bodhiandpysics1

So the history is actually really well described in crpgaddicts blog. First there was wizardry (basically all rpgs both in the us and japan are descendents of wizardry, some with the mixture of ultima). bard's tale is a wizardry clone (its wizardry in a city). Dungeon master is an attempt to make a better wizardry, taking advantage of the mouse and the amiga's graphics (its basically wizardry in real time). EotB is a dungeon master clone.

Machine learning is the new hotness in computer graphics. It drives me insane (I don't do ML).

Np hard problems aren't that hard to solve. I'm solving one right now actually for work (graph bi-partition using simulated annealing), and it doesn't even take that long. Of course my algorithm isn't actually correct! Or if I had a correct algorithm it might be really fast but still not have polynomial growth. You need a proof.

It actually does make sense, and is an important idea in complexity theory. In general, the problem of proving an arbitrary claim in ZFC isn't computable (this is just Godel's incompleteness theorem). if you confine your claims to smaller languages, you get smaller complexity classes. For instance, the problem of proving things in the propostional calculus is called BSAT, and is the quintessential NP complete problem.

In general a nice way of thinking about what NP is are the set of formula that have polynomial time checkable proofs.

Nope... it depends on the language you use to write the proof. Agda proofs for instance are in R.

It's important to remember that P=NP doesn't just imply that P = NP; it implies that P = PH (the polynomial hierarchy). There are a whole series of much harder problems than NP that also are in P if P = NP. Finding proofs is always at least NP hard! Remember, any proof is at least going to include some boolean phrase (this is true and that is true so we get such and such), which is just BSAT, an NP complete problem. In other words, yes. It's very very unlikely.

which is very very very common (squatch and stretch)

In graphics, dual quaternions are used in skinning, but rarely for orientation and translation.

a bit racist to be honest...

It's often also very local. Everyone knows who some castes are like Patels and Nayars, but how many people in north india know that vellalars are relatively high caste (but not brahman) for instance. And of course the specific relationship between various castes can change village to village.

The Chennai sanskrit community is actually wonderful, but they can be very religious. And the fact that I'm white obviously made a difference.

I lived for quite some time in india... spice wasn't the issue. Have you ever spent time around Iyengar Brahmans of the old school?

Hey Tamilians are gonna represent right?

People know people who know people... the IITs are a really small world, and a lot of the graduates end up working in american tech companies.

Sanskritists can't afford silver plates... it was the standard cheap metal everyone uses.