Search found 44 matches
- Thu Mar 01, 2018 1:05 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1961: "Interaction"
- Replies: 28
- Views: 4309
Re: 1961: Interaction
Small talk is hard. Yep, it is hard to believably fake my interest in the weather, traffic, someone's spawn, or sports; nor do I believe the fake interest from the other person. :roll: That's why it's an effective signaling behavior: it's expensive. You're not supposed to believe they are intereste...
- Wed Jun 21, 2017 1:23 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Why do kids in school dread math?
- Replies: 40
- Views: 10018
Re: Why do kids in school dread math?
Math is hard, like a lot of other subjects. But unlike a lot of other subjects, you can't dumb it down without making it boring.
- Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:15 pm UTC
- Forum: Religious Wars
- Topic: What makes a good programming language?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 12875
Re: What makes a good programming language?
A good programming language is different from other programming languages. There are no "better" vs. "worse" differences, though there are trivial vs. profound ones. Great programming languages are profoundly different.
- Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:45 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Correlation between event and its effect on a time series
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1947
- Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:28 pm UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Favorite math jokes
- Replies: 1452
- Views: 474517
Re: Favorite math jokes
Sizik wrote:Yeah, the programmer part was kind of not thought out well enough.
There are unproveable statements which are nonetheless true, and ungettable jokes that are nonetheless funny. And yours is very funny as it stands.
- Mon Oct 25, 2010 1:52 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: How can I become a genius scientist?
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2335
Re: How can I become a genius scientist?
Focus narrowly. As you advance in your career, and find out how intelligent you really are, adjust your level of specialization down to something narrow enough that you're a genius at that, though at nothing else. If you're actually a genius, or even very intelligent, you won't specialize very much,...
- Sun Oct 03, 2010 1:41 am UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: Would haskell make me a better programmer?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 4972
Re: Would haskell make me a better programmer?
I used to be skeptical of the notion that learning a language with an unfamiliar paradigm makes one a better programmer. However, I enjoy learning new languages, and began studying Haskell for that reason. Turns out, it's had a big influence (for the better, I think) on my programming style in Pytho...
- Fri Sep 03, 2010 1:05 am UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: Haskell as a first language.
- Replies: 10
- Views: 4155
Re: Haskell as a first language.
Pepve wrote:This thought may be a bit radical, but why not ask him?
The only really practical answer. I hope your friend chooses Haskell.
- Sun Jul 25, 2010 3:01 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: How does the computer generate a random number?
- Replies: 30
- Views: 4409
Re: How does the computer generate a random number?
Can someone tell me this: Is my system insecure if I exhaust its supply of entropy, e.g. cat /dev/random > /dev/null no. When the entropy pool is empty, reads from /dev/random will block until additional environmental noise is gathered. Ow. I think my toaster just stabbed me in the face :?
- Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:05 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: How does the computer generate a random number?
- Replies: 30
- Views: 4409
Re: How does the computer generate a random number?
Maybe worth mentioning that the reproducibility of pseudorandom sequences, given the same seed, is really quite useful, if you're runing a Monte Carlo simulation: you may want to run the program repeatedly with "random" input that's the same every time. If you were using a truly random gen...
- Sat Jul 24, 2010 10:41 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: How does one become a famous scientist?
- Replies: 84
- Views: 15604
Re: How does one become a famous scientist?
If you want to become a first-tier famous scientist, then 1) cultivate endearingly humanizing features, such as frizzy hair, playing the bongos, or near-total paralysis. 2) learn to popularize really well, and 3) do better science than most of your colleagues who aren't distracted by #1 & #2. #3...
- Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:25 pm UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Frequentist, Bayesian, or Other?
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2181
Re: Frequentist, Bayesian, or Other?
Dason wrote:I have no idea what you're trying to say there.
You should have stopped there.
- Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:20 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Frequentist, Bayesian, or Other?
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2181
Re: Frequentist, Bayesian, or Other?
Frequentist confidence intervals require wacky mental gymnastics. All this week, I've been worrying that the p value I had calculated correctly, could become retroactively incorrect later on, if I computed another p value -- but that this would either happen, or not, depending on my intention, or l...
- Wed Jun 09, 2010 2:35 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Hating on the statisticians
- Replies: 72
- Views: 9449
Re: Hating on the statisticians
Natty wrote:Statisticians dislike mathematicians because mathematicians whine to the teacher.
Wait, who's the teacher in this metaphor?
- Sat Jun 05, 2010 2:36 am UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: What is a good language for a scientist?
- Replies: 19
- Views: 2776
Re: What is a good language for a scientist?
I would nominate Python, with the Numpy & Scipy libraries, to fill the Matlab niche. Weaker in some ways, stronger in others -- and one of the strengths is Python's better considered as a general purpose programming language. At least I think so, and I don't think my opinion's particularly eccen...
- Thu May 27, 2010 1:10 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: What have you broken in the lab?
- Replies: 48
- Views: 7033
Re: What have you broken in the lab?
Saying "you know that 100,000 dollar machine we have? yeaaaa it's broken" has got to be one of the most terrifying sentences to say There's worse. Sometimes you make a mistake and you have to tell your human subject's family that he's died. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=Article...
- Fri May 14, 2010 12:22 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science and programming
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1750
Re: Science and programming
There exist specialised disciplines where a computational approach is taken or where computational methods to the specific field are studied, ... Why not ask around at the institute you're studying at? Even better: find a field of science where a computational approach is not usually taken, but whe...
- Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:11 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: ethics of artificial suffering
- Replies: 120
- Views: 13808
Re: ethics of artificial suffering
you bet they will program it without fear. Not a safe assumption at all. Fear serves a useful function in biological brains. Perhaps it's possible to implement Azimov's Third Law without fear -- perhaps not. Perhaps it's possible, but beyond the technical ability of the folks who program the first ...
- Sun Apr 25, 2010 11:39 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: ethics of artificial suffering
- Replies: 120
- Views: 13808
Re: ethics of artificial suffering
Why would it be any more unethical to create simulated humans (or human-level intelligences) than it would be to have children? Yes, you would have the power to mess with the universe they inhabit if you are simulating an entire universe for them, but as long as that power isn't abused, I don't see...
- Sat Apr 24, 2010 1:39 am UTC
- Forum: General
- Topic: Writing Instrument
- Replies: 82
- Views: 15075
Re: Writing Instrument
Namiki Falcon. To be polite, I pretend to understand why some people don't use this.
- Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:46 am UTC
- Forum: Religious Wars
- Topic: Spaces and tabs in Python
- Replies: 15
- Views: 14532
Re: Spaces and tabs in Python
I used to use tabs for nesting, spaces for alignment, but my IDE complained, so I switched to all-spaces. I decided I didn't like 8-spaces per level indenting so I had the editor change it to 4. However, the diff between the current revision and the previous one now shows changes on every indented (...
- Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:57 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Why would I need to blow up the moon?
- Replies: 97
- Views: 9924
Re: Why would I need to blow up the moon?
"To show the Martians, when they arrive, what Bomber Command can do."
- Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:38 am UTC
- Forum: The Help Desk
- Topic: [Mac] Weird problem on Saturdays
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1159
Re: [Mac] Weird problem on Saturdays
I bet it's a "cron" job, probably indexing the hard drive. On my MacBook Pro, by default, that job runs on saturdays. Try launching Activity Monitor, and, when the problem occurs, looking for a job that's either using a lot of CPU cycles, or doing a lot of disk access. Then, when you have ...
- Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:28 am UTC
- Forum: The Help Desk
- Topic: Question about possible misuse of an xkcd strip
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1490
Re: Question about possible misuse of an xkcd strip
No idea about the CC license, but what sort of high school is this where a majority of the Junior class would find #422 funny?
- Fri Feb 19, 2010 1:09 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Pick a number between 1 and 100
- Replies: 74
- Views: 7090
Re: Engineers
I'm a scientist, and my collaborators are mostly engineers. While I'm sure there's an "official" distinction, most of the time, if you just watched what we spent our time doing you couldn't tell us apart. Every now & then, though, a certain cultural difference crops up: they're interes...
- Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:14 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 0697: "Tensile vs. Shear Strength"
- Replies: 136
- Views: 36067
Re: "Tensile vs. Shear Strength" Discussion
My first thought was Haldeman, rather than Burma Shave
Stuck on this lift for hours, perforce ...
This lift that cost a million bucks.
There's no such thing as centrifugal force.
L5 sucks.
Stuck on this lift for hours, perforce ...
This lift that cost a million bucks.
There's no such thing as centrifugal force.
L5 sucks.
- Wed Jan 20, 2010 1:06 am UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: What programing language is best for complete beginners?
- Replies: 62
- Views: 8326
Re: What programing language is best for complete beginners?
cha0tic , if you do decide to take Berengal 's advice, please consider blogging a diary of the experience. I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering whether a functional language like Haskell seems difficult to a person with no preconceptions. Even more interesting would be an account of learning your se...
- Sat Jan 16, 2010 4:42 pm UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Mathematics and intellect
- Replies: 85
- Views: 8941
Re: Mathematics and intellect
Yes, but for those of us without $40 million dollar surgical suites, it's not exactly a good idea to put a laptop through the autoclave. For those of you without $40 million surgical suites, it's not a good idea to do the kind of surgery that requires really scrupulous sterile technique :wink: . No...
- Sat Jan 16, 2010 2:12 pm UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Mathematics and intellect
- Replies: 85
- Views: 8941
Re: Mathematics and intellect
There are no books or computers (because they cannot be sterilized or cannot survive being sterilized), and no time to have someone leave and check.. I agree with your conclusion, but not with your argument. Surgeons routinely use computers while scrubbed in. For example, stereotactic targeting sof...
- Sat Jan 16, 2010 2:13 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Mathematics and intellect
- Replies: 85
- Views: 8941
Re: Mathematics and intellect
You spend all your time memorizing stuff that takes 15 minutes to look up. Leo Szilard, after moving from physics to biology, complained that he could no longer work in the bathtub, because he kept having to climb out in order to look up a fact. My point being this: in fields like biology, you have...
- Fri Jan 15, 2010 4:50 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Mathematics and intellect
- Replies: 85
- Views: 8941
Re: Mathematics and intellect
Notation and terminology are two very different things. How? Notzeb uses terminology , e.g. strings of Roman-alphabet letters like "space," "spectrum," and "is isomorphic as." If he replaced each with a single letter in Greek, or Hebrew, or some obscurer alphabet, woul...
- Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:31 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Mathematics and intellect
- Replies: 85
- Views: 8941
Re: Mathematics and intellect
I believe that mathematics is clearer without notation. I have seen this explicitly given as advice for mathematical writing from at least two reputable sources, Knuth and Munkres, who both have been writing mathematics long enough that they should know what they're talking about. Notation doesn't ...
- Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:53 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Mathematics and intellect
- Replies: 85
- Views: 8941
Re: Mathematics and intellect
I claim it'll be *harder* to understand because the formulas are a crutch to make the math *easier* Only for a mathematician. A non-mathematician will find the symbolic version completely incomprehensible, but they may be able to make some sense out of the 'English' version (and will at least be ab...
- Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:17 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Mathematics and intellect
- Replies: 85
- Views: 8941
Re: Mathematics and intellect
A basic reason is that it's hard to read formulas, but easy to read words. Mathematicians use a lot of syntax that is unfamiliar. I disagree, and this is testable. Try, as an exercise, translating an article in a mathematics journal into English. Or even something from an advanced undergraduate mat...
- Sat Jan 09, 2010 9:41 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: You Might Be a Biology Major if...
- Replies: 153
- Views: 20260
Re: You Might Be a Biology Major if...
ellaruby wrote:Admiral Valdemar wrote:YMBABM if you consider the perfect organism has already evolved.
How exactly are we defining perfect?
We could recognize the perfect organism, if it existed, by the fact that it had *stopped* evolving.
- Sun Dec 13, 2009 12:23 pm UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Why do people keep saying this?
- Replies: 42
- Views: 4424
Re: Why do people keep saying this?
(Obviously it wouldn't be impossible to prove something like, "There is no hippo in my room". You can inspect your room yourself and be sure of that). Nope. You can't even prove that. If you claim to have searched the room exhaustively, I can propose various counterhypotheses, such as a c...
- Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:09 pm UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: Why do people keep saying this?
- Replies: 42
- Views: 4424
Re: Why do people keep saying this?
What it sounds like to me is someone's parroting a theory of inductive reasoning associated with Karl Popper, the Vienna Circle, and logical positivism. It ceased being respectable among philosophers in 1951 (Quine's "Two dogmas of empiricism") and among historians of science in 1962 (Kuhn...
- Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:51 am UTC
- Forum: Computer Science
- Topic: Excel needs to sod off and die
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3498
Re: Excel needs to sod off and die
Parsimony and model building is admittedly less of a big deal with a purely predictive model, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Doing anything with your data without a reason why gives me an uncomfortableness. I think you're assuming the OP is doing science. He may be doing process engin...
- Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:19 pm UTC
- Forum: Computer Science
- Topic: Excel needs to sod off and die
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3498
Re: Excel needs to sod off and die
A good rule of thumb is you should only at max one explanatory variable for every 10 observations you have. Which means really, your data can manage a linear fit, and a second order fit is stretching. Agreed, but I've also never, ever seen someone give a plausible reason for a 6-order term besides ...