James Lavin Rambles On

LLMs (large language models) are changing the world.

This “blog post” is just a collection of resources for learning Svelte 5.

AIs and robots are quickly becoming powerful Humanity is currently creating “artificial intelligences.”

“If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” – Stephen Stills song, “Love the One You’re With” JavaScript is the cockroach language of The Internet Age.

I’ve long debated with myself – and occasionally others – the morality of certain jobs in modern America.

My first four “Jazz I Love"s – #1, #2, #3, and #4 – were assorted jazz recordings from the past few decades. #5 focused on 1960s jazz, #6 on piano jazz and #7 trombone.

I’m excited to announce GuessTheUS.com, a challenging quiz on important topics regarding current American government, law, and economics.

The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time.

UPDATE: After I received a $140 bill for half a day’s use of Gemini 2.5 Pro, I spent days going back-and-forth with Google Support, and they eventually kindly cut the bill to a fraction of the original charge.

For many years, I’ve been a programming machine, obsessively churning out code that powers my employers.

A lifetime ago, I discovered my life’s calling… Well, it would have, could have, should have been my life’s calling… Unfortunately, the US government literally blew up my plan!

With a son in college and a daughter applying this fall, it’s time to share my advice on how NOT to pursue a PhD because I’m an expert.

In my September 2023 post “Xi Jinping has ruined China”, I wrote: Since Xi expelled foreign journalists for doing their jobs, I’ve been struggling to find quality, unbiased coverage of China, since much English-language coverage of China comes directly fr…

UPDATE: I shouldn’t have used my family members’ names in this.

In 2024, I “read” – mostly listened to – far fewer books than in 2023.

After watching a flood of reports about “drones” flying over New Jersey and – increasingly – other neighboring states, I stepped into the cold night air Friday, December 13th – yes, Friday the 13th!

2024-09-28 update: I still remember how stressed my dad was the morning he drove me to college 37 years ago.

About two years ago, I experienced intense pain in my lower right abdomen during a walk.

A few updates: I normally sleep on my side, and a single piece of tape sufficed.

My first four “Jazz I Love"s – #1, #2, #3, and #4 – were assorted jazz recordings from the past few decades. #5 focused on 1960s jazz and #6 on piano jazz.

My first four “Jazz I Love"s – #1, #2, #3, and #4 – were assorted jazz recordings from the past few decades. #5 focused on 1960s jazz.

Before the pandemic, Christopher Rim’s average client would apply to 12 schools.

Here are some recordings I’ve made since February (mostly in April, I think).

“Jazz” is hard to define because it’s fluid and ever-evolving.

Three new recordings reflecting my growth – I hope – since beginning to learn piano about eight months ago.

Trombone-heavy list this time….

This is the third installment of my hopefully endless series of jazz/bluegrass/bossa nova/Afro-Cuban/etc. recommendations.

I read quite a few books in 2023, mostly as audiobooks while making coffee, taking long walks, doing laundry, raking leaves, watering the lawn, showering, washing dishes, preparing lunch, brushing my teeth, shoveling snow (ominously little of that these p…

In June, I committed to practicing piano at least fifteen minutes a day for the rest of my life.

I’m blessed to live in a safe, walkable town with plenty of trees, good sidewalks, a pretty downtown, and several lovely parks.

Six months ago, I bought a Yamaha DGX-670 – which I’m very happy with – and committed to spending 15+ minutes a day for the rest of my life learning piano.

NOVA’s “Ancient Earth” I yesterday discovered a fascinating new NOVA science series, “Ancient Earth,” which presents scientists’ best understanding of our amazing planet’s 4.5 billion-year history.

This is the second installment of my hopefully endless series of jazz/bluegrass/bossa nova/Afro-Cuban/etc. recommendations.

You can find additional music videos in this series at: (Jazz I love (2/?))

I really enjoyed this fact-filled conversation about education, friendships, community/neighborhoods, inequality, social and geographic mobility, role models, and college admissions between NYU professor Scott Galloway and Harvard professor Raj Chetty: I…

Aside from the thousands of Chinese protestors – possibly 10,000 – murdered by the CCP in the Tiananmen Massacre, I long admired post-Deng Xiaoping China and its pragmatic approach to economic growth that lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of pove…

According to the United States Federal Reserve: The bottom 50% of Americans own 5.9% of America’s wealth The bottom 90% of Americans own 36.1% of America’s wealth The bottom 99% of Americans own 71.7% of America’s wealth The bottom 99.9% of Americans own…

I majored in government in college, then got my PhD in economics.

October 1, 2023 update: PCWorld ran a long article praising KeePassXC: “KeePassXC: The friendlier free offline password manager” My neighborhood held a fun block party last night.

September 4th note: I began this essay June 30th to rage against our radically right-wing Supreme Court’s absurd and offensive ruling that the US Constitution permits discrimination against LGBTQ people.

[Jerry Seinfeld told me] the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

(2023-09-02 update: I want to recommend three great books I’ve read since posting this: Humanocracy: Creating Organizations As Amazing As the People Inside Them by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Cr…

Motorola funded a study which involved rewriting a telecommunication system used by the emergency services from C++ to Erlang, focusing on productivity gains.

For many years, Optimum.com has held a monopoly over high-speed Internet service in my area, so we’ve been stuck with them.

Congress has recently considered banning unruly passengers from flying on commercial planes.

(Source: Robert Reich, The Biggest Economic Lies We’re Told) There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning. – Warren Buffett (Source: Jon Schwarz, The Murder of the U.S.

9/4/23 update: I loved (despite its gore) Utopia.

I enjoyed blogging till I fell hard for Twitter, circa 2010.

Wasn’t The Internet Supposed to Unleash an Innovation Explosion?