Theo Beers
@t6e.dev
Father, husband, Persian/Arabic philologist, programmer
Research software eng. @Drexel, prev. postdoc @FUBerlin
Socdem, civil libertarian, anti-identitarian
https://www.theobeers.com/
Research software eng. @Drexel, prev. postdoc @FUBerlin
Socdem, civil libertarian, anti-identitarian
https://www.theobeers.com/
The realest line in any holiday song is “Mom and dad can barely wait for school to start again” (from “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”).
December 1, 2025 at 7:23 PM
The realest line in any holiday song is “Mom and dad can barely wait for school to start again” (from “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”).
The date conversion library underlying Muqawwim has always been open-source, but now it's also published in the NPM package registry. I'll put links below. I'm interested in adding more test cases to document the correctness of the code.
November 28, 2025 at 7:44 PM
The date conversion library underlying Muqawwim has always been open-source, but now it's also published in the NPM package registry. I'll put links below. I'm interested in adding more test cases to document the correctness of the code.
Of these two men, neither was stirred by love.
Wisdom was far off, the face of love not seen.
From fishes in the sea to wild horses on
The plain, all beasts can recognize their young.
But man who's blinded by his wretched pride,
Cannot distinguish son from foe.
(tr. Clinton)
Wisdom was far off, the face of love not seen.
From fishes in the sea to wild horses on
The plain, all beasts can recognize their young.
But man who's blinded by his wretched pride,
Cannot distinguish son from foe.
(tr. Clinton)
November 27, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Of these two men, neither was stirred by love.
Wisdom was far off, the face of love not seen.
From fishes in the sea to wild horses on
The plain, all beasts can recognize their young.
But man who's blinded by his wretched pride,
Cannot distinguish son from foe.
(tr. Clinton)
Wisdom was far off, the face of love not seen.
From fishes in the sea to wild horses on
The plain, all beasts can recognize their young.
But man who's blinded by his wretched pride,
Cannot distinguish son from foe.
(tr. Clinton)
Our son had a classmate/friend over yesterday, a boy whose mom lost her life in a freak accident last month. I made a pumpkin pie for the kids. My wife explained that I like baking, and the boy said, “So did my mom.” It was almost the saddest I ever felt, to hear that from a nine-year-old.
November 25, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Our son had a classmate/friend over yesterday, a boy whose mom lost her life in a freak accident last month. I made a pumpkin pie for the kids. My wife explained that I like baking, and the boy said, “So did my mom.” It was almost the saddest I ever felt, to hear that from a nine-year-old.
The value of an XML sitemap in anno domini 2025 is dubious at best. That being said, we were using an old abandoned NPM package for sitemap generation at work, and I took a bit of time to modernize it and publish a new version. Maybe it will be of use.
www.npmjs.com/package/@t6e...
www.npmjs.com/package/@t6e...
www.npmjs.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:58 AM
The value of an XML sitemap in anno domini 2025 is dubious at best. That being said, we were using an old abandoned NPM package for sitemap generation at work, and I took a bit of time to modernize it and publish a new version. Maybe it will be of use.
www.npmjs.com/package/@t6e...
www.npmjs.com/package/@t6e...
My son is one of the best pistachio eaters in the world, but he won’t touch them if they’re already shelled. Somehow the experience of cracking the nut is essential for him to know it’s legit.
November 21, 2025 at 1:10 AM
My son is one of the best pistachio eaters in the world, but he won’t touch them if they’re already shelled. Somehow the experience of cracking the nut is essential for him to know it’s legit.
The work goes on. I already post about these Shāhnāma projects as I make progress on them; a talk is a good way to force myself to keep moving forward.
November 14, 2025 at 6:37 PM
The work goes on. I already post about these Shāhnāma projects as I make progress on them; a talk is a good way to force myself to keep moving forward.
Looks like something went horribly wrong over at Twitter/X with the YubiKey re-enrollment process.
Like many others, I'm locked out of my account. Maybe this is how I finally permanently stop using it? A blessing in disguise?
Like many others, I'm locked out of my account. Maybe this is how I finally permanently stop using it? A blessing in disguise?
November 12, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Looks like something went horribly wrong over at Twitter/X with the YubiKey re-enrollment process.
Like many others, I'm locked out of my account. Maybe this is how I finally permanently stop using it? A blessing in disguise?
Like many others, I'm locked out of my account. Maybe this is how I finally permanently stop using it? A blessing in disguise?
*Every* software dev I know agrees that GitHub has absolutely butchered their web front end in the last year or so. It's gotten unbelievably bad!
How is it possible for a product used by the whole world, operated by a corporation with bottomless pockets, to just shit the bed like this?
How is it possible for a product used by the whole world, operated by a corporation with bottomless pockets, to just shit the bed like this?
October 30, 2025 at 3:48 AM
*Every* software dev I know agrees that GitHub has absolutely butchered their web front end in the last year or so. It's gotten unbelievably bad!
How is it possible for a product used by the whole world, operated by a corporation with bottomless pockets, to just shit the bed like this?
How is it possible for a product used by the whole world, operated by a corporation with bottomless pockets, to just shit the bed like this?
Xunzi on serving as minister to a ruler: “Treat him like riding an unbroken horse, like caring for a newborn, like feeding a starving person.”
I have often been reminded of Ghaznavid court literature while reading Xunzi.
I have often been reminded of Ghaznavid court literature while reading Xunzi.
October 30, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Xunzi on serving as minister to a ruler: “Treat him like riding an unbroken horse, like caring for a newborn, like feeding a starving person.”
I have often been reminded of Ghaznavid court literature while reading Xunzi.
I have often been reminded of Ghaznavid court literature while reading Xunzi.
I finally wrote a blog post to share some of what I learned from implementing the Unicode Collation Algorithm in two languages. Maybe there are people out there nerdy enough to be interested in stuff like this!
Unicode Collation for Dummies
Learn how the Unicode Collation Algorithm solves the problem of sorting text beyond the basic Latin alphabet. A detailed overview with code examples in Zig.
www.theobeers.com
August 19, 2025 at 8:34 PM
I finally wrote a blog post to share some of what I learned from implementing the Unicode Collation Algorithm in two languages. Maybe there are people out there nerdy enough to be interested in stuff like this!
If I’d known I would be employed again at the end of the summer, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
August 14, 2025 at 11:07 PM
If I’d known I would be employed again at the end of the summer, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
The one context in which I've ever used bubble sort for real. Does anyone recognize this function? I asked a few LLMs, and they all identified it at once.
Bonus question: how much better can this be done?
Bonus question: how much better can this be done?
August 3, 2025 at 8:42 PM
The one context in which I've ever used bubble sort for real. Does anyone recognize this function? I asked a few LLMs, and they all identified it at once.
Bonus question: how much better can this be done?
Bonus question: how much better can this be done?
For those who use Claude Desktop or similar MCP clients (a niche group, I know): I just wrote an MCP server to facilitate use of my API for Steingass' Persian-English dictionary. It works! A link to the GitHub repo with installation instructions:
github.com/theodore-s-b...
github.com/theodore-s-b...
July 31, 2025 at 8:24 PM
For those who use Claude Desktop or similar MCP clients (a niche group, I know): I just wrote an MCP server to facilitate use of my API for Steingass' Persian-English dictionary. It works! A link to the GitHub repo with installation instructions:
github.com/theodore-s-b...
github.com/theodore-s-b...
I recently trained an ML model, fine-tuning XLM-RoBERTa and using data from Ganjoor, to predict the meter of a hemistich of classical Persian poetry. Still early days, but results are promising. Perhaps colleagues will find this interesting. Model on Hugging Face:
huggingface.co/katomyomachi...
huggingface.co/katomyomachi...
July 29, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I recently trained an ML model, fine-tuning XLM-RoBERTa and using data from Ganjoor, to predict the meter of a hemistich of classical Persian poetry. Still early days, but results are promising. Perhaps colleagues will find this interesting. Model on Hugging Face:
huggingface.co/katomyomachi...
huggingface.co/katomyomachi...
Identitarian progressives bear significant responsibility for the destruction of American institutions that we are now living through. I will neither forget nor forgive how they drove the country toward this nightmarish situation.
May 25, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Identitarian progressives bear significant responsibility for the destruction of American institutions that we are now living through. I will neither forget nor forgive how they drove the country toward this nightmarish situation.
Some of you may have noticed that Etymonline's website has been redesigned this year—multiple times, I think.
I try to keep up with changes to their markup so that my `gloss` CLI util still works (link in reply).
I try to keep up with changes to their markup so that my `gloss` CLI util still works (link in reply).
May 20, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Some of you may have noticed that Etymonline's website has been redesigned this year—multiple times, I think.
I try to keep up with changes to their markup so that my `gloss` CLI util still works (link in reply).
I try to keep up with changes to their markup so that my `gloss` CLI util still works (link in reply).
I recently published basic (really preliminary) Python bindings for my Rust implementation of the Unicode Collation Algorithm. My first PyPI package, at least for a project of my own.
pypi.org/project/feru...
pypi.org/project/feru...
feruca
Python bindings for feruca, a Rust implementation of the Unicode Collation Algorithm
pypi.org
May 13, 2025 at 6:10 PM
I recently published basic (really preliminary) Python bindings for my Rust implementation of the Unicode Collation Algorithm. My first PyPI package, at least for a project of my own.
pypi.org/project/feru...
pypi.org/project/feru...
Reposted by Theo Beers
I have a little web app that gives examples of how Arabic numbers and their counted nouns work from 1 through 100, masculine and feminine, all three cases. This is of course only part of the story!
www.theobeers.com/arabic-numbe...
www.theobeers.com/arabic-numbe...
Arabic number expander
Enter a number to see how it should properly be written in Arabic
www.theobeers.com
May 8, 2025 at 1:11 AM
I have a little web app that gives examples of how Arabic numbers and their counted nouns work from 1 through 100, masculine and feminine, all three cases. This is of course only part of the story!
www.theobeers.com/arabic-numbe...
www.theobeers.com/arabic-numbe...
Depressing how DJT supporters are legit too ignorant to realize that what they’re doing, e.g. demanding the arrest of “activist judges,” is exactly what people descending into fascism have always done. Naïvely playing their role in a remake of an old movie they somehow haven’t seen.
April 25, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Depressing how DJT supporters are legit too ignorant to realize that what they’re doing, e.g. demanding the arrest of “activist judges,” is exactly what people descending into fascism have always done. Naïvely playing their role in a remake of an old movie they somehow haven’t seen.
I remember when I was a finalist for what would have been a life-changing professorship, I would think, Ok, it may or may not be me, but someone is going to be made very happy. It’s cool that someone gets to experience that. And in any case, I can find my own way. It helped me deal with it.
March 11, 2025 at 2:11 PM
I remember when I was a finalist for what would have been a life-changing professorship, I would think, Ok, it may or may not be me, but someone is going to be made very happy. It’s cool that someone gets to experience that. And in any case, I can find my own way. It helped me deal with it.
Möge Deutschland das tun, was Amerika ablehnt.
February 23, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Möge Deutschland das tun, was Amerika ablehnt.
MAGA has ruined my family. We all still talk and get together, but it’s not like it used to be. We tiptoe around each other. I wonder if we’ll ever be able to put it behind us and feel normal again.
February 16, 2025 at 5:46 PM
MAGA has ruined my family. We all still talk and get together, but it’s not like it used to be. We tiptoe around each other. I wonder if we’ll ever be able to put it behind us and feel normal again.
Ich bin zutiefst beschämt über das, was Vance heute in München getan hat, und möchte hiermit meinen kleinen Widerspruch und meine Entschuldigung gegenüber meinen europäischen Freunden, insbesondere in Deutschland, ausdrücken.
February 14, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Ich bin zutiefst beschämt über das, was Vance heute in München getan hat, und möchte hiermit meinen kleinen Widerspruch und meine Entschuldigung gegenüber meinen europäischen Freunden, insbesondere in Deutschland, ausdrücken.