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larrydag

1,275 karma · joined July 12, 2011

Machine Learning, Data Science, Predictive Analytics, Operations Research, Statistics. Industrial Engineer with experience in helping businesses make better decisions. I blog about my experiences at http://industrialengineertools.blogspot.com and provide IEOR Tools at http://www.ieortools.com

Founder and Organizer of Dallas R Users Group. http://www.meetup.com/Dallas-R-Users-Group/

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larrydag··on Elevators
Discrete event simulation frameworks, like SimPy, are a great mathematical way to simulate the environment if wanting to discover better methods of any methodoical staging flow. Elevator scheduling is one example that can be simulated.

https://simpy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

larrydag··on Commodification of Intelligence: Good, Bad, and Ugly Circular AI Deals
The leverage is the trick in the whole equation. During dotcom days the leverage was fine until the cash flow ran out. Then bankruptcies started and the bottom fell out. It appears this is happening again but perhaps the business model will just evolve. Although right now it feels more of the same.
larrydag··on The death and rebirth of my home server
I'm not a sysadmin but I often hear about server failures due to hardware just wearing out. Is there an expected shelf life of the hardware? I would expect for sure on the storage devices. So if that were the case then why isn't there some sore of daemon or system software service that tracks the expected life of the hardware? I would expect that the software would start showing warnings of imminent useful life of devices to expire.
larrydag··on How H-E-B became Texas' most beloved brand (2024)
Shareholder primacy is a drain on so many levels. Think of all the R&D that could have been spent instead of buying back shares.
larrydag··on Ask HN: What was your "oh shit" moment with GenAI?
Your son should blog the experience. That could be an interesting read.
larrydag··on The Art of Risk Management (2017)
Financial risk management is a great industry for data science. I've been doing it for 15+ years. It is amazing the data rich environment which includes credit bureaus, customer transaction history, call center dynamics, and of course finances. It is a gold mine of opportunity to find new and fresh ways to observe the organization. This is also what makes risk management difficult as well. There is so much to know. LLMs are going to change risk management as it is changing every other industry. It will be interesting to see where it is headed.
larrydag··on The Cathedral, the Megachurch, and the Bazaar
It works for me. Cathedral is analogous to free software being a religion. It is a theocratic worldview that has a zealous following that must apply the rituals of old. Bazaar is the marketplace. It is supposed to be a efficient market metaphor for software being transactional and not relational.

Is this a perfect metaphor? I think its a rigid way of looking at software on either side. I think it is more grey. I like the merits of both sides.

larrydag··on Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades
Adding the letter archive into a LLM prompt is a good read. you can use this as a source https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
larrydag··on Scaffolding to Superhuman: How Curriculum Learning Solved 2048 and Tetris
perhaps I'm missing something. Why not start the learning at a later state?
larrydag··on Amatuer codebreaker may have solved Zodiac killer identity
behind paywall. Amateur sleuth from West Virginia may have decoded the Z13 cipher and solved the mystery of the Zodiac killings identity.
larrydag··on The G in GPU is for Graphics damnit
Should change the name to Matrix Processing Units
larrydag··on They Thought They Were Free (1955)
The US Constitutional government is meant to be slow, methodical and gridlocked. It is supposed to take enormous compromise to get any decision created into law.
larrydag··on They Thought They Were Free (1955)
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy" -James Madison
larrydag··on Statistical Physics with R: Ising Model with Monte Carlo
Very close. In fact you could still say that it still is competing with Python for users. There is still an active community of developers.
larrydag··on Spending too much time at airports
While the 1 hour rule is mostly true be careful with discount airlines. Frontier Airlines does do a 1 hour boarding. I've heard of cases that if you are late to boarding, even if half hour ahead of departure, they will not let you board the plane. I'm sure it depends on specific airport agents protocols. My point is I'm not sure you can always use the 1 hour buffer.
larrydag··on The decline of high-tech manufacturing in the United States
That management philosophy is one of the reasons that the US lost its dominance in auto manufacturing and market share, in my opinion.
larrydag··on If you're remote, ramble
I agree. Group channels on relevant topics is very helpful. Especially on technical details relevant to getting work done.

Yet here goes my rant. Nothing can replace a good in-person interaction. Perhaps I'm the old guy in the room. When teams are trying to build something there is nothing like water-cooler talk and banter about the work that helps relate shared challenges. Granted this is going to very specific to organizational needs.

I don't work in software development so perhaps my needs are different than most on Hackernews. I've managed teams in person and remotely. I've found that managing in person is a much more productive way to work.

larrydag··on NASA Is Worth Saving
"If SpaceX can do it, NASA can do it."

Space Shuttle never achieved is core objective and project shelved. Space Launch System is way past deadlines and cost. As far as launching systems NASA has not kept up since Apollo.

I would argue NASA has achieved great progress in Space research. Hubble, Voyager, Mars rovers, Webb telescope have made great advances in discovery. I would have NASA change its core objectives to new research activities.

larrydag··on The Darwin Gödel Machine: AI that improves itself by rewriting its own code
That would be something. When a AI/LLM can create new axioms or laws that have not discovered by humanity.
larrydag··on No one is disrupting banks – at least not the big ones
I believe disruption can come in the form of underwriting and servicing loans. The old model of large call centers that do buying and servicing loans has been around forever. It scales fairly well but it is costly and very inefficient. If those processes are lean then savings could be passed to pricing. Basically creating a credit union model to a national scale.
larrydag··on The engineering behind the San Antonio River Walk
Also it should be equated to a wilderness fort. A fortress it was not.
larrydag··on Why Linux is not ready for the desktop, the final edition
I've been using Linux for 15+ years. Here are my counterpoints.

1. Linux is a software ecosystem. Varying flavors and options to fill almost any need of computing solution.

2. Bugs and Regressions are crowd-source community solved. Bugs don't last long if it's keeping something from working.

3. There are so many open-source games native to Linux/Windows/Mac that don't get enough attention. Most of them are free too.

4. Filesharing on linux is as simple as a command line operation. See rsync. Also there are countless GUI apps that use rsync.

5. Funding is everywhere in Linux and open source software. See IBM, RedHat, Google, Microsoft, Amazon among a few.

6. Hardware drivers are plentiful for Linux. Hardly have any issues.

7. The community will help you. They've helped me for years.

larrydag··on US credit card defaults jump to highest level since 2010
Here is the NY Fed household data statistics on the subject. The NY Fed reports quarterly on US credit and debt. Aggregate delinquency rates going up.

https://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics/hhdc/background.ht...

larrydag··on The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code (2018)
This is really interesting. It's not unlike building a credit bureau model like a FICO score. Just trying to find a probability of likelihood outcome.
larrydag··on Legalizing sports gambling was a mistake
I place the lottery in the same category. Punitive on those who least likely can afford it.
larrydag··on Scaling up linear programming with PDLP
I don't see why not. Mixed Integer usually involves ways of setting up the variables for optimization. PDLP appears to use a lot of presovling which I'm sure helps to establish those bounds whether continuous or integer variables.
larrydag··on How economical is your local Taco Bell?
A lot of competition for tacos in Texas. I can vouch for it.
larrydag··on The occult technology of the rollercoaster
According to the premise of the article then go-carts, ATVs, jet skis, or any other machine for recreational activity is also useless. I agree that the useless premise is wrong.
larrydag··on Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico
My opinion that is biggest fete of engineering in the last decade. Amazing
larrydag··on Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico
For comparison the Statue of Liberty is 93m. Big Ben is 96m.
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