smath

5 ms·

1.
by smath 14d ago
Huffman Coding! :-)
2.
by smath 29d ago
I too have to disagree with pg on that line `> having kids may make one less ambitious`. The fact is that the world is very very multi-modal, i.e. the brains of people and how they think are wildly different. I think having kids makes me
3.
by smath 1mo ago
Ah Sir David MacKay. I so respect him. Great explainer and speaker. He had built this text entry tool called Dasher [0] - that I'd heard him introduce at Princeton around 2006. It was basically an early language model that predicted wh
4.
by smath 1mo ago
This is a common source of confusion. The knitting / pottery making is not rewarding because its made by hands or is not knowledge work, but because it is done in the direct service of someone. Modern organizations are complex and can
5.
by smath 2mo ago
In a way it’s the same phenomenon as TV channels with fixed programming replaced by cable and the streaming video. Newspaper vs curated feeds. There is an exploit vs explore tradeoff in all of these. The newer versions lean heavier on explo
6.
by smath 2mo ago
Is it possible to acquire lower frequency components with a camera too? This also reminded me of MRI where low frequency is acquired first in a space called k-space
7.
by smath 2mo ago
My conclusion is that this in not the end of creativity but an increasing premium on creativity that is certified to be human made. It’s like how if I cook something from scratch that’s considered more meaningful than if I simply heated fro
8.
by smath 2mo ago
Very cool! While this is a different type of inverse problem, it reminds me of a radiolab story [0] about a device to help blind people “see” using electrical impulses on a metal strip under the tongue. [0] https://radiolab.org&#
9.
by smath 3mo ago
Very fond memories of Mir Publishers' science and math books growing up in India in the 80s and 90s. I think English translations were freely available in India. My grandfather would buy them for me to encourage my interest in science
10.
by smath 3mo ago
Are they trying to infer characters/words from brain waves? I would have thought the brain is thinking in concepts rather than actual words
11.
by smath 3mo ago
GA’s optimize only combinatorial problems though — where you have discrete set of choices (~genes) for each variable, and therefore do not have a gradient
12.
by smath 3mo ago
Mind blown, I had no idea about this, thx for sharing
13.
by smath 3mo ago
I believe that is correct. Part of the problem is that similar words in different languages are actually not quite identical. “Not having emotions” is not quite the essence of stoicism: I understand it to be “avoiding highs and lows - being
14.
by smath 3mo ago
Tangential tidbit about etymology of the word Zen: Zen is a Japanese word that comes from the Chinese “Chan”, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit word “Dhyana”, which roughly translates to focus/meditatiin. That trajectory Sanskrit —
15.
by smath 3mo ago
Right, value != price. Now, is this a bug or a feature? Discuss (serious question)
16.
by smath 3mo ago
I'm looking for some data -- if anyone has it -- on the fraction of companies that are led (CEO) by a technical person, over the years/decades. I have the (anecdotal) impression that this fraction has been falling (stories like Bo
17.
by smath 4mo ago
This reminded me of my 11 yr old who, when I give her math problems to solve, is too focused on “getting the right answer”. I’ve told her plainly, I don’t care if you get the right answer right now, I want to see your reasoning. She has yet
18.
by smath 4mo ago
Here is a solution to this problem I think: make an LLM. Summarize everything. If there is fluff then it should get dropped? Basically we only care about the relevant information content, regardless of the number of characters used - so we
19.
by smath 5mo ago
I for one am happy to see an engineer at the helm.
20.
by smath 5mo ago
Loved the writeup. I'll just drop a note here to say that these spherical harmonics are also used in creating specialized neural network layers that are useful for modeling 3D objects like point clouds and moleculues, proteins, etc. Ba
21.
by smath 6mo ago
My 2c is that it is not 'joy' or 'happiness' that kids bring to parents universally (although they might bring those things for some parents), but 'meaning'. Meaning is harder to define than joy/happiness,
22.
by smath 10mo ago
Shameless plug: More than a decade ago, I wrote a paper [1] on how the random perturbations in the wireless channel between an ambient RF transmitter (FM radio, TV) to the two devices, allow nearby devices to authenticate locality because t
23.
by smath 10mo ago
As a kid I loved casio digital watches (metal band, digital display). But as a grown up I found I like analog watches better -- my brain is quicker at interpreting the visual image of the hands. For the last few years I wore this [1] very
24.
by smath 11mo ago
Very very cool. I have this condition - I got it randomly ("idiopathic" as opposed to age-related) when I was 22. At the time it wreaked havoc on my mental health.
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by smath 11mo ago
A benevolent monarchy maybe - like some places in the east (maybe).or maybe UBI? Some way to not have to worry about basic health and needs What places have this today? I see an answer suggesting AUS below. ChatGPT says Switzerland
26.
by smath 11mo ago
Slightly tangential: this is a wonderful and deep project, that requires a lot of personal time. Lately I've been wondering what social/economic/govt conditions allow for this type of deep thinking + tinkering among working p
27.
by smath 11mo ago
came here to see if anyone had read Rodney's recent essay - and to ask how does this announcement by Figure square with Rodney's essay. The essay was long so I cant claim I read it in detail - one q in my mind is whether humanoids
28.
by smath 1y ago
“How the immune system works”, Lauren Sompayrac
29.
by smath 1y ago
Also (I think?): - Govt beaureucreats spending taxpayer money - Availability of cheap credit for the US govt (the spender is other countries buying the debt) - Availabiulity of cheap student loans
30.
Russian drones cross into Polish airspace(bbc.com)
2 points by smath 1y ago|0 comments

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