devShark

I am home-schooling my kid. He shares my interest in math and CS, and he's really good at it.

I've been cheering him on a path towards academic success in these 2 fields. In parts because I am not much use at anything else, in parts because he likes it, in parts because that's where I found some measure of success in life.

However, I can't go through a day without reading another article about how AI solved an Erdös problem previously unsolved by humans[1], is getting gold medals at International Mathematical Olympiads[2], is replacing coders at Microsoft[3] and even architects[4].

This makes me really question what I am doing.

Sure, people tell me what matters is training your brain, it's never about the skill itself, but learning to learn, etc... Maybe that's right, but somehow, I can't shake the feeling that I am setting my kid on a path that leads directly into a solid brick wall.

What are the alternatives though?

Play video games all day long and wait for Universal Basic Income to kick in?

Encourage him to pivot towards humanities subject he has no strong interest in, that I would not be great at teaching, and that I've been taught young do not lead to great job opportunities?

Forget math and CS, and teach him how to build and run businesses, banning the reading of any article that shows AI might also be taking this over?

Close my eyes, do not listen to this feeling inside, and continue to teach python generators and linear algebra?

Does anyone have any suggestion, or random comment?

[1]: https://officechai.com/ai/gpt-5-2-and-harmonic-appear-to-have-autonomously-solved-an-erdos-problem-that-had-been-unsolved-by-humans-thus-far/

[2]: https://intuitionlabs.ai/articles/ai-reasoning-math-olympiad-imo

[3]: https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/29/microsoft-ceo-says-up-to-30-of-the-companys-code-was-written-by-ai/

[4]: https://x.com/rakyll/status/2007239758158975130

Located in Europe. I uninstalled the Uber app from an iPhone (thus erasing the app and all its documents) and restarted the iPhone. I then went to the website and deleted the account entirely

I wanted to double check that Uber had properly deleted the account. I reinstalled the app, which opens on the sign up page, and clickd at the bottom "Find my account".

Suprise! (or not) Uber recalled exactly my account.

I tried to swap the sim and change the wifi, it still did the same.

The phone has no personalized ad enabled (so does not send an IDFA).

I deleted other apps from the same Team ID (Uber Eat).

The only legit way to "track" a device, as far as I know, is DeviceCheck's DCDevice. But this only stores 2 bits, certainly all the info Uber had.

It's painfully hard to escape BigTech's surveillance...

Hence my question: Is Uber illegally tracking devices, and if so anyone has ideas how?

I need to build a simple website to share a project that I have, that evolves around advocating for some social change, and involves open source code.

My initial thought was to use a simple website builder like Wix or squarespace, and include a forum plugin to try and create a community.

The main reason I thought about this instead of wordpress is because I do not want the hassle of having to update the code every now and then. These website builders are very secure, as far as I know.

However, I stumbled upon the option of hosting a static website on github pages, using jekyll, and using github discussions as a forum.

Can anyone opine on whether that's a good idea? Specifically, can I be very confident that there is no security flaw, and that I have no requirement to update my code, as long as it's hosted on github pages?

Any advice and comment welcome, thanks!

At work, I need to work with 3 laptops (3 mac book pros).

My employer is happy to pay for whatever hardware or software to make it easier.

What setup should I go for?

I thought about the following options

1) my current setup I simply have the 3 laptops sitting on the desk, and 1 screen. I move one laptop to the center of the desk, unplug the hdmi cable to the screen of the other laptop, and plug it in the laptop I want to use. This is a bit unwieldy, and there's a lot of unplugging/replugging

2) 1 keyboard, 1 trackpad, 1 screen A better option might be to have 1 external keyboard, 1 external trackpad, 1 screen. Laptops would stay on the side of the desk, and I would have a little hardware box on which I click a button that says which laptop the screen/keyboard/trackpad are linked to. Does such a box even exist? Does it make sense?

There are probably good options that I am missing. I'd be grateful for any thoughts. Thanks!

I need to perform certain sensitive operations on my computer (access important bank account, sensitive passwords, etc). I currently have 1 mac, and my approach is to not install any closed source software.

This approach is very limiting though, as there are many closed-source software that would greatly improve my productivity, and some are straight necessary for some of my business activities.

So I am currently considering purchasing another mac and performing only sensitive operations on one (with only open source or highly trusted programs), and other tasks on the other (with a lower level of trust in installed programs).

However the downside is that managing two computers probably adds a significant complexity. Is there a better way to achieve this? Thanks!

Like everyone else, as I grow older, I have more and more responsibilities. So I started to use calendar apps on my phone, backed up via a cloud service.

I have the uncomfortable feeling that this is not very "safe". I feel I can easily miss a notification, and miss an important task (e.g. filling tax).

I am not clear exactly on what I should implement, but I have a feeling I should have a system where I 1) acknowledge the task to be done, and 2) record it as being done. The system would be able to nag me more if I do not ack, or do not do it.

I also feel a little uncomfortable with the way that calendar/tasks app are managing recurring tasks and linked tasks. For example for filling taxes, I have a list of tasks to be performed ahead of time every year. These apps allow recurring tasks and "next task" but the way it is done does not really feel robust, and can easily be missed.

I am on iOS, which compounds the problem, as apps cannot trigger a real alarm from the clock app. At best, it is a notification, which is easily missed.

There are many smart people reading this website, and I thought I would pick their brains. I would welcome any idea, from readily available open source code, to simple specs or ideas to solve this question. Thanks!