Blog posts

2026

Tamashii

3 minute read

Published:

Tamashii 魂 is usually translated as “soul,” but in Japanese practice it is less about an inner, metaphysical essence and more about a way of being present in action. When people speak of doing something “with tamashii,” they are not talking about emotion or passion...

A Practical Framework for Safe Deployment of Autonomous AI Agents

18 minute read

Published:

Autonomous coding agents can increase delivery speed, but they also introduce operational, financial, and security risks at scale. This paper presents a governance-first architecture for safer autonomy: explicit Functional Requirements, deterministic stop conditions, operating system–enforced containment, staged promotion controls, and auditable execution artifacts. It is...

Measuring movement with computer vision

3 minute read

Published:

At a basic level, video is a time-stamped measurement tool. Every frame is a discrete snapshot of body position at a known interval. At 60 frames per second, each frame represents about 16.7 milliseconds. That is already within the range where clinically meaningful differences in...

Multi-agents software development

3 minute read

Published:

A multi-agent foundation LLM is built for parallel, role-separated work on complex problems. It assumes that meaningful software development is not linear. Architecture, implementation, testing, refactoring, validation, and documentation are distinct cognitive tasks that benefit from concurrent execution. In this model, multiple specialized agents operate...

Running a 24B Mistral Model Locally with MLX macOS

less than 1 minute read

Published:

Store model weights once, outside any tool-specific directory. This allows us to share them across multiple machines. This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture (JEPA)

5 minute read

Published:

Recently, I came across a paper on the "Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture" (JEPA), co-authored by Yann LeCun, which may change how we think about robotic perception.

2025

LLM context is not optional

3 minute read

Published:

Modern large language models represent a compressed statistical summary of an enormous portion of what has been publicly written. This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

Facing AI Job Loss with the Right Mindset

5 minute read

Published:

I came across Ruri Ohama mentioning a book by Takafumi Horie and Yoichi Ochiai titled: “Job Atlas for 10 Years From Now. How Will You Live in a World That Is About to Begin?”

Ai languages: One Ruler to Measure Them All

2 minute read

Published:

Artificial intelligence speaks many tongues, yet not all languages are treated equally. Most large language models are trained on vast English datasets, leaving other languages to fill in the gaps with whatever online text exists. For years, this asymmetry shaped an assumption that English would...

Affordance is Play

9 minute read

Published:

As a person passionate about Behavioral Sciences, I found myself unable to shake the impression that the paper “A Theory of Affordances in Reinforcement Learning” somewhat artificially imposes a mathematical frame on the idea. The authors, following Gibson in 1977, define “affordance” as a relationship...

Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) cell in PyTorch

3 minute read

Published:

This minimal PyTorch example implements a custom recurrent neural network (RNN) cell from first principles, showing how sequence memory emerges through feedback. The cell maintains a hidden state vector h, which evolves over time using the current input x and the previous hidden state through...

Testing local LLM on multi-lingual understanding.

15 minute read

Published:

I have run a quick test on a few LLM models I have installed locally on Mac OS with 64 GB of RAM. This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

LM Studio with 12 and 24B local LLM models

less than 1 minute read

Published:

In my LM Studio, I have been using the 12 billion and 24 billion parameter models on my relatively inexpensive Mac Studio M1, which has 64 GB of unified memory.

LM Studio for macOS: Privacy and Open-Source Transparency

1 minute read

Published:

LM Studio is a popular desktop application that allows users to run large language models (LLMs) locally on macOS. It advertises a privacy-first approach by processing data entirely on the user’s machine, without sending any information to external servers. However, questions around its transparency and...

Exterior design with AI.

1 minute read

Published:

Since we are currently renting, we started looking at the houses we could afford. This place fits our budget, but the baby blue color, "It's a boy!", does not inspire us.

How to get a model from HuggingFace on Mac OS

1 minute read

Published:

Why? Git needs to know how to handle large files (like model weights) separately from normal, small text files. This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

Human Adaptability

1 minute read

Published:

Historically, humans have thrived because they are useful to one another. Communities naturally ostracized (expelled) malicious or unproductive people, effectively making usefulness synonymous with survival. Being excluded was not merely inconvenient; it often meant death, as individuals rarely survived in isolation.

AI Tutor inspired by “Brave New Words”

7 minute read

Published:

I have been reading a book, "Brave New Words," by Salman Khan of Khan Academy, and I got inspired to design an AI tutor (named Maia) for my daughter.

AIKO, the Tiny Language Model (TLM)

34 minute read

Published:

Introduction: A Language Model of My Own We are surrounded by large language models: systems trained on the vastness of the internet. Models like GPT, Claude, and LLaMA can write essays, answer science questions, explain math, generate stories, and even simulate personalities. But as I’ve...

What did AIKO say about this old article in 2025?

3 minute read

Published:

AIKO - "The Child of Artificial Intelligence" (in Japanese, "ko" means child; "ai" means love, denoting the "emotional intelligence" aspect of the project). This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

Slavic saga

5 minute read

Published:

In the beginning, before time itself awakened, there existed only Rod—the eternal, the boundless, the unmanifested source of all existence. Rod lingered in profound silence, beyond form, thought, and sensation. Within this divine stillness lay the seeds of infinite possibility, awaiting the spark that would...

AI zen garden

6 minute read

Published:

I often imagine early humans gathered around a bonfire, sharing stories and chipping away at obsidian shards to create tools. In my own life, I notice a curious parallel: I sit here with my favorite note-taking app, aptly named Obsidian, and chip away at my...

AI Zen Garden: Multi-Agent LLM Collegium on Your Desktop

6 minute read

Published:

I often imagine early humans gathered around a bonfire, sharing stories and chipping away at obsidian shards to create tools. In my own life, I notice a curious parallel: I sit here with my favorite note-taking app, aptly named Obsidian, and chip away at my...

2024

A Sustainable Homestead Plan in Charlevoix County, Michigan

4 minute read

Published:

Imagine waking up to mist rolling over the hills of Charlevoix County, Michigan, on a property that doesn’t just look beautiful—it provides everything you need to live sustainably. With a mix of rotational grazing, carefully planned crop production, and a thriving ecosystem of fruit, nuts,...

Michigan farm “Up North”

16 minute read

Published:

Nestled in the heart of [[Michigan]]’s scenic landscape, near the bustling Boyne Falls Ski Resort, lies a unique stretch of land—41 acres of gently rolling hills, lush meadows, and sun-kissed slopes. This picturesque region is known not just for its outdoor adventure offerings, such as...

  1. A Stoic Morning Reflection from Marcus Aurelius

1 minute read

Published:

This short passage offers a practical morning exercise: anticipate difficult people before the day starts. The framing is diagnostic, not emotional. The behavior of others is treated as ignorance of good and bad, not as a reason for retaliation.

Recommended citation: Lucas, Uki D. (2024). "A Stoic Morning Reflection from Marcus Aurelius: Translation Note."

Vardlokkur

45 minute read

Published:

Paleo and early pastoral period Toba: 70 thousand years ago The Shelter The Dream and the Hunt Vardlokkur's name Military service Welcome scouts The Old Gods Kzem Mater (PIE) Mother Earth-mother-earth) Dyeus Pater (PIE) Sky Father-sky-father) Perkwunos (PIE) Thunder God-thunder-god) Ausos (PIE) Dawn Goddess-dawn-goddess) Dhenus...

Quanta Qualia AI

2 minute read

Published:

"Quanta Qualia AI" is a project pioneering a frontier of quantum computing and communication exploring entangled particles such as "traditional" electrons, ions, photons or even neutrinos.

This Is All Greek to Me

3 minute read

Published:

"This often employed, sarcastic declaration could not be more precise for an anthropologist fascinated by all nations influenced by Hellenic civilization.". This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

Modern Thinkers

5 minute read

Published:

In our interconnected world, some brilliant thinkers have emerged as influential internet writers, sharing their insights on technology, personal development, philosophy, and more. If you appreciate the works of Paul Graham, Tim Ferriss, and Gurwinder Bhogal, you'll likely enjoy the following thinkers as well:

Meetings, distractions, deep work

1 minute read

Published:

Some team members are constantly being disturbed, which is not good for productivity. We have to be mindful of this at all times. This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

How Do You Actively Find Opportunities

7 minute read

Published:

One of the benefits of writing to people is that they sometimes respond. Most of my writing is for a single person in mind or a conversation summary.

Post 17. The 15-minute rule.

2 minute read

Published:

How do we attract opportunities? Great opportunities come to everyone all the time, but only trained and prepared people can notice and take advantage of them.

Yva, Zoe, and the Mushroom Fairy

4 minute read

Published:

Once upon a time, in a land filled with enchantment, there lived two little girls named Yva and Zoë. This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

Why Do I Consider Reading the Single Most Important Habit for Success

2 minute read

Published:

I am not writing a history book. You can look it up, but let me drop in a few names of insatiable readers: da Vinci, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, Einstein, Gandhi, Marie Curie-Skłodowska, and a few modern ones: Warren Buffett, Oprah, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Obama,...

Post 12. How choosing right friends is a crucial life choice

2 minute read

Published:

We served together in the military, lived in Okinawa, and attended the same university for Japanese Studies. We had profound and life-changing discussions. We also had to work hard on our characters and rise above what life has served us. 🙂 Your accomplishments are spectacular,...

Ultra-light shoes for hiking in mountains

3 minute read

Published:

I live in a very rugged Pacific Northwest (PNW). The terrain consists of sharp rocks in summer and wet or snow-covered sharp rocks in winter. My choice of ultralight shoes is not typical, but they are similar to the footwear of traditional highlanders from the...

Walk and Listen

3 minute read

Published:

“The best sailing is down the trade winds. If you are setting off to do something, go with the prevailing winds” ~ Uki Every couple of years, I reevaluate which way the wind is blowing and make corrections in my life. The last couple of...

Why Should We Write Blogs

2 minute read

Published:

Private records get forgotten. And then, forever lost. I have piles of notebooks that will no doubt join my funeral pyre, and I have countless digital documents that will never see the light of day.

2023

What if my passion lies in exploring rather than niching down?

1 minute read

Published:

I watched a video titled "How to Make A $150/Day Affiliate Marketing Blog—For BEGINNERS," which provides a step-by-step guide to building a profitable affiliate blog. The video stresses the core principles of choosing a niche, creating valuable content, and implementing monetization strategies, which sound straightforward....

YOLOv8

5 minute read

Published:

YOLO uses boxes instead of more natural polygons because they allow the network to represent object locations with just 4 numbers, making computation more efficient and consistent across all grid cells. Polygons would require a variable number of points per object, complicating tensor shapes and...

Make a human connection, not a “quid pro quo” proposition

3 minute read

Published:

To make a “quid pro quo” proposition, from Latin, “something for something,” means reaching out to someone assuming that the other party needs something from you, for example, the business you might want to offer.

Thinking About Entering the Automotive Industry

10 minute read

Published:

The topic of Requirements Management may not be a hot one. Trust me, I understand. However, there is a very good reason why I decided to spend considerable time writing about it.

Beyond Note-Taking: My Journey with Obsidian and ChatGPT Towards a Personal AI

4 minute read

Published:

In this article, I delve into my pursuit of a more interactive, and intelligent method to safeguard one’s intellectual legacy. Acknowledging the limitations of both traditional and digital tools like Obsidian, I explore the approach of constructing a personalized AI model trained on my own...

Dlaczego informatyk miałby być zainteresowany nauką kaligrafii?

7 minute read

Published:

/ Wyobraź sobie, że siedzisz na spotkaniu. Po drugiej stronie biurka siedzi wice-prezydent twojego klienta. Wice-prezydent wyjaśnia problemy swojej firmy. Twarze dyrektorów, rozsianych po sali, wskazują na szereg emocji, począwszy od: - „Nie jestem pewien, po co nam ten zespół konsultantów”, do wyzywającego - „Nie...

Why Would a Computer Scientist Be Interested in Learning Calligraphy

6 minute read

Published:

I have long appreciated the simplicity and openness of taking notes with a pen and paper. Recently, I have embarked on a journey to refine my handwriting to improve its balance of elegance and practicality. But my fascination with handwriting goes beyond notes. I recently...

IR Vision

3 minute read

Published:

Color Spectrum As we all know, the regular day-light cameras operate in 3 colors, Red, Green, and Blue (RGB). The choice of these colors is dictated by what the human eye can recognize. Some animals can see, or sense, other colors, from ultraviolet for bees...

Aikido, terminology and etiquette

6 minute read

Published:

Note: Please learn the Japanese Hiragana script for proper pronunciation. Shomen ni rei literally: “bow to the front” This is a bow to the ancestral altar. Sensei 先生 せんせい teacher, master, elder, guru, one who has gone before Sensei ni rei Literally: bow to the...

2022

How to Write a Math or Data Science eBook

3 minute read

Published:

When studying, I like to take notes, usually, I do it on my Blog, but often I use Jupyter notebooks which I commit to GitHub. If I am writing a paper I use Google Docs. Having my writing in 3 different places is not optimal....

2021

Physically and Mentally Young Until the End

35 minute read

Published:

Published on Medium.com Feb 12, 2021 Too many people live with allergies, low-level aches, auto-immune diseases, arthritis, pre-diabetic sugar levels, obesity, cancer, mental fog, and dementia. Too many people die early. Why? Out of the top causes of death, most are related to diet and...

Everlasting Youth

33 minute read

Published:

Too many people live with allergies, low-level aches, auto-immune diseases, arthritis, pre-diabetic sugar levels, obesity, cancer, mental fog, and dementia. Too many people die early.

My Dream Assistant Should Know Me Better

3 minute read

Published:

Today, Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are sometimes useful, sometimes fun, but honestly, very limited. They often return a generic answer or a bland web search result when we ask them questions. Considering the massive resources behind Apple, Amazon, and Google, it's surprising how little...

My Dream Assistant Should Know Me Better

3 minute read

Published:

Today, Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are sometimes useful, sometimes fun, but honestly, very limited. They often return a generic answer or a bland web search result when we ask them questions. Considering the massive resources behind Apple, Amazon, and Google, it's surprising how little...

2019

Point Cloud Library (PCL) on Mac OS

3 minute read

Published:

FLANN found (include: /usr/local/Cellar/flann/1.9.1_7/include, lib: optimized;/usr/local/Cellar/flann/1.9.1_7/lib/libflann_cpp.dylib;debug;/usr/local/Cellar/flann/1.9.1_7/lib/libflann_cpp.dylib)

2018

Python GraphLab in Anaconda

2 minute read

Published:

In this tutorial I wrote down my own steps on how to configure GraphLab on Mac for the Coursera Machine Learning class from the University of Washington:

2017

Your Value after the A.I. Singularity Event

16 minute read

Published:

In this article, we will explore the development of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and its impact on humanity. This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

What Is Next for Elon Musk

9 minute read

Published:

Elon Musk has said that he would like to die on Mars, preferably, not in the landing accident. Poetic. In fact, there is a joke around the Internet that Elon is an alien who tries to get back home. I find this whole idea as...

Cars, the new mobile platform frontier

2 minute read

Published:

In last ten years, we have witnessed an explosion in mobile phone and tablet technology. Today, you can choose a set of apps that will delight you while making your life better, happier and more productive. You can get all this for few hundred dollars,...

Virtual Personal Assistant

7 minute read

Published:

This post comes as a result of experience in managing people in various foreign countries for over 17 years. The five years of which has been running a business that was entirely virtual. True, it is mostly in technology, but also a fair share of...

CUDA: late 2013 MacBook Pro GPU: GeForce GT 750M 384 Cores

3 minute read

Published:

deviceQuery, CUDA Driver = CUDART, CUDA Driver Version = 8.0, CUDA Runtime Version = 8.0, NumDevs = 1, Device0 = GeForce GT 750M. This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

My Grand Plan

8 minute read

Published:

My Grand Plan — 18 years from now in 2035 I will be 62 years old. How do I imagine myself then? Location, location, location. I will be living in a place that is a maximum one hour away from the major National Forest boundary,...

50 Cal Muzzle Loader Rifle

6 minute read

Published:

Muzzleloading rifles are a different kind of fun. It is true that I got one because of the local laws, but I definitely have caught an ML bug since.

2016

Design and User Experience

9 minute read

Published:

Design and User Experience Development for mobile is a wonderful opportunity for beautiful and functional design that complements device’s technical abilities and screen properties. Most people underestimate the amount of work that goes into graphical design and its implementation. Just as a food for thought,...

2014

Lever Action Rifle Calibers

4 minute read

Published:

Recently, I have been thinking about a new lever-action rifle. The appeal of these late 1800 models is that they are great, very light (5lbs) for backpacking and pack enough punch for anything you need in the woods/bush. Lever action rifles, comparing to heavy (~8.5lbs)...

App: Lost in Translation

5 minute read

Published:

From time to time, each of us working in the app development, be that an UI/UX designer, developer or project manager has to come up with user messages on the spot. We all think: "Oh this is a temporary text, a placeholder, we will fix...

Things That Make Us Who We Really Are

4 minute read

Published:

Today, I want to write about the unexpected things that uplift us when everyday life gets depressing, difficult, and lonely. Looking at people around, one is getting the idea that others are happy, busy, and successful, or at least are pursuing happiness. Meanwhile, you are...

2012

How to Prepare Design Assets (UI) for iPhone Development

3 minute read

Published:

From our experience the ideal case scenario is when the developer and the UI/UX designer work hand in hand. Meanwhile since, many companies have their in-house design teams, and either want to save on design, or feel more comfortable working with their team, here are...

2011

Programming for UI Designers: Android Options Menu

5 minute read

Published:

Ins and outs of Android Options Menu The standard Android Menu is one of the most common elements of an Android application, and provides users a familiar way to perform actions. It contains a collection of primary options and functionality which shows up when the...

Factors That Can Influence Downloads of Mobile Apps

1 minute read

Published:

Taking as a fact that you have a great app, a "shouting", cutting-edge presence on the app markets, good rating and good promotion, what else could influence the number of your app downloads? Having over a dozen apps out on the market, we noticed that...

Investments: Ways to Finance Your Business

3 minute read

Published:

self-financed, organic growth FFF Angel Investors VC public offerin I would suggest for you to develop your business "on the side" until it is profitable and try to continue growing it organically. If you do so, you know your business is healthy and you don't...

Monetizing Your Application

2 minute read

Published:

free app with ads free app; make money on additional services free app with in-app purchases free limited offer; paid full version fully priced version The first way to make money is to offer your application for free with advertisements. You should not consider this...

Promotion, Promotion, Promotion

2 minute read

Published:

✓ take a road less traveled - don’t compete ✓ re-post experts ✓ blog about good articles ✓ ask smart questions ✓ ask for comments ✓ show up - even if virtually In addition to outlined best practices when composing the post keep in mind...

Building a Product That Sells

2 minute read

Published:

✓ the better mouse trap myth ✓ basic rules to follow ✓ build it for yourself Let's start with the product because after all that is what your customers will want and what will define all of your future efforts, regardless how lofty your philosophy...

2010

Hunter Gatherer (or Rather Scavenger) Lifestyle and Diet

3 minute read

Published:

Ever since university times (Cultural Anthropology major), I was thinking about the lives and the diets of our ancestors. After all, the last 10,000 years of agriculture, is just a drop in the bucket comparing with 5 million years of evolution of our body and...

2009

pair programming

1 minute read

Published:

Here are a steps I would like the team to follow while developing: Create a wiki topic on what you are planning to do and explain these steps to someone before starting writing the code Have a buddy spend at least a part of the...

2008

vardlokkur: the prologue

2 minute read

Published:

This story is about the last days of the great human culture. I am writing this from the perspective of 71 thousand years later, hence, I will use the terminology understood by my readers. That culture had its roots in the events much earlier, when...

2007

AIKO The Child of Artificial Intelligence

1 minute read

Published:

AIKO - "The Child of Artificial Intelligence" (in Japanese, "ko" means child; "ai" means love, denoting the "emotional intelligence" aspect of the project). This post provides clear context, key ideas, and practical takeaways.

2004

Choices: 15 minutes at a time

3 minute read

Published:

Recently, I have been worrying about the future. I am long past dwelling on the past, but still I feel inferior to my potential. Worry is a killer, a stress maker. I had a lot of it lately. I've just read that the more one...