173: Mocking and Unit Tests

Intro topic: Headphones

News/Links:

• Texas A&M University Physics Festival
  • https://physicsfestival.tamu.edu/
• Rust vs Cpp at Google
  • Lars Bergstrom (Google Director of Engineering): Rust teams at Google are as productive as the ones using Go and 2x those using Cpp
  • https://youtu.be/6mZRWFQRvmw?t=27012
• Is Cosine Similarity Really About Similarity
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.05440
• Xz utils supply chain attack
  • Andres Freund at Microsoft
  • https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/04/what-we-know-about-the-xz-utils-backdoor-that-almost-infected-the-world/
    
    

Book of the Show

• Patrick:
  • 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald
  • https://amzn.to/3xyEKLo
• Jason:
  • A Movie Making Nerd
  • https://amzn.to/49ycDJj

Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h

Tool of the Show

• Patrick:
  • Shapez Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playdigious.shapez&hl=en_US&gl=US
  • Shapez iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shapez-factory-game/id6450830779
• Jason:
  • Dwarf Fortress
  • https://store.steampowered.com/app/975370/Dwarf_Fortress/
    
    

Topic: Mocking and Unit Tests

• What are Unit Tests
  • Balance between utility, maintenance, and coverage
  • Unit Test: testing small functions
  • Regression Test: Testing larger functions
  • System Test: End-to-end testing of programs
• What are mocks & fakes
• When to use mock vs. fake
• Mocking libraries in various languages
  • Python: https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.mock.html
  • Java: https://github.com/mockito/mockito
  • C++: https://github.com/google/googletest
    
    

172: Transformers and Large Language Models

Intro topic: Is WFH actually WFC?

News/Links:

• Falsehoods Junior Developers Believe about Becoming Senior
  • https://vadimkravcenko.com/shorts/falsehoods-junior-developers-believe-about-becoming-senior/
• Pure Pursuit
  • Tutorial with python code: https://wiki.purduesigbots.com/software/control-algorithms/basic-pure-pursuit
  • Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYR7mmcwT2w
• PID without a PHD
  • https://www.wescottdesign.com/articles/pid/pidWithoutAPhd.pdf
• Google releases Gemma
  • https://blog.google/technology/developers/gemma-open-models/
    
    

Book of the Show

• Patrick: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time)
  • https://amzn.to/3uEhg6v
• Jason: How to Make a Video Game All By Yourself
  • https://amzn.to/3UZtP7b

Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h

Tool of the Show

• Patrick: Stadia Controller Wifi to Bluetooth Unlock
  • https://stadia.google.com/controller/index_en_US.html
• Jason: FUSE and SSHFS
  • https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-sshfs-to-mount-remote-file-systems-over-ssh
    
    

Topic: Transformers and Large Language Models

• How neural networks store information
  • Latent variables
• Transformers
  • Encoders & Decoders
• Attention Layers
  • History
    • RNN
      • Vanishing Gradient Problem
    • LSTM
      • Short term (gradient explodes), Long term (gradient vanishes)
  • Differentiable algebra
  • Key-Query-Value
  • Self Attention
• Self-Supervised Learning & Forward Models
• Human Feedback
  • Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback
  • Direct Policy Optimization (Pairwise Ranking)

Intro topic: Monitor setups

News/Links:

• BlueScuti, Willis, beats Tetris
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJ5UuknsHU
• PalWorld accused of being an AI Product
  • https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/01/22/palworld-accused-of-using-genai-with-no-evidence-so-far/?sh=26a9651b4239
• 4 Billion if-statements to determine if a number is even or odd
  • https://andreasjhkarlsson.github.io/jekyll/update/2023/12/27/4-billion-if-statements.html
• Seamless M4T
  • https://ai.meta.com/blog/seamless-m4t/
    
    

Book of the Show

• Patrick:
  • Foundation by Isaac Asimov
    • https://amzn.to/3SrmgnP
• Jason:
  • Propaganda by Edward Bernays
    • https://amzn.to/47JUCXJ

Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=h

Tool of the Show

• Patrick:
  • The Room Game
    • https://www.fireproofgames.com/games/the-room
• Jason:
  • Incredibuild
    • https://www.incredibuild.com/
      
      

Topic: Compilers and Interpreters (Request by Jessica W.)

• Machine Code
  • Architecture Specific
• Assembly
  • Single vs Two Pass Compiler
• High level Languages
  • Intermediate Representation
  • JVM ByteCode vs Machine Code for portability
• Scripting/Interpreters
• JIT
• Profile Guided Optimization
• Resources
  • https://www.craftinginterpreters.com/
  • https://nandgame.com/
  • Turing Complete