Hacker News: giik

New comment by giik in "All elementary functions from a single binary operator"

giik — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 08:50:38 +0000

I believe you're not ignorant. But many folks probably lack the process knowledge (CMOS) required to understand why :-)

New comment by giik in "Show HN: I built a "Socratic" AI to stop my daughter from copy-pasting homework"

giik — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:50:06 +0000

I signed in with Google and now it wants my Mobile Number. Trial or not (by the way, nothing in the welcome page or sign=in indicated this is a trial, I just assumed), why? That's an immediate no-go for me, let alone for any of my kids.

New comment by giik in "When two years of academic work vanished with a single click"

giik — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:50:11 +0000

cloud is a subscription service too...sadly

hardcopy and offline copy(ies) is the only way, if one is able to maintain it in a disciplined way

New comment by giik in "What if every city had a London Overground?"

giik — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 07:22:01 +0000

I came here to say the same. The Swiss system is actually far superior, in my experience and opinion.

New comment by giik in "AI Efficiency? Give Me a Break"

giik — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 10:11:53 +0000

Amen!

New comment by giik in "Go is a good fit for agents"

giik — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 07:54:20 +0000

Can you elaborate a bit on how does "Go's quite horrendous and limited type system" get in the way of crafting agents?

Honest question, I am genuinely interested in what cannot be done easily or at all due to limitations of the Go type system.

New comment by giik in "Discrete Mathematics: An Open Introduction [pdf]"

giik — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 07:23:45 +0000

I am yet to find a better introduction than Busby and Kolman's "Introductory Discrete Structures with Applications".

Beautifully written, concise, very accessible with the precise right amount of formalism.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Introductory_Discrete_St...

New comment by giik in "Evolving OpenAI's Structure"

giik — Tue, 06 May 2025 08:46:31 +0000

When I got to that part (line 1) I stopped reading.

New comment by giik in "How to Build an Agent"

giik — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 07:24:05 +0000

It seems wide spread and also supported by Gemini at least: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/function-calling?examp...

It's a very elegant idea and the article did a great job at introducing it and explaining how to use it.

New comment by giik in "Ötzi the Lyme Mummy (2019)"

giik — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 20:41:01 +0000

Fascinating!

Living in Europe nearby, I've visited the museum multiple times in the past decade. It's one of my favorite standbys to take relatives or friends to. Can't recommend it—and Bolzano, or Bozen, depending on whether you lean Italian or German—enough!

New comment by giik in "Physically Based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation"

giik — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 17:21:00 +0000

Fully agree. My brain hurts when i see adverbs in improper positions like so. It’s called an adverb for a reason…

New comment by giik in "M4 MacBook Pro"

giik — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 20:44:25 +0000

At the end of 2023 BH Photo Video was selling the M1 Max 16” 64G/2TB for 2,499. It’s the lowest I’ve ever seen it anywhere and I got one myself.

New comment by giik in "23andMe updates their TOS to force binding arbitration"

giik — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 09:31:14 +0000

I was only partially correct. Looked again at asfinag and the grace period does not apply to 1 and 10-day vignettes. From their website:

"18-days-period Consumer protection is very important to us – especially as far as our digital products are concerned. Customers can withdraw from the online purchase of a digital vignette within 14 days. Taking into account a further three-day period for mail, your digital 2-months and annual vignette is only valid from the 18th day after purchase.

This deadline does not apply if you purchase a 1-day or 10-day vignette!"

New comment by giik in "23andMe updates their TOS to force binding arbitration"

giik — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 10:44:57 +0000

This is no longer true, I believe (starting Dec 1 2023). You can buy the vignette online starting immediately.

New comment by giik in "A linear algebra trick for computing Fibonacci numbers fast"

giik — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 15:53:47 +0000

I came here to say the same: difference equations, z-transform, recurrence relations, are (or used to be) standard undergrad eng curriculum (typically via some required Signals & Systems course). Maybe not so popular in the CS world though?

Beautiful expo on the subject: https://eee.guc.edu.eg/Courses/Communications/COMM401%20Sign... (Chapter 10, etc.)

New comment by giik in "Only one pair of distinct positive integers satisfy the equation m^n = n^m"

giik — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 18:21:05 +0000

I think it's even simpler after you figured out that m = kn = n^k => n is an integer > 1 and equal to the (k-1)-th root of k where k is an integer > 1.

The only integer (k-1)-th root of k is 2 for k = 2. Thus, n = 2, k = 2, m = 4.

New comment by giik in "Our Next Trip to Integer Partitions"

giik — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 18:03:06 +0000

Is it five (5) or four (4) in this paragraph (I count 4): "... Now how many of these partitions are made up of 5 parts? Each summand is called a part. The answer is 2. There are 2 partitions of 6 that are made up of 5 parts. They are 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 and 2 + 2 + 1 + 1...."

New comment by giik in "To Save the Sound of a Stradivarius, a Whole City Must Keep Quiet"

giik — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 09:32:29 +0000

The museum hosts dozens of instruments it does not own, probably worth 10’s of millions and left there by the owners to be kept in a controlled environment, seen and heard (the instruments are regularly played on by local musicians and conservatory students). It could also be that taking these expensive instruments out to a studio without the appropriate security logistics is a security/legal nightmare and they were never going to be able to pull it off.

A couple of years ago I was driving through the area with a couple families and on a whim decided to check if Cremona had a violin museum. Kind it and spent the afternoon. To this day I think about it and I think it’s one of the top 3 museums I’ve ever been to. It’s mind blowing, exceptionally well done, super interesting and worth every second. An absolute, almost unreal gem, highly recommended!