btrettel

57 ms·

571.
by btrettel 7y ago
> An important theorem in dimensional analysis is the Buckingham π theorem, which states that the laws of physics do not depend on the choice of a specific system of measurement. That's not what the Buckinham pi theorem states. The
572.
by btrettel 7y ago
An aside: Why do so many websites (like this one) now have large blank spots near images when browsing with JavaScript disabled? I'm not much of a web developer, but it looks like the site was trying to use srcset but used it in a weir
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by btrettel 7y ago
I used to bookmark pages frequently. I think at one point a few years ago I had more than 15,000 bookmarks in Firefox possibly dating back to 2001 or so (when I used IE!). (Edit: According to a file I have, I had 12,072 bookmarks on Aug. 1,
574.
by btrettel 7y ago
These types of techniques are already big in certain fields. E.g., in fluid dynamics and heat transfer, "dimensional analysis" is frequently used to simplify and generalize models. Sometimes models can be nearly fully specified up
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by btrettel 7y ago
> I disagree with you on the "easy route" though. I don't think engineers appeal to authority because of an intentional decision to take an easy route. I think engineers do it because it's just an inmate bias people h
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by btrettel 7y ago
> Appeal to authority rather than logic, that's how "analytical" or engineers think. This describes a large fraction of engineers I've worked with. I think the popular media would portray this as "analytical&quot
577.
by btrettel 7y ago
Computational fluid dynamics software rarely is implemented in the best way known to computer science and optimized to the hardware architecture. There's a compromise between development and run time here. Plus, how to optimize the sof
578.
by btrettel 7y ago
I disagree. I did my masters' on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and I'd say that a large fraction of supercomputer use (in fluid dynamics at least) is wasted. Mostly because people take naive approaches and end up computing th
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by btrettel 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_scientist#Notable_... In my own field, fluid dynamics, Robert Kraichnan is very well respected and spent the majority of his career working as an independent scientist. As you
580.
by btrettel 7y ago
> 2) There are a lot of local and global symmetries in physics -- i wonder what new capabilities adding them to a CNN would enable? It would be trivial to make any ML model satisfy dimensional homogeneity. Just use only dimensionless var
581.
by btrettel 7y ago
> Unfortunately it doesn’t look like there’s been as much research on specific methodologies (e.g. Cornell method), but it may also be the case that the methodology doesn’t matter at all, only that the strategies are employed. I recall t
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by btrettel 7y ago
I'm in favor of trying many different ideas, for a while , i.e., when a problem is new. But at a certain point you need to address issues that are viewed as critical. In the academic fields that I'm familiar with, I don't se
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by btrettel 7y ago
> the giant resonance mode. In this mode each novel idea, once it appears, spreads in an explosive manner in the theoretical community, sucking into itself a majority of active theorists, especially young theorists. Naturally, alternativ
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by btrettel 7y ago
This seems to be the particular podcast: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/12/09/76-n...
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by btrettel 7y ago
Thanks, I'm not familiar with Alexey Guzey, but just scanning the list of pages I see quite a bit I'd find interesting or challenging.
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by btrettel 7y ago
Unfortunately newer systems seem more resistant to archival than older. Compare getting a copy of a mailing list vs. getting a copy of a forum like phpBB or (even more modern) archiving a copy of a subreddit or Facebook group. Some people o
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by btrettel 7y ago
> If you don't remember it, it wasn't important. I've found time and time again that something I thought wasn't important before can end up being very important later. That's only what I can remember, too. Plus,
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by btrettel 7y ago
> But you can't fix that by funding implausible things, because most of these actually do come from people who don't know what they're talking about! I think this framing is inaccurate. The alternative ideas aren't ne
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by btrettel 7y ago
> they’ll be forced to evaluate the paper on its intrinsic merits rather than the reputation of its author Similarly, many academics won't evaluate published papers on their own merits and instead focus heavily on proxies like publi
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by btrettel 7y ago
Is there a compilation of many of the "gotchas" (like this) that can be pulled in medical billing in the US? A wiki or GitHub repo would be a good place to start compiling them. Alternatively, post about any you know of here.
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by btrettel 7y ago
I'm rather fond of the many DIY engineering hobbies that some people focus extremely deeply on. Air cannons were a big interest of mine back in 2009 or so: https://www.spudfiles.com/ Someone put a (rather primitive)
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by btrettel 7y ago
I'd recommend reading this post I made elsewhere here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21872976 The easiest way to make cycling work is to pick where you live based on where you work. The default is to pick jobs o
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by btrettel 7y ago
I lock my bike with both a strong U-lock and a thick cable lock. Never had it stolen, even when I spent a summer in Baltimore. (Though I would take the bike in at night.) You don't need to have impenetrable security, just better securi
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by btrettel 7y ago
To be honest the discomfort from the cold when cycling is not a big deal. Wear appropriate clothing and take off a layer if you get hot. I've spent multiple summers in Texas cycling and I'd say that was much worse, though still
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by btrettel 7y ago
Cycling takes some planning, but so does driving (think parking, maintenance, and fueling). As a cyclist you'd change your habits to consolidate and avoid trips. And for more difficult (and rarer) trips, there's nothing wrong with
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by btrettel 7y ago
Yes, I've pointed out to people that cycling doesn't necessarily take longer. At my previous apartment cycling and driving were comparable mainly because cyclists can park closer than drivers. Many drivers seem to think that count
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by btrettel 7y ago
In my experience going car-free and moving closer can easily be cheaper. At my previous apartment (Austin, TX) I paid maybe $200 more per month in rent to live within a few miles of my work. The savings from not having a car definitely exce
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by btrettel 7y ago
> For instance, as a bicycle commuter, I'm aware that many if not most of my colleagues live many miles from work. Thus the debate about transportation mode is practically moot. Yes, as a cyclist myself I've had people tell me
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by btrettel 7y ago
Cycling also can go directly to specific locations, yet cycling is rare. For the particular case you described, the extra time (in most cases), the lack of cargo capacity, and the inability to take more than one person might explain this. A
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by btrettel 7y ago
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this setup?

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