A deep dive into Cron, the five-field scheduler that powers recurring tasks across multi-user systems. We trace its evolution from the brutal minute-by-minute polling of early Unix, through System V’s discrete-event scheduling, to modern standards like Vixie Cron and the OpenCron Patterns Specification—explaining how the leap from “is it time yet?” to “when is the next event?” made scalable, reliable infrastructure possible. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mist...
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A deep dive into Cron, the five-field scheduler that powers recurring tasks across multi-user systems. We trace its evolution from the brutal minute-by-minute polling of early Unix, through System V’s discrete-event scheduling, to modern standards like Vixie Cron and the OpenCron Patterns Specification—explaining how the leap from “is it time yet?” to “when is the next event?” made scalable, reliable infrastructure possible. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mist...
Hidden Markov Models Made Simple: From Trash Cans to Hidden States
Intellectually Curious
5 minutes
4 days ago
Hidden Markov Models Made Simple: From Trash Cans to Hidden States
A friendly, intuitive tour of Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Using the relatable 'full trash bin means he's home' metaphor, we explore how to infer unseen states from noisy observations, learn the model parameters with Baum–Welch, and decode the most likely state sequence with the Viterbi algorithm. You’ll see how forward–backward smoothing combines evidence from past and future, and how these ideas power real-world AI—from speech recognition to gene finding and beyond. Note: This podcast was ...
Intellectually Curious
A deep dive into Cron, the five-field scheduler that powers recurring tasks across multi-user systems. We trace its evolution from the brutal minute-by-minute polling of early Unix, through System V’s discrete-event scheduling, to modern standards like Vixie Cron and the OpenCron Patterns Specification—explaining how the leap from “is it time yet?” to “when is the next event?” made scalable, reliable infrastructure possible. Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mist...
