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The distribution of a \(n\times n\) quadratic form in Gaussian variables, \(X^TAX\) is a linear combination of \(\chi_1^2\) variables: \[Q\sim\sum_{i=1}^n\lambda_iZ^2_i\] where \(\lambda_i\) are the eigenvalues of \(A\Xi\) and \(\Xi\) is the covariance matrix of \(X\). This is not in the tables at the back of the book. For reasonable values of \(n\) and reasonable tail probabilities, the Satterthwaite approximation is perfectly reasonable. It is of the form \[\tilde Q_0\sim a\chi^2_d\] …

TL;DR: A creative writing exercise inspired by getting up too many times last night.

by Mete Yazici The ongoing phase of industrial transformation, known as the fourth industrial revolution, aims to merge the physical, digital, and biological domains through extensive digital innovation (Saldanha, 2019). The pervasive incorporation of digital technologies into all facets of human existence became particularly evident following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 (Hantrais et al., 2020). Moreover, there is tough competition for users’ loyalty. MindSea (2023) reports …

All of my budgeted blogwriting time is going to Logic for Programmers. Should be back early 2025. (I’m still writing the weekly newsletter.)

Vaulting, an abstract of a leaf. ©2024 Daniel Sroka. Some leaves seem to stay in motion even after they’ve landed on the ground. When I found this leaf last fall, I was first struck by its intense color — a red so deep it was almost black. But then I noticed something else. The leaf was twisting around its core, like a pole vaulter preparing to clear the crossbar. So …

More people came to Carol’s funeral than there were seats in the crematorium chapel: our families, her friends and mine, some of whom had travelled a long way. The funeral directors, P B Wright and Sons, took care of the arrangements kindly and professionally. Catriona Miller, the humanist celebrant, conducted the service and delivered a warm and accurate tribute to Carol. I spoke about Carol’s life with me, and Michael …

Does he know what his sentence is?” “No,” the officer said, wanting to continue with his explanations, but the traveler interrupted him: “He does not know his own sentence?” “No,” the officer repeated, pausing briefly as if to insist that the traveler should give a more specific reason for his question, and then said: “There would be no point in announcing it to him … He will come to

My Prized Possessions 11 September, 2024 After reading this post at 47Nil, my thoughts slowly turned to the items that mean the most to me. Even though I identify as a small m minimalist, I’m not against owning stuff. It just has to be the right stuff, and not too much of it. Most material things come and go, but there are certain items that stick with us for the …

I have a new open access paper in Economy & Society, co-authored with Sahil Dutta and Nick Taylor, on the rising centrality of ‘home’ to current political, economic and governmental problems.

I co-founded console.dev back in 2021 because there wasn’t anywhere for experienced developers to find good tools. There are so many interesting tools for developers, so writing short reviews every week has been a lot of fun. Four years later and the newsletter now goes out to almost 30k engineers each week. At the same time as writing console.dev I also started to get into security. I learned a lot …

In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-assisted software development, a new category of tools has emerged: repository-to-prompt converters. These utilities address the growing need to feed entire codebases into Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini. Let’s delve into the technical aspects and implications of these tools. Core Functionality At their heart, these tools perform a seemingly simple task: they traverse a directory structure, typically a Git repository, …

So, I don’t really write here any more. I write at drafts.interfluidity.com instead. Please follow that feed or subscribe by e-mail. I do still offer periodic roundups here of what I’ve been up to! And it’s been a busy few months. Without further ado. Unless it is remedied soon, the Supreme Court has rendered an end to liberal democracy in the United States nearly inevitable by their decision in Trump …

At least in the indie music genre, people are advised to make music videos in order to fulfill a requirement of publicity. The music video needs a certain degree of polish, which creates a natural economic filter weeding out musicians that have less economic resources. (Paying someone to make a suitable music video can easily cost $5K for a video – a price I was quoted by a certain indie …

Back in July 22 I visited Kynance Cove on a gorgeous July evening with my sister. We swam in the sparkling water and I came home with lots of inspiring photos. April 23 I produced a print I named Kynance Light and it was my fastest selling print. Since then I've kept looking at this photograph and wondering if it was suitable for a print. The blurred patch at the …

At Caltrain’s board meeting on Thursday September 5 (and meetings at SamTrans and VTA last week), board members grappled with the issues around regional transit funding and solutions being proposed in a regional process with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, legislators, and other stakeholders. At the Caltrain board meeting, about two dozen riders from all three Caltrain counties told personal stories about using multiple agencies – Caltrain, and BART and SamTrans …