A truly important question

[benchwarmer]

The other day I had a great cookie. It made me forget all the debating and arguing that I've found myself getting involved in. Maybe good cookies are the answer to all our problems!

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 1 by benchwarmer]

If cookies remain soft and chewy long after they've been out of the oven, they clearly contain mercury, nuclear waste, or some other similar unhealthy additive to maintain a false sense of freshness. My uncle's brother worked for a cookie factory and he swears that some contain both!

[Divine Insight]

I prefer network cookies.

I've just recently gotten back into programming. I started working on an A.I. robot a while back and life had a nasty way of pulling me away from that. I've been getting back into it and it has been providing me with my "escape from reality".

Programming is truly fascinating. I'm working with C, C++, C# and Python. All on different machines. I have notebook computers talking with Raspberry Pi cards and the Raspberry Pi cards are talking with Arduino boards. I just order a couple FPGA boards and I'll be programming them using VHDL. It's all just lovely.

These are my "cookies", or "bag of candy" if you like.

Although I guess I need to confess my sin of over-eating actual Oreos too. In fact, I'm just on my way out to pick up some more.

[benchwarmer]

[Replying to post 1 by benchwarmer]

If cookies remain soft and chewy long after they've been out of the oven, they clearly contain mercury, nuclear waste, or some other similar unhealthy additive to maintain a false sense of freshness. My uncle's brother worked for a cookie factory and he swears that some contain both!

Not if they are home made with the right recipe! The trick is getting the right butter/flour ratio and making them thick enough to begin with. True, they don't remain soft for too long (maybe up to a week if properly sealed), but they are usually gone by then.

[benchwarmer]

I prefer network cookies.

I've just recently gotten back into programming. I started working on an A.I. robot a while back and life had a nasty way of pulling me away from that. I've been getting back into it and it has been providing me with my "escape from reality".

Programming is truly fascinating. I'm working with C, C++, C# and Python. All on different machines. I have notebook computers talking with Raspberry Pi cards and the Raspberry Pi cards are talking with Arduino boards. I just order a couple FPGA boards and I'll be programming them using VHDL. It's all just lovely.

These are my "cookies", or "bag of candy" if you like.

Although I guess I need to confess my sin of over-eating actual Oreos too. In fact, I'm just on my way out to pick up some more.

My day job is programming (C/C++/SystemVerilog/Perl) so I understand the fascination. Careful you don't eat too many of those network cookies, they can leave a bad taste in your mouth

Oh, and enjoy the Oreos. Double stuff or regular? Sounds like another poll question.

[Tcg]

Not if they are home made with the right recipe! The trick is getting the right butter/flour ratio and making them thick enough to begin with. True, they don't remain soft for too long (maybe up to a week if properly sealed), but they are usually gone by then.

Wait! You can make cookies at home? Sounds great.

[Divine Insight]

My day job is programming (C/C++/SystemVerilog/Perl) so I understand the fascination.

I'm not so sure I would enjoy it as much as a job. The beauty of it for me right now is that I'm retired and doing it entirely as a hobby. So I get to work on projects that interest me, and I get to do it "My Way".

I'm really getting back into it for the purpose of studying A.I. purely for my own personal curiosity and satisfaction. I actually have quite a few ideas on A.I. and I'm discovering that it's nowhere near too late to get back into it.

On thing that I have come to realize is that the real way to go in A.I. is analog. Now it might seem that programming in languages like C, C++, C# and Python don't have much to do with analogy computers, and technically they don't. None the less models can be created in these languages that can later be converted to analogy systems, and that's where my true interest lies.

The FPGA's are so inexpensive anymore than they are totally within my reach now. This is something that wasn't true a mere decade ago.

Of course FPGA's don't represent true analog systems, in fact one might argue that they are totally digital systems. But they are actually a half-way step between analog and digital. Something that has sparked my interest.

I the idea situation would be to have FPNN's (Field Programmable Neural Networks), but they haven't invented them yet. Actually they would be easy to make but no one is manufacturing them. They haven't realized that this is the way to go yet.

None the less FPGA's present a stepping stone in the right direction. So I'm excited about it.

Sorry for getting off topic from the cookies.

But for me, all this technology is "Sweet Stuff".

Especially now that it has become within the reach of the financially not-so-well-off.

I might even be able to build my own FPNN of sorts. I'm sure I could, but it might be a bit large in comparison with what a manufacturer could do. In fact, I'm sure a manufacturer could build a FPNN as small as a FPGA in size. I would need to build it from discrete parts so mine will be quite a bit larger.

In any case, I'm deciding now whether I want to have milk, tea, or beer with my FPGA cookies.

Or maybe some red wine? So many choices.