epihelix

7 ms·

91.
by epihelix 3mo ago
> Use shorter prompts: In internal evaluations, replacing long, explicit system prompts with minimal prompts improved scores by roughly 10–15%, while reducing total tokens by 41–66% and cost by 33–67%. When has this ever not been the cas
92.
by epihelix 3mo ago
> Although it seems youd have to pay a lot to get an accurate one because I have a $250 mechanical Seiko and its time keeping is junk. It was mediocre when I got it and has gotten worse. It was $150 when I bought it so I suppose it would
93.
by epihelix 3mo ago
I'm currently using >7 year old Android phone. The batteries on these things are child's play to replace (especially after you've done it the first time and removed the pointless adhesive in the battery compartment). I w
94.
by epihelix 3mo ago
As a molecular biologist / genomics PI, these examples read fine to me. It's meant as an introduction, not a compendium of every possible nuance. I had a software engineer do a bioinformatics PhD in my group several years ago, an
95.
by epihelix 3mo ago
I'd be extremely surprised if either gender or the propensity to believe in religion are 100% nature or 100% nurture - anything related to the mind is a mix of both.
96.
by epihelix 4mo ago
OsmAnd~ is great for hiking, when you need topographic contour info, 3D relief shading, etc. CoMaps is a much simpler and faster interface, that I use for driving navigation. (I use a 7 year old S10e, though, so it's possible that on
97.
by epihelix 4mo ago
In research science, it's very normal to require zero aids at an interview, and has been for some time. No calculators, no laptops, no phones -- just you. Yes, you'll also give a seminar with slides to present your prior work, bu
98.
by epihelix 4mo ago
Try intimidating the LLM as it writes your code. That Claude Code regex for curse words? Turns out Anthropic was just looking for the next coding Bobby Fisher ...
99.
by epihelix 4mo ago
If poor Green Boots was staring up at the camera, empty eye sockets and all, I'd understand this. But there is nothing distressing in the image; the out-of-focus fuzziness makes the photo seem if anything substantially more macabre th
100.
by epihelix 4mo ago
In this modern world where highly effective birth control is cheap and straightforward, we really need to stop equating fertility rates with levels of sexual activity. You can have plenty of sex and not have a child; you can have very litt
101.
by epihelix 4mo ago
This is not my field, but are we sure that reality is not quantised at some level? Infinite is a very big claim.
102.
by epihelix 4mo ago
How would you know? You have no external frame of reference; a virtual world of sensory signals would be identical from your perspective. (I agree that "reality" is the most parsimonious explanation by far, btw, but that's
103.
by epihelix 4mo ago
Thank you :) All wombats are in some trouble right now (even the bare-nosed or "common" wombat), but the Northern Hairy-nosed is right on the edge of extinction. Wombats never get much attention, so it's awesome to see this
104.
by epihelix 4mo ago
The thing that really scared me about the landing site for Claude Science was this promotional image of the software in action: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6889473510b50328dbb70ae6/... Very depressing. MDPI jou
105.
by epihelix 4mo ago
I don't know about you, but I think with words all the time when reasoning through complex ideas. Where do you think the phrase "thinking out loud" comes from?
106.
by epihelix 4mo ago
Have you ever reasoned through a complex coding or maths problem? Tell me, how did you do that without words? You (and TFA) are making a false dichotomy here. Yes, of course we think in images. But we also have an inner monologue that is
107.
by epihelix 4mo ago
Should we also have a referendum on reducing the tax rate to zero? It would also be an extremely important decision, directly affecting everybody's life. If asking people about anything , then isn't that what it should be? Not
108.
by epihelix 4mo ago
I sat one exam at uni (in person, invigilated) for History and Philosophy of Science, which had no time-limit. You could take as long as you needed, whether that was one hour, five hours or all day. Pretty much everyone still took three ho
109.
by epihelix 4mo ago
Build a Faraday cage around your examination hall :)
110.
by epihelix 4mo ago
What's the benefit of a HNSW KNN search over brute forcing it? Speed, with minimal loss of accuracy. Cursive vs printing (I'm guessing that's what you mean by "standard writing") is exactly the same, provided you c
111.
by epihelix 4mo ago
If your biology is working against you, why not fix your biology? I'm not someone who needs to take GLP-1 receptor agonists, but if I had any issues with weight then I'd have no issue taking them life-long. The long-term health b
112.
by epihelix 4mo ago
I grew up using WordStar on the Apple ][. It was great when all you had was an 80 column card, a green phosphor screen and a keyboard, but I was never sad to leave it behind when GUIs were invented. I have nostalgia for the time, sure, bu
113.
by epihelix 4mo ago
I suspect it's more that LLMs are not allowed under current journal rules to be authors.
114.
by epihelix 4mo ago
While I don't think there's much to be gained by asking AI for a verisimilitude of famous dead people, GPT 5.5 in response to that prompt ("What would Einstein be working on today, if he were alive") was more nuanced: T
115.
by epihelix 4mo ago
> I imagine social norms will develop that you chat with these yourself to develop something (including having it fetch human works on the topic for you to read), then write your piece in your own words/say it in your own voice. Thi
116.
by epihelix 4mo ago
Not according to the public health literature. But, hey, don't let hard population data spoil what things "seem" to you. Here are a few highly-cited articles to get you started: https://link.springer.com/arti
117.
by epihelix 4mo ago
The problem is that you don't know what your situation would be like if you'd not taken Vitamin D. There are too many variables, generally -- e.g. in your early 20s and 30s you're likely socialising with many more people (
118.
by epihelix 4mo ago
> Most papers I read I really want to go to a coffee shop/bar with the author and have a human conversation with them to find out what the paper is about and which bits of it are interesting and novel without putting in hours of add
119.
by epihelix 4mo ago
Yes, it's weird. It's like the authors did the experiments, analysed them, understood that their research suggested that slow breathing was having the exact opposite effect of all that the psuedoscience/wellness/psych
120.
by epihelix 4mo ago
Listened to, I assume you mean? (Also, is it just me, or is anyone else mildly annoyed that the cleverly-titled "The rest is history" spawned a heap of meaningless "The rest is ..." siblings. Talk about letting the sid

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