Normalizing Flows

 Nov 26, 2019 10 min read Science, Machine Learning, Statistics

I'm a big fan of Feynman's technique of learning something new by trying to explain it to someone else. So in this post, I'll try to explain normalizing flows (NF), a relatively simple yet powerful…

Git Spellchecker

 Oct 14, 2019 2 min read Tutorial, Technology

Do you sometimes find yourself typing commit messages in a hurry, immediately pushing to GitHub and only noticing too late that you've made a bunch of typos? It's happened to me often enough that I…

Training BNNs with HMC

 Sep 5, 2019 4 min read Python, Machine Learning, Statistics, Science

This post is a guide on how to use the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) transition kernel provided by TensorFlow Probability to train Bayesian neural networks (BNN) by sampling from their posterior…

Gatsby Interactive Plots

 Aug 30, 2019 4 min read JS, Tutorial, Web Dev, Science

The possibilities and authoring experience when creating content for the web have advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years. MDX -- the latest in a long line of game-changing innovations -- allows…

useDarkMode

 Jul 1, 2019 4 min read JS, Tutorial, Web Dev

All the cool kids these days have websites with a dark color scheme. The really cool kids even have a dark and a light mode with a neat little toggle for you to pick your preference. Being regularly…

useQueryParam

 Jun 15, 2019 1 min read JS, Tutorial, Web Dev

Here's a straightforward implementation of a React hook that allows you to set, modify and remove URL query parameters. There is already a popular and high-quality implementation by Peter Beshai on…

Sticky Active Smooth Responsive ToC

 Jun 11, 2019 2 min read Design, JS, Tutorial, Web Dev

Intro This post aims to serve as a guide on how to implement a sticky, active, smooth and responsive table of contents (ToC). It takes a mere 80 lines of JS (styles excluded) and is implemented in…

Hamiltonian Monte Carlo - A Conceptual Introduction

 May 1, 2019 17 min read Physics, Statistics, Science

This post is without original content, providing merely a summary of the first 3 sections of Michael Betancourt 's excellent introduction to Hamiltonian Monte Carlo . Most images were taken from…

Conda Auto Env

 Apr 23, 2019 1 min read Tutorial, Python

If you're like me, you're tired of manually having to activate your conda environment every time you switch between Python projects. Since you're reading this, you may even have started googling for…

JS media queries with React hooks

 Apr 8, 2019 2 min read Web Dev, Tutorial, JS

This post assumes you're using React (16.8 or later). One thing I like about styled-components is that it enables concise and declarative media queries (granted, regular media queries are already…

Exclude drafts from production in Gatsby

 Mar 19, 2019 1 min read Web Dev, Tutorial, JS

Kyle Mathews who created Gatsby started a discussion about how to exclude files during the build process for the production version of a site. You might want to do this if you have some blog posts…

Google Maps + React Hooks

 Mar 19, 2019 2 min read Web Dev, Tutorial, JS

Had to share this one since it's so nice and simple. If you're looking for a drop-in, zero-dependency Google Maps React component, look no further. To use it, simply grab a free Google Maps API key…

React Hooks Masonry

 Mar 14, 2019 1 min read Design, Web Dev, Tutorial, JS

Now that we have React Hooks, so many components can (and should) be rewritten in a more succinct, readable and maintainable manner ( despite what Dan said at React Conf ). A perfect rewrite candidate…

Gatsby Blog with Disqus comments

 Mar 3, 2019 3 min read Web Dev, Tutorial, JS

If you’re running a Gatsby blog (or any React-powered blog for that matter) and you’ve started adding some content to it, the next thing to think about is how to increase engagement among your…

What is renormalization?

 Feb 23, 2019 3 min read Physics, Science

I want to give an intuitive understanding of the process of renormalization and why its useful. But to that, I first need to introduce the context in which the need for renormalization arose…

China's Push for Solar

 Jan 29, 2019 1 min read Technology, Future, Sustainability

This is a follow-up to my last post in which I claimed that solar cells and batteries will lead us to sustainability far cheaper and faster than most people realize at this point. Based on this…

Batteries + Solar Rule!

 Jan 21, 2019 3 min read Technology, Future, Sustainability

Fair warning: This is going to be my most self-righteous post to date. Finally people are waking up to what I've been saying since 2008 : batteries are the future! Combined with solar cells they are a…

React Hooks Modal

 Jan 13, 2019 2 min read JS, Web Dev, Tutorial

What to do on a cold and wet January weekend? Why not check out the new React alpha (16.8) . The one with Hooks as it's come to be called. All it took was a little skimming through the docs…

Two-Loop Hyperparameter Optimization

 Nov 23, 2018 1 min read Machine Learning, Python, Tutorial, Statistics

I recently started using Scikit-Optimize ( skopt for short) to run Bayesian optimization on the hyperparameters of a set of fully-connected neural networks. The hyperparameters I optimized were the…

Masonry Layout with CSS Grid

 Nov 14, 2018 1 min read Design, Web Dev, Tutorial, JS

This is no longer a good way to implement a modal in React. With the recent introduction of React Hooks, I wrote a new Masonry component that's simpler and more robust. Back in early January, Wes…

Custom search with Algolia in Gatsby

 Nov 2, 2018 5 min read Web Dev, Tutorial, JS

This post is a guide on how to write a React component that implements custom search powered by Algolia on a Gatsby site. You can see the result in action by clicking on the search icon in the top…

Brave new world

 Jul 27, 2018 1 min read Web Dev, JS

Welcome to my new custom-built blog! Gone is my former WordPress site janosh-riebesell.com . This site is JavaScript from head to heel. It's powered mainly by Gatsby and styled-components . In…