ivan_ah

107 ms·

931.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
Just the freebies. The book(s) are less dense, but still get to the point. See http://minireference.com/static/excerpts/noBSguide_v5_previe... and http://cnd.mcgill.ca/~ivan/miniref/noBSg
932.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
> another textbook that is hard and complex To be fair, you were looking at the super-condensed linear algebra tutorial, which is meant to be a condensed pre-exam review for students and not as a standalone tutorial. The actual book s
933.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
Cool. That works well, if a bit geometrical. I'm going to think about rewording the intro in this way. However, I'd still have to introduce the notion of "coordinate vector" somehow, which begs for the word "tuple&q
934.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
> What makes this one so special? It fits in you (man) purse, yet covers the equivalent of 2000+ pages in mainstream textbooks. Also, it covers both calculus and mechanics in an integrated manner (something not usually done). Finally,
935.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
For TOC, see http://minireference.com/static/noBSguide_v5_TOC.pdf Note: the aim of the book is to cover mechanics (Physics 101) and calculus (I and II). There is a second tome in the works that will cover optics, waves
936.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
I'd say the standard UGRAD-level physics and calculus textbooks (Serway, Giancoli, Stewart) are full of BS. Do you really need to read 1000+ pages to learn calculus? Textbooks after first-year university are normally much better and bu
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
Lol... in a previous version of the tutorial, I was using informal language to define vectors as "arrays of numbers," which attracted a lot of negative comments on HN because it wasn't mathematically precise enough. Note the
938.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
I'm guessing you're reading the short tutorial, which starts off with some computational aspects of LA. As soon as I introduce linear transformations (a few sections later) I make an update to this statement turning it into "
939.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
You make a good point, thought you're reading the "ice breaker" section which is meant to be very introductory. A few sections later I define "change on both sides" more formally as "applying a function".
940.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
That's right. The 'sympy_tutorial.pdf' in corresponds to Appendix D in the book, and the mechanics tutorial corresponds to Chapter 2. BTW, here's a link to a PDF version of the book preview http://minireferen
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No bullshit guide to math and physics(nobsgui.de)
189 points by ivan_ah 12y ago|75 comments
942.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
I'd recommned the No bullshit guide to math and physics ( http://noBSgui.de ) which is a book that introduce the reader to two poerful modelling tools: mechanics and calculus. But then again, I might be biased since I'
943.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
A similar effort of introducing math/figures/refs into markdown is the `softcover markdown` syntax. It's basically markdown, with latex commands allowed: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/softcover/softco
944.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
Anyone interested in getting started with linear algebra can check out this printable tutorial: Linear algebra in four pages: http://minireference.com/blog/linear-algebra-tutorial/ The page also links to another
945.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
Cool idea. Parsing LaTeX into an AST with awareness of math structure (e.g. taking into account symbolic transformations like x^{1/2}=\sqrt{2}) would be a good start. Before catching errors, I think an easier target for a tool like thi
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
One thing that's tremendously useful in Firefox is the "Group tabs" feature. You can have multiple Groups of tabs and (e.g. work tabs, research tabs, and news tabs). After a tab group has not been in focus for some time it ge
947.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
> the reason he's being offered a pittance is because he and the people like him will accept it. > Considering this situation strictly as a labour market might be too simplistic, given the importance of teachers in students&#x2
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
Who needs skype when you've got ascii...
949.
by ivan_ah 12y ago
This theory + a tutorial about testing best practices + 20 weekend projects would be a really good way to learn how to code. Thinking about stacks, trees, and graphs can go a long way to build up learners' ability to simulate what the
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
I like the author's attitude---math really is power[1], and everyone can get into it. Also reviewing high school math was a good move... Another thing that can help a lot is using a computer algebra system to solve tedious arithmetic s
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
Books, not iPads. That's what I say! And you know what, students say so too --- see related discussion about the effectiveness of eTexts vs Print books: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8882481
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
Student debt is one of the instruments of the system. Think about it, what would make young people willingly give up their life to go and become salarypersons in the big corporations? Debt.
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
The part about the in-memory analytics reminds me a lot of the SAP HANA spiel: Transaction Database --> copy --> analytics db = slow In-memory transactions with built-in analytics = fast I totally understand t
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Calculus interactive explorations(mooculus.osu.edu)
5 points by ivan_ah 12y ago|0 comments
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
on that note, check out the combo https://github.com/softcover/softcover/ + https://github.com/softcover/polytexnic/ which is a very good first start on that approach: markdown --
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
I tried it on http://selectorgadget.com/ and it doesn't work inside the comments (iframe issue?). Otherwise pretty cool...
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
Why I generally agree with you, I see a silver lining on this cloud, namely, in that hundreds of people out there today will have a few minutes away from pixels. It's a Sunday after all---step away from the pixels.
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
Isn't there a problem when you tunnel TCP over TCP with increasing window sizes (auto throttling mechanism meant to prevent packet fragmentation)? Every time I've tried to keep a long-running ssh tunnel for printing / http,
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
KhanAcademy has a lot of CCSS-aligned exercises, many of them having rich js interactives. The coverage is also very good, probably better than anything commercial out there. There is also an initiative to fund CC BY licensed educational co
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by ivan_ah 12y ago
> As an undergraduate student, I found that writing a summary of everything I had learned in a class was one of the best ways to study for an exam. I would just sit down with a blank piece of paper and try to summarize everything as pre

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