1201
Outbreak – playable simulations of a disease outbreak
A playable disease simulation
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 2,391 posts.
1202
MathJax Turns 3.0
When I launched bit-player.org in 2006, displaying any sort of mathematical notation on the web was torture. I would typeset an equation in LaTeX, convert the output to a JPEG image, upload the image file to a directory on the server, and embed a reference to the file in an HTML img tag. The process was cumbersome and…
1203
An equation that takes Pythagoras to a new level
Unbelievably enough, it all comes back to Pythagoras.
1204
Lagrangian Neural Networks
A blog by Sam Greydanus
1205
Finding Mona Lisa in the Game of Life
Using a SAT solver to find Game of Life states that turn into pictures.
1206
Options for giving math talks and lectures online
As part of social distancing efforts to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus, several universities have now transitioned, or begun transitioning, to online teaching models. (My home unive…
1207
Chesterton’s Fence: A Lesson in Second Order Thinking
A core component of making great decisions is understanding previous decisions. If we don’t understand how we got “here,” we run the risk of making things much worse.
1208
Transformers Are Graph Neural Networks
Engineer friends often ask me: Graph Deep Learning sounds great, but are there any big commercial success stories? Is it being deployed in practical applications? Besides the obvious ones–recommendation systems at Pinterest, Alibaba and Twitter–a slightly nuanced success story is the Transformer architecture, which…
1209
Mathematical marketing: a piece of calculus to change the way you advertise
If you make $10 profit each time you sell a product, what cost per conversion should you aim for? Answering this question isn't easy, but it can teach us a…
1210
A googol-to-one gear ratio [video]
To celebrate being alive for a billion seconds, Daniel Bruin built a machine with 100 gears with a 10-to-1 gear ratio…meaning that the overall gear ratio is a g
1211
Anxiety as an algorithm
Founder, Investor, Author
1212
Machine Learning, Kolmogorov Complexity, and Squishy Bunnies (2019)
Computer Science, Machine Learning, Programming, Art, Mathematics, Philosophy, and Short Fiction
1213
Was Knuth Really Framed?
Recently, the formal methods specialist Hillel Wayne posted an interesting article discussing whether Donald Knuth was actually framed when Jon Bentley asked him to demonstrate literate programming . (Knuth came up with an 8-page long monolithic listing, whereas in a critique Doug McIlroy provided a six line shell…
1214
An Intuitive Guide to Linear Algebra (2012)
Despite two linear algebra classes, my knowledge consisted of "Matrices, determinants, eigen something something". Why? Well, let's try this course format:
1215
Math is an insurance policy
We live in interesting times. For instance, we are witnessing several extinction events all at once. One of them is the massive extinction of species. The other is the extinction of jobs. Both are …
1216
Legible Mathematics: Sketches of interactive arithmetic for programming (2014)
Sketches of an interactive arithmetic for programming by Glen Chiacchieri.
1217
Mathematics for the Adventurous Self-Learner
For over six years now, I've been studying mathematics on my own in my spare time - working my way through books, exercises, and online courses. In this post I'll share what books and resources I've worked through and recommend and also tips for anyone who wants to go on a similar adventure.
1218
Holes in Bayesian Statistics
Every philosophy has holes, and it is the responsibility of proponents of a philosophy to point out these problems. Here are a few holes in Bayesian data analysis: (1) the usual rules of conditional probability fail in the quantum realm, (2) flat or weak priors lead to terrible inferences about things we care about…
1219
Beyond Bézier Curves (2013)
There is a new feature of Pages and Keynote, not mentioned in any of Apple’s publicity nor in any press coverage I’ve seen, that is really very interesting. Perhaps it will even one day prove to ha…
1220
Suspicious Discontinuities
If you read any personal finance forums late last year, there's a decent chance you ran across a question from someone who was desperately trying to lose money before the end of the year. There are a number of ways someone could do this; one commonly suggested scheme was to buy put options that were expected to expire…
1221
Calculating Pi: My Attempt at Breaking the Pi World Record
Before I go into the specifics of my record attempt, it is important for you to have some background information. Over the past few years I have been steadily acquiring server hardware to increase my knowledge of system administration and cyber security. This is not only for personal growth: it has also helped me…
1222
Introduction to Clifford Algebra (2006)
Clifford algebra gives a unified view of many things that otherwise would need to be understood separately.
1223
How to Tell a Mathematician You Love Them (2017)
For those who love numbers, and those who love them.
1224
1225
Pathfinding Demystified (2014)
Pathfinding is one of these topics that usualy baffles game developers. The A* algorithm in particular is poorly understood, and the general belief seems to be that it’s arcane magic.
1226
Palindrome Day 20200202
Sonstiges - Learn more about palindromic dates in 2020 and in the near future. 2020-02-02 (YYYMMDD) or 02.02.2020 (DDMMYYY) and others.
1227
Let's remove quaternions from every 3D engine (2018)
To represent 3D rotations graphics programmers use Quaternions . However, Quaternions are taught at face value . We just accept their odd multiplication tables and other arcane definitions and use them as black boxes that rotate vectors in the ways we want. Why does $\mathbf{i}^2=\mathbf{j}^2=\mathbf{k}^2=-1$ and…
1228
Some Useful Probability Facts for Systems Programming
Probability problems come up a lot in systems programming, and I’m using that term loosely to mean everything from operating systems programming and networking, to building large online services, to creating virtual worlds like in games. Here’s a bunch of rough-and-ready probability rules of thumb that are deeply…
1229
Entropy in the Universe
If you click on this picture, you’ll see a zoomable image of the Milky Way with 84 million stars: But stars contribute only a tiny fraction of the total entropy in the observable Universe. If…
1230
Projective Geometric Algebra Done Right
[This is part one of a two-part series. The second part can be found here: Symmetries in Projective Geometric Algebra .]