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Advanced Computer Science Courses

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Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#31
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15-251 TA here. Probability is one of my favorite topics, but I agree with (this part of) the course's treatment. If we really wanted to do probability the right way, we'd tell them that a random variable is a structure-preserving map between measure spaces. You can't do that with freshmen. Indeed, we deliberately avoided any mention of continuous probability spaces. Your conclusion may be generally true, but it's de…

"Probability is one of my favorite topics, but I agree with (this part of) the course's treatment." This statement is an unfortunate juxtaposition: Glad probability is one of your "favorite topics", but you make serious mistakes right at the beginning and show that you don't know anything significant at all about the subject, not at any level from freshman to the texts I listed. That you "agree" with that "part of th…

Yes, and the definition of a measurable map is a function between two measure spaces which takes measurable sets to measurable sets, i.e.: a structure-preserving map between measure spaces. I stopped reading after that. I have no need to defend my mathematical knowledge, and no time to listen to someone who wants me to.

I sincerely apologize for my above post; I did not realize I was dealing with a troll.

Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#32
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gee, "15-251 Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science" You mean there really are some? I always thought it was the empty set! Okay, I followed the URL to see these wondrous ideas! So, I saw some 'lecture notes' at: http://server251.theory.cs.cmu.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/Proba... and there saw: "Random Variables We begin with the notion of a finite probability distribution D , which consists of a finite set S of ele…

15-251 TA here. Probability is one of my favorite topics, but I agree with (this part of) the course's treatment. If we really wanted to do probability the right way, we'd tell them that a random variable is a structure-preserving map between measure spaces. You can't do that with freshmen. Indeed, we deliberately avoided any mention of continuous probability spaces. Your conclusion may be generally true, but it's de…

251 is far harder than any undergraduate math course at CMU.

I had to register an account just to say one thing ... BULLSHIT.

Math Studies was an order of magnitude harder than 251. Even factoring in the two homeworks and lectures of math studies, it's still a night and day difference. I took both last semester, and halfassed 251 and did well. There's no possible way to do that with math studies.

Just read your profile and realized who you were ... but I still hold to my opinion.

Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#33
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15-251 TA here. Probability is one of my favorite topics, but I agree with (this part of) the course's treatment. If we really wanted to do probability the right way, we'd tell them that a random variable is a structure-preserving map between measure spaces. You can't do that with freshmen. Indeed, we deliberately avoided any mention of continuous probability spaces. Your conclusion may be generally true, but it's de…

251 is far harder than any undergraduate math course at CMU. I had to register an account just to say one thing ... BULLSHIT. Math Studies was an order of magnitude harder than 251. Even factoring in the two homeworks and lectures of math studies, it's still a night and day difference. I took both last semester, and halfassed 251 and did well. There's no possible way to do that with math studies. Just read your profi…

I considered adding an exception, but then I remembered Math Studies is really two classes. I definitely found Math Studies less than twice as hard as 251.

Of course, I might also say that I five-sixths assed Math Studies and three-halves-assed 251.

Maybe I shouldn't have rushed to make that statement. It certainly made graph theory with Mackey look like kindergarten, but I'm now remembering the stories about graph theory with Pikhurko and Set Theory.

P.S.: Hacker News is a proven way to break reddit addictions. Welcome!

Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#34
post #5

I'll add a couple of courses I've really enjoyed at CMU ( http://www.cs.cmu.edu ): 15-410 Operating System Design and Implementation: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~410/ 15-251 Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science (webpage might be out of date): http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/15-251/

Gee, "15-251 Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science" You mean there really are some? I always thought it was the empty set! Okay, I followed the URL to see these wondrous ideas! So, I saw some 'lecture notes' at: http://server251.theory.cs.cmu.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/Proba... and there saw: "Random Variables We begin with the notion of a finite probability distribution D , which consists of a finite set S of ele…

Hi. We know our wiki sucks. If you want to help, please feel free to edit it.

Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#35
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15-251 TA here. Probability is one of my favorite topics, but I agree with (this part of) the course's treatment. If we really wanted to do probability the right way, we'd tell them that a random variable is a structure-preserving map between measure spaces. You can't do that with freshmen. Indeed, we deliberately avoided any mention of continuous probability spaces. Your conclusion may be generally true, but it's de…

"Probability is one of my favorite topics, but I agree with (this part of) the course's treatment." This statement is an unfortunate juxtaposition: Glad probability is one of your "favorite topics", but you make serious mistakes right at the beginning and show that you don't know anything significant at all about the subject, not at any level from freshman to the texts I listed. That you "agree" with that "part of th…

Who the fuck is Jerry? My daddy taught me never to trust name droppers.

Also, lol, you read the 251 wiki.

Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#36
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

251 is far harder than any undergraduate math course at CMU. I had to register an account just to say one thing ... BULLSHIT. Math Studies was an order of magnitude harder than 251. Even factoring in the two homeworks and lectures of math studies, it's still a night and day difference. I took both last semester, and halfassed 251 and did well. There's no possible way to do that with math studies. Just read your profi…

I considered adding an exception, but then I remembered Math Studies is really two classes. I definitely found Math Studies less than twice as hard as 251. Of course, I might also say that I five-sixths assed Math Studies and three-halves-assed 251. Maybe I shouldn't have rushed to make that statement. It certainly made graph theory with Mackey look like kindergarten, but I'm now remembering the stories about graph t…

I got off easy with doing Set Theory with Greggo. I know that Cummings once taught it ... and assigned 6 homeworks! That class must have been impossible.

EDIT: I just read over their final ... and it looks as hard as either of the math studies algebra finals.

Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#37
post #19
post #11

One course I've been going through lately is the MIT course on Abstract Interpretation ( http://web.mit.edu/16.399/www/ ). Programmers tend to break execution into "cases" to reason about it; e.g.: when writing a routine to reverse a string, you might think about the cases where the string is of even or odd length. Abstract Interpretation lets you capture this kind of reasoning precisely, and thereby automate it.

Thank you for this reference. I was curious if there was some formal work on this subject. This was one of the holes in my studies.

Olin Shivers's "Control-Flow Analysis of Higher-Order Languages" (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.9.39...) is all about using abstract interpretation for compiler analysis. It's focused on Scheme, but is applicable to higher-order languages in general.

It's also noteworthy as part of Yale's T / Scheme current (http://paulgraham.com/thist.html), which produced a lot of other great stuff: "Orbit" (http://repository.readscheme.org/ftp/papers/orbit-thesis.pdf), "A Tractable Scheme Implementation" (http://repository.readscheme.org/ftp/papers/vlisp-lasc/schem...) and Scheme48 (http://s48.org). For starters!

Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#38
post #5

I'll add a couple of courses I've really enjoyed at CMU ( http://www.cs.cmu.edu ): 15-410 Operating System Design and Implementation: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~410/ 15-251 Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science (webpage might be out of date): http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/15-251/

Gee, "15-251 Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science" You mean there really are some? I always thought it was the empty set! Okay, I followed the URL to see these wondrous ideas! So, I saw some 'lecture notes' at: http://server251.theory.cs.cmu.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/Proba... and there saw: "Random Variables We begin with the notion of a finite probability distribution D , which consists of a finite set S of ele…

Take the class first before commenting on it.

Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#39
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Probability is one of my favorite topics, but I agree with (this part of) the course's treatment." This statement is an unfortunate juxtaposition: Glad probability is one of your "favorite topics", but you make serious mistakes right at the beginning and show that you don't know anything significant at all about the subject, not at any level from freshman to the texts I listed. That you "agree" with that "part of th…

Yes, and the definition of a measurable map is a function between two measure spaces which takes measurable sets to measurable sets, i.e.: a structure-preserving map between measure spaces. I stopped reading after that. I have no need to defend my mathematical knowledge, and no time to listen to someone who wants me to. I sincerely apologize for my above post; I did not realize I was dealing with a troll.

"Yes, and the definition of a measurable map is a function between two measure spaces which takes measurable sets to measurable sets, i.e.: a structure-preserving map between measure spaces."

That's not at all what I wrote. You really don't even know how to read a definition in math, do you? Do you know any math at all?

You are wrong again; a counterexample is trivial to construct.

Here you have no need to defend your knowledge of math in general, just on one point, the definition of a random variable.

You are seriously, flatly wrong mathematically. Name calling and refusing to read won't make your nonsense correct.

Enjoy looking like a fool before the world of computing, forever.

Re: Advanced Computer Science Courses

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Probability is one of my favorite topics, but I agree with (this part of) the course's treatment." This statement is an unfortunate juxtaposition: Glad probability is one of your "favorite topics", but you make serious mistakes right at the beginning and show that you don't know anything significant at all about the subject, not at any level from freshman to the texts I listed. That you "agree" with that "part of th…

Who the fuck is Jerry? My daddy taught me never to trust name droppers. Also, lol, you read the 251 wiki.

Everyone at CMU knows who Jerry is.

For what I read, those were the course notes.

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