ccosm's comments

ccosm | 1 year ago | on: Eighty Years of the Finite Element Method (2022)

>Basically every advanced/"next generation" thing the article touts has fallen flat on its face when applied to real problems

Even Arnold's work? FEEC seemed quite promising last time I was reading about it, but never seemed to get much traction in the wider FEM world.

ccosm | 1 year ago | on: What Is Entropy?

"I have largely avoided the second law of thermodynamics, which says that entropy always increases. While fascinating, this is so problematic that a good explanation would require another book!"

For those interested I am currently reading "Entropy Demystified" by Arieh Ben-Naim which tackles this side of things from much the same direction.

ccosm | 4 years ago | on: Statistical Rethinking [video]

The book for this course is a fantastic practical introduction to Bayesian statistical modeling. If you've ever been curious about probabilistic programming give it a shot.

Also if you're rusty in probability and worried about prerequisites, Harvard's Stat110 can serve as a very good foundation (book and lectures are free online).

ccosm | 4 years ago | on: Italy Braces for Pasta Inflation Amid Soaring Durum Wheat Prices

Is there a reason why every price increase is referred to as "inflation" these days? I thought inflation had more to do with debasement of a currency than price fluctuations due to supply and demand, with the key functional distinction being that the former can be hard to reverse while the latter can self-correct given time (e.g. the lumber price increase we saw this summer).

ccosm | 4 years ago | on: MicroFPGA – A coming revolution in small electronics (2019) [video]

Barring some exponential increase in the usability of FPGA tools, I think the mainstreaming of these technologies will forever remain just around the corner.

More coarse-grained architectures like GPUs or reduced-scope architectures with a less intense cognitive load like the programmable IOs found in Raspberry Pi Picos or some Texas Instruments MCUs seem like a much more feasible solution for the vast majority of potential FPGA use-cases a tinkerer would run into.

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