Journal of Dw (not DW)

And now for something not as will-destroying:

I found out that there are "natural" matrix versions of a bunch of functions.

Suppose you have an entire function f(x) that inputs and outputs numbers. Being entire, it has a power series and that power series converges to f(x) for any value of x. Now, the trick is: since powers are defined for matrices as well, you can input a matrix into the power series. That generalizes f to a matrix-to-matrix function.

So you can take exponents of matrices, and also apply trig functions to them. That's a nice trick.

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I've sometimes heard people argue that the universe is likely to be a simulation because it looks like what we'd do if we were to simulate something: it's discrete, has finite detail, limited speed that information can spread outwards, etc.

But perhaps this is the wrong way around: perhaps our simulations tend to be like this because the universe is like this. Suppose, for instance, that it was possible to calculate (add, subtract, etc) truly real numbers in constant time. Then our simulations could have infinite detail in some respects as well, because they could encode that detail within those real numbers and manipulate them.

If so, then "our universe may be a simulation because it sure looks like one" indirectly begs the question.

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You know you're picky about language when...

you see "lapine" intended to mean "bunnylike", and you think "hey, that should be leporine instead!".

...

I wonder if this is dead. Is it?

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Happy new year everybody!

(He says, belatedly.)

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So I watched Spectre.

It was loud. It was also better than Skyfall, IMHO. (Why was everybody falling over themselves over Skyfall? I mean, it was okay, but it wasn't the best thing ever.)

Still, there were fridge logic moments. "Before I kill you, Mr. Bond" and all that, but I suppose that's a staple of the series, so... :)

My head is also pretty much filled with loud noises, which may explain why this post sounds weird! Not enough capacity to do it elaborately, so why not use this brief style of writing to my advantage?

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... someone on IRC says "sup?" and you respond "inf".

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I wouldn't complain if this day and my memories of it were to vanish... or if I could send a message three weeks back in time, for that matter.

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Yay, all tests are done for this term.

Two went okay, the other two ended up kind of rushed and/or there were questions I couldn't answer. Oh well. Now I just rest.

(And wonder if it's good to push myself so much towards perfection at the last moment...)

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As I tend to say:

happy Constitution Day to all of you in Norway :)

... but then I also notice that it's been a really long time since I've written anything in here. Yeep, university really drains your time without you realizing it!

I should probably write more here. Or talk to people I know from here. *waves and meeps*

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I've also recently watched the last Hobbit movie. My one-sentence review would go somewhat like:

"It's not nearly as bad or fight-heavy as I thought it would be, but it still could use quite a bit of editing."

I thought it would be overly padded with battles, and that thought kept me from going until I found out that my cinema gift cards (that I had won in a programming competition) were to expire a few months from now. I thought that this would be an opportunity as good as any, and so I went :)

Oh, there is a lot of fighting, and you get the impression Jackson really likes large battle scenes, but that sort of faded into the background for me. It didn't bother me that much!

(The whole fight on the toppled tower was a bit too set-piece-y for me, though.)

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