Vikram Saraph
@vikramsaraph.com
Software engineer, AI/ML researcher, and mathematician 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.
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.
who needs strength training when you have an infant to carry around
January 17, 2026 at 2:29 PM
who needs strength training when you have an infant to carry around
I just talked to a stranger at an airport bus stop about Pascal code he wrote in the 90s to support government systems. Fascinating.
January 16, 2026 at 4:08 PM
I just talked to a stranger at an airport bus stop about Pascal code he wrote in the 90s to support government systems. Fascinating.
This is actually a great game to play together with a partner
I’ve seen Blue Prince in enough of my circles to play it again. Gonna give it a shot
January 15, 2026 at 11:36 PM
This is actually a great game to play together with a partner
Am I like the only one who *wasn't* affected by the Verizon outage? That's my carrier. I saw discussion of the outage in multiple different chats yesterday so I tried making a few calls. And it worked?
January 15, 2026 at 9:52 PM
Am I like the only one who *wasn't* affected by the Verizon outage? That's my carrier. I saw discussion of the outage in multiple different chats yesterday so I tried making a few calls. And it worked?
It was a birthday gift, but nonetheless I have it now. I guess I wasn’t expecting this but reading its docs is a lot easier after having read some things about RF and signal modulation?
It looks like there are many fun (and *legal*) things you can do with one.
It looks like there are many fun (and *legal*) things you can do with one.
I accidentally opened a package in the mail that was supposed to be a Christmas gift for me, oops 😬
I’m pretty sure it’s a Flipper Zero, which is awesome.
I’m pretty sure it’s a Flipper Zero, which is awesome.
January 15, 2026 at 3:13 PM
It was a birthday gift, but nonetheless I have it now. I guess I wasn’t expecting this but reading its docs is a lot easier after having read some things about RF and signal modulation?
It looks like there are many fun (and *legal*) things you can do with one.
It looks like there are many fun (and *legal*) things you can do with one.
I swear I’ve seen their logo around for years but had only taken notice in recent months of what it actually is!
Happy New Year from Puzzled Pint! 🎉 Our first set of 2026 will be based on the band Grateful Dead! 🤘 We hope to see you at an event on Tuesday, January 13.
January 13, 2026 at 3:45 AM
I swear I’ve seen their logo around for years but had only taken notice in recent months of what it actually is!
If this is in fact how Metric is choosing to announce a new album then I absolutely love it:
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
From the metricband community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the metricband community
www.reddit.com
January 13, 2026 at 2:30 AM
If this is in fact how Metric is choosing to announce a new album then I absolutely love it:
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
www.reddit.com/r/metricband...
I wish I didn’t know the word “perfidy” but I guess I do now
January 13, 2026 at 1:25 AM
I wish I didn’t know the word “perfidy” but I guess I do now
AI has gotten really good at theorem proving: axiommath.ai/territory/fr...
Axiom’s prover supposedly solved all 12 of 2025’s Putnam problems correctly. Source code: github.com/AxiomMath/Pu...
Axiom’s prover supposedly solved all 12 of 2025’s Putnam problems correctly. Source code: github.com/AxiomMath/Pu...
January 12, 2026 at 4:01 AM
AI has gotten really good at theorem proving: axiommath.ai/territory/fr...
Axiom’s prover supposedly solved all 12 of 2025’s Putnam problems correctly. Source code: github.com/AxiomMath/Pu...
Axiom’s prover supposedly solved all 12 of 2025’s Putnam problems correctly. Source code: github.com/AxiomMath/Pu...
I’ve seen Blue Prince in enough of my circles to play it again. Gonna give it a shot
January 11, 2026 at 8:54 PM
I’ve seen Blue Prince in enough of my circles to play it again. Gonna give it a shot
Reposted by Vikram Saraph
January 11, 2026 at 10:19 AM
This took more effort but it was still all prompting with ChatGPT 5.2. Completely vibe coded, though I did have to point it to the relevant papers for it to understand what to do.
I couldn't have imagined doing this before. Makes me want to try out Claude Code.
I couldn't have imagined doing this before. Makes me want to try out Claude Code.
January 11, 2026 at 3:24 AM
This took more effort but it was still all prompting with ChatGPT 5.2. Completely vibe coded, though I did have to point it to the relevant papers for it to understand what to do.
I couldn't have imagined doing this before. Makes me want to try out Claude Code.
I couldn't have imagined doing this before. Makes me want to try out Claude Code.
Does art that's generated by code that's generated by AI count as AI art?
anyways, this is evidence enough to me that AI has significantly improved over the last year. I was able to one-shot-prompt a Python script to make this visualization...
anyways, this is evidence enough to me that AI has significantly improved over the last year. I was able to one-shot-prompt a Python script to make this visualization...
January 10, 2026 at 8:47 PM
Does art that's generated by code that's generated by AI count as AI art?
anyways, this is evidence enough to me that AI has significantly improved over the last year. I was able to one-shot-prompt a Python script to make this visualization...
anyways, this is evidence enough to me that AI has significantly improved over the last year. I was able to one-shot-prompt a Python script to make this visualization...
Okay, clearly I still have a lot to learn about home networking.
Not being able to block websites by hostname make sense to me after reading a bit about it, but I thought I'd be able to block a specific IP address? It looks like Netgear routers don't typically let you do that.
Not being able to block websites by hostname make sense to me after reading a bit about it, but I thought I'd be able to block a specific IP address? It looks like Netgear routers don't typically let you do that.
January 8, 2026 at 5:17 AM
Okay, clearly I still have a lot to learn about home networking.
Not being able to block websites by hostname make sense to me after reading a bit about it, but I thought I'd be able to block a specific IP address? It looks like Netgear routers don't typically let you do that.
Not being able to block websites by hostname make sense to me after reading a bit about it, but I thought I'd be able to block a specific IP address? It looks like Netgear routers don't typically let you do that.
Reposted by Vikram Saraph
Please welcome Google's Open Source efforts to Blue Sky at @opensource.google!
January 7, 2026 at 9:12 PM
Please welcome Google's Open Source efforts to Blue Sky at @opensource.google!
There are once again predictions on manifold.markets about the upcoming MIT Mystery Hunt (full disclosure: I don't actually know much about how manifold.markets works)
January 8, 2026 at 3:58 AM
There are once again predictions on manifold.markets about the upcoming MIT Mystery Hunt (full disclosure: I don't actually know much about how manifold.markets works)
Glassblowing is super fun! I glassblew(?) this lil bird on vacation in Santa Fe.
January 8, 2026 at 3:37 AM
Glassblowing is super fun! I glassblew(?) this lil bird on vacation in Santa Fe.
Today was the last day of JMM and I’m glad I had the chance to go as well as present. I spent most of the day at the applied category theory session.
January 8, 2026 at 1:58 AM
Today was the last day of JMM and I’m glad I had the chance to go as well as present. I spent most of the day at the applied category theory session.
@typst.app got a mention at the special session on applied category theory at #jmm2026 today. One of the presentations was beautifully rendered in it.
I’ve played around with it only a bit but can attest to the fact that is amazing (and concise).
I’ve played around with it only a bit but can attest to the fact that is amazing (and concise).
January 7, 2026 at 11:04 PM
@typst.app got a mention at the special session on applied category theory at #jmm2026 today. One of the presentations was beautifully rendered in it.
I’ve played around with it only a bit but can attest to the fact that is amazing (and concise).
I’ve played around with it only a bit but can attest to the fact that is amazing (and concise).
I learned of this amusing paper at the special session on applied category theory today: arxiv.org/abs/2203.16351
Actegories for the Working Amthematician
Actions of monoidal categories on categories, also known as actegories, have been familiar to category theorists for a long time, and yet a comprehensive overview of this topic seems to be missing fro...
arxiv.org
January 7, 2026 at 10:49 PM
I learned of this amusing paper at the special session on applied category theory today: arxiv.org/abs/2203.16351
This is also true of Math StackExchange:
data.stackexchange.com/math/query/e...
I remember when I first asked ChatGPT to prove a theorem and it did poorly. LLMs have gotten much better at writing correct proofs since then. I have to wonder how math professors deal with this as they assign homework
data.stackexchange.com/math/query/e...
I remember when I first asked ChatGPT to prove a theorem and it did poorly. LLMs have gotten much better at writing correct proofs since then. I have to wonder how math professors deal with this as they assign homework
January 7, 2026 at 3:25 AM
This is also true of Math StackExchange:
data.stackexchange.com/math/query/e...
I remember when I first asked ChatGPT to prove a theorem and it did poorly. LLMs have gotten much better at writing correct proofs since then. I have to wonder how math professors deal with this as they assign homework
data.stackexchange.com/math/query/e...
I remember when I first asked ChatGPT to prove a theorem and it did poorly. LLMs have gotten much better at writing correct proofs since then. I have to wonder how math professors deal with this as they assign homework
I bought these two dice today at JMM
January 7, 2026 at 12:55 AM
I bought these two dice today at JMM
…and of course I accidentally left my water bottle somewhere at the convention center 🫠 may go hunting for it tomorrow.
January 6, 2026 at 10:54 PM
…and of course I accidentally left my water bottle somewhere at the convention center 🫠 may go hunting for it tomorrow.
meetings.ams.org/math/jmm2026...
This one was about how Benford-ness is more likely to appear in music when considering numbers in base 8.
This one was about how Benford-ness is more likely to appear in music when considering numbers in base 8.
<p>The Case for Base-8: A Novel Way to Apply Benford’s Law to Music</p>
Benford’s Law predicts a skewed distribution of leading digits in many naturall...
meetings.ams.org
January 6, 2026 at 8:13 PM
meetings.ams.org/math/jmm2026...
This one was about how Benford-ness is more likely to appear in music when considering numbers in base 8.
This one was about how Benford-ness is more likely to appear in music when considering numbers in base 8.
meetings.ams.org/math/jmm2026...
At this talk right now. They used Python code to analyze musical waveforms. Used this Python library: librosa.org
At this talk right now. They used Python code to analyze musical waveforms. Used this Python library: librosa.org
Librosa
Librosa : audio and music processing in Python
librosa.org
January 6, 2026 at 6:51 PM
meetings.ams.org/math/jmm2026...
At this talk right now. They used Python code to analyze musical waveforms. Used this Python library: librosa.org
At this talk right now. They used Python code to analyze musical waveforms. Used this Python library: librosa.org