Ben’s Bloghttps://ben.bolte.cc/2024-03-27T20:37:35+00:00Benjamin Boltepublic@bolte.ccAffine Transformations2024-03-26T00:00:00+00:00/affine-transformsSome notes on affine transformation conventions.
Starting a Startup, Reloaded2024-01-22T00:00:00+00:00/startup-v2My "Starting a Startup" post from a few months ago needed a refresh.
A Story2023-11-21T00:00:00+00:00/storyPresented with no context
Monotonic Attention2023-11-09T00:00:00+00:00/monotonic-attentionWrite-up explaining an implementation of monotonic attention using a probabilistic graphical model.
Retentive Networks and RWKV2023-09-16T00:00:00+00:00/retnetA short, hand-wavy explainer for the mathematical intuition behind faster attention mechanisms.
Miscellaneous Azure Notes2023-09-14T00:00:00+00:00/azureMiscellaneous notes about various Azure-related things.
Miscellaneous AWS Notes2023-09-13T00:00:00+00:00/awsMiscellaneous notes about various AWS-related things.
Streaming Convolutions2023-08-24T00:00:00+00:00/streaming-convsWorking out the math for streaming convolutions.
Diffusion verses Flow Matching2023-07-19T00:00:00+00:00/diffusion-flow-matchingAn accessible introduction to diffusion and flow matching models.
Fast Attention Implementations2023-06-29T00:00:00+00:00/fast-attentionA reference collection of fast attention implementations.
Starting a Startup2023-06-27T00:00:00+00:00/startupI left FAIR to start a startup a few weeks ago, and figured I should describe what we're actually doing.
RWKV Language Model Math2023-06-16T00:00:00+00:00/rwkv-modelIn-depth explanation of the math behind the RWKV model, with PyTorch implementations, plus a discussion of numerical stability.
Types of Gears2023-03-06T00:00:00+00:00/gears
This post is a reference for the different types of gears that might be relevant for robotics applications.
Types of Electrical Connectors for Batteries2023-03-06T00:00:00+00:00/electrical-connectors
This post is a collection of the different types of electrical connectors that might be relevant for robotics.
Possible Ideas for Robotics Startups2022-12-25T00:00:00+00:00/robotics-startupsA list of ideas for robotics startups, focusing on things that are feasible right now and things that will likely become feasible in the next few years.
Getting Started with ROS 22022-11-07T00:00:00+00:00/rosAn actually good guide to getting started with ROS 2.
Robotics Pre-training Idea2022-11-01T00:00:00+00:00/robotic-pretrainingA collection of my ideas relating to robotics pre-training.PID Controller Explainer2022-09-29T00:00:00+00:00/pid-controllerSimple overview of what a PID controller is, how it works, and how to make one yourself.
Life in the Big Apple2022-08-08T00:00:00+00:00/nycMiscellanous update about various life things.Three Months of Daily Journaling2022-07-26T00:00:00+00:00/journalingMeta-journal about journaling for more consecutive days than I initially thought I would, and whether or not it is a worthwhile habit to cultivate.
Monitoring Background GPU Usage2022-07-21T00:00:00+00:00/nvidia-smi-monitorPython code snippit for doing background GPU monitoring using `nvidia-smi`
What I’ve Been Up To Lately2021-10-05T00:00:00+00:00/october-updateShort post about what I've been up to lately.Numpy Array Stream to Video2021-04-29T00:00:00+00:00/matplotlib-videosShort post with code snippits for creating videos from Numpy arrays in Matplotlib.
Visiting the United Kingdom2020-12-18T00:00:00+00:00/united-kingdomReflections on our time in the United Kingdom during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Work-Procrastinate Cycle2020-12-02T00:00:00+00:00/procrastinationThe results of an experiment I've been conducting on myself.Engagement2020-08-22T00:00:00+00:00/engagementI got engaged to a really wonderful girl.
Useful bash / zsh Profile Additions2020-05-27T00:00:00+00:00/bash-commandsSome functions I found useful to add to my bash and zsh profile.Optimized Log-Sum-Exp PyTorch Function2020-05-20T00:00:00+00:00/logsumexpA walkthrough of how to optimize the log-sum-exp function in PyTorch.Torch CUDA Extension Tricks2020-05-06T00:00:00+00:00/torch-cuda-tricksSome tricks I found useful for writing CUDA extensions for PyTorch.Two Students Riddle2020-04-30T00:00:00+00:00/two-students-riddleThere is a teacher and 2 students in a classroom. The students are A and B. The teacher thinks of 2 positive integers and tells the sum of those numbers to student A without student B hearing it. Then tells their product to student B without student A hearing it. After this, the teacher asks the 2 students what was the 2 numbers. First student A says: I don't know. Then student B says: I don't know either. After hearing this, student A says: Now I know. Then student B says: Now I know them too. What were the 2 numbers?
Combination Lock Riddle2020-04-30T00:00:00+00:00/combination-lock-riddleA combination for a lock has 3 wheels, X, Y, and Z, each of which can be set to eight different positions. The lock is broken and when any two wheels of the lock are in the correct position, the lock will open. Thus, anyone can open the lock after 64 tries (let A and B run through all possible permutations). However, the safe can be opened in fewer tries! What is the minimum number of tries that can be guaranteed to open the lock?
HMMs and CRFs2020-04-07T00:00:00+00:00/hmms-crfsA comparison of Hidden Markov Models and Conditional Random Fields, two kinds of probabilistic graphical models.Recap from MIT Covid-19 Challenge2020-04-05T00:00:00+00:00/covid-challengeRecap and potential future directions from the MIT Covid-19 Challenge.“The Decadent Society” Book Review2020-03-22T00:00:00+00:00/decadentSummary and thoughts about The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success by Ross Douthat.
Coding the Viterbi Algorithm in Numpy2020-03-15T00:00:00+00:00/viterbiA demo of how to code the Viterbi algorithm in Numpy.
How Not to Productively Work From Home2020-03-01T00:00:00+00:00/productivitySome of my thoughts about effectively controlling the elephant mind.
Roaming through Japan2017-05-08T00:00:00+00:00/japanExploring the Land of the Rising Sun for 19 days by train, through Tokyo, Nikko, Sendai, Sapporo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagoya.
How I Spent Spring Break in Cuba2017-03-04T00:00:00+00:00/cubaA field guide to traveling to Cuba, written by naive college students for naive college students, mostly as exposition.
Using Gensim Word2Vec Embeddings in Keras2016-08-02T00:00:00+00:00/gensimA short post and script regarding using Gensim Word2Vec embeddings in Keras, with example code.
Restricted Boltzmann Machines2016-07-18T00:00:00+00:00/generativeBuilding on the Recurrent RBM for sequence modeling. This post relates to what I am doing for my Master's thesis.
Touring the United States and Canada2016-05-11T00:00:00+00:00/usaNarration from my trip through Nashville, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and Washington DC.Question Answering using Keras2016-04-27T00:00:00+00:00/languageAn in-depth introduction to using Keras for language modeling; word embedding, recurrent and convolutional neural networks, attentional RNNs, and similarity metrics for vector embeddings.
Atlanta Craft Beer Reviews2016-03-30T00:00:00+00:00/beerSome facts and very sarcastic opinions regarding craft beers that can be bought at the Krogers near my apartment.
A Neural Network in 28 Lines of Theano2016-02-23T00:00:00+00:00/theanoA quick introduction to using Theano for deep learning, from the bare-bones to a full neural network.