amavect

7 ms·

31.
by amavect 4mo ago
Thinking about this more, dithering requires negative values to cancel out when adding. Works for audio, but color doesn't have negative numbers.
32.
by amavect 4mo ago
I agree. Additionally, both 0.0 and 1.0 don't really exist for dithered signals, so a byte should map to [0.5, 255.5] before division by 256. This also solves the signed integer asymmetry, as a signed byte maps to [-127.5, 127.5] befor
33.
by amavect 5mo ago
Optimizing for "radix economy", an argument that attempts to balance the digit cost against the choice of base. When the cost per digit equals the base, e turns out optimal. But when the cost per digit equals the digit's info
34.
by amavect 5mo ago
I have an axe to grind. Radix economy makes a shallow argument when calculating the wrong per-digit information cost. I need some functions to show what I mean. Calculate logarithms, calculate the number of digits, and convert a base-n unit
35.
by amavect 5mo ago
A way to exit the adversarial process is by ending the separation between owners and workers, through things like worker cooperatives, employee ownership, and workplace democracy.
36.
by amavect 5mo ago
I imagine an OS where the system remembers to keep permanent permission for a program to manage its own files. An app data folder would work. The system should pass the capability on program start. I also imagine a system where graphical pr
37.
by amavect 5mo ago
That condition usually doesn't hold in practice. Very few programs have a reason for reading browser history or cookies. Excel has no purpose accessing the Notepad++ appdata folder. Not all-or-nothing.
38.
by amavect 5mo ago
I too would like an OS where called programs don't need to call open() on strings. The shell already has <input >output redirection, but hamstrung so few ever use them. So many programs recreate the functionality with -i -o in so
39.
by amavect 5mo ago
One of my friends had his credentials stolen from a trojan infostealer masquerading as a video game, sent from a rando who he mistakenly trusted. If only it had to request user permission to access files outside of its folder. There's
40.
by amavect 5mo ago
Of course, proper systems analysis would really require modelling and simulation. Thanks for chatting.
41.
by amavect 5mo ago
>thanks for continuing this interesting conversation! Cheers! >Money does not determine resource allocation. But spending money does! Very good point. Investors have some say as to where the money goes, but you're right. Often sa
42.
by amavect 5mo ago
Very interesting perspective. Let me try and repeat it back. Resource allocation is a zero-sum game within any given year, resource production increases yearly as technology increases, technology increases more as capital increases, so a lo
43.
by amavect 5mo ago
>[and, more importantly, providing goods and services that are beneficial to society as a whole]. I think enshittification, cost externalization, and rent-seeking behavior cancel this out, muddying the connection towards meeting the need
44.
by amavect 5mo ago
Low capital gains tax incentivizes investment and venture capital, so the rich can grow their wealth faster than the poor, while creating a job market. Compare that to spending wealth on luxuries, a money sink that also creates a job market
45.
by amavect 5mo ago
I also started doing this. I feel that "b = expr(a); a++;" expresses what I mean better than "b = expr(a++)": store expr(a) in b, then store a+1 in a. Any good compiler will optimize the same. After separating a++ onto i
46.
by amavect 5mo ago
Thank you for sharing.
47.
by amavect 5mo ago
You say all of these things and claim "there is a ton of science", but I ask for scholarly links to learn more. I don't trust anyone's word at face value on empirical topics, and I also don't know where to begin loo
48.
by amavect 5mo ago
Please post specific articles for others to critique. I find poor quality studies. Low sample size, self-reported questionnaires, low effect sizes. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10675414/ https:/&
49.
by amavect 5mo ago
Some napkin math, then. About 25–50 μg 7-DHC / cm2 skin (Wiki). About 1.5 m^2 human skin area (google AI summary). About 35% skin exposed (R. Kift, linked earlier). 1.5 * 100 * 100 * 25 * .35 = 131250 μg. Need 50-250 μg of colecalcifer
50.
by amavect 5mo ago
Ah, I didn't read their comment too strictly. UVB synthesizes cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) in the skin, which the liver converts into calcifediol (what blood tests usually measure), which the kidneys convert to calcitriol (the active h
51.
by amavect 5mo ago
Mostly right, but only for light skin (and depends on the month and the latitude) (Table 1, Table 3). Dark skin usually needs 10-15 minutes (Table 2), and even 20 minutes for the darkest skin (Table 4). https://doi.org/10.33
52.
by amavect 5mo ago
I think the increased UVA poses the most risk of damage. I don't know of any metabolic use for UVA. As the article notes, tanning beds have a far worse UVB:UVA ratio than sunlight. Because UVB scatters more than UVA (Rayleigh scatterin
53.
by amavect 5mo ago
A few formalizations exist: bounded arithmetic, internal set theory, Nelson's predicative arithmetic. From Buss's thesis "Bounded Arithmetic": "However, a recursive function may be computable only in a theoretical s
54.
by amavect 5mo ago
I don't mean to come off as a crank. I'd like to clarify the strict finitist position in a sensible way (what they mean is that 2^512 unary notation doesn't fit in this universe, and similarly 2^(2^512) in binary notation d
55.
by amavect 5mo ago
Of course, I follow the bbchallenge project. That's like the distinction between 2^32, 4294967296, and a string of tally marks that cannot fit in this comment. In a pithy way, strict finitists prefer numbers as tally marks. I find valu
56.
by amavect 5mo ago
2^512 exists in binary notation, but not in unary notation (tally marks, successor function). We conflate these ideas of "number", trying to forget the practical differences. Quite frustrating! SHA-512 depends on the fact that com
57.
by amavect 5mo ago
The quote comes from his paper "Mathematics and Faith"! https://web.math.princeton.edu/~nelson/papers/faith.pdf You can find many of his papers here. https://web.math.princeton.edu/~nelso
58.
by amavect 5mo ago
My favorite math paper is "Is 10^10^10 a Finite Number?" by David van Dantzig. It lies more on the side of philosophy, so many can understand it easily. I first learned about it many years ago from Van Bendegem's list of stri
59.
by amavect 5mo ago
I think for a cute observation, the metaphor helps me grasp where I can apply logic. I'll read your blog in my free time, thanks for sharing.
60.
by amavect 5mo ago
Well, to translate my words to your liking: "In my opinion, everyone already uses a sort of constructive logic for programming." I challenge you on "most proofs of algorithm correctness use classical logic". That means d

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