5 ms·

I really wish people would be more careful about choosing names for these things. LoRa has been a popular wireless protocol for like 10 years.

sva_ 2y ago
Yes, but this is LoRA, clearly not LoRa.
- squarefoot 2y ago
  PP has a point though. I entered "LoRA" on Google, DuckDuckGo, Startpage and Bing, and all returned results in all first pages were about the communication protocol (1). They could have inferred my interests from previous searches, but I never used Bing in the last year or so, so it seems to me someone didn't care about name clashes. (1) well, except Google which -surprise- returned about mid page an ad of a local quite expensive chandeliers brand called "LORA".
  - sva_ 2y ago
    I usually just add a term like 'ml' or 'nn' after my search to give the machine context and it is sufficient in most cases.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - refulgentis 2y ago
    Wait until you find out its a name too
  - johnisgood 2y ago
    Most of the time you have to add a keyword as to what it is related. We cannot expect everything to have unique names, unless we are perfectly fine with random pronounceable strings as names.
- atherton33 2y ago
  I think you mean LoRa®, a registered trademark of Semtech® Corporation, for use only with permission and within specific guidelines. https://www.semtech.com/uploads/company/FAQ-for-Use-of-LoRa-2017.pdf https://www.semtech.com/uploads/company/FAQ-for-Use-of-LoRa-...
  - mbirth 2y ago
    Not to be confused with Semtex who sell a completely different kind of problem solver.
    - noisy_boy 2y ago
      Isn't Semtex an explosive aka RDX?
      - yau8edq12i 2y ago
        Yes, you got the joke.
mobilemidget 2y ago
I addressed the same in a previous 'lora' post on HN. For me the name is already reserved for the radio telecommunication meaning. Nothing going to change that.
renewiltord 2y ago
Seriously, that was a terrible name for the wireless system since it's been used by the Loyola Online Records Access system for half a decade or more before the radio company shamelessly copied the name.
dheera 2y ago
Not sure about "popular" 99% of ML engineers wouldn't know what it is.
- enlyth 2y ago
  I'm not an ML engineer and the only reason I know that the wireless protocol exists is because in every HN article, there's a comment repeating the same complaint
- Findecanor 2y ago
  99% of the engineers who are still working in ML (Machine Language) would. A much smaller percent among those who write in ML (the functional programming language) probably, though.
  - nerdponx 2y ago
    Even if the ML engineers know about the wireless protocol (and I doubt that many do), the scientists/researchers who develop these models probably don't. They are completely different domain. The lead author on this paper is basically a neuroscientist; some of the other are technically computer scientists, but probably have little hands-on experience with networking beyond whatever they did in undergrad.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- goodpoint 2y ago
  ...but they should know how to use search engines...
  - bryanrasmussen 2y ago
    at some point we are going to run out of easily pronounceable abbreviations that are unique. Perhaps that point is actually in the past and we should just acknowledge it and move on. Although I guess it could have been Lorall - oops, that's a character in World of Warcraft.
marcinzm 2y ago
And LORA stood for Level of Repair Analysis since the 70s.
onion2k 2y ago
The scale of human knowledge, and the pace we're increasing it at, means we probably can't have unique names for everything any more if we aim for short, pronounceable things. "Lora" must have dozens of meanings across different domains. The fact you recognize it from another one is just something you have to deal with.
BaculumMeumEst 2y ago
The other side of this is that if you become paralyzed by decisions because 0.001% of people are bothered by it, you're not gonna make it.
dsjoerg 2y ago
The overlap in the Venn Diagram of people who care about LoRA and people who care about LoRa is extremely small. Your problem is not typical of people in the Machine Learning field. That's why they didn't care, or more likely this issue didn't occur to the first 50 people who saw the name LoRA.
Turing_Machine 2y ago
Think of Apple naming its spreadsheet "Numbers" and its word processor "Pages" (or, for that matter, the name "Apple" itself. Or "Windows", "Word", "Access"...). And yet (as others have noted) adding another word or two to give a bit of context is usually enough that web searches work. Search engines are pretty clever nowadays, except when they've been deliberately dumbed-down (cough... Google...).
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

sva_ 2y ago

Yes, but this is LoRA, clearly not LoRa.

squarefoot 2y ago
PP has a point though. I entered "LoRA" on Google, DuckDuckGo, Startpage and Bing, and all returned results in all first pages were about the communication protocol (1). They could have inferred my interests from previous searches, but I never used Bing in the last year or so, so it seems to me someone didn't care about name clashes. (1) well, except Google which -surprise- returned about mid page an ad of a local quite expensive chandeliers brand called "LORA".
- sva_ 2y ago
  I usually just add a term like 'ml' or 'nn' after my search to give the machine context and it is sufficient in most cases.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- refulgentis 2y ago
  Wait until you find out its a name too
- johnisgood 2y ago
  Most of the time you have to add a keyword as to what it is related. We cannot expect everything to have unique names, unless we are perfectly fine with random pronounceable strings as names.
atherton33 2y ago
I think you mean LoRa®, a registered trademark of Semtech® Corporation, for use only with permission and within specific guidelines. https://www.semtech.com/uploads/company/FAQ-for-Use-of-LoRa-2017.pdf https://www.semtech.com/uploads/company/FAQ-for-Use-of-LoRa-...
- mbirth 2y ago
  Not to be confused with Semtex who sell a completely different kind of problem solver.
  - noisy_boy 2y ago
    Isn't Semtex an explosive aka RDX?
    - yau8edq12i 2y ago
      Yes, you got the joke.

mobilemidget 2y ago

I addressed the same in a previous 'lora' post on HN. For me the name is already reserved for the radio telecommunication meaning. Nothing going to change that.

renewiltord 2y ago

Seriously, that was a terrible name for the wireless system since it's been used by the Loyola Online Records Access system for half a decade or more before the radio company shamelessly copied the name.

dheera 2y ago

Not sure about "popular" 99% of ML engineers wouldn't know what it is.

enlyth 2y ago
I'm not an ML engineer and the only reason I know that the wireless protocol exists is because in every HN article, there's a comment repeating the same complaint
Findecanor 2y ago
99% of the engineers who are still working in ML (Machine Language) would. A much smaller percent among those who write in ML (the functional programming language) probably, though.
- nerdponx 2y ago
  Even if the ML engineers know about the wireless protocol (and I doubt that many do), the scientists/researchers who develop these models probably don't. They are completely different domain. The lead author on this paper is basically a neuroscientist; some of the other are technically computer scientists, but probably have little hands-on experience with networking beyond whatever they did in undergrad.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
goodpoint 2y ago
...but they should know how to use search engines...
- bryanrasmussen 2y ago
  at some point we are going to run out of easily pronounceable abbreviations that are unique. Perhaps that point is actually in the past and we should just acknowledge it and move on. Although I guess it could have been Lorall - oops, that's a character in World of Warcraft.

marcinzm 2y ago

And LORA stood for Level of Repair Analysis since the 70s.

onion2k 2y ago

The scale of human knowledge, and the pace we're increasing it at, means we probably can't have unique names for everything any more if we aim for short, pronounceable things. "Lora" must have dozens of meanings across different domains. The fact you recognize it from another one is just something you have to deal with.

BaculumMeumEst 2y ago

The other side of this is that if you become paralyzed by decisions because 0.001% of people are bothered by it, you're not gonna make it.

dsjoerg 2y ago

The overlap in the Venn Diagram of people who care about LoRA and people who care about LoRa is extremely small. Your problem is not typical of people in the Machine Learning field. That's why they didn't care, or more likely this issue didn't occur to the first 50 people who saw the name LoRA.

Turing_Machine 2y ago

Think of Apple naming its spreadsheet "Numbers" and its word processor "Pages" (or, for that matter, the name "Apple" itself. Or "Windows", "Word", "Access"...). And yet (as others have noted) adding another word or two to give a bit of context is usually enough that web searches work. Search engines are pretty clever nowadays, except when they've been deliberately dumbed-down (cough... Google...).

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]