Probability on Brave New Geek

Probabilistic algorithms for fun and pseudorandom profit

Sun, 06 Dec 2015 13:00:19 -0600

Probabilistic algorithms for fun and pseudorandom profit from Tyler Treat

Stream Processing and Probabilistic Methods: Data at Scale

Fri, 13 Feb 2015 10:49:07 -0600

Stream processing and related abstractions have become all the rage following the rise of systems like Apache Kafka, Samza, and the Lambda architecture. Applying the idea of immutable, append-only event sourcing means we’re storing more data than ever before. However, as the cost of storage continues to decline, it’s becoming more feasible to store more data for longer periods of time. With immutability, how the data lives isn’t interesting anymore. It’s all about how it moves.

Probabilistic Primality Testing

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 08:30:40 +0600

An exceedingly common question asked in coding interviews is to write a function, method, algorithm, whatever to determine if a number is prime. Prime numbers have a wide range of applications in computer science, particularly with regard to cryptography. The idea is that factoring large numbers into their prime factors is extremely difficult.

“Because both the system’s privacy and the security of digital money depend on encryption, a breakthrough in mathematics or computer science that defeats the cryptographic system could be a disaster. The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be the development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers.” -Bill Gates, The Road Ahead