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smburdick

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The Multi-Trillion-Dollar Battle for Your Attention Is Built on a Lie

nytimes.com
6 points·by smburdick·6 месяцев назад·1 comments

Topological Quantum Error Correction [pdf]

smburdick.github.io
2 points·by smburdick·2 года назад·0 comments

Show HN: Topological Quantum Error Correction (TQEC)

github.com
1 points·by smburdick·2 года назад·0 comments

Ask HN: Online services/apps (or books) for an intermediate Japanese learner?

3 points·by smburdick·2 года назад·2 comments

Readthedocs-Sphinx-Search breaks for older releases

github.com
2 points·by smburdick·2 года назад·1 comments

Anyon

en.wikipedia.org
4 points·by smburdick·3 года назад·0 comments

comments

smburdick
·23 дня назад·discuss
Calling it concatenation is a little misleading.

Japanese is known as an agglutinative language [0], and how verbs are conjugated also has a lot to do with politeness, as well as local dialects. That's why you can turn on an anime and hardly understand it, even after a couple years of study.

I got to the third year college level in my own Japanese studies, and at that point, memorizing kanji was starting to compete with my computer science studies, so I had to drop it. I got to travel to Japan and live with host families (we kind of settled on a Japanese/English pidgin), so I don't regret the experience.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agglutinative_language
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
John Knoll was the FX lead for the Star Wars prequels, and went on to direct Rogue One.

The behind the scenes documentaries for the prequels have aged well: https://youtu.be/da8s9m4zEpo?si=5y5gHUMxztwVzMny
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
My undergrad math professor created one of the first fully online linear algebra texts: http://linear.ups.edu/html/fcla.html It's integrated with Sage, a Python library for studying (among other things) number theory. Another prof at the same university also wrote his own linear book, using a lot more illustrations, but as a traditional textbook.

I see this book as a solid evolution in both directions. Nicely done!
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
I’m typing this comment on an iPad ;-) Which I love using for marking up papers and other documents for quick feedback. But doing research is another story.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
For me, reading papers requires deep focus. I have to have it physically printed out if I'm going to really read the whole thing.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
From [1]:

> We implemented the algorithm on IBM quantum processors using only 5 qubits

Last December, a team based out of Harvard demonstrated the ability to scale up to 48 logical qubits: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03982

It has been shown that, to factor an integer with n bits, Shor's algorithm requires ~2n logical qubits: https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0205095.pdf
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
Reminds me of those old-timey propeller planes, and gyrocopters.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
This is what a minifier does, and those go even further to rename variables.

Another thing that should be pruned away entirely are data files, including all constant strings within the code, since humans should avoid those when focusing on algorithms

At that point you pretty much have a highly compressed version of what you'd find in CLRS or any other algorithmic text.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
This is why grants are really important. That usually means deliverables in a specific timeframe. To me, that elevates open source from a full-time hobby to a job.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
This is why I use a tablet. Lets me do math formulas quickly, and can view the notes wherever as long as it updates to wi-fi.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
Alongside Brian Kernighan, the "K" in K&R C, and much more Unix lore.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
Does that excerpt start with an if-else sequence?
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
Not sure if they do, have reached out.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
Not a huge issue to fix (just needs to be upgraded) but it broke deployments to two open source projects I work on over the past couple days.

Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Idk.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
How can AI be unethical? There's eigen-values everywhere!
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
+1. Looks fantastic!
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
As a software developer with some tutoring/TA experience, I'm concerned about whether the next generation of devs will actually be able to code, if all they had to do was use a Copilot to complete their assignments, especially at the freshman/sophomore level. They'd be automating themselves out of usefulness at that point.

Then again, we've had similar conversations about "iPad kids." As an iPad (along with everything else) user, I find it's not a bad approximation of a laptop -- you do have a filesystem, for example, and apps continue to be more fully-featured (in an Apple-approved way, of course).

I use copilot myself, but mostly as a smart autocomplete for setting variables or other minor things that consume time better spent contextualizing through problem solving and interacting with teammates. It's not a substitute for being an engineer.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
I resent Gladwell to this day, possibly because I was assigned to read him in high school. He is quoted too much -- the 10,000 hours thing is just a meme at this point, for me anyway.
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
+1. What are the fundamentals of CS? Algorithms?
smburdick
·2 года назад·discuss
I am at times more of a book learner, but find that attitude is often more helpful for non-CS disciplines that change slower (eg, math/physics).

A recent negative book example for me is the Quantum Programming book from O'Reilly. I found that it did not discuss quantum circuits in a detail that helped me really understand what I was doing -- though I suppose that is a conceit of quantum computing. Perhaps I will return to it later (I am working through Nielsen/Chuang now, which is very theoretical, but explains things very clearly)

My policy is that a book is nothing more than a learning tool, which a hobby project can also be (perhaps more effectively due to the experience gained).

Then again, knowledge is power, and books are great at pointing you in the right direction -- assuming you found the right one for your needs, of course.

I know some people who won't open a book unless they know they can read the whole thing, which I think is a ludicrous attitude.

I did just order O'Reilly's Generative Deep Learning book, and am hoping to get something out of that, and if I only retain a handful of snippets to use in my career, that is profitable for me.

The least I can count on is that it will look nice on my shelf.