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.

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.

If your signal looks like f(t) = K•u(t)e^at with u(t) = {1 if t≥0, 0 else}:

• If Real(a) > 0, then your signal will eventually blow up.
• If Real(a) < 0, then you signal will not blow up. In fact, your signal will have a maximum absolute value of |K|, and it will approach zero as time goes on.
• If Real(a) = 0, it is either a complex sinusoid or a constant. In either case, it is bounded with maximum absolute value of |K|. It very much does not blow up.

So e pops up all the time in stable systems and bounded signals because the function e^at solves the common differential equation dx/dt = ax(t) with x(0)=1 regardless of the value of a, particularly regardless of whether or not the real part of a causes the solution to blow up.

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.

Reddit --> Lemmy

Facebook --> fucking nothing lmao

YouTube --> FreeTube + Invidious [1]

Windows --> Debian [2] with KDE Plasma

Word --> LyX

Microsoft Office --> LibreOffice

Built-in phone music player --> Odyssey [3]

Firefox --> LibreWolf [4]

Adobe Reader --> Okular + Librera on Android

Default phone launcher --> KISS Launcher

[1] I prefer FreeTube on computers where I have it installed, but one of my family’s jank 10-year-old work PCs can’t handle it, so I’ll typically watch videos in Invidious in LibreWolf on that computer.

[2] I can’t recommend Debian for absolutely everyone since it prioritizes stability and predictability over new features and ease of use, but it’s great for most of my use cases. I typically recommend Linux Mint for complete beginners.

[3] It handles extremely large music libraries (>100 GB of .mp3 files) without constantly taking forever to reload when I add a single new album.

[4] Firefox is pretty good and FOSS, but LibreWolf comes with better defaults and I’m a lazy fucker.

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.

I mean if you start a RISCV community on Lemmy I’d show up. I’m sure a bunch of people would; seems like a logical extension of the FOSS movement to the hardware world.

so the only thing I come to Lemmy for … is memes.

But you’re blocking so many cool meme communities.

So wtf do you even like?

Yeah my position is really to recommend any FOSS OS in the large over proprietary ones. However, since my experience is primarily with Linux distributions, and I do think that Linux makes sense for a lot of use cases, I usually start by talking about “Linux” first.

But, from my experience, if a “solution” to a problem “forces” the user to make a choice, then they’ll stick with what “currently works” over having to make a choice. So when I talk to people about Linux IRL, I typically direct them to Linux Mint directly, even though other distros exist and it actually doesn’t fit my use cases. Once they’re comfortable in the Linux ecosystem, they can switch to a different distro or OS family if they feel the need to do so.

Yeah, it would be nice if they are accepting donations.

Oh whoops I didn’t know. Yeah then just pirate that shit.

If you want to pay for it and can afford to do so, buy it and pay for it. Otherwise, pirate it and pay for it when you can afford to do so. Easy peasy. Publisher gets paid in either case.

Textbooks compile information about a subject into one cohesive whole for study. They’re super useful, even though they are too expensive typically. Library Genesis is great for obtaining textbooks you can’t afford to purchase.

you really just need some matrix multiplication and calculating derivatives-- non-math-major college math type stuff.

Well sure you don’t need a math degree for that, but most people really need to put some time into those topics. I.e., that kind of math is complex enough to constitute a barrier to entry into the field, particularly people with no free time to self-study or money for school.

Said differently: matrix math and basic calculus is hard, just not for you and I.

I’m not OP, and frankly I don’t really disagree with the characterization of ChatGPT as “fancy autocomplete”. But…

I’m still in the process of reading this cover-to-cover, but Chapter 12.2 of Deep Learning: Foundations and Concepts by Bishop and Bishop explains how natural language transformers work, and then has a short section about LLMs. All of this is in the context of a detailed explanation of the fundamentals of deep learning. The book cites the original papers from which it is derived, most of which are on ArXiv. There’s a nice copy on Library Genesis. It requires some multi-variable probability and statistics, and an assload of linear algebra, reviews of which are included.

So obviously when the CEO explains their product they’re going to say anything to make the public accept it. Therefore, their word should not be trusted. However, I think that when AI researchers talk simply about their work, they’re trying to shield people from the mathematical details. Fact of the matter is that behind even a basic AI is a shitload of complicated math.

At least from personal experience, people tend to get really aggressive when I try to explain math concepts to them. So they’re probably assuming based on their experience that you would be better served by some clumsy heuristic explanation.

IMO it is super important for tech-inclined people interested in making the world a better place to learn the fundamentals and limitations of machine learning (what we typically call “AI”) and bring their benefits to the common people. Clearly, these technologies are a boon for the wealthy and powerful, and like always, have been used to fuck over everyone else.

IMO, as it is, AI as a technology has inherent patterns that induce centralization of power, particularly with respect to the requirement of massive datasets, particularly for LLMs, and the requirement to understand mathematical fundamentals that only the wealthy can afford to go to school long enough to learn. However, I still think that we can leverage AI technologies for the common good, particularly by developing open-source alternatives, encouraging the use of open and ethically sourced datasets, and distributing the computing load so that people who can’t afford a fancy TPU can still use AI somehow.

I wrote all this because I think that people dismiss AI because it is “needlessly” complex and therefore bullshit. In my view, it is necessarily complex because of the transformative potential it has. If and only if you can spare the time, then I encourage you to learn about machine learning, particularly deep learning and LLMs.

More like American engineers at least. I graduated with a bachelor’s in engineering last year and this has been my experience looking for work.