https://matfacer.com/ Recent content on Mat's Mind Dump https://matfacer.com/og-default.jpg https://matfacer.com/og-default.jpg Hugo en-us Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/switching-from-pycharm-to-vscode-with-uv/ Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/switching-from-pycharm-to-vscode-with-uv/ Why I moved from PyCharm to VS Code, and the uv-based workflow — solving a Maya environment-isolation problem along the way — that finally made it click. https://matfacer.com/posts/sympy-to-solve-a-low-level-ml-training-loop/ Fri, 26 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/sympy-to-solve-a-low-level-ml-training-loop/ Using SymPy's symbolic differentiation to hand-build backpropagation for a from-scratch training loop targeting on-device iOS training. https://matfacer.com/posts/the-best-pycharm-mayapy-interpreter-setup/ Thu, 16 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/the-best-pycharm-mayapy-interpreter-setup/ Configuring PyCharm with MayaPy and Autodesk's stub files for full autocomplete and a slick Maya unit-testing workflow. https://matfacer.com/posts/coredata-swift-scalar-optionals/ Sat, 22 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/coredata-swift-scalar-optionals/ CoreData doesn't support optional scalar types like Double — here's a clean workaround for optional numeric fields in a SwiftUI input form. https://matfacer.com/posts/my-swiftui-currency-field/ Wed, 12 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/my-swiftui-currency-field/ A simple, robust SwiftUI currency input field — no over-engineered solutions required. https://matfacer.com/posts/loss-vs-reward-in-reinforcement-learning/ Sun, 17 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/loss-vs-reward-in-reinforcement-learning/ Untangling how reward relates to the loss function when you come to reinforcement learning from standard deep learning. https://matfacer.com/posts/tensorflow-to-pytorch/ Sun, 10 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/tensorflow-to-pytorch/ Why I switched from TensorFlow to PyTorch: debuggability and transparency into the training process. https://matfacer.com/posts/kaggle-courses/ Sun, 08 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/kaggle-courses/ A quick review of Kaggle's free data-science courses from the perspective of someone getting started with deep learning. https://matfacer.com/posts/demystifying-python-logging-in-maya/ Tue, 13 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/demystifying-python-logging-in-maya/ How Python's logging hierarchy actually works, and how to configure loggers sensibly inside Autodesk Maya. https://matfacer.com/posts/applied-software-development-retrospective/ Mon, 05 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/applied-software-development-retrospective/ Reflections on completing BCIT's three-year Applied Software Development program as a self-taught developer with a decade of industry experience. https://matfacer.com/posts/using-the-__new__-method-in-python-classes/ Sun, 28 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://matfacer.com/posts/using-the-__new__-method-in-python-classes/ What Python's __new__ method actually does, how it differs from __init__, and when overriding it is useful.