lindbergh

Programming in Mathematica is weird. I've done a whole course in machine learning using only mathematica (as opposed to more obvious choices, like matlab or python) and while writing small functions was very easy (and functional programming fun), compounding those functions without using global variables was very hard. I kept using the Module construct where each local variable has to be declared, and it ended up being a mess. I always have a running session of Mathematica running for quick calculation or plotting (easier imo than matlab+nupy / matlab), but I would never consider it for larger projects. But I've never seen a larger codebase so maybe there's some kind of design pattern essential for this language.

Then I suggest the website of the course where you can find homework and lots of material. You can follow the course as if you were enrolled. Also the free pdf copy of the book will certainly be useful.

http://stanford.edu/class/ee364a/index.html http://stanford.edu/~boyd/cvxbook/

Convex Optimization by Stephen Boyd (Stanford EE364A) available on itunesU. There's also a CVX101 Mooc[1], but I don't how it's different from the original material. IMO it's not the topic itself, but the invaluable material for machine learning, statistics and applied mathematics. And Boyd has such a huge insight on the topic it's always a pleasure to watch his lectures.

[1]https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/Engineering/CVX101/Win...

His book Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World had a big effect on me and was my first contact with anthropology.

I really enjoyed how Girard theorized what made us human in the first place (namely, rituals).

My biggest gripe is that it won't recognize that a block of text is math, unless I enclose it with $, which would then clutter the org file.

What kind of shortcuts? Most LaTeX symbols will be replaced with their unicode counterpart, eg. \theta will become θ inline, once you toggle `entitiespretty' with C-c C-x \. Likewise for superscript and index, it changes as you type.

My equation blocks are created with M-o M-s which centers the current line in the buffer (when in fill-mode), so no need for C-c C-e equation.

I recently discovered org-mode. Honestly, it is by far the best note-taking application I've ever used, especially in any math-heavy field, since it supports cross-references and most math symbols. And unlike LaTeX which ends up filled with markup, org stays very clean. However the basic export (to HTML and pdf) is not that good.

There's also support for basic spreadsheeting, but it gets very slow as soon as you have more than a couple hundred rows with auto-computed column values.

Sample look and feel of one of my notebooks: http://i.imgur.com/SZTxQ6v.png

Speaking of which, miles per hour get converted in m/s, which is not very useful

That's also the kind of article/news I come to HN for.

Really cool. Now I must figure a way to add this as an emacs mode. Good job!

In the meanwhile, here's a little class I made that implemented just enough pattern matching as a fluent interface : https://gist.github.com/neuschwanstein/6c0c9256c1dc5b370011.

Not pretty, but it works well enough for a pragmatic programmer.

why is part of the net folklore from the late 00s that also saw the emergence of Hacker News, ruby mainstream programming et al. I believe there's a strong respect in this community for the work this man has done in previous years.

At any rate, it seems evolution has shifted from an individual action, to a cultural (or, dare I say, a civilizational) action. And from a cosmic point of view, it makes a lot of sense.

Tables are easier to code for a functional programmer. That's why.

Sincerely, this is a lovely tradition.

This is a great idea. I hope applied mathematics in the 21st century will leave purely quantitative fields like physics and engineering, to reach more quantitative ones, for example finance and economy (already done), biology, ecology, and perhaps social sciences like anthropology.

There is an obvious flaw to this poll: hackers don't share the same time zone. For example, right now, it's still very early in the morning in India.

Oh, just use Safari 5's reader.

I enjoy the idea of Singularity very much, but if this article is representative of what this movement is all about (although it appears not to be), it seems flawed to me. I had the feeling Singularity is oriented toward biology, while I believe it should rather be approached by an anthropologic or mathematical point of view. Besides, Intelligence is often mentioned, yet, has it ever be defined correctly? My first guess would be that Intelligence is only another word for the complexity of a given system. Thus, human intelligence is only a representation of the complexity of our biological system. Considering this, it is indeed inevitable that universe will be saturated by intelligence, as universe is mathematically meant to keep complexifying as «time» passes on.

That said, I have not read much about the subject, and I'd really enjoy some serious text about this theory.