alf

8 ms·

1.
by alf 12y ago
Which begs the question... If they don't know enough about rockets to build them, how can they possibly know how to safely repair them?
2.
by alf 12y ago
MediaCrossing, Inc. is hiring a full time Senior Data Engineer/Data Architect. The position is in Stamford, CT, or full-time remote. Several members of the engineering team are working remotely in Boston, MA, others are based in Europ
3.
by alf 14y ago
Are you referring to skiing? Tribes is an interesting example of a "hack" that completely re-invents the game (in most people's opinions, for the better). For those not familiar, a bit of gaming history: Tribes is a FPS where the players ha
4.
by alf 15y ago
I fell into this trap too. I got a stress fracture on my shin from a tendon pulling on that area much more than the bone was used to. It took months to heal. The feet are a complex tangle of muscle, bones, tendons, and nerves. They doesn
5.
by alf 15y ago
It looks like the GoPro and the remnants of the balloon helped it. The extra mass of the GroPro body allowed it to fall flat with the camera and ballon allowing it to spin on it's way down, like a maple seed. Also it looks like it landed o
6.
by alf 15y ago
The page mentions "This is an experimental course that will probably have some bugs and kinks. It may or may not be related to the plenary talk I'm giving at PyCon'2012 (wink ;-)". So there are hopefully going to be slides at some point.
7.
by alf 15y ago
Coincidentally, preparing for my compilers class this semester, I was just wondering if it would be easier to write in Python instead of SML, which the class uses. I was just looking into PLY while googling around. Really cool that Beazley
8.
by alf 15y ago
As a programmer, would I choose to be a member of a community based on open and free information, one where contributions are open to all of humanity, or a community built to feed the bottom line of a large corporation? Especially consider
9.
by alf 15y ago
I couldn't finish reading this either. It was too disturbing. Before anyone jumps to vilify the China or the Chinese for this, remember that these kinds of evils have historically been perpetuated by all people in the past or presently. Th
10.
by alf 15y ago
Direct link to HTML5 version. http://www.baroque.me/ Beautiful.
11.
by alf 15y ago
I like Louis C.K., was made aware of his new video through this posting, and just bought the video, but I don't think this belongs on HN.
12.
by alf 15y ago
I think I first read it here on HN actually :) I think this trick is so great because it's so counter intuitive to a person in the mindset of getting something done. Stopping when you still have momentum seems counter productive, and it is
13.
by alf 15y ago
The Hemingway Trick: Stop in the middle. Never stop working at the natural barriers. They next time you start working, the barrier will be the first thing you encounter, and you won't have the momentum to overcome it. Try to stop writing
14.
by alf 15y ago
I do mostly C and Python in Emacs, but have recently switched to using Emacs in a full screen terminal (iTerm). It works pretty well, and is the only environment I can make consistent across every platform that I use. All I need is an ter
15.
by alf 15y ago
I have a '10 MBA 13. It's really an almost ideal laptop. Pros: -It runs a Unix based OS, but one that I don't have to install and configure myself. -It's thin and light -Battery lasts 7 hours (although recently I've been getting ~5:30, whi
16.
by alf 15y ago
What incentive would hardware venders have to provide open source drivers for a tiny enthusiast operating system? No other OSs have had that requirement. It's hard enough to get working binary drivers. I don't think that all the Linux driv
17.
by alf 15y ago
Really interesting question. I wonder if there are any small countries willing to give it a try. I bet there are more countries without a military than ones without military secrets.
18.
by alf 15y ago
This is really more AMD throwing in the towel vs. Intel. It's really disappointing to see a competitor leave such an important market. I'm much more disappointed to see the X86 market go from 2 to 1, than I am happy to see the ARM market g
19.
by alf 15y ago
Agreed. Societal norms are needed to build the trust required for all large enough groups to function efficiently. This is why there is less crime in mono-cultures: everyone is a member of the same social order. The danger is that agen
20.
by alf 15y ago
Visual proofs are uniquely beautiful. See the 2 & 3 proofs of Pythagorean Theorem: http://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/index.shtml
21.
by alf 15y ago
It hardly matters to these birds. http://animal.discovery.com/birds/ocean-gyre-birds/albatross... The argument that the ocean is so vast that you can dump anything in it without ill effects was proven wrong decades ago. That's why there
22.
by alf 15y ago
What if a million people throw one bottle?
23.
by alf 15y ago
People have been about the same intelligence for a long time. Steve, Dennis, and John were no smarter than their predecessors, they were just applying their intelligence in an area other smart people weren't looking at. Woz was designing
24.
by alf 15y ago
So did I. It's odd that something that can't be found in 10 minutes is now considered "hard to find".
25.
by alf 15y ago
Having used Amazon Cloud Player quite a bit, as well as other similar web services (lala, grooveshark), I can say that Cloud Player is the worst web based music player I've used. Can anyone comment on Google Music, or iCloud?
26.
by alf 15y ago
They that comment is really one sided too, because only keeping a master copy cuts both ways. If you have a high quality rip, using the master copy will "downgrade" the song quality.
27.
by alf 15y ago
Official announcement from Google, written by Larry Page: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-android... He mentions patents specifically as one of the reasons for the acquisition. "Our acquisition of Motorola will incre
28.
by alf 15y ago
>A week later all four groups were given a short-answer test that assessed their ability to recall facts and draw logical conclusions based on the facts. The problem with this study is they measure learning using test. Of course the gr
29.
by alf 15y ago
The problem is that test taking is only minimally useful outside of school, and by choosing tests as the only measurement, you end up optimizing for the wrong skill. (I know because I was a pretty good test taker as a student, but the lazi
30.
by alf 15y ago
I would have never written any code for class if given that option. In the real world, you do get punished if you need to program something, but don't know how to. College CS classes aren't meant to teach you how to get stuff done using so

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