rarely stay after 12. Feels better.

Blast from the past

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Back in the late 90s, this brand Koop was a symbol of change. We saw the cooperative was some kind of incorporation, a private structure instead of the nearly 100% government-owned everything from that era. The outside A/C unit doesn’t fit though, I don’t remember seeing a single A/C unit in Bulgaria before 1989.

The pavement is from the same period.

McDonald’s Achievement

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

First customer since the last reset of the kiosks for the shift or the day. 11:30 is a bit early for lunch but still. I was first 🏆🏅✅

McDonald’s is not known to be the best food, it is expensive and is slow these days. We are high on the Big Mac Index, higher than the USA. It has a special place in my hard despite all of that. My generation grew up with a French comic called Pif that advertised McDonald’s. I had no idea that it was a fast food chain or what a fast food chain was until the 90s when they came to Bulgaria and opened their first restaurant. I still grew up with the logo. Their Pif ads paid off. Here we are, 35 years after the fall of communism, I still occasionally eat McD and remember the long-gone comic.

Avogadro Corp by William Hertling book review

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I’m interested in using AI to optimize things and got the nudge to read this book because of my interests. I find this book quite depressing.

A team of engineers in the Google-sized company Avogadro Corp implements a software called ELOPe. It optimizes emails based on the desired outcome. ELOPe has access to everyone’s main communication channel, which gives it instant and infinite power. It quickly takes over the company by sending bogus emails. The software is good enough to self-improve, manipulate, and survive.

Although very unrealistic from an engineering point of view, the book is a good warning of what could happen one day if AI is trusted. I find Skynet or the Matrix more likely scenarios than this but it should be kept in mind that although it may not play out this way, we can achieve the result in some other way.

4/5 – it’s a good warning, and a great idea, but unpleasant to read due to its unrealistic characters. I’m not sure if I’ll dare to touch the follow-ups.