Viewing profile — bodhiandpysics1

So the history is actually really well described in crpgaddicts blog. First there was wizardry (basically all rpgs both in the us and japan are descendents of wizardry, some with t…

Machine learning is the new hotness in computer graphics. It drives me insane (I don't do ML).

Np hard problems aren't that hard to solve. I'm solving one right now actually for work (graph bi-partition using simulated annealing), and it doesn't even take that long. Of cours…

It actually does make sense, and is an important idea in complexity theory. In general, the problem of proving an arbitrary claim in ZFC isn't computable (this is just Godel's inco…

Nope... it depends on the language you use to write the proof. Agda proofs for instance are in R.

It's important to remember that P=NP doesn't just imply that P = NP; it implies that P = PH (the polynomial hierarchy). There are a whole series of much harder problems than NP tha…

which is very very very common (squatch and stretch)

In graphics, dual quaternions are used in skinning, but rarely for orientation and translation.

a bit racist to be honest...

It's often also very local. Everyone knows who some castes are like Patels and Nayars, but how many people in north india know that vellalars are relatively high caste (but not bra…

The Chennai sanskrit community is actually wonderful, but they can be very religious. And the fact that I'm white obviously made a difference.

I lived for quite some time in india... spice wasn't the issue. Have you ever spent time around Iyengar Brahmans of the old school?

Hey Tamilians are gonna represent right?

People know people who know people... the IITs are a really small world, and a lot of the graduates end up working in american tech companies.

Sanskritists can't afford silver plates... it was the standard cheap metal everyone uses.

They don't have caste... and it's important to note caste != class. There are dirt poor brahmans and rich dalits.

Technically untouchables... but in practice white people can be very high caste indeed. I worked with a sanskritist in Chennai who was a very traditional brahman, and he did eat wi…

While last name is the big giveaway for caste, there's another issue that effects tech workers in the us, the IITs. These are the creme de la creme of indian educational istitution…

You may be confusing "neighborhood" with the more common euphemism "community" (which can also refer in India to religion). Another common way of referring to caste euphemistically…

They were referring to a region, like europe! Even the name India indicates this: it's the greek pronunciation of the Iranian word Hindu, which is the Iranian pronunciation of the …

I think the irony is that all those weird logics turned out to not just be useful for logic... but literally actually really useful! Like people make lots of money based off of the…

The irony is that "why logic" has been definitely answered... all sorts of highly technical formal logic found use in computer science!

This isn't true. First the terminology is a bit weird. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. This fact was not known until the 19th century! Classial "wrought iron" (whih has a car…

the citation here is just from the 1911 britanica, which is not a terribly reliable source! For what its worth, transparent muslin is depicted on the walls of ajunta (in the Vessan…