Alexis Rondeau

Bookmarks

August 2023 · 34 bookmarks

Bookmarked from David Senra @FoundersPodcast

Paul Graham on how to make yourself a big target for luck:

“When you read biographies of people who've done great work, it's remarkable how much luck is involved.

They discover what to work on as a result of a chance meeting, or by reading a book they happen to pick up.

So you need to make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious.

Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions.”

Bookmarked from Rishabh Srivastava @rishdotblog

We just open-sourced SQL Coder, a 15B param text-to-SQL model that outperforms OpenAI's gpt-3.5! When fine-tuned on an individual schema, it outperforms gpt-4. github.com/defog-ai/sqlco…

The model is small enough to run on a single A100 40GB in 16 bit floats, or on a single high-end consumer GPU (like RTX 3090/4090) with 8bit quantization.

We are also open-sourcing our framework for evaluating LLM-generated SQL. SQL can be tricky to evaluate (see here for why: t.co/tYEabtnWyn). With rigorous, open and reproducible testing, we hope to advance the frontier of OSS text-to-SQL solutions.

The model weights have a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. You can use and modify the model for any purpose – including commercial use. However, if you modify the weights (for example, by fine-tuning), you must open-source your modified weights under the same license terms.

There's an interactive demo + link to Colab if you would like to play around with it. I'm always hungry for feedback! :)

Working on this was intense (a lot of 3AM git commits 😅). So grateful for our amazing team. @JP_smasher, @manshar_, @medha_basu, and @wendyaww are incredible to work with!

Bookmarked from Physics In History @PhysInHistory

Islamic Scholars and the development of Physics and Mathematics ▲

Mathematics and physics were greatly developed by ancient Islamic scholars and scientists during the Golden Age of Islam, which spanned from the 8th to the 13th century.

Al-Khwarizmi (c. 780-850): He is considered the father of algebra, a term derived from his book al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa’l-muqabala (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing). He also introduced the Arabic numerals and the decimal system to the Western world, and wrote influential works on astronomy, geography, and trigonometry.

Ibn al-Haytham (c. 965-1040): He is regarded as the father of modern optics, as he made significant contributions to the theory and practice of optics, vision, and light. He wrote the Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics), which was a landmark in the history of physics and psychology. He also studied the laws of reflection and refraction, the nature of colors, the structure of the eye, and the mechanism of vision. He also proposed the scientific method of experimentation and observation, and criticized Aristotle’s physics.

Omar Khayyam (c. 1048-1131): He was a renowned poet, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. He is best known for his Rubaiyat, a collection of quatrains that express his views on life, love, and fate. He also contributed to algebra, geometry, number theory, and binomial theorem. He also calculated the length of the solar year with remarkable accuracy, and devised a calendar reform that was more accurate than the Gregorian calendar.

Al-Biruni (c. 973-1048): He was a polymath who excelled in various fields of science, such as astronomy, mathematics, physics, geodesy, geography, geology, mineralogy, chemistry, pharmacology, anthropology, history, and linguistics. He wrote over 146 books on various topics, and is considered one of the greatest scholars of all time.

He measured the radius and circumference of the Earth using trigonometry, determined the specific gravity of various substances using hydrostatics, described the heliocentric model of the solar system, and studied the motion of planets and comets.

Al-Farabi (c. 872-950): He was a philosopher, logician, musician, and scientist who wrote influential works on metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy, cosmology, psychology, music theory, and logic. He synthesized the ideas of Plato and Aristotle with Islamic theology, and developed his own system of classification of sciences. He also studied sound waves and musical harmony, and invented several musical instruments.

These contributions from ancient Islamic scholars laid the groundwork for the advancement of physics and mathematics in the subsequent centuries. Their works were translated and disseminated in Europe during the Middle Ages, playing a crucial role in the Renaissance and the development of modern science and mathematics.

Bookmarked from Physics In History @PhysInHistory

Hedy Lamarr was a famous Hollywood actress and a brilliant inventor who made significant contributions to the field of wireless communication. She co-invented a technique called frequency hopping, which is the basis of modern technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

Frequency hopping is a method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver. This makes the communication more secure and resistant to interference, jamming, and detection.

Lamarr came up with the idea of frequency hopping during World War II, when she wanted to help the US Navy develop a radio-guided torpedo that could not be easily jammed by the enemy. She collaborated with composer George Antheil, who suggested using a piano roll to synchronize the frequency changes between the transmitter and the receiver. They patented their invention in 1942, but it was not adopted by the US military until the 1960s, when it was used in naval communication systems. Lamarr and Antheil did not receive any recognition or compensation for their work until 1997, when they were awarded the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award. Lamarr also became the first female recipient of the BULBIE™ Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award, which is considered the “Oscars” of inventing.

Lamarr’s scientific contributions were largely overlooked during her lifetime, as she was more known for her beauty and acting career. She died in 2000 at the age of 85. Today, she is widely regarded as one of the most influential women in STEM history, and a role model for aspiring female inventors.

Bookmarked from Ethan Mollick @emollick

It is neat that I can ask GPT-4 Code Interpreter: "Give me an interactive control panel for a futuristic mech," and get a ZIP file with HTML, CSS & javascript.

Even neater that I can just keep asking it to make the panel cooler. When context windows get bigger, it will be wild.

Bookmarked from Physics In History @PhysInHistory

Sir Isaac Newton's insane study routine ✍️

“He worked seven days a week, 18 hours a day, and he pushed himself even further”

Newton got admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge in the year 1661. In the year 1664, he got a scholarship to study for four more years to finish his MA but in the same year, England was hit by Bubonic plague due to which the University was closed for two consecutive years. Due to this reason, Newton had to go back to his home in Woolsthorpe. These two years turned out to be the most productive and mind-wrenchingly stressful years for Newton. During these two years, he spent most of his days, most of his hours, studying in a room with nothing but lighting candles, loads of books, and notes around. It is reportedly said that he used to get so engrossed in his works that he would forget and skip his meals. During this period, Newton used to spend 16–18 hours a day working and studying in his room totally undistracted. He came up with the theory of gravitation, his significant works in optics, and he also invented calculus during these bubonic plague times at his home. According to biographer Gale Christianson, Newton’s working habits were pathologically addictive and for him, there was no end to the day. He would just keep going on and on and on until he felt exhausted to death.

In the 1680s, when Newton was rigorously working to publish his lifelong works in his book Principia Mathematica, as mentioned by one of Newton’s employees, he would often go to sleep at 2 or 3 in the morning. He barely attended any social events or participated in any recreational activities.

[Full story: t.co/mUnDfMT1bZ]

[Newton's portrait by Enoch Seeman, courtesy of National portrait Gallery]

Bookmarked from hardmaru @hardmaru

Constraints encourage creativity and novel thinking. Without them, we tend to fall back to past examples, and the variability of our creations are limited. Constraints can rule out specific solutions that have worked before, forcing us to develop novel approaches.

Bookmarked from Shivon Zilis @shivon

Supposing for a moment that this is a simulation, if you replayed it thousands of times from 5000 BC onward, how standard vs outlier do you think this version is?

Which elements of our reality do you think are the standard bits and which do you think are the outliers?