ealloc

7 ms·

31.
by ealloc 10y ago
Not to mention that the molecular dynamics simulations you're describing can't actually simulate chemical reactions. (the covalent bonds can't change in the sim, unless you do a much more intensive QM calculation and even tha
32.
by ealloc 11y ago
Is it really the case that some programming languages are more resilient to hardware errors than others? Java does array bounds checking in principle, but it is usually optimized out of the machine code. Isn't it then virtually just as
33.
by ealloc 11y ago
I'm not conviced. Maybe it really is that the wider type is faster, and int_fast16_t should be 64 bits. I just tried it out on a 64 bit system. The program is just a for loop. If the loop variable is a int_fast16_t the loop increment
34.
by ealloc 11y ago
It's rare for bad results to get called out. The usual fate of bad research is a fade into obscurity. Publishing questionable results quickly has many benefits (if you happen to be right) and few consequences. Just don't draw too
35.
by ealloc 11y ago
In my Github experience, rebasing/tidying your commits is expected before a Pull Request is merged, just like your description of Linux development. Eg, the numpy/scipy/matplotlib projects.
36.
by ealloc 11y ago
Maybe you could use a strobe effect: Have an audio sample that loops every 1/100th of a second, and then put a "fan" spinning at the same rate in front of the electron source, which blocks the electrons except for 1/60th
37.
by ealloc 11y ago
It sounds like more than a just a "style" disagreement. In the discussion of C strings, the author is arguing that Zed's arguments are nonsensical, maybe even objectively wrong. I write a lot of C, and the author is right in
38.
by ealloc 11y ago
Only for the toy version of the scientific method we learn in 2nd grade, but not for the "real world" scientific method. All scientists on the planet look at the list of authors on any papers they read. That way they know the bias
39.
by ealloc 11y ago
See http://www.nature.com/news/archaeology-the-milk-revolution-1... . Lacose tolerance apparently allowed middle-eastern nomads to wipe out and replace the native european hunter-gatherers, and set up an agricultural so
40.
by ealloc 12y ago
What happens if a single cable snaps? It seems like all the strucutral members in the network will then experience a "bending moment", yet the structure depended on the lack of bending moment for rigidity.
41.
by ealloc 12y ago
I like another theory I read recently: That it's because women's mitochondria are more fine-tuned to their nuclear genome: "The inheritance of mitochondria is asymmetric: you only get them from your mother, and your father ma
42.
by ealloc 12y ago
Actually, the 2nd law doesn't apply to everything. For example, a single classical planet orbiting a sun will orbit forever. Or, gas particles in a cube box if their velocities are perfectly perpendicular to one side of the box. Or a s
43.
by ealloc 12y ago
Umm, the site you linked appears to say exactly the opposite. Here's what is says: > Illegal insider trading refers generally to buying or selling a security, in breach of a fiduciary duty or other relationship of trust and confiden
44.
by ealloc 12y ago
I think the parent is talking about a response to this point of view. Historically, people first wondered whether QM could be explained by hidden variables. Then they proved it could not, which seemed to imply "spooky action at a dista
45.
by ealloc 12y ago
Personally I think the idea that life/prebiotic soup came to earth on a comet is suspect, for the reasons explained in these blog posts and the links therein: http://sandwalk.blogspot.ca/2011/11/nasa-confusion
46.
by ealloc 12y ago
You can do it in bash too. I have this in my bashrc: bind '"^[[1;5A": history-search-backward' bind '"^[[1;5B": history-search-forward' where ^[ is the escape character. This way, crtl-up
47.
by ealloc 12y ago
There are many programs that implement subsets of LaTeX/TeX. For example, for math layout I believe Mathjax and matplotlib have both essentially copied Knuth's program, based on his "TeXBook" and "TeX: The Program&q
48.
by ealloc 12y ago
I don't think he understands what the word "proprietary" means. It means that the file format is secret or there are legal constraints on its use. Until recently Word documents clearly counted as prorietary, but now that micr
49.
by ealloc 12y ago
Interesting, I did not know about this. Here are the NPR story and related Atlantic article by the author of the book: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-... http://do
50.
by ealloc 12y ago
The problem is not the portrayal of racism/sexism/murder in the game, the problem is that the game is racist/sexist in the way it was constructed. Kind of like how minstrel shows are racist, in contrast to films like "
51.
by ealloc 12y ago
I think it's different: You can see the color green in multiple ways: Monochromatic light of 520nm wavelength looks green to you, but so does dicromatic light composed of a mixture of yellow (580nm) and blue (440nm). The two situations
52.
by ealloc 12y ago
Huh, thank you for the informative reply. I will reconsider my view, which I had perhaps overstated before to make a point. Wikipedia gives a citation for backpropagation going back to 1963 by the way, but looking more carefully you are rig
53.
by ealloc 12y ago
Interesting link, but I still feel AI hasn't had much success: Do we really have much more today that A* search, neural nets with backpropagation, and HMMs/SVM/etc, which were all developed in the 1960s? The successes of AI t
54.
by ealloc 12y ago
I'm surprised no one has commented yet on the first couple of these - Energy, AI, Biotech, and Drug design. These have traditionally been domains requiring a huge research apparatus with tremendous manpower, for only very long term gai
55.
by ealloc 12y ago
Actually my impression is that poorer people are more likely to be depressed. Consider the high rate of suicide among poor Indian farmers, or the high number of homeless with mental illness. A quick google search for studies of the correlat
56.
by ealloc 12y ago
I highly recommend the book "Ghosts of Evolution" about the lingering effects of these extinct megafauna on our lives today. Many of our ecosystems and even many species evolved in response to their presence. A major theme of the
57.
by ealloc 12y ago
Seneca sounds extremely privileged to me. His advice might be useful to rich people, but not the vast majority of people (in his time, or ours) who have to work hard just to survive. His main complaint is against rich people who "squan
58.
by ealloc 12y ago
Wasn't there a story just a few days ago about the huge oversupply of lawyers right now? Why isn't this driving legal costs down?
59.
by ealloc 12y ago
He is doing an investigation into the underlying foundations of statistical mechanics. Statistical Mechanics and thermodynamics are the basis for a huge amount of technology and scientific models of the world, yet they rely on a fundamental
60.
by ealloc 12y ago
It's funny to think that once upon a time sugar was so precious it was kept locked up in its own dedicated safe. In America these are known as "sugar chests", you can fairly commonly find them as antiques. King Louis XVI kept

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