Sneha Mondal

Senior Engineer @GoogleDeepMind, making LLMs worth your money. Ex - @IBMResearch, alumnus @iiscbangalore.

[Sneha Mondal @SnehaMon]

@sidin I'd love to spend my time staring at this; where in London is this store? :D

[Abhinav Upadhyay @abhi9u]

TIL about a race condition bug in a radiation therapy machine called Therac-25 that caused the deaths of 3 patients.

Therac was a radiation therapy machine for treating cancer patients. It had two modes: electron beam for shallower treatment, and high-energy x-ray/photon for deeper treatments. The older models of the machine had hardware interlocks as safety mechanisms to prevent any bad configuration from ever happening.

Then came Therac-25 that removed many of the hardware interlocks in favor of implementing them in software.

There was a race condition in which if an operator entered the wrong mode (e.g. x-ray) and then switched it quickly within 8 seconds, the mode would not be updated. As a result, the patient could end up receiving massive overdose of radiation.

Between 1985-87, six such accidents were known to have occurred, leading to the death of at least 3 patients.

Wikipedia notes this as a case study in software engineering and the danger of engineer overconfidence.

[Krish Ashok @krishashok]

But I have a broader observation to make. It’s absolutely fine for someone not from a software engineering background to believe that tech companies might engage in nefarious behaviour.

But all these media handles “reporting” on this viral tweet - all you had to do was speak to just person that understands software (or just ask Blinkit 😅) before deciding to publish it.

But then, I’d imagine “X said Y on twitter and it’s going viral” is really not meant to be journalism no? Just more of an opportunity to capture clicks

[Sneha Mondal @SnehaMon]

@venomdetective @Anthropic @LabVenomics @iiscbangalore This is amazing!

[Gurpriya @GurpriyaSidhu]

On how to grow and maintain friendships -

1. The only rule is that you must meet. Once a week, or once a month, or once or twice a year. Decide the cadence based on the relationship and follow through. There is no other cheat code to this.

2. When you meet, take enough time out. Don't do a 1-hr quick chat. Pls. Quick chat is a sad phrase designed for work environments. No one else in your life deserves a quick chat. Be generous with your time. If you set aside 2 hours for lunch or coffee, especially for people you don't meet often, keep the next 1-1.5 hour open just in case the conversation runs long. Time is expensive. Reserve it well. Then give generous amounts to friends and people who deserve them.

3. All other forms of staying in touch like texting, sending each other memes, doing phone calls are maintenance work. They do not grow or progress a relationship. They will run dry if you don't meet for a long enough time. Do not rely on them beyond a point.

4. Be graceful and kind during periods of disconnect. Good and long-term friendships will inadvertently go through phases where the vibes are not matching. It is normal. Do not read into it too much. Do not count who texted more, who called more. No relationship survives a well accounted ledger.

5. Ask for favours. Yes. Do not be shy. Hyper independence is the death of friendship and community building. People like to feel needed. Tell them you need them once in a while.

[Devi Parikh @deviparikh]

Claude Code wrote a JavaScript Madhubani generator.

[Shiv Aroor @ShivAroor]

Tonight, a prayer for the mother of Sepoy Janjal Pravin Prabhakar receiving her son’s Kirti Chakra. Young Sepoy Janjal was killed in action in July 2024 after killing 2 terrorists in Kulgam, J&K. 💔🇮🇳

[Peter Hague @peterrhague]

If he hadn’t been persecuted to death by his government, he could well have lived long enough to witness much of the computer revolution.

At age 57 he would’ve seen Apollo 11 land on the Moon, using the most advanced computers of the time
At age 69 he would’ve seen the release of the IBM PC
In his 80s he would’ve seen the dot com bubble.
If he made it to 95, he might have been there when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone.

[Hugh Laurie @hughlaurie]

Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.

One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??

The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you.

Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!

[Hugh Laurie @hughlaurie]

I’m sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet. Not at all the plan. I was very slightly drunk and already upset about something that had nothing to do with you. If it’s any comfort, I got it in the neck too. I’m a thin-skinned twat, apparently, even though it wasn’t my skin. I was sticking up for the writers who I adored. Obviously I shouldn’t have cited Bach/Kahlo/Moore - asking for trouble - and would have done better to go for the 10,000 blues songs written around the same 12 bar chord structure. I’ve listened to most of them and will keep doing so. Because we love what we love.

[Sneha Mondal @SnehaMon]

@SandeepMall Infra is shared no matter how wealthy you are. So I'm driving on the same traffic-packed waterlogged roads, footpaths are non-existent, noise + AQI is awful. All this kills access to public spaces. The only benefit I see is social-friends family & loved ones.

[signüll @signulll]

today i spent 2.5 hours talking to someone in a park. it felt like 15 min.

conversation is the highest order bit of human connection.

shared interests, proximity, activities, & history helps but most of the things we associate with connection are downstream of two people being genuinely interested in what’s happening inside each other’s heads.

[Sneha Mondal @SnehaMon]

@vamsibatchuk @GoogleDeepMind @OfficialLoganK @ammaar @GoogleAIStudio Welcome aboard!

[Peter H. Diamandis, MD @PeterDiamandis]

Optimism is not the belief that everything will be fine, but the belief that problems are SOLVABLE, combined with the willingness to actually go solve them. That thesis has built every good thing we have.

[Jeff Dean @JeffDean]

Check out our Gemma 4 12B model: it's a super capable open weights model that can run directly on your laptop.

[The Emissary @TheEmissaryCo]

Did not expect this criminal front LARPing as a political party would self-destruct post-loss but holy sh*t this feels good.

Not only should its street thugs face the music but also its Goebbelsian spokespersons be hounded for normalizing & covering for an atmosphere of terror.

[Sneha Mondal @SnehaMon]

@saffrontrail I've resumed weight training after a long break so this is just the nudge I needed! :D

[Sneha Mondal @SnehaMon]

@AmitGuha2020 Thanks, do you know where / how I could buy it?

[Sneha Mondal @SnehaMon]

@DrDavidMiano @nippy1425 https://t.co/to48am3j55

[Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) @HinduHate]

Audrey Truschke wrote (2018): "During the agnipariksha, Sita basically tells Rama he’s a misogynistic pig and uncouth." She also claimed Sita accused Lakshmana of lusting after her. She said she was loosely translating the critical edition.
Robert Goldman (the scholar she cited) publicly rejected her wording, calling it "quite shocking" and "highly inappropriate." Truschke later defended it as "contemporary language to bring the text alive."
Hindus are not obligated to accept such vulgar, sensationalist interpretations of our epics. When we push back, we get labeled "Hindutva" or "ethnonationalist" or "Hindu supremacists attack academia".
You can defend Truschke if you want, but asking us to forget or accept this while you lecture about "secular method" in a long thread undermines your own argument. True secular history should critique poor interpretations regardless of whose sacred text is involved.