Posts by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
(DIR) Post #AYVScWWRMvQp3cspk0 by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-07T22:39:57Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Hey. I was banned from types.pl for having interviewed at the NSA 13 years ago, when I was 20 years old. I'm grateful for a new home on mathstodon.I am very unhappy with anyone who is going after the types.pl moderators personally for this and not just respectfully discussing the situation, and I'm personally extremely sorry if my Tweet inspired any of those actions. If I see this at all I will be escalating to SIGPLAN CARES.In a recent post I mentioned working with the department of defense as faculty. I mean that in two capacities: (1) receiving DARPA grants for verification work, and (2) organizing a workshop through the department of defense on the security risks of generative AI for code. I am always public about this with students, and I always ask students before funding them on DARPA grants, making it clear I will source funding elsewhere if the student strongly opposes defense funding. This is the kind of thing I wanted to discuss after seeing Oppenheimer; I'm a bit bummed that instead I got banned for a post about something that happened 13 years ago, when I was not in the PL community at all, and basically lived under a rock with respect to everything except math, Dance Dance Revolution, and competitive running. I also recognize that server admins can make and enforce their own rules. I still wish I could have just received notice to port my account so that I could have kept my followers.Anyways, hi, please help me rebuild my friend network here.
(DIR) Post #AYVScZCLQ68hMAVKKm by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-07T23:13:38Z
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I mentioned in that post that the war in Ukraine had changed my views about my ties with the department of defense in my capacity as faculty. This is true. I used to feel very torn about accepting any money from the department of defense for my verification work, or giving the department of defense advice about anything related to my research area of expertise, but recently I have been a lot less torn because of this war. My point with the previous post was that maybe feeling a lot less torn is shortsighted on my part. Maybe this was obvious to a lot of people, but it wasn't obvious to me.
(DIR) Post #AYVScbYOf4y2f8pxz6 by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-07T23:19:22Z
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In particular, I went into this movie expecting to hate Oppenheimer. I instead found that I related to him a lot. That scared me, and made me think more about what this means for me right now as a researcher. It is something I need to sit with for a while, and I wanted to express that.
(DIR) Post #AYVSceCsnWXatHnKMq by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-07T23:24:37Z
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I probably could have been more eloquent at expressing this. I was also having a lot of feelings and just wanted to quickly get those feelings into words before going to sleep. I assume for some reason this led to folks digging into my past and finding the post about the NSA interview which mentioned a fun math puzzle. I maintain that this was the coolest interview question I ever had to answer, even though I'm also glad I didn't go work for the NSA. My research in undergraduate was in elliptic curve cryptology, and pretty much everyone around me interviewed with or went to work for the NSA; among math majors at Maryland in the pre-Snowden days, this was considered a prestigious and honorable thing to do. That sounds incredibly weird to me in retrospect, but it's also true.
(DIR) Post #AYVScgm3FjrQqwGRSi by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-07T23:26:30Z
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Anyways, if you're going to dig through my past, here's my undergraduate honors thesis (under Larry Washington) if you'd like a bit of entertainment: http://honors.cs.umd.edu/reports/ringer.pdf
(DIR) Post #AYxqjrjVRuEhKp1UXY by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-21T15:37:51Z
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How do I tell my undergrad students in my class this semester that I have ADHD and can basically never handle folks showing up at random times outside of planned meeting hours because I can't handle that much task switching
(DIR) Post #AYzyJzNxYwt1UN2L9U by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-22T19:25:52Z
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OK, I survived. It was a bit overwhelming, but also fun at the same time? In particular I saw students get interested in/excited about the fact that, without any special syntax, you can (1) partially apply functions to produce new functions, and (2) assign variables to the result of proper conditional expressions. I did note those are two of the features I often miss the most when working in more mainstream languages.
(DIR) Post #AZ09JwMnsvalcefvvM by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2023-08-22T21:30:43Z
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@jbowen OCaml
(DIR) Post #AaDl6dr51yiA9WugmO by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2023-09-26T20:02:43Z
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Here is a list of resources for folks getting started with or working in AI for Math that I shared as part of the National Academies webinar just now. Please contribute to it if you have anything to add! It is open for suggestions and comments!https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kD7H4E28656ua8jOGZ934nbH2HcBLyxcRgFDduH5iQ0/edit?usp=sharing
(DIR) Post #AvYwHQGIu4J4LMFzcG by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2025-06-27T17:09:56Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Every so often I remember math exists, and then I can't think about anything else for days or weeks at a time until I remember this is why I could not handle being a pure mathematician
(DIR) Post #Ay2NL5LiydY0IAudFY by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2025-09-09T17:35:35Z
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Handed out some planar graphs to PhD students in class today when discussing the Four Color Theorem and its relevance to the history of computer-assisted proof
(DIR) Post #AyhOOdTRZjg64pcMAy by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2025-09-29T12:47:52Z
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My husband has gotten really into making espresso. So I bought him a coffee roasting machine for his birthday to take it to the next level, but now it turns out I really enjoy doing the roasting myself (even though I can't have much caffeine right now). Tips and good green coffee sources appreciated.
(DIR) Post #AzIncDqHMBHiL3OJpA by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2025-10-17T13:15:30Z
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Finally reached week 10 in Osaka (barely)
(DIR) Post #AzIncMPJVo3wu1qPXk by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2025-10-17T13:18:38Z
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That's an outer shinkansen loop, an inner subway loop, and three connecting vein lines
(DIR) Post #AzIncVJcOLr2WyFUPo by TaliaRinger@mathstodon.xyz
2025-10-17T13:19:51Z
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Square is a central station and interchange