· 6 min read
Splitmix32: Thirteen Lines of Beautiful Randomness
I went looking for a seeded PRNG in TypeScript and found splitmix32, a 32-bit pseudorandom number generator so elegant it made me want to understand every single bit.
Writing · Tagged
#typescript
1 article
hidden · · 4 min read
The Raffle Changes After Every Winner
Choosing ten distinct winners is not ten independent random choices. Every draw changes the distribution faced by the next one.
hidden · · 4 min read
Softmax Is Not Confidence
A classifier can print 0.93 without being correct 93% of the time. Softmax normalizes logits; calibration is a separate empirical claim.
hidden · · 4 min read
A Fair Sample in 100 Slots, Forever
After 10,000 events, every event has a 1% chance of occupying a 100-slot buffer. After a billion, the buffer is still fair and still holds 100.
hidden · · 4 min read
Small Data Structures That Lie Just Enough
A Bloom filter can rule out missing keys without storing the keys. Its false positives are not a defect; they are the price of the memory saved.
hidden · · 4 min read
The Useful Fiction of Hidden Causes
hidden · · 4 min read
A One-Line Sampler Can Quietly Double the Odds
`Math.floor` and `Math.round` differ by one word. For four choices, one is uniform; the other makes the middle values twice as likely.
hidden · · 4 min read
When Randomness Should Take Sides
Weights of 1, 2, and 7 turn into odds of 10%, 20%, and 70%. Chance remains, but the code finally admits that the options differ.