WCSTombs

10 ms·

121.
by WCSTombs 9mo ago
There's a now well-known guideline that says "prefer composition over inheritance." When I saw that, it clarified a lot of things. While much of software design can theoretically be approached in terms of class hierarchies, t
122.
by WCSTombs 9mo ago
And I think most people would agree that an inherently unpredictable component has no place in a safety-critical system or anywhere that potential liability would be huge. AI-based products can still be viable for the exact same reason that
123.
by WCSTombs 9mo ago
I think it's just saying that AIs are treated like inanimate objects and thus not something that liability can apply to. Here's an analogy that I think illustrates the effect of the law, if I've understood it: let's say
124.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
> It's easy to put this on the parents, but that's not the answer. Otherwise, it would be solved already. I would argue it must be part of the answer, if it isn't literally the answer. You even kind of hit the nail on
125.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
YouTube.
126.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
Ok, that's very interesting. Last I checked only self-hosted runners were documented, but I definitely want to look into this.
127.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
So it's a moat that trickles out to the sea and has to be kept filled very expensively. (I'm just keeping the metaphor alive because for me it is the primary blocker, whatever we call it.)
128.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
Yeah, the similarity ratio/scale factor and its connection to area is the key part of the proof. Sorry, that could have been clearer.
129.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
To be clear, I'm just claiming that we can choose a specific area unit, and the three equations you wrote are then obvious consequences of that. It's true, you do need to assume area scales as the square of length, but IMO that&#x
130.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
> This proof assumes that the area a triangle is some function k c^2 of the hypotenuse c where k is constant for similar triangles. Area in what units? "Square" units? But we're free to choose any unit we want, so I choo
131.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
Look, I think it's pretty hard for most of us to read long math arguments in plain text, so I wrote in the simplest language I could, leaving the simple details for the reader to fill in. I will add that in the vast majority of mathema
132.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
To be fair, I'm constrained by plain text on Hacker News. The argument I wrote down requires a diagram to be fully understood, so I described it in words expecting the reader to draw it themselves, or at least mentally visualize it (fo
133.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
The thing is that in my head there is no algebraic argument: we go from (1) similarity ratios being A:B:C and (2) the first two areas adding up to the third area, straight to the conclusion of A^2 + B^2 = C^2. I think your point about a ste
134.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
That one's also very neat!
135.
by WCSTombs 10mo ago
There are thousands of different proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, and some of them are really cool. The purely trigonometric proof that was found by some high school students recently is a great one. However, I think the greatest proof of
136.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
> Rust shines when memory safety is critical (OS kernels, cryptography), but in most real-world scenarios, the trade-offs don't justify the pain. You've got to be kidding me... Memory safety is a huge benefit in myriad scenario
137.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
But I think that's really the point: it gets applied to problems it was clearly not meant to solve. The article doesn't really get into that, but that's how I'm reading it because I've seen it happen. To some progra
138.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
TL;DR: OOP is being replaced by microservices (and even more extreme ideas), which is much worse. Yeah, I have to agree with this author. I will say that service-oriented architecture does have some advantages, and thus sometimes it's
139.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
The example given in the article is 2^127 - 1, which was historically proved to be prime without computers using a clever method now known as the Lucas-Lehmer test. Your algorithm is not practical for that number.
140.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
In my opinion having a hard line on AI use is fair, so I don't have an issue with that, but I think the awards committee messed up by putting out the guidelines so late. That said, I also think the publishers messed up big time by putt
141.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
It's for the 2026 awards. There is no winner yet.
142.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
I agree, and I had to think about it for a second, but now it seems obvious. It works for the exact same reason that averaging multiple independent measurements can give a more accurate result. The key fact is that the different random vari
143.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
Here's my intuition: you can reduce the variance of a measurement by averaging multiple independent measurements. That's because when they're independent, the worst-case scenario of the errors all lining up is pretty unlikely
144.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
First off, I've not seen anything to suggest that LLMs are capable of generating novel proofs that are interesting to mathematicians, and personally I suspect they're not. I think AI could potentially get to that point, but I don&
145.
by WCSTombs 11mo ago
You typoed the URL. This seems to be the correct link: https://github.com/SentoMK/patternia Anyway, cool idea! I'm often impressed and surprised by what can be done with modern C++ templates.
146.
by WCSTombs 1y ago
The NATO alphabet is made of commonly known words that are hard to misspell and hard to mishear (at least the initial phonemes). The person on the other end doesn't need to be able to recite the words, they just need to be able to hear
147.
by WCSTombs 1y ago
Sorry, I don't think this is true. There is basically no useful proven lower bound on the complexity of breaking popular cryptosystems. The math is absolutely not understood. In fact, it is one of the most poorly understood areas of ma
148.
by WCSTombs 1y ago
As of today, there's no way to prove the security of any available cryptosystem. Let me say that differently: for all we know, ALL currently available cryptosystems can be easily cracked by some unpublished techniques. The only sort-of
149.
by WCSTombs 1y ago
It is a technicality, but an important one IMO, because using bad terminology causes unnecessary confusion. I would definitely say that most of what the article describes as "good politics" is not politics at all, but more like ju
150.
by WCSTombs 1y ago
Yeah, this article says things like "understand the big picture" and "keep higher-ups informed about what's really important" and claims this is "good politics." No, that's probably just part of your

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