Evan Miller’s News

Attention Is Off By One

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 12:05:00 -0400

Transformer has a mathematical bug that has been overlooked for 6+ years. I propose fixing its outliers with two new devices, Softmax One and QuietAttention: Attention Is Off By One

Formulas for Bootstrapping Sample Medians

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 10:05:00 -0400

A paper from Spotify on quantile estimation has been making the rounds. I take a stab at their critical conjecture, and uncover a few Formulas for Bootstrapping Sample Medians.

You Can’t Spell CUPED Without Frisch-Waugh-Lovell

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 20:35:00 -0400

A/B tests run faster with CUPED. Here I explain the underlying math, and use it to invent an even better variance-reduction technique for online experiments: You Can’t Spell CUPED Without Frisch-Waugh-Lovell

The Floppy Disk of Floating Point

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 09:35:00 -0400

An essay that bids farewell to x87, a computing architecture too long for this world: The Floppy Disk of Floating Point

Updated: Formulas for Bayesian A/B Testing

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 07:15:00 -0400

I’ve updated Formulas for Bayesian A/B Testing to include a new equation for analyzing four-pronged (A/B/C/D) tests.

SlowerLogLog

Sun, 06 Feb 2020 13:00:00 -0500

What rolls down stairs and counts unique items imprecisely? HyperLogLog. Also SlowerLogLog

Preface to A Lost Lady

Sun, 24 Mar 2019 14:55:00 -0400

A Lost Lady, a Willa Cather novel which entered the public domain this year, is a gentle study in decline on the former frontier. Read my Preface to A Lost Lady

Preface to Brave New World

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 13:55:00 -0400

Brave New World reacquainted political philosophy with the prurient, after a two thousand year hiatus. Read my Preface to Brave New World

Preface to The Time Machine

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 15:55:00 -0400

The Time Machine is my favorite science fiction novella. What makes it special? Read my Preface to The Time Machine

Preface to Frankenstein

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:55:00 -0400

Frankenstein turned two hundred last year. Why is it still relevant? My very own Preface to Frankenstein

The Amex EveryDay Bonus: A Stochastic Valuation Model

Mon, 21 Jan 2019 15:00:00 -0500

How much is the EveryDay Bonus from American Express worth? A probabilistic investigation: The Amex EveryDay Bonus: A Stochastic Valuation Model

Things That Bother Me About Swift

Sat, 29 Dec 2018 13:50:00 -0500

I’m learning Swift. Some minor grievances I have with the language: Things That Bother Me About Swift

Things That Bother Me About macOS

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 20:36:00 -0500

In honor of the upcoming Festivus, I am sharing some Mac-related grievances: Things That Bother Me About macOS

A Review of Perl 6

Sun, 13 Aug 2017 14:05:00 -0400

I spent a few weeks with Perl 6. Here’s what I think: A Review of Perl 6

Why I’m Learning Perl 6

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 10:50:00 -0400

The Perl 6 virtual machine is a promising piece of technology: Why I’m Learning Perl 6

Adventure Games and Eigenvalues

Sun, 23 Apr 2017 13:10:00 +0300

Identifying and quantifying dead ends, the bane of all adventure game players: Adventure Games and Eigenvalues

Big Tablets Are Coming

Sun, 04 Dec 2016 22:10:00 -0800

Reflections on the Microsoft Surface Studio and Apple’s inevitable giant iPad: Big Tablets Are Coming

Type Punning Functions in C

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:20:00 +0100

Making C more flexible, with the help of x86_64 calling conventions: Type Punning Functions in C

Elixir RAM and the Template of Doom

Tue, 26 Apr 2016 09:20:00 -0500

A systems-y look at HTML template rendering: Elixir RAM and the Template of Doom

Splatoon’s Ranking System Is Still Broken

Tue, 16 Feb 2016 13:25:00 -0500

Nintendo keeps trying to fix Splatoon’s ranking system. They won’t succeed without a solid understanding of linear algebra. Read more: Splatoon’s Ranking System Is Still Broken

Simple Sequential A/B Testing

Tue, 13 Oct 2015 08:15:00 -0400

Cut your A/B sample sizes in half, using this one weird trick: Simple Sequential A/B Testing

Updated: Formulas for Bayesian A/B Testing

Sat, 03 Oct 2015 07:50:00 -0500

I’ve added several new formulas to “A Formula for A/B Testing” (now known as Formulas for Bayesian A/B Testing). In addition to including the count data formula on the page, I have extended both formulas to work with three-pronged tests, that is, A/B/C tests.

Evaluating Splatoon’s Ranking System

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 19:30:00 -0500

Evaluating Splatoon’s Ranking System — Using probability theory to uncover a subtle bug in Splatoon.

Inferring Tweet Quality From Retweets

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 22:15:00 -0500

Inferring Tweet Quality From Retweets — Modeling tweets, retweets, and the passage of time.

Ranking News Items With Upvotes

Thu, 14 Jul 2015 14:15:00 -0500

Ranking News Items With Upvotes — A formula for social news websites.

Deriving the Reddit Formula

Thu, 14 Jul 2015 10:15:00 -0500

Deriving the Reddit Formula — What can expected-utility theory tell us about Reddit’s “hot” formula?

A Taste of Rust

Thu, 14 May 2015 12:25:00 -0500

A Taste of Rust — I tried Rust, and it was better than eating a bucket of nails.

Four Days of Go

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 17:55:00 -0500

Four Days of Go — If you see the Go gopher, tell him I would like my pajamas back.