Richard Djarbeng's Blog
About Me
I am a Computer Engineer and Machine Learning Enthusiast with a passion for Internet of Things (IoT) and AI applications. I specialize in building data-driven solutions and deploying alternative low-cost Machine Learning technologies. Currently, I am expanding my expertise in Deep Learning and building on AWS. Feel free to reach out via the contact form.
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PHP2Shell: The Two PHP Bugs That Took Government Websites Offline, and What to Do
On Wednesday 21 October 2026, PHP released emergency fixes for two bugs that let an attacker take over a web server without logging in. PHP runs a large part of...
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What can you do? Testing AI Agents, Gemini Argon and Claude
I have a benchmark prompt that I use to evaluate AI agent capabilities. The GitHub repository for the benchmark prompt is here. Every time a new model or agent drops,...
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Level 4 Autonomous Driving: How Robotaxis and Driverless Buses Work Today
Robotaxis with nobody in the driver's seat now carry paying passengers in several cities, and full-size electric buses run timetabled routes without a driver at the wheel. Both are SAE...
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The Six Levels of Autonomous Driving: From Driver Assist to the Level 3 Handover
When car companies advertise driver-assist software, they often blur the line between convenient driver aids and true driverless autonomy. Marketing terms like "Autopilot," "Full Self-Driving," and "hands-free assist" make it...
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When LLMs Become Scientific Instruments: Groundsource Flash Flood Research Report
A deep dive into Google's 2.6-million-event flood dataset: what the data shows, what claims hold up, and why the methodology matters more than the dataset itself. Resources: Enriched Dataset |...
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How Aleksa Gordić Broke into AI Engineering Without a Degree in AI
Entering artificial intelligence often looks impossible without a master's degree, a PhD, or years inside elite academic research labs. Yet one of the clearest case studies of breaking into frontier...
Read the PostLatest Posts
PHP2Shell: The Two PHP Bugs That Took Government Websites Offline, and What to Do
On Wednesday 21 October 2026, PHP released emergency fixes for two bugs that let an attacker take over a web server without logging in. PHP runs a large part of...
What can you do? Testing AI Agents, Gemini Argon and Claude
I have a benchmark prompt that I use to evaluate AI agent capabilities. The GitHub repository for the benchmark prompt is here. Every time a new model or agent drops,...
Level 4 Autonomous Driving: How Robotaxis and Driverless Buses Work Today
Robotaxis with nobody in the driver's seat now carry paying passengers in several cities, and full-size electric buses run timetabled routes without a driver at the wheel. Both are SAE...
The Six Levels of Autonomous Driving: From Driver Assist to the Level 3 Handover
When car companies advertise driver-assist software, they often blur the line between convenient driver aids and true driverless autonomy. Marketing terms like "Autopilot," "Full Self-Driving," and "hands-free assist" make it...
When LLMs Become Scientific Instruments: Groundsource Flash Flood Research Report
A deep dive into Google's 2.6-million-event flood dataset: what the data shows, what claims hold up, and why the methodology matters more than the dataset itself. Resources: Enriched Dataset |...
How Aleksa Gordić Broke into AI Engineering Without a Degree in AI
Entering artificial intelligence often looks impossible without a master's degree, a PhD, or years inside elite academic research labs. Yet one of the clearest case studies of breaking into frontier...
Series
Self-Driving, Explained
How the six SAE levels of driving automation work, where the line between driver assistance and real self-driving sits, and where driverless vehicles already carry passengers today.
Getting Started with Machine Learning
A path into machine learning using free resources: where to start, which courses to take, a first look at how models learn, where to find data, projects and competitions to practise on, and people worth following.
Building This Blog
A build log of rdjarbeng.com: starting on Jekyll and GitHub Pages, adding a CMS, automating uploads with a Telegram bot, and moving to Eleventy.
Featured Posts
SpaceX Catches a Super Heavy Booster Again with Mechazilla's Chopstick Arms
Just when you thought Elon Musk and the team at SpaceX couldn't top themselves, they proved once again that rapid aerospace iteration rewrites what is possible. SpaceX successfully guided a...
SpaceX's Rocket Innovations Explained: Reusable Falcon 9, Starship, Raptor Engines and Drone Ships
SpaceX, under the leadership of Elon Musk, has revolutionized rocket technology with several groundbreaking innovations: Reusable Rockets: Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy - Falcon 9 : SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket...
How Google forecasts Weather and Air Quality Data
Google's weather forecasts are created using an internal forecasting system that combines weather models and observations from various global weather agencies. The primary data sources for Google's weather forecasting include:...
Dense Haze Over Kigali - Weather Report - 29th January, 2026
Today, Kigali is shrouded in a dense haze that has significantly reduced visibility across the city. The atmosphere feels heavy, with the usual crisp views of the surrounding hills obscured...
CMMRS in Saarbrucken, Germany for pre-doctoral researchers
In late July, 2025 I attended the Cornell, Maryland, Max Planck Pre-doctoral Research School in Computer Science (CMMRS) in Saarbrucken, Germany. We had group panel discussions that were helpful because...
Announcing CMMRS 2026 in Saarbrucken, Germany for pre-doctoral researchers
Applications are requested from undergraduate students or Master’s students in computer and information science, computer engineering, or a related discipline to the 10th annual Cornell, Maryland, Max Planck Pre-doctoral Research...
Where to Find Data: A Curated List of Free Datasets and Repositories
In data science and machine learning, data is the new oil—it's the fuel that powers our models and insights. But finding the right data can be a challenge. Whether you're...
How a New Research Technique Becomes Standard: The 7 Stages of Published Papers
If you follow research in one field for a while, you notice a pattern in what gets published. A new technique appears in one paper, a few groups test it,...
Guest Authors
Posts contributed by guest authors
Africa Has the ML Talent But Missing the GPUs.
One challenge I have noticed throughout my academic journey and as a TA is that access to computing resources, especially GPUs, has become a major bottleneck for many students especially...
Why Your Monthly AI Bill Might Soon Rival Your Headcount Costs From A Personal Experience
The $280 Overnight Surprise A friend pinged me last week, half-laughing, half-panicking 😅 . He'd been running a couple of AI coding agents overnight, just background refactoring and test generation....
How To Invest On The Ghana Stock Exchange
The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) represents a unique opportunity for Ghanaian investors to participate in the growth of the country's economy. As Ghana's primary stock market, the GSE provides access...
Personal Posts
Hilarious Spam Email from Elon Musk Allegedly
Usually I delete spam/phishing emails, but this one was so blatantly fake and hilarious that I had to make a post about it. Here is the full unedited email I...
The Titans of Sound: Inside the Big Three Music Labels
The global music industry is effectively an oligopoly. While it may seem like there are thousands of record labels out there, the vast majority of commercial music—estimates often cite over...
Haircut in Kigali-Danny the barber
Have you ever had a bad haircut abroad? For my haircuts in Kigali I've kept the same barber for more than 3 years. Before I get into the story of...
A Message From Alan Becker Animation vs channel on Youtube
A message from Alan Becker. Celebrating 20 years of Animation. Twenty years ago today, on June 3, 2006, I uploaded the very first Animator vs. Animation. What started as a...
The 11-Year-Old Mistake: How Man Utd’s Former Starlet William Osula Became Their Nightmare
Football loves a good full-circle story, and Newcastle United delivered one of the best on March 4, 2026. Newcastle United didn't just beat Manchester United with a 90th-minute winner, they...
Amahoro Stadium: Landmark in Kigali, Rwanda An Outside View
The long-awaited renovations of Amahoro Stadium are finally complete To celebrate, I put together this quick video showcasing the revamped venue in all its glory. It's a must-see for anyone...
📚 Project Enlighten
Curated, legal, and free tech books onlineA hand-picked collection of genuinely great books on machine learning, deep learning, Python, and computer vision that authors and publishers have made permanently free to read online.
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python
Practical Python for absolute beginners - automate spreadsheets, files, web scraping, emails and other tedious tasks.
Confessions of an IT Manager
Anarchic humour wrapped around hard-won wisdom about software projects, hiring, firing and surviving life in IT. Free...
Crafting Interpreters
Build two complete interpreters from scratch and finally understand how programming languages actually work. Beautifu...
