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dcw303

1,615 karma · joined April 14, 2010

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dcw303··on People who can't picture anything are rewriting the science of imagination
I'm also aphantasic and dream normally.

I have some intermittent ability to lucid dream. I have noticed that if I am acting as a "passenger", the imagery is vivid and I will be able to recall everything. Sometimes something in the dream will prompt me to think. It might be entering a phone number, or reading text. As soon as I engage the process of thinking, the imagery goes away. Long lucid dreams for me rely on me being able to remain in the passenger seat.

In my waking life I consider my aphantasia similarly - I can imagine things and get the briefest of a "snapshot" of an image, but any attempt to hold onto it means it vanishes - I don't know how that's related but I suspect that it is.

I know this is different to how I am wired for sound, because I have inner music, inner voices, etc. I can replay music at will, change voices, investigate and modify them, all with perfect quality of audio recall. Earworms can be really annoying ;)

dcw303··on Steam Frame starts at $1059
For those in Japan who are interested but getting blocked (or waiting) for access via Komodostation.com:

199,980 base 256GB

244,980 1TB model

considerable markup even over the current USDJPY rate

dcw303··on YuE2 · Frontier Music with Symbolic Planning
I have, I do. This is me:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/9699799-Neurojacker

Am I as good as Claudio PRC, Donato Dozzy, Ken Ishii or Takkyu Ishino? Not even close. But wanting to make more is reward enough for me to keep trying.

dcw303··on YuE2 · Frontier Music with Symbolic Planning
I'm not species-ist. If a digital sentient being has something to say and they can express it through music, I'm more than willing to listen.

But listening to these samples, it's obvious that, while technically proficient, they have no voice. Funnily enough, neither does most of the human produced music slop that existed before gen AI.

All it exposes is that most people have no taste. This is as good as shuffling through popular songs on Spotify.

dcw303··on I miss thinking hard
it's not. We were able to get rid of 6 fingered hands by getting very specific, and fine tuning models with lots of hand and finger training data.

But that approach doesn't work with code, or with reasoning in general, because you would need to exponentially fine tune everything in the universe. The illusion that the AI "understands" what it is doing is lost.

dcw303··on The year of the 3D printed miniature and other lies we tell ourselves
I am a new initiate into the world of 3d printing for minis. I decided a resin printer does not suit my small apartment lifestyle, and got an Elegoo Centauri Carbon FDM printer. It's pretty plug-and-play, there was very little setup required.

www.reddit.com/r/FDMminiatures/ will give you an idea of the level of quality you can reach. With the smallest 0.2mm nozzle, will it reach resin levels? Close but not really. Is it good enough for me to screw around with, improve my painting skills, and play casual games? Certainly.

Also I subbed to the OnePageRules patreon, they offer alternative minis and rulebooks that are very similar to GW, with an alternate for fantasy and 40K, as well as fleet battles and other stuff.

dcw303··on Relearning math as an adult
I have not found that to be the case, the books I have read have gone into deep foundational detail to build up knowledge. Perhaps you're referring to Vol 1 & 2 of "The Art Of Problem Solving"? I haven't read them but from what I know they are a distillation of core concepts for students looking to do competitive maths.

It's confusing because that title is also the name of the publisher / website of the series of the books I'm reading.

dcw303··on Relearning math as an adult
I took a brief detour late last year to study "Linear Algebra: Theory, Intuition, Code", and to my surprise it stuck pretty well. The author said the pre-reqs were just "basic high school math", but I'm glad I had recently done lots of algebra and geometry, as the difference between that and some vague memories of stuff I did 30 years ago in school is pretty wide.

I haven't started any 3d game projects yet. For that, my plan is to do the webgpufundamentals.org course first. Scanning the TOC, I think I would be able to attempt it from what I learned from the linear algebra book.

That said, I'm doing AOPS Intermediate Algebra at the moment, and the Precalc text covers more advanced trig and matrix stuff, so I'm thinking it would be good to finish at least to there before starting to apply the knowledge.

dcw303··on Relearning math as an adult
Just self study with the (physical) books. I did also try the ebook combo for the Prealgebra book, but I found typing latex in the answers to the exercises was cumbersome.

I think the online classes with interactive lessons is a separate thing, but I don't have any experience with that.

dcw303··on Relearning math as an adult
AOPS audience is gifted high school kids, so it doesn't get up to the college level. The core texts are:

- Prealgebra

- Intro to Algebra

- Intro to Counting & Probability

- Intro to Geometry

- Intro to Number Theory

- Intermediate Algebra

- Intermediate Counting & Probability

- Precalculus

- Calculus

dcw303··on Relearning math as an adult
My theory is that people who like math have a reward system that responds well to gaining an understanding on empirical concepts. I have that, and it does drive me to keep studying math. Not that I find it easy though, I don't think I'm able to skip steps, and I often have to repeat things I've already done before they sink in. The difference is that I find this process enjoyable, so I don't mind spending the time.

If I can compare to another activity, I've always wanted to be an artist as well, and have spend quite a bit of time trying to build up the skills. The problem is that, if I'm honest with myself, is I just don't enjoy the process of creative expression, it doesn't trigger any reward system that means anything for me. I wish it did but there's just nothing there. It was a hard pill to swallow, but I realized I like the idea of being an artist, but I don't enjoy the process. Hence my ultimately crummy artwork!

Sorry, I realized I'm talking about myself more than you, but I hope it's some help. The point I hope it makes is that everyone has a different personality, and from that different reward systems. It sounds to me like yours doesn't align with math, and that's fine. I wouldn't try to force yourself to study something which you don't love, at least if it's optional self study. Find subjects that you love learning, and the results will come naturally.

dcw303··on Relearning math as an adult
I've been doing similar for about a year. My target is to learn the math needed to make 3d games, so basically algebra, geometry, calculus and linear algebra.

I started with brilliant.org, and while I liked the level of polish in the interactive lessons, I found the lesson structure to be out of sequence, often referring to things that haven't been covered yet. They didn't seem to have put as much thought into pedagogy as Math Academy as described in TFA.

So I gave up on that and instead have been shipping several kilograms of dead tree across the pacific in the form of The Art Of Problem Solving series of textbooks. They are great, the lesson structure and building up of complex ideas from first principles is outstanding. They will humble you though, as the exercises are tough. They're also quite expensive but IMHO worth it.

Math Academy does look interesting, If I was not halfway through my series I would probably take a look. But I do enjoy having reference books on hand. Many times I've jumped back to brush up on a topic that has slipped from memory.

I solve my exercises with the most low tech solution possible, but I like the freedom it gives me to try new approaches, and nothing beats the latency between idea to ink on paper.

edit: also wanted to add that I've enrolled Chat GPT4 as my tutor. Contrary to many other's experiences that I've read, I find it to generally be very good at reasoning in this level of mathematics. It's helped me many times when I've gotten stuck. And on the occasions where it bullshitted its way to an incorrect answer, I always challenge it if I don't understand, and we ultimately find out if it hallucinated something (rare, can usually be fixed by restating the problem), or I gave it the wrong input to start with (unfortunately more common than I'd like)

dcw303··on Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?
Math as prep for 3d game programming. I've been out of school a long time, and when I was there I didn't even get to the pre-calculus level.

This year I've churned through all the introductory level texts from Art Of Problem Solving. Yes, they're written for high schoolers and you need to have some humility to admit you might be missing or have forgotten some fundamentals, but the lesson strucutre really appeals to me. It's the only series I've found that respects the learner and really builds up knowledge one piece at a time.

Before I start the intermediate texts and the calculus book, I've taken a detour to "Linear Algebra: Theory, Intuition, Code" and it's sticking a lot better now than previous attempts on the subject. So that gives me some confidence.

dcw303··on The Forgotten Generation: Generation X Approaches Retirement
It literally is in an account with your name on it.
dcw303··on How Australians made the early internet their own
I was at Charles Sturt University in 95, and have fond memories of starting up Trumpet Winsock on the computer lab's Windows machines and telnetting into a chat mud called Forest (Forrest?), which I'm pretty sure was hosted at UTS. Or was it one of the other Sydney unis?

Anyway, it was insane that you could text chat with these other users in the ether, disconnected from physical reality but still able to message in real time. Certainly shaped my experiences of the early Internet.

dcw303··on Black Art of 3D Game Programming (1995)
Like others have said, it's more common to use an existing game engine these days, but if you want to do it yourself, the modern version that I think comes closest is Lengyel's Foundation of Game Engine Development series [0]. To me this series looks to be a rewrite and extension of his earlier book "Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics".

The first book covers the mathematics needed, the second is on Rendering and is when it starts to get into real graphics applications. Third and Fourth are slated to be Models/Materials and Physics respectively, but neither have been released yet.

[0] https://foundationsofgameenginedev.com/

dcw303··on Discord is not documentation
There should be a good opportunity for whoever can implement an LLM that listens in on chat platforms like slack and discord and constructs a wiki from it.

Bonus points if it also chats back with answers to questions, linking to the docs as needed.

dcw303··on On why I gave up drinking in my early twenties
I love a drink but have found it very difficult to stop after a couple. Like the author, I haven't destroyed my life, but it has caused me all number of problems. The typical high functioning problem drinker.

The one thing (and I tried many) that has worked for me is The Sinclair Method (TSM). After doing it for a couple of years, now I can still drinking socially without worrying about blowing up the night.

It's not a new thing, but if you are in a similar situation and looking for answers, I can high recommend looking into it.

dcw303··on Show HN: Visualising real-time Sydney bus congestion with Marey charts
Where is the data sourced from? I ask because of an experience I had recently when visiting Sydney. I was using transportnsw.info while waiting at a stop at Wynyard.

Eventually it told me that the bus I was waiting for had been and left, which seemed odd because I could see it still sitting idle further down the street. It eventually pulled up to the terminal about five minutes late, but the app did not update to reflect this.

dcw303··on How fast is 12th Gen Intel Core?
I've been drooling over the framework laptops for a while now, can't wait until they're available in Japan.
dcw303··on History of Techno
There's a few discord communities already if you're interested in joining an established group:

Hypnus server slants to deep/hypnotic same as their label, also has a private area accessible via sub to label boss Michel's Patreon

https://discord.gg/w2G3RcNJ

A Thousand Details hosts Collective Details, which is a techno community and also a collective net label. We (I produce & do admin for the label) have four releases out with the 5th due very soon. More of a producer focus, and a bit broader techno taste, from industrial to deep to hypnotic to mental, but all on the underground flavour.

https://discord.gg/DhE8DxM7

/r/hypnotech has a companion server for their reddit, it has shifted its focus more to cataloguing tracks and labels

https://discord.gg/7fJuTcSq

6AM is an LA based techno event group, I think they sell merch and have a blog as well. They are also working on some integration with their own crypto coin. Music focus here is more on the mainstream / bigroom techno sound.

https://discord.gg/84jPRQSx

Richie Hawtin also has a server, but I literally just joined so I don’t know much about that one.

https://discord.gg/p6GfTaxp

I’m on all of these under the alias neurojacker, stop by and say hi if you’re interested!

Oh, Stoor also has a producer focused discord. I lost the link when I unsubbed but it shouldn't be too hard to find from some googling.

There’s also server hosted by /r/technoproduction, but it was a bit of a hot mess of self promotion.

dcw303··on Writing advice should stop targeting people who hate to write
do you have any podcasts you could recommend? I'm particularly interested in music, but anything creation related would be useful.
dcw303··on Ask HN: Do you create music? let's hear it
I'm a techno producer. I have a couple of demos on soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/neurojacker

I also have a couple of tracks on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/49gZImSB39b6ysGwu7oLNP

I've just finished writing a deep techno LP which should be getting released soon. I wish I could share that as I think it's much better than my work up till now but anyway! Deep Techno is a perfect style for background music to code to, similar in some ways to IDM but the repetitive 4/4 beat is great for focusing - well it is for me!

If you're interested in the style check out the deep techno playlist on my Spotify page, I cover all the well known artists of the subgenre.

dcw303··on VideoLAN is 20 years old today
Is there a technical reason why the subtitle delay on the iPad build is limited to +/- 5 seconds? I don't think there is such a limitation on other platforms. Sometimes the sub timings are off by a lot and this can make it impossible to get things to sync up.

The reason I ask is this is literally the only feature I've ever noticed as lacking, which is pretty amazing on what is otherwise a fantastic piece of software that I've used reliably for many, many years.

dcw303··on Google threatens to withdraw search engine from Australia
The way the bill is written is disappointing because it conflates two different things together:

For the purposes of this Part, a service makes content available if: (a)the content is reproduced on the service, or is otherwise placed on the service; or (b)a link to the content is provided on the service; or (c)an extract of the content is provided on the service.

I think most of us would agree that a search engine being charged for providing links (b) is pretty dumb.

But with the rise of content embeds and republishing (a/c), it's a completely different scenario when Facebook is sucking up your content for the benefit of their users.

So while I feel this is a raw deal for search engines, it is about time that social media platforms paid their dues.

dcw303··on Taking Up Animation as a Hobby
I love it. As someone who is putting more and more energy into making music this resonates with me strongly. I need to figure out a way to get to part time work.

One piece of advice about creative hobbies - set it up so you have a feedback loop. Maybe I'm just an insecure jerk, but I really found that getting feedback and encouragement motivates me to keep trying. Oh, and try to get that feedback from your peers, not friends and family. They mean well but you'll never get honest criticism.

dcw303··on My Twitch Live Coding Setup
I commend the author on the level of detail documented in the article. It's clear that they have spent much time and effort on making an appealing stream.

And yet I still don't get live coding. I have about as much interest in streaming my programming as I have in having a coworker watching me work over my shoulder: zero.

I'd love to know what people get out of this. For me the sacrifice to flow is far too great for what benefits I perceive I could get through collaboration.

I do see the potential in social network / community building though.

dcw303··on “Reverse location” search warrants identify all cellphones near a crime scene
Reading the comments in this subthread made me paranoid enough to check my ios privacy settings. I've blocked access to any shifty apps like Google or Facebook, the only thing that marks any specific place is Significant Locations under System Services. And that has the following text:

"Significant Locations are encrypted and cannot be read by Apple."

dcw303··on Deep image reconstruction from human brain activity (2017)
I am highly skeptical of Aphantasia, as it's impossible to evaluate what someone else believes they see. I think it's much more likely that Aphantasia is people (like me) who make sharp distinctions between what they can imagine (rotating colors on shapes etc etc) and what they see when looking at something for real - e.g - the detail of a loved one's face.

I challenge anyone who believes they have a highly developed mind's eye to draw such a face purely from memory.

dcw303··on Avail Programming Language
I'm confused by the website. The intro has a clear example that reads like natural language processing, but the FAQ goes out of the way to stress that the language does not do NLP. At that stage it gets a bit ranty, vague and dense, and I kind of lost interest. Perhaps I'm not smart enough to get what they're trying to do. "Developing a domain-appropriate lexicon and phraseology". Is this a DSL? Regardless, I don't see this setting the world on fire.

It's interesting that they've called this paradigm Articulate Programming, because articulation of the domain is where the problem both starts and ends.

How many times have you worked in a company with staff who start off exasperated with how complex IT makes solving a business problem, only to be surprised at just how many details are in their day to day processes once you've spent time covering off all the edge cases and writing tests around exceptions.

Code becomes complicated because the domain it models is complicated. Hence the reason why a good engineer's most important skill is in gaining an understanding of the real world problem domain, and expressing that as code. And also why I'm not worried of AI taking my job any time soon.

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