Syzygies

10 ms·

91.
by Syzygies 1y ago
Maybe for you.
92.
by Syzygies 1y ago
Would you sit on a stool with legs three inches apart? For a statistician, determining a plane from three approximate points on the plane is far more accurate if the points aren't next to each other. When we offer examples or associati
93.
by Syzygies 1y ago
Yup. As a retired mathematician who craves the productivity of an obsessed 28 year old, I've been all in on AI in 2025. I'm now on Claude's $200/month Max plan in order to use Claude Code Opus 4 without restraint. I stil
94.
by Syzygies 1y ago
Yes. I'm impressed with Idris 2. I love how it uses Chez Scheme, my favorite scheme implementation. I contributed for a bit to getting Idris installation working on Apple Silicon Macs based on Racket's port of Chez Scheme, only to
95.
by Syzygies 1y ago
I started with SML in the 1980's, implementing a core math algorithm (Grobner bases) used in my K&R C computer algebra system Macaulay. Then I got this idea there should be a related algorithm in a different problem domain (Hilbert
96.
by Syzygies 1y ago
Thanks! Great idea, I'm not sure why it doesn't actually work better for Lean.
97.
by Syzygies 1y ago
I need a version of this for Lean 4; perhaps I can adapt this code. AI generally struggles with less popular languages, and particularly with Lean 4, which is an excellent general purpose programming language that happens to have a primary
98.
by Syzygies 1y ago
I'm in the midst of modernizing a 1994 K&R C 32-bit codebase to 64-bit C23, as a museum piece: the computer algebra system Macaulay that I coauthored, since replaced by Macaulay 2. The horror! On macOS my environment is Sublime Tex
99.
by Syzygies 1y ago
Yup. I'm on a side project trying to port the 1980's computer algebra system Macaulay I coauthored from 32-bit K&R C to 64-bit C23. K&R C is underspecified. And anyone who whines about AI code quality? Hold my beer, look a
100.
by Syzygies 1y ago
People keep inventing Merkle trees, too. I made the short bibliography of the original bitcoin paper because of Merkle trees. Damn, I wish I'd put $1,000 into bitcoins then; I'd be a billionaire. I thought bitcoin was a Ponzi sche
101.
by Syzygies 1y ago
tmux! That was today's project. I'm using Claude Code Opus 4 to translate a K&R C computer algebra system (Macaulay) from the 1980's into C23. Finally getting to the "compiles but crashes" (64 bit issues) I foun
102.
by Syzygies 1y ago
So let me get this straight. You read "back end as a service" and your mind went to BANKING?
103.
by Syzygies 1y ago
.claude/settings.local.json fragment: "hooks": { "PostToolUse": [ { "matcher": "Edit|MultiEdit|Write", "hooks": [ { "type":
104.
by Syzygies 1y ago
$200 is a small expense and you don't know why I need AI. The online dialog about AI is mostly noise, and even at HN it is badly distorted by people who wince at $20 a month, and complain AI isn't that smart.
105.
by Syzygies 1y ago
One can find opinions that Claude Code Opus 4 is worth the monthly $200 I pay for Anthropic's Max plan. Opus 4 is smarter; one either can't afford to use it, or can't afford not to use it. I'm in the latter group. One fe
106.
by Syzygies 1y ago
AI is the primary audience for our writing, and the primary reason to reconsider our choice of markup format. It's all about semantic compression: Typst source, markdown, and asciidoc are far more concise than LaTeX source. I'm ob
107.
by Syzygies 1y ago
I'm a mathematician who taught linear algebra for decades. I love Einstein notation. I don't find Cracovians interesting at all. Old texts got really worked up whether a vector was a row or column. The programming language APL res
108.
by Syzygies 1y ago
No mention of Opus there or here (so far). Having tried everything I settled on a $100/month Anthropic "Max" plan to use Claude Code. Then I learned how Claude Opus 4 is currently their best but most expensive model for my si
109.
by Syzygies 1y ago
I was looking at $2,000 a year and climbing, before Anthropic announce $100 and $200 Max subscriptions that bundled Claude Console and Claude Code. There are limits per five hour windows, but one can toggle back to metered API with the logi
110.
by Syzygies 1y ago
I moved to Max after projecting a $2,000 annual API bill. I haven't yet hit five hour limits, but login/ toggles easily between plans. I believe the interface tells you when you've hit a limit, but as I said I don't know
111.
by Syzygies 1y ago
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/614cOQl6DwL._AC_SL1000_....
112.
by Syzygies 1y ago
John Nash saw the symbol pi as just a Greek letter. In grad school he proudly used every Greek letter in a paper. I was asked to decorate his (film) dorm window in grease pencil, and by chance a photograph of Russell Crowe through this wind
113.
by Syzygies 1y ago
Consulting for "A Beautiful Mind" was in part an exercise in mathematical fiction. The later math is imagined to fit the story. John Nash even wrote me to ask what the math on the clipboard meant, as his film self recovered on a p
114.
by Syzygies 1y ago
Yes, art! I've been in a constant struggle with Claude Code over variable names. I've picked up speed by just getting the code working, fixing names later. The variable names are what first jumped out at me, looking at this code.
115.
by Syzygies 1y ago
"Do NOT use any tools till we’ve discussed it through." I've picked up a lot of speed by relaxing on so many AI guidelines, recognizing they're unenforceable. My comment preferences? Just have AI them out when we're
116.
by Syzygies 1y ago
As the only oldstyle font in the "original 35" Postscript desktop publishing fonts (think "original seven" Mercury astronauts), Palatino saw overuse. Among some designers it's second only to Comic Sans for its amate
117.
by Syzygies 1y ago
If I've learned one thing using AI, it's that other people's experiences are not particularly relevant. So this paper is a meh! for me whatever its provenance. Compare the failure rates for condoms.
118.
by Syzygies 1y ago
Yes. The article ran through this point as follows: "In 1964, a mathematician named Vadim Vizing proved a shocking result: No matter how large a graph is, it’s easy to figure out how many colors you’ll need to color it. Simply look for
119.
by Syzygies 1y ago
As a grad student I took out a student loan for the equivalent of a year's stipend, to buy an Apple II in 1980. Within a week I voided the warranty (?) by carrying out a "shift key modification" that involved cutting a trace
120.
by Syzygies 1y ago
I just ended my Cursor subscription today, and upgraded from Claude's Pro to Max plan to reduce my Claude Code costs. They now include a healthy Claude Code allowance in the Max plans. If one has already set up Claude Code with metered

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