How to be a better abuser
Based on real events.
Avik Das
My name is Avik Das. I'm a software developer with strong theoretical and mathematical foundations, as well as extensive industry experience. To me, technology is a tool for delivering meaningful products. In my spare time, I enjoy cooking, weightlifting and drawing.
Latest posts
LLMs are like compilers, sort of
An AI-generated image, appropriate for this post. The machine on the left is like an LLM, taking in prompts and producing code. The machine on the right is like a compiler, producing binaries. I tried really hard to generate a good image with AI, but my needs seem too esoteric. That's been my experience with AI coding too.
Reflecting on ten years of my personal project
The Garlic logo
On effective communication
The original logo from Talk it Out
Interactive demos using Astro
This blog is mostly text and images, but I’m a big fan of adding interactive components to make my explanations more effective. See my post on rendering curves in 3D as an example. For those interactive demos, the browser environment, with Javascript for the interactivity, is a fantastic delivery mechanism with wide reach and ease-of-use. Libraries like React make that easy, but a lot of the…
Containerized services on a home server
With my mini PC server set up with Debian, I prepared the server for actually running useful services. This time, I decided I would go all in with containers, hoping that will keep my applications self-contained enough that I don’t have to think about different applications stepping on each other.
Setting up a micro PC as a Linux server
My little server, sitting next to my router This blog started at the end of 2018 as a way to document how I set up my Raspberry Pi . Some time ago, the Pi finally broke down, and I’ve had terrible luck with Micro SD card corruption. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get the Pi running again, I picked up a used Dell OptiPlex 7040 Micro . Here are my notes on getting this server set up, since…
My two semesters of teaching
In 2022, I got the opportunity to live out my dream of teaching a university course, and that too in theoretical computer science. Despite how busy my day job was, I knew I had to take that opportunity or I would regret it. After teaching for two semesters, I found the experience both exhilarating and too much of a time commitment to continue next semester. To get into the habit of writing again,…
“It’s not peaches and cream either for men”
I spend a lot of time talking about men’s mental health because it’s what I, as a man, know about. And like with everything, the truth is complicated. We live in a patriarchal society that privileges men in certain ways, but also hurts them in other ways. The harmful effects on our heavily gendered society especially show themselves when racial or class oppression enter the picture. But…
It’s okay to not be okay
What I’m about to say applies to everybody, but with Movember and my own experience as a man in mind, I hope my words will at least be useful to the men who read this. It’s okay to not be okay.