michaelf

6 ms·

1.
by michaelf 9y ago
Seriously, I think "Always Sunny" explains it best (i.e., because of "the implication") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yUafzOXHPE
2.
by michaelf 11y ago
Similarly, The Paris Review was founded by CIA agent (and novelist and National Book Award winner) Peter Matthiessen[1] as a form of "cultural propaganda"[2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Matthiess
3.
by michaelf 12y ago
Can anyone hazard a guess as to how Linus was able to measure the cost of a page fault and an iret so precisely? What tools and techniques might he have used?
4.
by michaelf 13y ago
The author references the work of Barbara Frederickson, a psychologist who had a very popular theory on "Positivity Ratios", a theory that was in part justified by misuse of differential equations from fluid dynamics, and was thor
5.
Going Solo(vimeo.com)
2 points by michaelf 14y ago|0 comments
6.
by michaelf 14y ago
Ditto. It seems very weird to put the word "experiences" in quotes. It makes it seem as if the writer is using it sarcastically, or is in some way disclaiming what they are writing. What in the world justifies the quotes, and why wouldn't
7.
by michaelf 14y ago
Crystals are actually a major portion of the study of solid-state physics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_physics#Crystal_str...
8.
by michaelf 14y ago
Is it also the case that all transcendental numbers have approximations of unbounded quality? Or only that Liouville numbers have approximations of unbounded quality, and therefore cannot be algebraic?
9.
by michaelf 14y ago
FYI, I was about to join up, but I declined because it wanted my contacts. For the most part, contracts are signed by relatively new contacts (people not yet in my address book). E.g. new customers, partners, contractors, or employees. I
10.
by michaelf 14y ago
I can't agree more. When I was a freshman, I was required to do a work study as part of the deal for my loans. I didn't want to do it -- my course load seemed hard enough -- but I found a job as an "undergraduate research programmer" at a
11.
by michaelf 14y ago
I'd think that a huge benefit "gamification" is that it allows students to learn at their own pace and without much teacher guidance. Kids figure out how to play Portal and Civilization, for instance, without a teacher hovering over them t
12.
by michaelf 15y ago
Is this the first step in YC pivoting away being a "seed investor", where the goal is to pick winners? Does PG see the future of YC as being an alternative to post-graduate education where the goal is instead to develop winners and have a
13.
by michaelf 15y ago
I agree. If you exploit a site and then say "will you pay me for security audit?", then that's extortion.
14.
by michaelf 15y ago
That story was posted on April 1st in 2009, and isn't hosted on BBC's website. There isn't even a first name given for the researcher (only "Radio astronomer Dr. Venn"). Looks sketchy to me. I can't find any other information about it, so I
15.
by michaelf 15y ago
One of the most thought provoking books I've ever read is "A Terrible Love of War" by James Hillman. This books explores the topic of the linked article from a Jungian point of view (motifs, archetypes, metaphors, mythology, etc...) which
16.
by michaelf 15y ago
I know there are lots of anti-patent folks on HN, but if anything deserves patent protection, digital fountains certainly do. This is useful, novel, and certainly non-obvious stuff. And really quite beautiful, IMHO. Its always bothered me
17.
by michaelf 15y ago
This video made me curious about what a magnet factory would look like and I found a really great video that goes step by step through the process at a neodymium magnet manufacturer in Shanghai: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHuWloNGo6c
18.
by michaelf 15y ago
> Particularly if those financial services are extractive in nature? Could you elaborate on that sentence? What do you mean by "extractive"? In the context of natural resources, I take that word to imply that the resource is depleted
19.
by michaelf 15y ago
With regard to your suggestion that Apple is the offensive party in patent disputes, it's important to remember that the roles of offense and defense are reversed when you enter a court. This is because of the presumption of innocence. W
20.
by michaelf 15y ago
“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creati
21.
by michaelf 15y ago
If you google several of the names from the article, you'll find that many of those engineers are still working on NeXT R&D, although under different product names (OS X and iOS). I wonder if any of them ever imagined that average jane
22.
by michaelf 15y ago
> NO, ideas by themselves are meaningless. Take it from a guy who loves coming up with new ideas but isn't so good at the execution part Maybe off topic, but this reminded me of a certain statement about poetry, by the poet WH Auden:
23.
by michaelf 15y ago
Most likely, DigitalOne doesn't have support staff sleeping in hammocks at the colo. If you were an admin, logged in remotely (from switzerland, say, where DigitalOne is headquartered), and you saw a few racks of equipment go offline, woul
24.
by michaelf 15y ago
Looks like I need to update my bookshelf. Thanks for the recommendation.
25.
by michaelf 15y ago
A great place to start is "Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneier. http://www.schneier.com/book-applied.html Edit: Note, this really barely scratches the surface for building secure software. AC says how to apply cryptographic primitive
26.
by michaelf 15y ago
This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my browser.
27.
by michaelf 15y ago
Apologies for unfairly characterizing your statement. And I do agree that self-criticism in the black community is very typically met with hostility, and that "negative stereotypes" are perhaps too frequently glorified. Regarding Cosby's r
28.
by michaelf 15y ago
Are you really suggesting that similar pieces haven't been written by African Americans? To my mind, the first several paragraphs were practically an homage to Ralph Ellison's "The Invisible Man." And Yang mentions Baldwin by name. It seem
29.
by michaelf 15y ago
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824058,00.h... I was surprised to find this old article from Time magazine back in 1956. It concerns the solution to Post's Problem, which the article describes quite succinctly as: | The
30.
by michaelf 15y ago
> ... this fact is neither very new nor very important to average Russian. Probably not even in top 10. There just are more urgent matters. Out of curiosity, what are some of the top issues (of governance) that are important to the aver

More ›