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Normalizing Flows Are Capable Generative Models
Normalizing Flows (NFs) are likelihood-based models for continuous inputs. They have demonstrated promising results on both density…
Topics /
Math & Algorithms
The most popular blog posts about math & algorithms on Hacker News. 2,851 posts.
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Understanding deep learning requires re-thinking generalization
Understanding deep learning requires re-thinking generalization Zhang et al., ICLR’17 This paper has a wonderful combination of properties: the results are easy to understand, somewhat surpri…
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How to make a Smith chart
Deriving the basic mathematical properties of the Smith chart from electrical engineering
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Algorithmic surrealism: A slow-motion guide to high-frequency trading
Please note: Part 1 of this essay appeared in the Feb 2015 edition of Contributoria . It is published and modified here under a...
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Deriving the Reddit Formula
A few things about Reddit’s hot formula have always bothered me. The formula has obviously been a success when it comes to setting the Internet on fire, but I have to wonder:
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Thoughts On Machine Learning Accuracy
This blog shares some brief thoughts on machine learning accuracy and bias. Let’s start with some comments about a recent ACLU blog in which they ran a facial recognition trial. Using Rekognition, the ACLU built a face database using 25,000 publicly available arrest photos and then performed facial similarity searches…
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Fibonacci Flim-Flam.
physics, history of science, pseudoscience, hoaxes, writing, education, skepticisism, humor, quotes, illusions, 3d stereo photography.
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Fast and easy Levenshtein distance using a trie (2011)
<img src="http://stevehanov.ca/blog/images/acer.jpg"/> If you have a web site with a search function, you will rapidly realize that most mortals are terrible typists. Many searches contain mispelled words, and users will expect these searches to magically work. This magic is often done using levenshtein distance. In…
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The essence of Reed-Solomon coding
Let’s say we want to store some data on multiple drives, so that we can recover from drive failures.
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Diffusion models explained simply
Transformer-based large language models are relatively easy to understand. You break language down into a finite set of “tokens” (words or sub-word components…
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The Soviet license plate game and Kolmogorov complexity
Physicist Lev Landau used to play a mental game with Soviet license plates [1]. The plates had the form of two digits, a dash, two more digits, and some letters. Rules of the game His game was to apply high school math operators to the numbers on both side of the dash so that the
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Basic math related to computation and memory usage for transformers
We present basic math related to computation and memory usage for transformers
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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.
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Bitwise Division
Integer division is expensive. Much more expensive than multiplication. Much, much more expensive than addition. If you’re trying to make some integer operations really fast it’s bad news if you need to do division.
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John Coltrane's Tone Circle
An article about the John Coltrane Tone Circle, a 5-octave Circle of Fifths and a double-ring Hexatonic Circle as well. Interpretation, explanation ...
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Finding Mona Lisa in the Game of Life
Using a SAT solver to find Game of Life states that turn into pictures.
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Bloom Filters by example
A Bloom filter is a data structure designed to tell you, rapidly and memory-efficiently, whether an element is present in a set.
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Win your fantasy league using operations research
I’ve never been good at playing football 1 . I started playing again last year and I have scored more own goals than goals for my team. Also, I support the RCD Espanyol 2 , which has spent last season in the second division and has miraculously ascended to the first division last week. And to be honest, I only watch…
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‘A Swiss cheese-like material’ that can solve equations
Engineering professor Nader Engheta and his team have demonstrated a metamaterial device that can function as an analog computer, validating an earlier theory about ‘photonic calculus.’
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A Good Year for “A Programmer’s Introduction to Mathematics”
A year ago today I self-published “A Programmer’s Introduction to Mathematics” (PIM). In this short note I want to describe the success it’s had, summarize the complaints of some readers and the praise of others, and outline what’s next. Since publication PIM has sold over 11,000 copies. A rough chart showing the…
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Math For Programmers
Probability theory might be the most useful area for programmers, but it is also a blurry field, difficult to learn right. You might check this book for details, and there is also an free, online draft version available. The Logic of Science
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I hate the Pumping Lemma
I hate the Pumping Lemma for regular languages. It’s a complicated way to express an idea that is fundamentally very simple, and it isn’t even a very good way to prove that a language is not regula…