gbacon

13 ms·

151.
by gbacon 1y ago
Algorithmic improvements beat micro-optimizations.
152.
by gbacon 1y ago
“The power to tax is the power to destroy.”
153.
by gbacon 1y ago
Your intuition about starting and ending with the same symbol is correct. This is a good example of why the unbounded memory rule of thumb is not perfect. The NFA you described recognizes (01)* ∪ (10)* All strings in the above lang
154.
by gbacon 1y ago
Pulling on the thread of your intuition about needing infinite levels, a regular language is one that can be recognized by a finite automaton, so requiring infinite memory or arbitrarily high counting suggests that the language is not regul
155.
by gbacon 1y ago
The author elsewhere cautions “I write this because PhDs seem to attract a lot of smart, idealistic kids who are interested in doing Science 1 and don’t realize that they’ve signed up to do Science 2.” https://maxwellforbes.com&#
156.
by gbacon 1y ago
It was fine. The combination of difficulty detecting humor or sarcasm, a need to geek-preen, and limited filter can sometimes result in unfriendly or unwelcoming comments.
157.
by gbacon 2y ago
Likewise, people do business with people, not with companies. Assert that “society” is merely an abstraction invoked for political gain to become an individualist.
158.
by gbacon 2y ago
This ignores the self-interest of civil servants, which they most definitely have and is the basis for public choice theory. Building upon economic theory, public choice has a few core tenets. One is that no decision is made by an aggregat
159.
by gbacon 2y ago
“We just owe it to ourselves” is a propaganda line. There must be more productive uses for those funds than paying interest. Being on the creditor side of compound interest is far better than the alternative.
160.
by gbacon 2y ago
Almost no one paid these predatory marginal rates. People respond to incentives. > Data from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget show that federal income tax receipts as a percentage of GDP have fluctuated between 5.6 perc
161.
by gbacon 2y ago
This is a failure to apply the principle of charity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity
162.
by gbacon 2y ago
*tree :-)
163.
by gbacon 2y ago
Here’s a radical suggestion: stop calling welfare-for-doctors insurance. If you want insurance, those are known as major-medical policies under which the sniffle visits are still the patient’s responsibility — just like how insured car owne
164.
by gbacon 3y ago
Even if the accident pilot had intended a stop-and-go and assuming reports of a bounce are accurate, it was too late. Trying to force a landing risks porpoising. Going around after a bad bounce is the safer choice — but a high workload even
165.
by gbacon 3y ago
Thank you. This is beautiful. Related gems from Simon Peyton Jones are below. In the first, he also advocates telling a story. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2016/0... https:
166.
by gbacon 3y ago
Every number’s sacred Every number’s great When a number’s wasted … Nope, won’t eventuate
167.
by gbacon 3y ago
An unleashed public health establishment leaping outside their area of expertise to successfully push for lockdowns was the largest unforced error in generations, one whose effects we’re still feeling years later. Scientists who study the a
168.
by gbacon 3y ago
That’s a succinct and intuitive explanation!
169.
by gbacon 3y ago
If there were a genuine threat of insolvency, they’d solve it today with budget cuts. What are the distinctions as you see them between the ruling class, their political causes, and the state?
170.
by gbacon 3y ago
> Founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever, David is also an Oscar-nominated writer and worked as Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign speechwriter.
171.
by gbacon 3y ago
Are you from the Towns?
172.
by gbacon 3y ago
Perl’s documentation runs circles around Python’s.
173.
by gbacon 3y ago
Perl is a beautiful language. It’s fast. It’s stable. It’s expressive. What I really miss working with other languages is Perl’s documentation. Bigots gonna bigot. Perl is an unorthodox language; Larry would probably prefer eclectic. It’s t
174.
by gbacon 3y ago
Example?
175.
by gbacon 3y ago
3-SAT is at least as hard as SAT, or SAT ≤p 3-SAT. We know this because we can translate arbitrary SAT instances into 3-SAT in polynomial time. 3-SAT is in NP because we can check a candidate solution in polynomial time by plugging in the v
176.
by gbacon 3y ago
See this helpful diagram: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-hardness#/media/File:P_np_n...
177.
by gbacon 3y ago
Without backreferences, it has a worst-case exponential blow up due to the DFA possibly needing to simulate that many simultaneous NFA states. Regex matching with backreferences is NP-hard. - https://perl.plover.com/NPC&#x2F
178.
by gbacon 3y ago
Compensation is a vector. Teachers who are government employees receive their cash compensation, paid leave, summers off, job security through formalized tenure, generous pensions, generous health care benefits, and some lifetime benefits i
179.
by gbacon 3y ago
This isn’t a realistic worry. Someone about to plunk down hundreds of thousands or millions for a bridge will exercise more due diligence than random selection.
180.
by gbacon 3y ago
I like Erik Demaine’s lectures on dynamic programming. https://youtu.be/r4-cftqTcdI https://youtu.be/KLBCUx1is2c https://youtu.be/OQ5jsbhAv_M

More ›