Author Archives: Gaius

About Gaius

Jus' a good ol' boy, never meanin' no harm

Microsoft Professional Program Artificial Intelligence

Posted on August 8, 2018 by Gaius

Building on the momentum† of completing the Data Science track of the Microsoft Professional Program, and inspired by the amazing season 2 of Westworld, I have now also completed the Artificial Intelligence track, Microsoft’s internal AI course just opened to the … Continue reading →

Posted in AI, azure, C++, Cloud, data science, edx, Microsoft, Python, R | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Not-learning is a skill too

Posted on July 29, 2018 by Gaius

To be successful in tech, it’s well known that you must keep your skills up to date. The onus is on each individual to do this, no-one will do it for you, and companies that provide ongoing personal development are … Continue reading →

Posted in C++, data science, Haskell, Ocaml, Python, R | 3 Comments

Blockchain 101

Posted on July 22, 2018 by Gaius

If you are a developer who uses Git and knows what fast-forwards are and when and when not to use them, you already know literally everything there is to know about distributed/decentralised ledgers. A blockchain controlled by a single organisation is … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Random thoughts | Leave a comment

WSL is a Game Changer

Posted on June 16, 2018 by Gaius

Why did we (developers) flock to Macbooks? Even if using platform-agnostic languages and/or writing applications that would run on servers, we wanted portable Unix workstations with a high build quality and none of the hardware compatibility issues that come with … Continue reading →

Posted in C++, Linux, Microsoft, Random thoughts, Virt | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Microsoft Professional Program Data Science

Posted on May 2, 2018 by Gaius

I’ve finally gotten around to completing the Microsoft Professional Program in Data Science, which I started nearly a year ago. It’s a pretty comprehensive sequence of courses that gives a solid grounding in (and/or revision of!): Probability and Statistics (the … Continue reading →

Posted in azure, Cloud, data science, edx, Microsoft, Python, R | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Less Facebook, More Faces and Books

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Gaius

I made the decision back in mid-November to radically cut down on my use of Facebook. Thus far it has been a great success, I have recovered at least ½-hr per day, maybe more. Even if I spent it sleeping, … Continue reading →

Posted in Random thoughts | 1 Comment

My First MOOC

Posted on August 20, 2017 by Gaius

Just completed the Data Analysis for Life Sciences XSeries on EdX, my first MOOC. I had been meaning to learn R for a while as I’ve seen some cool stuff being done with it (I am mainly a Python guy), … Continue reading →

Posted in R, Random thoughts | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Clouds

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Gaius

I have been having a play with some cloud stuff recently, as hinted at in my last post, and have put together some nice Python objects wrapping APIs/command-line tools so I can do things like: VBox is just my local … Continue reading →

Posted in Cloud, Linux, Postgres, Python, Random thoughts, Virt | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Turbo Boost

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Gaius

We have a couple of machines at home†: Core i7 – 2 cores, hyperthreading, 3Ghz turbo boosting to 3.5Ghz, 16G RAM Core i5 – 4 cores, no HT, 3.2Ghz, 32G RAM I compared them using the POV-Ray 3.7 benchmark with … Continue reading →

Posted in Cloud, Random thoughts | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

HP Calculators I Have Owned

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Gaius

Over the years I have owned several HP calculators: HP 28s, my first RPN programmable that I used when an engineering student in the mid-90s, and made the jump from GCSE/A-level Casio to a grown-up calculator. HP 48GX, a very … Continue reading →

Posted in Random thoughts | Tagged , | 1 Comment