iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Lots of online chatter about AI tools leading to productivity gains. In this note, I write about how these tools helped me transform my personal fitness, and to do so sustainably. Thanks for the help, @anthropic.com! www.abrahamasfaw.com/blog/grad-st...

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Reposted by Abraham Asfaw

Riverlane @riverlane.com · 17/06/2025

Obsessed with #QEC & reaching FTQC? 🙋‍♀️ Us too! But something else is brewing at Riverlane... As quantum computers scale, there's a problem... Not enough software! 💻 That's why we're building an amazing team with Liz Durst (ex Qiskit) & TWO new folks! 🎉 🔗 www.riverlane.com/press-releas...

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

linkedin dark pattern: launch a new "regroup" of notification settings, and enable all of them by default including the ones you turned off in the past

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

I agree! But I would argue Encarta didn't know how to do things, just contained a number of curated articles on a list of selected topics. It feels like these new models are somewhere else on the tradeoff between accuracy and getting a first draft out quickly.

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!! YOU REMEMBER!!!

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encarta for anyone curious about what Encarta looked like

en.wikipedia.org

Encarta - Wikipedia

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

5/5 My childhood excitement to see next year's Encarta and whatever new knowledge it included is now replaced by a fascination to see what the next models will enable.

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

4/5 Today, I can run a 70 GB model locally and still have that kind of access to the world's knowledge without need for internet. What a fascinating time to be alive. It's amazing that all of Encarta can be "replaced" by a bunch of model weights.

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

3/5 At the time, a home computer was 1-10 GB HDD and 256/512 MB RAM. Encarta was slow, but it contained the world of information in multiple discs. Without internet access, it gave access to all the knowledge of the world.

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

2/5 You would search "Ethiopia" and read an article about it, and then when you search "vacuum tubes" - it would say "insert CD 3" and then you'd read that article. A whole new world of learning. It felt like you could learn about anything.

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

1/5 When I was a little kid first starting to use computers (with very little internet access), the computers were interesting but v boring in retrospect. One of the gems was a 5 or 6 CD program called Encarta encyclopedia that contained basically "everything" about the world.

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Today is Ethiopian Christmas, my favorite holiday of the year. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate today!

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

lol just replied there and then saw this. here's to 2025 and more quantum in things...

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

i'm so sorry for what i'm about to expose you to but here you go. "quantum rng chip"

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

On the other platform, immigration is the hot topic. On this one, my feed looks like a mix of "in a promising new research avenue, quantum computers will be used to test the quantumness of consciousness" and "the new samsung galaxy will be quantum"

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

I think the argument is tight packing in the grout area -> less air flow -> larger heat capacity -> longer time to melt compared to ground level where there is less tight packing.

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Agree, this is the way with overleaf. I'm personally too married to my local vim latex workflow

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

one that I remember most: \begin{itemize} \item stuff \end{itemize} \\stuffafteritemize % attempt to put a new line after itemize will work on overleaf

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

My experience with overleaf: it lets you compile even when there are blatant errors in your tex. That's risky because on a day like today, if you try to compile locally it won't work. When the collaborative features are not needed, I don't see the point of using it compared with a local installation

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

i'm sorry for both of us enduring this movie!

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

And that it will make AI way faster... to the point of autonomous fighter jets

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

I've got one more for you. They said "there's no blood in those quantum veins" about saving the plane from a predicament

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Movie I'm watching now, cast talking about a new special fighter jet. Pilot: "I know a little bit about this. It's quantum processin', right?" Tech guy: "Yeah, it's the first tested application. Ten terabits a second." And then they just move on...

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

You got this! Thanks for bringing the great stories of quantum to light :)

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

testing the #quantumsky hashtag by recommending that people listen to the quantum era podcast

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Abraham Asfaw @abrahamasfaw.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

i think quantum people may be moving here en masse this time...

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