Patrick Lam

Thoughts and travels of Patrick Lam

May: another big month

14 Jun 2023

Much travel, especially on the West Coast of North America. Really did finish teaching.

West Coast Adventures: Thanks friends! May 2023

12 Jun 2023

All over the West Coast of North America: Eastern Sierras, Seattle, Vancouver (and Squamish), and Nelson. Both work and life, too: gave a talk at UBC and UW, and did a bunch of skiing and hiking. Also bike commuting.

Book Review: We, the Others: Allophones, Immigrants, and Belonging in Canada by Toula Drimonis

31 May 2023

Toula Drimonis writes about immigrants and allophones (non-English, non-French mother tongue) in modern Quebec society, talking about integration of immigrants and how broader society evolves in response. Her story, as the daughter of Greek immigrants, overlaps with mine in some ways.

Book review: Before the Dawn by Tōson Shimazaki

18 May 2023

A review of the Great Japanese Novel, which describes the life of village chief Aoyama Hanzō along a main highway through the opening of Japan to the world and the Meiji Restoration. Kind of the anti-It’s-a-Wonderful-World as he realizes that his efforts didn’t bear much fruit.

April: finally done with Winter term

8 May 2023

Whew! Finished teaching for Spring term. Western Newfoundland; around Montreal; and Brampton. Home repair.

Western Newfoundland, April 6-9, 2023

7 May 2023

Marble Mountain, arguably better than Tremblant; unarguably fewer lines. Gros Morne in the winter.

ChatGPT's Hot Takes on Programming Languages and Software Engineering

6 May 2023

Prompt engineering by Lucas Wojciechowski. Thanks!

User

Give me 10 hot takes on how machine learning will affect programming language / software engineering in the next 10 years

ChatGPT

Sure, here are 10 hot takes on how machine learning will affect programming languages and software engineering in the next 10 years:

  • Machine learning will become an integral part of software engineering, with developers routinely incorporating ML algorithms and models into their applications.
  • Programming languages will increasingly support machine learning by providing libraries and tools for ML development, such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and scikit-learn.
  • Developers will need to have a strong understanding of statistics and data analysis in order to effectively incorporate machine learning into their applications.
  • The demand for data scientists and machine learning engineers will continue to grow, as more companies seek to incorporate machine learning into their products and services.
  • Natural language processing (NLP) and speech recognition will become more prevalent, leading to the development of new programming languages and tools that support these technologies.
  • Machine learning will enable the creation of more personalized and adaptive user interfaces, leading to a more seamless and intuitive user experience.
  • As machine learning becomes more widespread, developers will need to prioritize the ethical implications of their work, such as data privacy, bias, and accountability.
  • Machine learning will enable the creation of more intelligent and autonomous systems, leading to new challenges in software engineering, such as how to ensure the safety and reliability of these systems.
  • Developers will increasingly rely on machine learning to automate software testing and debugging, reducing the time and effort required to find and fix bugs.
  • Finally, machine learning will enable the creation of new types of software applications that were previously not possible, such as self-driving cars, personalized medicine, and smart home automation.

User

Can you make the takes more controversial?

Montréal

1 May 2023

People always ask me what to do when visiting Montreal. I did grow up in Montreal. But, I haven’t lived in Montreal since 2007. Though I’ve been back pretty often, things have changed. I’ve tried to look up the current state, but I am definitely out of date on some things.

I have pictures of a lot of places now, because cellphones, but not so many of Montreal, because I mostly lived here before I had a cellphone. Still, I found some pictures from the archives, which I’ve included here.

Bouldering Gym Review: Backbone Boulder, Bromont, April 2023

19 Apr 2023

Small but worthy climbing gym in Bromont. Also offers other services (café, terrasse, hammocks).

Japan part III: Two days in Hokkaido and one in Tokyo, February 2023

16 Apr 2023

The last segment of our Japan trip: skiing and birbs in Hokkaido, as well as snowshoeing and katte don. Plus most of a day in Tokyo.