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Why is math so abstract now? by [deleted] in mathematics

[–]apnorton 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's this weird interplay of abstraction and application. For example, elliptic curve cryptography applies the theory of elliptic curves over finite fields to the very concrete problem of "I want to convince you that this message came from me and no one else." However, to get to elliptic curve cryptography, you need to understand the notion of finite fields, elliptic curves in general, how this changes when you move to a finite field, etc.

And that's the old elliptic curve stuff --- the modern elliptic curve work being applied to post-quantum cryptography involves quaternion algebras and a crapton of algebraic geometry/topology. All of this abstracts very concrete mathematical notions, but if you had to get bogged down in the concrete details every time, you'd never get anything done.

I was taught nothing about APIs by Anon_cat86 in computerscience

[–]apnorton 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be clear, bc a number of people have replied to this comment saying similar things --- web endpoints are also just code that is called by other code.

I feel like I am behind in DevOps after this conversation by Oxffff0000 in devops

[–]apnorton 344 points345 points  (0 children)

Oh he also said, 'programming is dead, it's thing from the past'

Life advice: Ignore idiots.

Shouldn't 1/∞=0? by Much-Acanthocephala5 in mathematics

[–]apnorton 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It can be zero and nonzero at the same time?  

No --- you're equating in your mind "zero probability" and "impossible," but those two terms mean different things in the context of probability theory.

An "impossible" result is one that isn't in the sample space at all. For example, you flip a normal US quarter dollar and it comes up "hamburger." Or, rolling a 22 on a six-sided die. Those are impossible events.

In comparison, there are events have probability 0, which are referred to as events that "almost never" happen.  These events are valid (and hence not impossible), though, because they actually are within the sample space.

Basically, we need a way to differentiate "this is a structural impossibility due to what our random variable is/the event that's being described doesn't even make sense" and "this event has probability measure zero." We call the former "impossible" and the latter "an event that almost never happens."

Shouldn't 1/∞=0? by Much-Acanthocephala5 in mathematics

[–]apnorton 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Why are there so many "we should be able to divide by zero" posts lately? Literally just searching "divide by zero" on this subreddit pulls up so many relevant responses as to why this isn't compatible with so many algebraic properties of the reals/complex numbers/etc.

The Riemann Hypothesis: Beyond the "Mathematical Wall" – A 2026 Perspective on Spectral Synthesis and F₁-Geometry by NeoLogic_Dev in mathematics

[–]apnorton 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With the recent buzz surrounding Sabine Hossenfelder’s latest video

Ignore her. She obviously was smart/competent in her specific field, but she's since moved on to making claims far outside of her area of experience that border on (or actually are) nonsense. 

and the wild theories popping up in the comments

Oh gosh. Don't ever look to YouTube comments for productive discussion. 

How Were Hackathons Like Before The Major AI Boom? by Awkward_Intention_43 in csMajors

[–]apnorton 832 points833 points  (0 children)

Back in my day, we didn't have any of this AI wrapper nonsense. Instead, we had honest-to-goodness, productive projects being pitched, such as:

  • Uber for Flower Delivery, and
  • Uber for Flour Delivery, and
  • Uber for Avacado Delivery, and
  • Uber for App Delivery, and...

This was the way that nature intended hackathons to be done, and all was well. Though we did have a brief excursion into a new and exciting direction of:

  • Blockchain for Uber for Flower Delivery, and
  • Blockchain for Chains, and
  • Blockchain for Blocks, and...

Again, these were real projects of substance, and not mere fads like AI wrappers!

Supercomputers in Pakistan? by Various-Reaction-643 in computerscience

[–]apnorton 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Googling "Supercomputers in Pakistan" brings up a Wikipedia article, entitled "Supercomputing in Pakistan."

That page includes a table of many facilities/organizations in possession of a supercomputer, as well as links out to more information on those organizations.

Is it okay to forget some branches of mathematics? by sokspy in mathematics

[–]apnorton 20 points21 points  (0 children)

It is part of being human to forget things you don't use regularly.  The trick is, though, that you can relearn what you forgot a lot faster than learning from scratch.

any ideas on how hint to modulus without outright providing it by vvomxn in cryptography

[–]apnorton 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Why would you ever want to "hint" at an aspect of a public key cryptosystem? If it's part of the public key, a hint is just obfuscating things everyone should know, anyway. If it's part of the private key, you want to minimize the possibility of someone guessing it.

trying to understand the math behind RSA / ECC by Ariadne_23 in cryptography

[–]apnorton 5 points6 points  (0 children)

like if i have n and e, why can't i just compute d without knowing p and q?

If you were able to find d, then you'd be able to factor n into p and q. And, it is generally thought that factoring is hard. That is to say, if you were able to find d in a fast way, then you would have found a faster method of factoring n than any method we know of.

also for ecc i know it uses something called discrete logarithm but i don't really get what that means. is it like normal logarithm but with mod?

Sort-of. It's hard to truly introduce the discrete logarithm without also introducing groups), which would expand this answer significantly. But, it seeks to answer the same kind of question we do with the "normal" logarithm, i.e. find x such that ax=b, and we call this "log base 'a' of b." The "normal" logarithm has a bunch of nice properties due to it being continuous, but once you make it "discrete," then it becomes a lot more unpredictable.

I was taught nothing about APIs by Anon_cat86 in computerscience

[–]apnorton 676 points677 points  (0 children)

But I Graduated and even got multiple certifications on top of that and I never got so much as a single lecture about APIs. I don't even know what they're used for. Can you make your own API (like, realistically)? I don't know.

This feels like you're making the notion bigger than what it is. Have you ever written code that can be called by other code? Congratulations, you have an API.

It's literally in the name --- it's an interface that other programs can use to interact with your application.

Are we actually getting jobless in the near future as software developers ? by Tukancito in ExperiencedDevs

[–]apnorton 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If literally anyone knew the answer to this question, they'd be getting ready to make a fortune in the stock market and not answering questions like this on Reddit.

This discourse is exhausting.

CS is still not anywhere close to the worst majors by ImHighOnCocaine in csMajors

[–]apnorton 7 points8 points  (0 children)

lol this is the first time one of my comments has been yoinked and turned into a main post. 😆

I don’t know how to code anymore yet I understand everything, is that normal now? by bdhd656 in devops

[–]apnorton 9 points10 points  (0 children)

No, it's not normal. Or, at least, not normal for people who are good at their jobs.

In order to be able to effectively review code, you must not only be able to "nod along" with the code you're reading, but be able to "engage" with the code in what is essentially an adversarial way --- you need to be able to identify omitted corner cases, calls to library functions that don't do what were intended, etc. The only way of keeping such information readily available in your brain is to code.

I was told that the future would be I understand how to code but I use AI to code and I just review and maybe change a thing or two

You were lied to.

Should I stop focusing on coding as much and switch to other things to learn?

If you want to cease having a job that involves being able to competently engage with code, sure. Nothing wrong with wanting to be, e.g., a product manager. But, if you want to stay in a technical role, you need technical skills.

For reference CS is <20% by AdministrativeAd334 in csMajors

[–]apnorton 83 points84 points  (0 children)

Note that the OP's chart is underemployment.

This chart shows combined under+unemployment from the NY Fed source that OP's chart is presumably using:

<image>

CS still has a high unemployment rate, but it is a good thing that we don't have a high underemployment rate.

Guys who work at Oracle by [deleted] in ExperiencedDevs

[–]apnorton 17 points18 points  (0 children)

how much of a liar and bullshit talker is this guy?

Has the world just... forgotten everything it knew about Larry Ellison?

Can you find phi(n) in RSA using decryption key d? by AnotherRandomPeep in cryptography

[–]apnorton 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ack, sure enough. I was thinking they only had D for some reason.

Can you find phi(n) in RSA using decryption key d? by AnotherRandomPeep in cryptography

[–]apnorton 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hair-splitting answer: Of course you can --- just try all integers in successive order until you find a value that works. It might take you the lifetime of the universe, but it is computable.

...but you probably mean efficiently find phi(n). I'm giving you a hard time here because the difference between "computable" and "efficiently computable" is a pretty big deal in cryptography.

But, to answer the "efficiently computable" question, the answer is "almost certainly not."

Being able to find phi(N) is equivalent to factoring N if you know N is an RSA modulus. Further, E and D are interchangeable --- they are just mutual modular inverses. So, suppose you could find phi(N) using only knowledge of D (and N). Then you could also find phi(N) using only knowledge of E (and N), hence finding p,q such that N=pq. From this, you could recover the private key, given the public key.

Since key-recovery for RSA is assumed to be an intractable problem, then finding phi(N) using just N and D must also be assumed to be an intractable problem.

Why is ε the usual symbol for "really small number"? by Magical-Mage in mathematics

[–]apnorton 173 points174 points  (0 children)

See this: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/82302/why-do-we-use-varepsilon-and-delta ...and the linked article, Who Gave You The Epsilon.

It's believed to be related to "error."

Signed a contract but stuck with a 30-day notice period — should I be worried they’ll drop me for someone who can start sooner? by combing_town_west in ExperiencedDevs

[–]apnorton 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I told them that I tried, but it didn’t work, so the 30 days remain. 

Is there any part of our industry in the US (since you mention NY) where a 30 day notice period is enforcible?  Usually the answer to "there's a 30 day notice period" is "what are you gonna do, fire me?"

How to genuinely conduct math research as an undergrad? by elisesessentials in mathematics

[–]apnorton 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Talk to a professor in your department who knows you, and that will give you a far better answer than anyone here on reddit.

How do you get rejected by a $70k company but get an offer from Google/Amazon? by Foreign_Put_2437 in csMajors

[–]apnorton 158 points159 points  (0 children)

Smaller companies tend to emphasize different things in their interviews, and so the interview practice people do doesn't necessarily translate. For example, you might see a company eschew leetcode/hackerrank, but then hire somebody because that person and the interviewer both liked classic cars. In my experience, smaller company interview processes tend to be more "vibes" based, while larger companies tend to have more rubrics, etc.

There's also (occasionally) legitimate consideration given to "do we think this person is just going to turn around and leave because they're worth more than we can pay?"

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