The exam is tomorrow (today is another)

Ouch. Been there. Good luck on your exams!

Sounds like fun! I’m going to bed soonish but I’m willing to answer questions about multivariable calculus probably when I wake up.

When I took multivariable calculus, the two books that really helped me “get the picture” were Multivariable Calculus with Linear Algebra and Series by Trench and Kolman, and Calculus of Vector Functions by Williamson, Crowell, and Trotter. Both are on LibGen and both are cheap because they’re old books. But their real strength lies in the fact that both books start with basic matrix algebra, and the interplay between calculus and linear algebra is stressed throughout, unlike a lot of the books I looked at (and frankly the class I took) which tried to hide the underlying linear algebra.

I’m autistic too and I had to relearn math as an adult. Now I know calculus and advanced mathematics.

I can go find some book recommendations, but when I was first learning I really got a lot out of watching The Organic Chemistry Tutor.

Linear algebra (ex: multiply the matrices A and B), multivariable calculus (example: find ∇F with F=[xy,yz,xz]^T ), or actual “multidimensional analysis” (example: define the norm of [1m,1m/s,1m/s^2 ] in a way that makes sense)? I can help with all three.

It can use ChatGPT I believe, or you could use a local GPT or several other LLM architectures.

GPTs are trained by “trying to fill in the next word”, or more simply could be described as a “spicy autocomplete”, whereas BERTs try to “fill in the blanks”. So it might be worth looking into other LLM architectures if you’re not in the market for an autocomplete.

Personally, I’m going to look into this. Also it would furnish a good excuse to learn about Docker and how SearXNG works.

LLMs are not necessarily evil. This project seems to be free and open source, and it allows you to run everything locally. Obviously this doesn’t solve everything (e.g., the environmental impact of training, systemic bias learned from datasets, usually the weights themselves are derived from questionably collected datasets), but it seems like it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Google using ai, everyone hates it

Because Google has a long history of doing the worst shit imaginable with technology immediately. Google (and other corporations) must be viewed with extra suspicion compared to any other group or individual because they are known to be the worst and most likely people to abuse technology.

Literally if Google does literally anything, it sucks by default and it’s going to take a lot more proof to convince me otherwise for a given Google product. Same goes for Meta, Apple, and any other corporations.

If that happens then I swear to fucking God I’m done with YouTube forever.

Edit: i.e. if it breaks FreeTube, Invidious, Sponsorblock, etc. (because I’m already done with the main site forever) then I’m out. If the choice is between content vs no ads, I’ll take no ads even if it means no content.

No, turtles never even existed, I’ve never seen one. /s

Infinite-dimensional vector spaces also show up in another context: functional analysis.

From an engineering perspective, functional analysis is the main mathematical framework behind (1) and (2) in my previous comment. Although they didn’t teach functional analysis for real in any of my coursework, I kinda picked up that it was going to be an important topic for what I want to do when I kept seeing textbooks for it cited in PDE and “signals and systems” books. I’ve been learning it on my own since I finished Calc III like four years ago.

Such an incredibly interesting and deep topic IMO.

I actually designed a digital equalizer using an IIR filter this semester, which actually does theoretically work on sequences of numbers, which constitutes an infinite dimensional vector space. The actual math was just algebra and programming, but it was an implementation of a Z-transform transfer function which is a sequence operator (maps input sequence to output sequence).

IMO infinite-dimensional stuff shows up in two types of problems:

1. For some reason, you need to solve the partial differential equation you started with, i.e. you can’t use symmetry or approximations to simplify it into an ordinary differential equation.

2. When you’re dealing with signals that change in time or space, you have to decompose those signals into simpler signals that are easier to analyze.

some wysiwyg editor for LaTeX

LyX is basically that.

IMO LyX is way simpler than LaTeX for basic stuff, but because it is literally not Microsoft Word I couldn’t really use it to collaborate with people this semester, let alone convince them to work on a full LaTeX document. LyX would be the way to go if my colleagues were even remotely interested in learning about literally anything. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink…

If Justin/anyone at Cockos is reading this: please open-source REAPER. You really would be doing the audio community a huge service.

Gore video, do not open

I don’t think there was any one event that got me started, just the integrated effect of reading history, reading contemporary news, personal experience, and later reading anarchist theory over my lifetime.

Well I just tried #define int void in C and C++ before a “hello world” program. C++ catches it because main() has to be an int, but C doesn’t care. I think it is because C just treats main() as an int by default; older books on C don’t even include the “int” part of “int main()” because it’s not strictly necessary.

#define int void replaces all ints with type void, which is typically used to write functions with no return value.

Running #define ; anything yields error: macro names must be identifiers for both C and C++ in an online compiler. So I don’t think the compiler will let you redefine the semicolon.

Would be great for me and others who have trouble with body language. I could deepfake a version of myself with neurotypical body language and offload the effort of “acting normal” to the AI for interviews and video calls. Genuinely I’m super pumped for this.

Mandroid Echostar - Catchy prog metal with clean vocals

Anaal Nathrakh - Grind/black metal with industrial influences

The Arcane Order - Long-form melodic death metal

Arcania - Kinda like a thrashier Gojira

Rivers of Nihil - Proggy death metal

Unfathomable Ruination - Brutal tech death

Thantifaxath - Dissonant black metal

We Lost the Sea - Post-metal. I need to give some context for this one:

Departure Songs is inspired by failed, yet epic and honourable journeys or events throughout history where people have done extraordinary things for the greater good of those around them, and the progress of the human race itself. This is a celebration and a tribute. Each song has it’s own story and is a soundtrack to that story.

This is our 3rd album and our first instrumental album. We’re exploring new ground and exploring ourselves in the past 2 and a bit years since Chris went on his own journey. It’s slightly bleak with shimmers of hope and layers of emotion. It’s a tribute and a catharsis of emotion and honesty.

I.e., their vocalist died and this was their way of grieving. Incredibly deep cut IMO.

Alpinist - “heavylowfastslowdark hardcore”

Not really.

A lot of good people are on enshittified social media (Threads in particular) because they feel pressured by their social network (their actual set of human contacts) to “go where the people are”. Some of them are there because they don’t know that the free Threadiverse exists, particularly Lemmy (I’ve never met anyone IRL who knows what Lemmy is).

It’s not a silver bullet, and obviously I’m just one guy making uncoordinated comments and posts, but I think that there is some benefit to interacting with Threads users if and only if you personally can take on the extra load of doing so.

If we wanted to make a “coordinated” campaign against Threads, IMO the strategy would be to (1) be nice to people from Threads who decide to come to our communities, so long as they behave, and (2) post openly coordinated anti-Meta messaging distributed throughout the Fediverse in places where Meta can’t just take it down, of course placing this messaging in appropriate communities. I.e., make the free world a challenging place to be for a company that doesn’t respect freedom. But I’m not experienced/sociable enough to orchestrate item (2).