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Vikram Seraph 🪽

@vikramsaraph.com

1.2K followers 550 following 1.3K posts

Software engineer and AI/ML researcher at Johns Hopkins APL. Former New Englander, current Marylander. Brown CS PhD and Notre Dame math alum. Nerd of sorts (computers, math, language, puzzles, games, books, music). Opinions are my own.

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Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 6h

also advertising this website which has been around for some time: puzzlehuntcalendar.com

though I feel like I've seen a lot of online hunts, not listed on this website, that I only know of because I'm in several puzzle Discord servers and they're advertised that way

Puzzle Hunt Calendar

puzzlehuntcalendar.com

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 6h

I'd also signed up for helping build the website, but ran out of time since I'm currently teaching a course (and being a parent of an infant is time consuming, who knew 🤪)

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 6h

Members of Team Providence wrote this hunt. I personally helped test solve some puzzles and is the first time I've actually contributed to the development of a puzzlehunt.

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 6h

The pre-hunt to the MIT Mystery Hunt, which this year is being called MIT Mystery Hatch, will be starting in just a couple days online and is open to the general public! It ran a few days ago for MIT teams only.

www.mitmysteryhatch.com

The M.I.T. Mystery Hatch

www.mitmysteryhatch.com

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 9h

I’ve had those days too

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 9h

No one yet has *explicitly* told me “hmm you post a lot on Bluesky” but some have indirectly referenced my activity

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 9h

Can confirm @elfprince13.mumak.app frequently posts pictures of his apparently massive back yard

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 9h

The vaguest of vagueposting

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 10h

Apparently I login to Bluesky to learn how big the moon was.

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 13h

Brown however did get on my radar as a school to apply to because I’m friends with someone I met through RuneScape who was an undergrad at Brown at the time, and also another person who lived the the Providence area (also part of the same online circle)

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 13h

Nice, I asked my wife out over text message and then threw my phone away but I don’t think that’s the same thing 😂

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 15h

Professionally though, I’m trying better to use social media to my advantage. I think I’m getting better at that

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 15h

It can be good for people who tend to be shy or socially avoidant (me)

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 15h

Otherwise, I’ve (re)connected with people from college via Facebook comments or messenger. I can attribute at least one long term friendship originally to a comment I made on a Facebook post

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 15h

I’ve visited him in London and he’s visited me (among others) in NYC. I’ve made a network of friends/contacts that way by posting a lot on video game forums (a while ago now; we live on a discord server today)

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 15h

This is maybe going to sound unconventional, but my longest lasting, most durable friendship is with a person across the ocean in the UK, a guy I met playing RuneScape

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 15h

This is on my reading list (Incorrectness Logic): dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 1d

I think one of the most significant changes is support for something called free threading. I know there’s been discussion of eliminating the GIL for some time now and I think this is supposed to be a step in that direction, not entirely sure though

docs.python.org/3/howto/free...

Python support for free threading

Starting with the 3.13 release, CPython has support for a build of Python called free threading where the global interpreter lock(GIL) is disabled. Free-threaded execution allows for full utilizati...

docs.python.org

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 1d

docs.python.org/3.14/whatsne...

Python 3.14 (pi) is here!

What’s new in Python 3.14

Editors, Adam Turner and Hugo van Kemenade,. This article explains the new features in Python 3.14, compared to 3.13. Python 3.14 was released on 7 October 2025. For full details, see the changelog...

docs.python.org

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 2d

quoted in this book (and also apparently several other places online): browncs1951x.github.io/static/files...

browncs1951x.github.io

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 2d

"No junk, no confusion" is an interesting expression that I've never heard before: mathoverflow.net/questions/16...

Formalizing "no junk, no confusion"

Goguen has popularized the initial algebra view of semantics via his "no junk, no confusion" slogan. By "no junk", he means that models of a theory presentation should not have unnecessary element...

mathoverflow.net

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 2d

We will definitely be scheming 😈 I'll let you know!

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 2d

There *should* be 34 states here if I counted right btw

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 2d

Phoenix was among the three we were deciding among Portland, Seattle, and Phoenix (I personally hadn't been to any of their respective states; wife is already at like 45+ states).

AZ is very high up my list next. That, and ME (don't ask me how I never went to Maine while up there for 7 years...)

Vikram Seraph 🪽 @vikramsaraph.com · 2d

continental states (obviously excluding AK and HI)