Some extra stuff that isn’t a full blog post or file. In chronological order of when I have the ideas.
Table of Contents
A really good LaTeX resource
The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX. This will save tons of Googling time if you’re starting out and is a great reference to go over. It also introduces good practices for using LaTeX.
Springer GTM Test Results
Taken in 2023 and 2024. 2024 is really calling 2023 me out for not reading representation theory last summer.
If I were a Springer-Verlag Graduate Text in Mathematics, I would be Saunders Mac Lane's Categories for the Working Mathematician.
I provide an array of general ideas useful in a wide variety of fields. Starting from foundations, I illuminate the concepts of category, functor, natural transformation, and duality. I then turn to adjoint functors, which provide a description of universal constructions, an analysis of the representation of functors by sets of morphisms, and a means of manipulating direct and inverse limits.
Which Springer GTM would you be? The Springer GTM Test
My primary goal is to introduce the beginner to the finite-dimensional representations of Lie groups and Lie algebras. Intended to serve non-specialists, my concentration is on examples. The general theory is developed sparingly, and then mainly as a useful and unifying language to describe phenomena already encountered in concrete cases. I begin with a brief tour through representation theory of finite groups, with emphasis determined by what is useful for Lie groups; in particular, the symmetric groups are treated in some detail. My focus then turns to Lie groups and Lie algebras and finally to my heart: working out the finite dimensional representations of the classical groups and exploring the related geometry. The goal of my last portion is to make a bridge between the example-oriented approach of the earlier parts and the general theory.
Which Springer GTM would you be? The Springer GTM Test
ELI5 Windows-Arch Dual Boot Advice
Putting this somewhere so when I inevitably reinstall Arch somewhere I won’t forget. Most likely Windows installations will come with an EFI partition, so that should be used for Arch installation instead of creating a new EFI partition. That partition will likely be too small to hold the Linux kernel, so mount the EFI partition on /efi, and the kernel will reside in /boot. I finally got it right on the second try.
Procrastination Hall of Shame
Things I’ve done while procrastinating that really should’ve been poured into doing actual things.
- Learned to type in Dvorak - I can type ~60wpm, though I really do need to get better at using it practically and not just for typing tests.
- Started learning how to control my mouse without a touchpad.
- Wrote an entirely new side quest page and still have no idea how to format it.
Some Nice Use Cases for Syncthing
Finding it pretty useful for the following:
- Syncing a collection of music. Local files are easier to manage and download on my computer, and I want to keep them updated on my phone; thus having a synced folder makes the most sense. I could also upgrade the security to be a send-only/receive-only for the computer/phone respectively if it ends up being all downloads from my computer.
- Syncing notes with Obsidian. Notes get updated on both sides so there’s no use restricting the permissions, but it’s usually more useful for a note that I write down on my phone to appear on my computer than the other way around.
These are just the use cases I’ve thought of and/or implemented so far. These early use cases make more sense for communication between a phone and some computers, though it is not a full way to access all files from my phone on my computer. I’d imagine it would also be nice for personal documents (e.g. academic transcripts, tax forms) or books/PDFs to be synced up between devices as opposed to being spread out across whichever device I’m using at the moment.
At some point I’m not sure if duplicating the files on all devices makes much sense and if I should just have a central storage medium I can SSH into for the most part. For music and notes that I want to access from both my computer and my phone it works well. For files that I might only need once in a while and don’t need to refer to them often (e.g. personal documents) or take up a lot of storage (e.g. videos/photos), maybe it might not be the best solution.
Cynical Takes on Holidays
I preface this with the fact that this take can and will probably be read as a bad take and may make people wonder if I should seek psychological help.
The concept of holidays is great. Remembering history and culture and getting some time off to spend with family and friends sounds very nice. However, the execution, or the way that I’ve spent my holidays thus far, left quite a lot to be desired. Maybe it was one of the times when someone told me Valentine’s Day was just invented as a capitalist holiday to increase spending or it was something else altogether, but over the years, holidays have started feeling less and less like a celebration of significant events and much more of an event of sales and transactions. At least to me. So there goes the first part of holidays for me. Now the second part of spending time with family and friends. I don’t know about other people, but I remember chaotic family friend hikes on Labor Day, gatherings where I was left to idle for hours on Christmas and New Years, and various other not-so-pleasant memories spent with those around me. And there goes the second part of holidays for me.
(Just to be clear, I’m not trying to be a downer or all-season grinch hating on the holidays. Growing up, I didn’t really have a choice on how I spent my holidays, and sometimes when my family went with the plans that they were invited to they might not have been ones that fit my interests the best. And to be fair, I didn’t have many strong interests then like I do now (for a variety of reasons, some being that the choices presented to me were not that enjoyable, a lot of my current interests having more “means to an end” use cases, having a stronger focus on making sure I turned out to be an economically productive adult). So some of it is really just me being a little picky, and other times are just having a large gap between the expected enjoyment and resulting enjoyment. That being said, as an adult, I haven’t been having the best holidays either. I’ll blame it on having school or work pretty much all throughout my undergrad.)
Back to the point I was trying to make. I’ve been thinking and saying this for a while from time to time, but I think that if you don’t really find holidays that great, they should just be unbranded vacations. They could be on the same day if you want a day off or saved up for a separate vacation later on. As a student, I still would want holidays as unbranded vacations on the same days because it’d be nice to get a break from lectures from time to time. It’s probably different for working though; at least with office jobs, some people end up taking extra days off around holidays which might create some variance in productivity if you choose to work on that day, so the flexibility of having the option to take the day off makes more sense.