Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · 10d

😂😂😂

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · 15d

SoCal RUG is back! @emilhvitfeldt.bsky.social will be demoing Orbital, a framework to convert your fit model workflows from scikit-learn (Python) or tidymodels (R) to native SQL for in-database prediction! 🛸 Please RSVP for this hybrid in-person + YouTube Live event: meetu.ps/e/Py49Y/v02v...

Stop Horsing Around - Ship the Query!, Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 6:30 PM | Meetup

Ready to launch models straight from SQL? Join SoCal RUG with presenter **Emil Hvitfeldt,** a Software Engineer at Posit, on **Orbital**, a new tool that converts scikit-le

meetu.ps

4

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · 16d

Fascinating stem cell research from the University of Zurich!

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Scientists reverse stroke damage with stem cells

Scientists in Zurich have shown that stem cell transplants can reverse stroke damage by regenerating neurons, restoring motor functions, and even repairing blood vessels. The breakthrough not only hea...

www.sciencedaily.com

Reposted by Javier Orraca-Deatcu

John Bailey @isucceed.bsky.social · Sep 2

www.myprivacy.blog/denmark-make...

Denmark Makes History: Your Face and Voice Are Now Your Intellectual Property

Europe's First Digital Identity Protection Law Tackles the Deepfake Crisis Denmark is poised to become the first European nation to grant citizens copyright control over their own faces, voices, and ...

www.myprivacy.blog

88 1.6K 6.4K

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Jul 6

This book is ultra dry, but amazing. I read this when it was first published but your reminder is encouraging me to re-read it. 🙏

Reposted by Javier Orraca-Deatcu

ProPublica @propublica.org · Jun 20

In 2022, inspectors described a “cascade of failure” at one foreign factory.

The FDA barred it from shipping drugs to the U.S. — then excused more than 20 drugs from the ban, despite risks to consumers.

Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA’s Gamble on America’s Drugs

A ProPublica investigation found that for more than a decade, the FDA gave substandard factories banned from the United States a special pass to keep sending drugs to an unsuspecting public.

www.propublica.org

190 2.4K 5.9K

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Jun 6

Truer words never existed 😅

1

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · May 17

Even on Mac, eh? 👀 Adding this to my Monday morning list. TY!

1

Reposted by Javier Orraca-Deatcu

Posit @posit.co · May 5

Quarto 1.7 is here! 🎉

Now you can easily add light/dark mode to your projects with brand files and control which computational outputs appear in each mode with the new renderings option.

See it in action on quarto.org and learn more: quarto.org/docs/blog/po...

#Quarto #QuartoPub

Quarto 1.7 – Quarto

Quarto 1.7 brings big improvements to dark mode along with updates to Typst, Pandoc, a new version shortcode, and improvements to the julia engine.

quarto.org

11 46

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · May 3

We are in the process of getting some servers deployed with GPUs (outside of Databricks) and I'm eager to test Stan (and XGBoost!) on these servers. Hopefully I'll have something more informative to report in a few months.

1

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Apr 16

I deal with this often too. Good solution here!

2

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Apr 13

SoCal RUG is hosting Karandeep Singh on April 24! He released Tidier.jl in Jan 2023, basically R's {dplyr} for Julia, and with the help of OSS contributors, there are now 10+ packages in Julia that implement {tidyverse} packages! 🔥 Please RSVP for in-person event here: www.meetup.com/socal-rug/ev...

Tidier.jl: The Story Behind Rebuilding the {tidyverse} in Julia, Thu, Apr 24, 2025, 6:30 PM | Meetup

How far would you be willing to go to make {tidyverse} faster? Would you learn C? Would you learn C++? For the people and teams behind packages like {data.table} and {colla

www.meetup.com

3 7

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Apr 13

RSVP (for in-person only) is now live: meetu.ps/e/P1hJB/v02v...

Tidier.jl: The Story Behind Rebuilding the {tidyverse} in Julia, Thu, Apr 24, 2025, 6:30 PM | Meetup

How far would you be willing to go to make {tidyverse} faster? Would you learn C? Would you learn C++? For the people and teams behind packages like {data.table} and {colla

meetu.ps

3 5

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Mar 11

Today I learned about k3s... Cool stuff!

Heath Yates @heathyates.bsky.social · Mar 10

Check out my post on how to get started with k3s fast here:
www.heathyates.com/posts/gettin...

This is a no nonsense way to stand up a kubernetes cluster without worrying about the underlaying complexities of k8s.

Heath Yates - Getting Started with K3s Fast

www.heathyates.com

3

Reposted by Javier Orraca-Deatcu

Nathan Lombardi @lom.bsky.social · Jan 30

I've just found the best hack. Swear in your search request. It's a great way to bypass the AI summary and make your search history look like you're chronically pissed off at everything!

Throw a "fuck" or "fucking" into your search to bypass the AI Overview

71 2.2K 5.3K

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Jan 30

I presented these slides last night to Tech by the Beach (@nicmoe.bsky.social 🙏) and CSULB's MSIS graduate program. It was fun to highlight workflows and benefits with the Positron IDE, Quarto, Arrow, and more! This is not 100% mobile-optimized. #pystats #rstats #datascience rrr.is/BigDataTinyL...

1 2 11

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Jan 22

Just rented the independent #documentary Pistachio Wars. If you're interested in some of the history of #California #water rights, this is a phenomenal watch that exposes the greed behind the private hands that control so much of California's water for profit. gathr.com/vod/537d592b

Pistachio Wars - Video On Demand - Gathr

As Los Angeles burns, everyone wants to know…why do cities in California seem to constantly go up in flames? Investigative journalist Yasha Levine and filmmaker Rowan Wernham take a road trip into th...

gathr.com

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Jan 15

For me, it was definitely my years in consulting that ruined me. 😅

1

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Jan 15

This was great... I didn't understand these nuances. Thanks for sharing.

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Jan 15

My wife says the same whenever I need to put on my fancy pants and speak corporate jargon. 😆👔

1 2

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Jan 9

Meta trained Llama on copyrighted materials. But, didn't all mainstream GenAI model developers do the same? Not saying it's right, just feels obvious. Are we really surprised by any of this? techcrunch.com/2025/01/09/m...

Mark Zuckerberg gave Meta's Llama team the OK to train on copyrighted works, filing claims | TechCrunch

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave Meta's Llama team approval to train on copyrighted documents, according to a new court filing.

techcrunch.com

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Dec 31

FWIW, that sentiment feels like boomer rhetoric. My (very conservative) parents in their late 70s say this all the time: "Carter was the worst President ever but one of the best ex-Presidents." 🤷‍♂️

1

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Dec 19

My favorite is ollama: ollama.com

Ollama

Get up and running with large language models.

ollama.com

1

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Dec 10

SoCal friends! If you're using SQL, Python, and/or R for data processing and analysis, I'll be presenting some neat tools at CSULB in Jan 2025, including live demos with Positron, Quarto, Arrow, DuckDB, and Polars for processing huge data on your laptop. RSVP here: www.meetup.com/socal-rug/ev...

Big Data, Tiny Laptop, Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 6:00 PM | Meetup

Ever wonder how you can work with "bigger than RAM" datasets on your laptop’s memory without needing a supercomputer? Join us for this in-person approachable and practical

www.meetup.com

8 26

Javier Orraca-Deatcu @javierorracadeatcu.bsky.social · Dec 7

You're given a top-down directive to explore fine-tuning LLMs, building RAGs, or creating custom LLM endpoints using custom vector databases. Probably others but these are the main ones I can think of.

1