I'm guessing not everyone on HN is a huge fan of “Strictly Ballroom”, as the title is a key quote for dance movie otaku. It was also a weak joke about testing for random numbers; I'm imagining a little subroutine in a constant state of surprise when it encounters the next random number.
While I'm not sure if I implemented it correctly, RANDU isn't some ‘lousy homegrown software RNG’. It was the standard RNG for IBM mainframes in the late 1960s.
There's real insight whenever movies talk about people.
Best example in a field I'm familiar with - "Strictly Ballroom". Sure, everybody was over the top, but anybody who was ever involved in competitive ballroom dancing will recognize all the archetypes and be able to relate to the various things said about dancers.
For some reason, it's easier to swallow that characters are exaggerated, instead of facts. (This being HN, I fully expect a reply within the next 15 minutes explaining the exact psychological effect, complete with links to relevant papers ;)
Hacker Cinema
2 comments on Hacker News
I wrote the article.
I'm guessing not everyone on HN is a huge fan of “Strictly Ballroom”, as the title is a key quote for dance movie otaku. It was also a weak joke about testing for random numbers; I'm imagining a little subroutine in a constant state of surprise when it encounters the next random number.
While I'm not sure if I implemented it correctly, RANDU isn't some ‘lousy homegrown software RNG’. It was the standard RNG for IBM mainframes in the late 1960s.
There's real insight whenever movies talk about people.
Best example in a field I'm familiar with - "Strictly Ballroom". Sure, everybody was over the top, but anybody who was ever involved in competitive ballroom dancing will recognize all the archetypes and be able to relate to the various things said about dancers.
For some reason, it's easier to swallow that characters are exaggerated, instead of facts. (This being HN, I fully expect a reply within the next 15 minutes explaining the exact psychological effect, complete with links to relevant papers ;)