HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

Jenz

392 karma · joined June 27, 2018

submissionscomments
Jenz··on Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What Is the Best Topology of Them All?
What if… the indiscrete topology {ø, X}.
Jenz··on AI Crap
> it's impossible to do anything not en masse at 8b population

you are missing some simple arithmetic here. yes, x times y can get arbitrarily big if x does (and y is non-negative), but then changes in y would just have even more of an impact. take x to be population and y to be emission per person and you should see your mistake.

Jenz··on AI Crap
yes.
Jenz··on A scalar triple product identity
Time to give Julia a shot! It has this amazing package [1] for geometric algebras in up to a very high number of dimensions.

[1]: https://github.com/chakravala/Grassmann.jl

Jenz··on A scalar triple product identity
…and in turn “geometric algebra” is the physicist’s name for a subset of the even more general mathematicians Clifford algebra (which of course is a subspace of the tensor algebra over the underlying vector space…)
Jenz··on Virtualizing Uxn
I love everything about the artist collective 100R.
Jenz··on Homo sapiens declared extinct (1999)
I've never seen any convincing argument that Bach is somehow, as frequently claimed, the epitome of baroque music. It seems to be a largely romantic sentiment, that arose moreso to Mendelssohn's circumstances than to anything unique in Bach's music— Mendelssohn simply did not have the access to many other high baroque composers' music to draw from. Aside from how surprisingly late he is, there are many comparable figures to Bach.

I am tired and will content myself with simply mentioning some early baroque composers that, for anyone curious, sadly do not get the spotlight they deserve: Ascanio Mayone (c.1565–1627), Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), Tarquinio Merula (1595-1665), Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1667), Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi (1624-1687), Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (c.1644-1704).

Jenz··on Homo sapiens declared extinct (1999)
Would your current 20$ still be a meaningful value in 2380?
Jenz··on Val, a high-level systems programming language
> The result of `longer_of` is a projection of the longer argument, so the mutation of `z` by `emphasize` occurs directly on the value of `y`. The value is neither copied, nor moved, and yet it is not being passed by reference to `emphasize`. The body of `emphasize` owns `z` in exactly the same way as it owns `strength`, which is passed by value: `z` is an independent value that can only be touched by `emphasize`.

This evasive phrasing, which continuoes after this excerpt too, has me highly skeptical of their good intentions… Any good reason they are not more explicit?

Jenz··on Giovanni Battista Piranesi: The Perpetual Provocateur
Marked: https://pasteboard.co/dxNBtyjqas5f.jpg
Jenz··on Giovanni Battista Piranesi: The Perpetual Provocateur
I returned many times to the Piranesi exhibition in my town showing, among other things, his imaginary prisons. It took me embarassingly many hours to realize the staircase together with the colums in number XIV forms an impossible object / optical illusion. I wonder how much else I missed.
Jenz··on ChatGPT-Linux-Assistant
This seems like a spectacularily bad idea.
Jenz··on An X11 apologist tries Wayland
I’m sure this goes for a lot of people, me as well for some time; but in the end, the problems simply became too much for me— so I’m curious, how long have you been using Gnome?
Jenz··on How Did Elevators Lose Their Music?
Obligatory mention of music intended for the elevators of the french ministry of culture [1].

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_for_a_French_Elevator_...

Jenz··on Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil (2011)
The author of this has clearly not read much of Tolkien's legendarium beoynd the LoTR... This is a whole lot of speculation that does not at all fit into Eä, the World that is. Though indeed one might say the same of Bombadil, it is far from clear what role he has to play in Arda, and Tolkien took his cosmology very seriously, so there is every reason to think this mystery of who the hell is Tom Bombadil? is intentional. But the reasonings of this article is exactly those of conspiracy theorists, not those of any serious Tolkien scholar. Seemingly relying on “No hobbit has ever heard of him,” “Elrond, the greatest lore-master of the Third Age, has never heard of Tom Bombadil” as implicitly implying “therefore there must be some great dark secret,” Gandalf's explanations he simply dismisses as not “the true one.” Tolkien was a philologist, familiar with and directly inspired by many different mythologies, for example Väinämöinen, a hero and demigod of songs and poetry from finnish folklore has been pointed out as a possible inspiration for Bombadil. Though from his close connection to nature one would rather expect him to be a sort of demiurge than a hero, neither evil nor good, and indeed as opposed to Väinämöinen whose adventuring is due to his seeking a wife, Tom has a wife and makes a big point out of this, he is content, and has no desire for evil. If I may continue my rant I'll add that the very creation of Arda is by music, taught by Eru Ilúvatar, the One, to the Ainur. There is little doubt that Bombadil is among the Ainur, one of the Maia on par with Gandalf and Sauron. It seems entirely plausible to me, that Bombadil indeed is as he says, the oldest, of special significance to Ilúvatar, prior to Arda and whatever may be happening in it.

I'll also add that I have never heard of any Tolkien enthusiast not liking Bombadil before this. I suspect the author of this article is among the minority who thinks that abruptly breaking into song is lame, mistakenly of course, hehe.

Jenz··on Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?
A rare actually tasteful “technically…,” thank you.
Jenz··on The Typography of Legal Opinions
False.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/help/explanatory-notes/dict-...

Jenz··on The biggest project in modern mathematics [video]
Noteworthy to me, is that it seems foundational work is to a significant degree, not considered mathematics or something people calling themselves “mathematicians” would spend much of their time on; but it’s left for logicians and more philosophically inclined people.
Jenz··on Norway to track all supermarket purchases?
I am confounded as to why I have not heard of this. I'd appreciate it if someone could link me the official statement.
Jenz··on People hated shopping carts when they first came out
Both. Which it seems people have a problem with, seeing the downvotes. I had a simple point and a personal opinion, what is the problem?
Jenz··on People hated shopping carts when they first came out
While this is true, one must not think of this and forget that one can dislike something new for other reasons than it being new…

I dislike shopping carts simply because they look bad and I have no need for them, though I understand they’re useful or even neccessary for some.

Jenz··on French fighter jet joy ride goes très, très wrong (2020)
do you read everything on the front page? o_O
Jenz··on Linux: Vulnerabilities in nf_tables cause privilege escalation, information leak
> not free from problems

is a massive understatement…

Jenz··on Today Google is turning on tracking for many users that previously turned it off
There are plenty of reasons to dislike Google, and this does sound in character; but something is off about this website.
Jenz··on Britain to start approval process for Rolls-Royce mini nuclear reactor
It's unclear to me, exactly how they intend to use these.
Jenz··on A visual proof that neural nets can compute any function
“Any function” is a big wide claim. Can someone fill me in on what’s required of these functions? Can a neural nets for example compute non-continuous functions like f(x) = [x is rational]?
Jenz··on Idris 2: Quantitative Type Theory in Practice
Idris is a truly delightful languge. It’s very comfortable coming from ML style languages; though i wish the stdlib was a little more complete…
Jenz··on I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word
https://web.archive.org/web/20220121101822/https://www.newyo...
Jenz··on Austria's data protection authority has found that Google Analytics is illegal
Where can i see an official statement of this? The linked website seems dubious…
Jenz··on Former child prodigy Ruth Slenczynska will release a new album at the age of 97
Try either way, maybe you’ll become popular then B)
Page 1 of 7Next →