Readit News logoReadit News
the__alchemist commented on Ask HN: What hard problems are still underexplored?    · Posted by u/brihati
the__alchemist · 2 days ago
Chemistry (Or biology, as an extension of it) simulations. Current tools include Newtonian atom-centered force fields that are fit to a specific situation and lose validity outside it, and quantum computations that are very slow, and don't scale well.

I have a hunch there is something about the underlying physics we are missing, and that we have not hit the endgame of modelling physics at this scale.

the__alchemist commented on A “frozen” dictionary for Python   lwn.net/SubscriberLink/10... · Posted by u/jwilk
pkulak · 3 days ago
This is why I love how Rust approached this; almost by accident to make borrow checking work. Every reference is either mutable or not, and (with safe code), you can't use an immutable reference to get a mutable reference anywhere down the chain. So you can slowly construct a map through a mutable reference, but then return it out of a function as immutable, and that's the end of it. It's no longer ever mutable, and no key or value is either. There's no need to make a whole new object called FrozenHashMap, and then FrozenList, and FrozenSet, etc. You don't need a StringBuilder because String is mutable, unless you don't want it to be. It's all just part of the language.

Kotlin _kinda_ does this as well, but if you have a reference to an immutable map in Kotlin, you are still free to mutate the values (and even keys!) as much as you like.

the__alchemist · 3 days ago
My favorite part of rust is its explicit control over mutability, in the manner you describe.
the__alchemist commented on Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools   larr.net/p/namings.html... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti
the__alchemist · 3 days ago
If the community followed the author's guidance, we would have names like "Generic LLM wrapper 690" ("GLW690" if following the early programming language conventions.) or "Github clone with a different ideology 11"
the__alchemist commented on A “frozen” dictionary for Python   lwn.net/SubscriberLink/10... · Posted by u/jwilk
the__alchemist · 3 days ago
I wish Python could move away from types-as-mutability-determiners. Or paper over them; all could have mutable and non-mutable variants, with "to_mut()" and "to_immut()" methods. And in the same vein, explicit control over whether functions mutate a variable in place, or make a local copy. Python is my first lang, and I still am unable to consistently reason about these.
the__alchemist commented on Jepsen: NATS 2.12.1   jepsen.io/analyses/nats-2... · Posted by u/aphyr
selectodude · 6 days ago
Definitely thought this was about aviation for a moment.
the__alchemist · 5 days ago
Yea! I did a double-take, as in addition to Jeppesen, NATS is something I worked with in the past as a UK NOTAM service.
the__alchemist commented on Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices   office365itpros.com/2025/... · Posted by u/taubek
dabockster · 5 days ago
> Nobody has developed a real alternative. It seems like most companies are more than willing to leave this entire market to Microsoft.

I'd say it's more that this is the actual "developer shortage" that was being talked about a decade ago, but everyone mistakenly and stupidly interpreted it to be a shortage of tech workers for the larger firms. The number of humans that are literate enough in business, marketing, communications, and software development to pull this off are extremely few and far between right now. And even then, I just listed four specialties that historically have been specialized by a single person for each field - something like this would require a given person having a sufficient breadth of knowledge in all of them at the same time. It's a very tall order.

And that's all just to compete on Windows. Adding Mac and Linux into the mix makes it even harder.

the__alchemist · 5 days ago
> And that's all just to compete on Windows. Adding Mac and Linux into the mix makes it even harder.

Cross-platform compatibility is trivial with modern tooling IMO.

the__alchemist commented on Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices   office365itpros.com/2025/... · Posted by u/taubek
wvenable · 5 days ago
> The cost and complexity and the effort required to switch away from M365 is massive.

I'd say further to that is there literally isn't a similar product that exists to switch to. Nobody has developed a real alternative. It seems like most companies are more than willing to leave this entire market to Microsoft.

the__alchemist · 5 days ago
You're not kidding! I did a deep dive into this a few months ago, and the alternative situation was dismal! LibreOffice is the closest, but its performance has room for improvement.
the__alchemist commented on Quanta to publish popular math and physics books by Terence Tao and David Tong   simonsfoundation.org/2025... · Posted by u/digital55
srean · 6 days ago
I might be unusual in the sense that in my teens I absolutely adored Asimov as a writer of non-fiction rather than as a sci-fi author.

For the current generation, I never miss a chance to mention Gamow's non-fiction.

It's unfortunate that works of great non-fiction writers evaporate away from our cultural consciousness after their death.

It makes me sad that there will be a generation, or maybe it's already upon us, one that has not delighted in Martin Gardner.

the__alchemist · 6 days ago
Sagan's books are still very popular, long after his time.
the__alchemist commented on Quanta to publish popular math and physics books by Terence Tao and David Tong   simonsfoundation.org/2025... · Posted by u/digital55
the__alchemist · 6 days ago
Fantastic! Quanta is a treasure. The only news site I read; got too tilted with how violence-oriented and vulgar most news sources have become.
the__alchemist commented on Wolfram Compute Services   writings.stephenwolfram.c... · Posted by u/nsoonhui
themafia · 8 days ago
> As an expensive proprietary software however

It's $195/year for a personal license. And only $75/year for students. Their licensing model is pretty broad.

the__alchemist · 8 days ago
Ok fuck it. Bought the year!

u/the__alchemist

KarmaCake day5840September 27, 2019
About
Building structural bio tools for rust, and this application: https://github.com/David-OConnor/daedalus/
View Original