Month: September 2025

Introducing the AI-Powered Text-to-Diagram Generator | September 30 2025, 20:57

While working on a book, I realized what kind of product I’m missing. It’s an AI diagram generator based on textual descriptions.

The idea is that the master document for the diagram is text. This textual description can be (and should be) quite detailed, so the generated diagram exactly matches the author’s vision. The diagram itself is not edited. That is, it can be edited – moving circles around, but ideally, after making changes, the system should update the text, generating from which will result in what the user adjusted.

The result — the diagram — should correspond as closely as possible to the description. If it does not match the description because, for example, it’s impossible to make a triangle with three obtuse angles, the system should do its best and provide a verbal response about what didn’t work. The user can then modify the task so that the system complies and produces the diagram correctly.

But then we understand that the author might have randomly achieved something that they liked with their flawed text. And if regenerated, it might turn out differently, and not necessarily better. Therefore —

You could ask the system to generate a diagram description from the diagram, which, if inputted back into the diagram generator, would result exactly in what the description was generated from. Yes, this description would be more verbose and complex, but it would more reliably describe the result.

So, from this point, you are no longer working with the diagram. You are working with text. If a diagram is needed — you simply compile the text into a diagram and it turns out as needed. But you don’t even work directly with the text. You work with this diagram-description text through an LLM, asking it to add some block, and the text changes, but changes in a way that everything doesn’t suddenly shift.

The final diagram should be in an object form, from which raster (PNG) or vector (SVG, EPS) images can be created.

It would also be great if such a system could take existing diagrams or diagram templates so that it could borrow styles and existing conventions on how to display what.

So, these are my fantasies. If anyone has ideas on how to implement this — let’s discuss 🙂

The Ingenious Mechanics of Modern Fuel Pumps | September 28 2025, 13:36

With the purchase of a Tesla, there’s sudden interest like a fuel nozzle understanding that the tank is full. And a couple of other interesting findings on the topic.

There used to be an awkward problem at gas stations. Customers didn’t know when their tank was full and gasoline often spilled over. Engineers came up with a genius solution.

Inside the fueling nozzle, there’s a thin tube that pulls air from the car’s tank into a special membrane chamber (if you look at the “nozzle,” there will be two holes) When you press the trigger, fuel flows until the tube is submerged in gasoline (which means a full tank) and the air flow stops.

This creates a vacuum, which pulls three little steel flaps into the center of the mechanism, instantly releasing the trigger and cutting off the fuel supply.

By the way, approaching the diaphragm valve in the channel there is a compartment with a small ball inside. If for some reason the fuel nozzle falls out of the tank, the ball will block the vacuum channel, provoking a sharp increase in vacuum – and triggering the process described above.

It also turned out that the diesel nozzle is larger in size so it cannot be mistakenly inserted into a gasoline tank. But the opposite mistake can happen. Although they could have invented a different design that would work both ways from the start.

When a tanker refills an underground reservoir, the valve automatically closes when the tank is nearly full, and the gasoline vapors are sucked back into the tanker through another hose, where it condenses back into liquid fuel.

And it also turned out that if you drive away with the hose still in your car, there will be no fireballs, spilled fuel, or toppled gas pump. The hose connecting the nozzle to the pump is designed to disconnect into two parts when a certain force is applied. Next time you are at the gas station, pay attention to the metal connector on the hose. That is the break point. When the hose disconnects and you drive away, the area of the hose breaks, built-in valves in the hose cut off the fuel, but, of course, the pump will not operate for some time until everything is put back to normal again. Interestingly, this risk is considered and damage is minimized.

Oh, and here’s something for those who haven’t driven in New Jersey. By law, it’s prohibited to refuel your own vehicle. At all gas stations, there are attendants who do it for you.

The Optical Illusion of the Changing Purple Dots | September 27 2025, 23:44

An interesting trick. To color the circle dark purple, you simply need to look at it and it will instantly change color. However, to revert it back, you just need to stop looking at it, and it will return to its original appearance (though you’re likely to look at another circle instead)

Hyperinflation Memories: Collecting Zimbabwe’s Trillion Dollar Notes on Etsy and eBay | September 27 2025, 21:20

On Etsy, you can buy five billion Zimbabwean dollars for a billion times less (minus one cent)

And a 50 trillion note can be bought for 30 dollars (minus two cents)

And there is also a 100 trillion note

Crafting the Future of Recommender Systems: A Deep Dive into Algorithms and Implementation | September 26 2025, 21:17

I decided a while ago to write a book on recommendation algorithms. With mathematics, code examples, a repository, etc. English, of course.

Accordingly, I am looking for volunteer reviewers who are knowledgeable in the field. Also those who have experience with print-on-demand on Amazon.

There’s already about 200 pages of content. About three months of work left. Working title Recommender Algorithms in 2026: A Practitioner’s Guide. Roughly half of it is still in draft form, with the first 80 pages about 80% complete.

I’ve built a mechanism to publish in HTML and PDF simultaneously. The HTML version is fully functional, with navigation. The navigation block reflects the current section, and as you scroll, it shifts to the one in front of the reader. Clicking on a section, of course, teleports you to what you clicked on. It’s all completely automatic.

Revolutionizing Car Safety: Pre-Collision Airbag Deployment and Smart Updates in Modern Vehicles | September 24 2025, 12:54

So far, I have only one car model and brand that can deploy airbags not at the moment of impact, but a moment earlier, so that by the time of the impact, it’s not too late to do so. We’ll see what the news shows, but tests indicate that this thing works better than the traditional method. Reality might turn out to be harsher, but we’ll keep an eye on it.

It’s also interesting that the car started to receive new exciting features after purchase. I never had this experience before. What you bought it with, you lived with, and sometimes you could go to the dealership for something new, and it usually involved replacing something physical.

The previous update (not very useful to me, but maybe to someone) was about automatic detection of children and animals in the cabin. And if it turns out they were left inside while the owner left, the car does not turn off the climate control. And of course, it screams into the app that this is not a good thing to do.