@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

ccppurcell

@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz

Mathematician, computer scientist, bassist, knitter?

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

christianp, (edited ) to random
@christianp@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Pals, what's the least egregious TV I can buy today, in the UK?
I want as little "smart" internet-connected nonsense as possible. Not bothered about 4k or massive size, but it should sound and look good.

That is, what's the Brother laser printer of TVs?

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp I think some things referred to as "monitors" can in fact do everything a TV can do (i.e. you can plug in an aerial) and are less likely to be smart, it seems to me. I'd be interested to know what you end up getting anyway.

ccppurcell, to random
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

I took an early tram to work which turned out to be delayed. Caught myself thinking "lucky I took the early tram".

In other words, I thought: had I not taken the early tram, that delay would have made me late for work.

But when I reached my stop, I noticed that the next tram hadn't been delayed. So had I not got the early tram, I would not have been late for work. Guess I wasn't so lucky after all...

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp no but it was only just behind. Had that tram had a similar delay, it wouldn't have got me there on time. But my feeling that like, I made a good decision (or an especially good one, considering the delay) is false it seems to me. If I'd made the other choice, the tram in front of me would have been delayed and I might not even have noticed

leoncowle, to random
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

Hahahahahahaha. Indeed!

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@leoncowle Top 10 important numbers in computing:

  1. 0
  2. 1
shriramk, to random
@shriramk@mastodon.social avatar

A British man in this airport is telling a Moroccan waiter that he's never before been to Morocco despite having a house "in Gibraltar". The Moroccan has trouble understanding so he repeats, "Gibraltar, in Spain".

I may have just witnessed the birth of an international incident.

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@johncarlosbaez @christianp @shriramk fyi Irish people generally do not love the term "British isles"

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp @johncarlosbaez @shriramk Foras na Gaeilge gives a translation that is literally "Ireland and Great Britain" (per Wikipedia) but that doesn't cover the channel islands properly

I've heard variations on "west European archipelago" but I think British-Irish (or indeed Irish-British) isles seems fine.

ccppurcell, to random
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

When writing on a chalkboard with white chalk, I will frequently call a circle "black" if I fill it in, and "white" otherwise...

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@johncarlosbaez especially as all our chalk boards are green...

ccppurcell, to random
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

I more or less proved the result I've been working on for the past month or so the other day. It will be a while before it appears in a paper, but a key observation is reminiscent of this puzzle:

Put + and - between the digits 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 to obtain a number. Can you obtain 0?

I think it's Peter Winkler's or I got it from his book, but correct me if I'm wrong.

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@gregeganSF I managed to boil the problem I'm working down to this observation: if (x_i) are variables with values in ({K,K'}) then the value of (x_i+\dots+x_n-x_{n+1}-\dots-x_{2n}) is restricted to (c(K-K')) where (c) is an integer from (-n) to (n).

The max value is clearly (n(K-K')) if (K>K'); if you flip any one of the variables you take away (K) and add (K') and obtain ((n-1)(K-K')). And so on.

It reminded me of the puzzle because I'm trying to prove some sort of configuration can't happen. At first it seemed somewhat hopeless because an adversary has so many options.

xgranade, to random
@xgranade@wandering.shop avatar

I've been working in quantum computing for twenty years now, and there's basically no path towards commercially scaleable quantum computing that doesn't go through stuff I've worked on and been a part of.

Given that, reading "in the future, everything will be a quantum state" is just depressing. The hype is absolutely out of control, and it makes it really hard to talk critically about what quantum computing can and can't do.

https://furry.engineer/@cendyne/110979687881752009

Via @cadey.

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@xgranade @cadey "how do you make unstealable, yet spendable money?" Fantastic question. I suspect it's practically impossible. I'm not an expert but spendable seems to imply repeated use and efficient implementation. In cryptography, similar conditions essentially rule out perfect secrecy, if I recall correctly (not an expert, probably that's an oversimplification). Maybe the analogy doesn't quite work?

ColinTheMathmo, to random
@ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Taking a first look at misére play in combinatorial game theory and I come across this quotation:

"... we really are in a fog in misère play. We look to the elegant algebra of normal-play games and hope for some semblance of structure, but we are dismayed at every turn."

From:

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-survey-of-Partizan-Mise%CC%80re-Game-Theory-REBECCA-Milley-Renault/5edc2cfcbe117eb07fd40625d45375a270fbe098

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo coincidentally I've just been thinking about Nim and watched the film Last Year in Marienbad which features the game. Yesterday I found Winning Ways vol 1 for 40usd, it usually sells for 80usd. I said I wouldn't buy another textbook this year but that's too good to miss!

gregeganSF, to random
@gregeganSF@mathstodon.xyz avatar

The idea that you can take an LLM — trained on an undisclosed dataset of all kinds of text, and tweaked by human feedback for various messy goals — and then use its responses for social science “research” rather than using real people, is beyond stupid.

https://www.science.org/content/article/can-ai-chatbots-replace-human-subjects-behavioral-experiments

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@gregeganSF this is not what Derrida had in mind when he said "there is nothing outside the text"

ccppurcell, to random
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

What's the longest string (s) such that, for some non-zero (n) (mod 26), both (s) and ROT-(n(s)) are English words?

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo yes exactly! I like fusion/layout :) elsewhere in the replies, @olligobber posted code that found abjurer/nowhere.

alan, to random
@alan@subdued.social avatar

Via @decolonialatlas "Each 8th of July, at 11:15 UTC, 99% of the world's population is experiencing daylight. This day should have a name, and it should be a holiday." Original source: https://www.timeanddate.com/news/astronomy/99-percent-sunlight

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@alan so what's the shortest interval during which 100% of the pop experience at least some daylight?

ccppurcell, to science
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

I went to in London a few times back in 2014 (has it really been so long?) I guess it's how I found out about mathstodon really, through following @ColinTheMathmo and others. I've been thinking it would be nice to organise mathsjam here in Plzeň for a while but I was busy and a little nervous about it. I finally decided to go for it, next month will be the first Plzeň mathsjam! Wish me luck :)

ccppurcell,
@ccppurcell@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ColinTheMathmo how should I go about that? I am already in touch with Katie of course.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • rosin
  • thenastyranch
  • GTA5RPClips
  • tester
  • InstantRegret
  • DreamBathrooms
  • ngwrru68w68
  • magazineikmin
  • everett
  • Youngstown
  • mdbf
  • slotface
  • kavyap
  • JUstTest
  • cisconetworking
  • khanakhh
  • normalnudes
  • osvaldo12
  • cubers
  • tacticalgear
  • Durango
  • ethstaker
  • modclub
  • anitta
  • provamag3
  • Leos
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •