Viewing profile — andy_wrote

I've recently started going through Axler carefully and doing the problems, a quarantine activity I guess, and have been enjoying it. I actually learned about this book on an older…

The asset value underlying an ETF can be negative, but then the owner of the ETF will just have a worthless piece of paper. The ETF managers will have a problem on their hands rega…

I'm not recommending USO or oil itself as an investment, and I agree that you will be paying money to the ETF manager if you get involved in it. But I don't agree that USO is _more…

There are ETFs that track oil futures (basically like a stock, but backed by oil instead of a company). It's been a while since I've looked at any of this, but I think USO is still…

I don't know that this is regional so much as colloquial vs. formal. In the US people recognize that the subjunctive is technically correct and use it in formal writing. But it's v…

Based on my experience learning Czech (not native at all, just interested): - it's typically listed as a separate letter when writing out the alphabet - but in practice it's typed …

Since last Friday I've been making my Zoom virtual background a daily rotation of artwork. It's been a fun and educational experience for me (I'm no art expert, just a casual fan o…

I think the part that you have correctly included that people forget or elide is that it's the probability under a specific null hypothesis. So it's a function of what you have cho…

Maybe For Better or For Worse? Most prominent example of a daily comic strip I can remember where characters age in real time.

Watterson highlighted that arc in his 10th anniversary collection (which is a really wonderful collection of essays and explanations side by side with strips). It happened relative…

There are a lot of crossword constructors who publish/sell their puzzles independently on the Internet, and often they create both puz and pdf files. Some sources of free ones: - B…

It would be interesting to see how realistic a cat thinks these are, maybe by measuring brain activity or reactions. It's possible that a cat may not be fooled by cats we think loo…

> Spend 50% of the writing time actually writing, the rest tweaking, reading and illustrating. Details are important. I find this true not just of blog posts, but any time I've don…

I haven't made the donation yet for 2018, but I make donations every year right at year's end to at least these two charities: - Doctors Without Borders - Direct Relief Global heal…

Some good ones I read this year: - _SPQR_, by Mary Beard. Engaging book surveying the history of ancient Rome, mostly Republic and early Empire if I recall correctly. - _To Explain…

Yes! Although I was an econ major I did the same thing, I dipped my toes into pure math and took some real analysis and abstract algebra. I really found these challenging at times.…

Yeah, I'd be very interested to learn about anything about the sensitivities of ridership to other external variables in general. Looking at the article's linked presentation [1] a…

I don't know anything about the Israel-Intel deal and have not decided personally how I feel about HQ2 in NYC. But I upvoted your comment because it emphasizes looking at other his…

I really like your last point "whatever the computer is telling is true from the computer point of view". In a surprising number of coding interviews that I've conducted, I've seen…

I like that Victor Hugo's 19th century version of "deleting apps from your phone" is "deleting your clothes". I have found that an easy, milder nudge, for either computer or mobile…

In what may be a case of Baader-Meinhof, I just came across the term "Whiggish" for the first time, reading Steven Weinberg's _To Explain the World_ (pretty good so far). He also h…

This one https://apps.ankiweb.net/ or this one? https://www.ankiapp.com/ If there is much of a difference?

I'm in the middle of auditing the Scala track on Courersa. The first course was great. I agree that Odersky is a very good lecturer, organized and easy to follow. I'd recommend it …

I like the idea of having a centralized exchange for buyers (readers) and sellers (writers). I would actually prefer it to be variable-fee rather than flat-fee, with buyers paying …

I have sometimes looked at old cinema and wondered, "Why did they make so many Westerns?" I figure that in some decades people will be looking at our time and asking, "Why did they…