hfinney

6 ms·

1.
by hfinney 15y ago
What % of the sky is visible from a point on a sphere. 50%, duh.
2.
Bitcoin app rejected by Apple(bitcoin.org)
206 points by hfinney 15y ago|94 comments
3.
by hfinney 16y ago
The problem with functionalism is the difficulty of unambiguously determining whether a given system implements a given calculation. This is inconsistent with the need to say that a given system definitely either is or is not conscious.
4.
by hfinney 16y ago
It's hardly fair to compare Bitcoin to credit cards in terms of "instant gratification", unless you turn back the clock to when you said, Oh, there are such things as credit cards? Cool, how do I get one? I'm confident that the difficulty o
5.
by hfinney 16y ago
I'm not sure where the headline came from, but the income figures in the report are adjusted for family size (and inflation). Since families are getting smaller, this causes an increase in their income measure. The actual median increase wa
6.
by hfinney 16y ago
The text is totally invisible on my iPad.
7.
by hfinney 16y ago
Part of the problem is that the journals are part of a complicated infrastructure for judging academic quality. The best authors compete to get published in the best journals. The best journals are based on years or decades of reputation an
8.
by hfinney 16y ago
The conventional wisdom is usually right. That's how it got to be the conventional wisdom.
9.
by hfinney 16y ago
Here is possibly a better link: http://biovisions.mcb.harvard.edu/anim_mitochondria.html This is a sequel to the Inner Life of a Cell animation that came out a few years ago. It shows what happens inside the mitochondria, which supply pow
10.
Powering the Cell, Mitochondria - stunning new animation(biovisions.mcb.harvard.edu)
9 points by hfinney 16y ago|3 comments
11.
by hfinney 16y ago
I suspect you may have received the old "mild" patdown and not the new "enhanced" one. I think the new one uses the front of the hand. The guy in San Diego who refused the patdown a couple days ago now has the TSA claiming he was only going
12.
by hfinney 16y ago
Right, although the NY Times on Saturday claimed the jury is still out on cell phones: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/business/14digi.html OTOH apparently there is evidence that cell phones actually prevent cancer, so go figure.
13.
by hfinney 16y ago
Wow, 1 in 45 billion? Yet today TSA announced an investigation into this case, the first step towards a fine. Sounds pretty likely that they'll go through with it. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1911670 If it happens, you will be one
14.
by hfinney 16y ago
How can he be charged with leaving the security area "without permission", when TSA had him escorted out of the security area?
15.
by hfinney 16y ago
Don't forget cell phones, they cause cancer too.
16.
Napolitano: Scanners are safe, pat-downs discreet(usatoday.com)
6 points by hfinney 16y ago|0 comments
17.
by hfinney 16y ago
It's a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court, a step below the Supreme Court. The appellate courts have regional jurisdiction. As it happens, San Diego, where this incident occurred, is in the 9th Circuit, so this ruling would be the law unless o
18.
by hfinney 16y ago
What do you think are the odds that he'll actually get into legal trouble over this? Calibrate your model of reality!
19.
by hfinney 16y ago
Checked luggage will not fly on the plane without the passenger. Especially if he refused screening! They might want to search it some more but it will stay at the airport where you are.
20.
by hfinney 16y ago
California is a "two party" state for audio/video recordings. He could get in trouble for posting these recordings made without the consent of all parties. And the records would not be admissible in court if he did get sued.
21.
by hfinney 16y ago
"It's inconsistent for the Americans to accuse the Chinese of manipulating exchange rates and then to artificially depress the dollar exchange rate by printing money." Not really. China has a large and growing trade surplus, due in part to
22.
by hfinney 16y ago
For your first example, you could ask whether there was any corroboration of the story, and whether the scanners were even capable of printing out nude images to be autographed, as he claimed. For your second example, was that situation, a
23.
by hfinney 16y ago
I'm worried that we're only hearing one side of the story on these scanners. If you listen to the net you learn that they are a total waste of time and money, security theater, they are harmful to our health, the images will be stored and l
24.
by hfinney 16y ago
There are two kinds of scanners. One uses low energy X-rays, the other uses microwaves. If you got the microwave kind, that would not add to your X-ray dose. I understand pat-downs within the U.S. are by same-sex agents. This wouldn't be th
25.
by hfinney 16y ago
I've been programming 40 years, so there. Here are some he missed: - Keep at least two rubber bands around your punched card deck. It doesn't take too many times trying to put your cards back in order after they fall on the floor to learn t
26.
by hfinney 16y ago
Let's step back for a moment and think about what our goal should be in medicine. Suppose we could extend everyone's healthy life by 10 years. How much have we gained? Say there are 7 billion people. Have we added 70 billion man-years of he
27.
by hfinney 16y ago
Apparently graphics-card bitcoin generators are much faster than CPU based ones so that is where the bulk of the blocks are being created.
28.
by hfinney 16y ago
I'd like to see an iOS app to do this check.
29.
by hfinney 16y ago
You should ask the copyright owners.
30.
by hfinney 16y ago
Bitcoin is really two ideas: an unforgeable digital datum based on "proof of work" or "hash collision" ideas; and a global, decentralized, distributed database to keep track of which data tokens have been "spent". The tokens don't yet have

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