5 ms·

Thinking a little more, if the time-stamp changes did bubble up, then just start making changes at the leaves of the tree; at each leaf, work back to the root o

Thinking a little more, if the time-stamp changes did bubble up, then just start making changes at the leaves of the tree; at each leaf, work back to the root on the unique path to the root; and at each directory make a change in the time-stamp of that directory if and only if the new time-date stamp would be more recent than the old one; and, if don't make a change at that directory, then are DONE on that path. Revision, to make this work, first set all the directory time-date stamps to, say, year 1776. This solves the problem that the directories closer to the root may be on the path of several leaves and get changed several times. To identify the leaves, that is, directories with no subdirectories, get the directory tree names and just sort them into ascending order. Then a leaf directory and all the directories on the path from that leaf back to the root will sort together with the leaf directory the last one of those that sort together. That is, a directory is a leaf if and only if it is not on the path to the root (not an initial substring, using whole directory names) of the next directory in the sort. In particular, the last directory in the sort is necessarily a leaf. Ah, an algorithm! I don't want now to further characterize or change the wording on what the startup is doing. My best word is the one I used, "meaning".

anonytrary 8y ago
How exactly will you know a user's "meaning" when they are asking for content? Do you intend to read their minds, somehow? Or perhaps you might hook them up to a heart rate monitor, track their eye movements and use ML to obtain user sentiment without requiring them to provide click-based feedback (like likes/dislikes).
- graycat 8y ago
  That doing well with meaning is a bit amazing as it is. Saying "exactly" how is a bit much for a blog post. Besides the key is some deep pure and applied math with no way to explain those. Even if I gave an explanation, say, from my math derivations typed into D. Knuth's TeX math word whacking, nearly no one in the Sand Hill Road culture has the math prerequisites to understand it. Only a small fraction of those could do the original work I did. Even if they did do that work, no one on Sand Hill Road would have any interest at all. I wasted MONTHS jerking the chains of the firms on Sand Hill Road, and all I got were laughs or silence. I explained as here the opportunity for the other 2/3rds of search but no one cared. I never got even to first base with Ycombinator. One lesson is that Sand Hill Road just will not, Not, NOT do technical due diligence on original technology. Right: They want a big market. My work stands to be of high interest to nearly everyone in the world with any access to the Internet, smartphone to high end work station. My Web pages will look just fine on nearly any smartphone. Big enough market? World class research university pure/applied math Ph.D.? No interest. Long background in much of the best in computing at IBM's Watson lab? No interest. Running code ready for production? No interest. Another lesson is that Sand Hill Road will be interested when I have a few servers busy, revenue significant and growing rapidly. Then they will offer me a term sheet where I go from owning 100% to owning 0% with a vesting schedule with some chance of getting back to maiybe 40% ownership if I don't get fired except it is in the fiduciary interest and responsibility of the board member investor to FIRE me so that I don't get my stock vested. The US DoD, NSF, NIH, NASA, DoE, etc. WILL do careful evaluations of technical material; Sand Hill Road just will NOT do that. I also have to ask if I want to report to a BoD with people who have shown with their feet locked deep in reinforced concrete and their eyes and ears totally shut: They can't play a productive role in my work now, and I can't believe they would be able to play a productive role later as the technology improves. One of the least pleasant ways to spend an hour is to listen to a math lecture when don't understand anything said. I can see clearly: I give a presentation to the BoD about a small, new direction or initiative for the business, based on some applied math, complete with theorems and proofs, one of the best sources of credibility, and several of the BoD members get physically ill and rush to the restrooms. Then the BoD leaves, convenes in a local bar, has a dozen rounds of drinks, and votes me out of the CEO slot. Those Sand Hill Road people just don't belong on the bridge of my ship; they are NOT qualified; they are a severe threat to the ship. From some Mary Meeker (KPCB firm) data and some of my software timings, if I can get traffic enough to half fill my first server, then I'll have ballpark $250,000 a month in revenue with essentially all of that pre-tax earnings. At that time, no way will I accept a term sheet; not a chance. Instead I'll expand into three spare bedrooms, put in some good window A/C, get more electric power, install UPS boxes, get a backup generator in a hut out back, and grow to a few $million a month. Then I'll lease or buy some space enough to grow significantly more, hire, and plan for a major organization and server farm. Ah, it's just 2/3rds of search for nearly everyone in the world. And no way will Sand Hill Road fund anyone to compete with me. I've funded all of this from my own checkbook and am 100% owner. Some external funding would have helped, but now it's too late for that and for Sand Hill Road and Ycombinator. It's really a math project; given the math, the rest is nearly all just a lot of routine typing although I did cook up a few maybe new computer science style algorithms, programmed them, and am using them in the code. When I have alpha and beta tests, you will be able to see more although it will look like magic. I can't keep people from calling it AI/ML, but I call it applied math.
  - anonytrary 8y ago
    That's not an elevator pitch, you just used my question as an opportunity to fume about toxic Silicon Valley culture. I can't deny, you gave me a few good laughs: > Then they will offer me a term sheet where I go from owning 100% to owning 0% with a vesting schedule with some chance of getting back to maiybe 40% ownership if I don't get fired except it is in the fiduciary interest and responsibility of the board member investor to FIRE me so that I don't get my stock vested. > I give a presentation to the BoD about a small, new direction or initiative for the business, based on some applied math, complete with theorems and proofs, one of the best sources of credibility, and several of the BoD members get physically ill and rush to the restrooms. Then the BoD leaves, convenes in a local bar, has a dozen rounds of drinks, and votes me out of the CEO slot. > Those Sand Hill Road people just don't belong on the bridge of my ship; they are NOT qualified; they are a severe threat to the ship. I honestly can't tell if you're trolling or not. Are you yanking my chain?
    - graycat 8y ago
      Not jerking your chain or trolling at all. I know; it's possible to set up a corporation so that I have investors but control all the voting stock so that, then, really, the BoD can't fire me. But doing that would be a constant fight; I would be inviting into my company some potential enemies and would spend a huge fraction of my time, money, and energy fighting them. They would be there for themselves and trying to take from me. Easy solution: Don't invite them into the company. They don't want me now, and when they do I won't want them. I'm going to stay a sole, solo founder. Some people in business have been successful doing that. I know some, and one of them, whom I don't know, is sitting in the White House now. Indeed, from the time I spent in yacht clubs, nearly all the members did that -- sole, solo founders, a family company, private company, no VC/PE or other outside investors, no public corporation. My point about how much people hate math lectures with theorems and proofs is exactly correct. Then the scenario of the BoD rushing to the toilets and convening in a bar, getting drunk, and firing me is only a slight exaggeration for what would likely happen. E.g., I'd be like that guy in Scion Capital in the book and movie The Big Short and Billy Beane in the book and movie Money Ball. They were both right and for the right reasons, but they nearly got shot down by skeptics. Indeed, the skeptics or their skepticism was the cause of much of the opportunities. My views of Sand Hill Road versus DoD, NSF, NIH, NASA, DoE is literally, rock solidly true. DoD, etc. will invest in some applied math and mathematical physics, e.g., the US Navy's version of GPS (I worked in that group for a while), and Sand Hill Road just will not; they won't even consider original, powerful, valuable, advanced applied math. I have hundreds of e-mail messages proving that. You seem to have wanted an "elevator pitch". Okay: As has been clear going way back in information retrieval, key words do well in only about 1/3rd of the content on the Internet, searches people want to do, and results they want to find. I'm going for the other 2/3rds. Sufficient for this, I've derived some original applied math based on some advanced, pure math prerequisites, written the production quality code, and am rushing to go live. The math makes powerful progress on the challenging problem of the meaning of the content. The work stands to be of intense interest to nearly everyone in the world with access to the Internet via any device from a smartphone up to a high end workstation. First I will target users in the US and then Europe and then target the rest of the world as there are revenue opportunities. That's just what I've done and am doing. Nothing could be more simple or true. The main issue is the math, but the set of people in a position to understand the math and with confidence to see its power is really tiny. Even among the best trained Ph.D. mathematicians, the prerequisites are not well known. From my Ph.D. work, but NOT from my time at IBM's Watson lab, I know some people with the prerequisites. When I did original work building on those prerequisites, those people liked my work right away. When I went to publish, my work was published right away. Now should I explain my original work, those people would think for a few days and then say something like "Nice. Right, that should work.". I was confident in my research then, and I'm equally confident now. Much of the confidence comes from theorems and proofs -- I've always liked those because they have saved my skin many times since no math teacher or prof has ever been able to find anything wrong with my correct proofs, and after I had started to learn the material, my proofs were correct. Maybe the teachers/profs hated me; it was clear that some of them did; maybe they wanted to laugh at me, and too often did, like you do and like the people in those two movies did; but they can't find anything wrong with my proofs. If I were not confident, then I wouldn't be doing this. I got into math and science partly because in high school the teachers had to give me A's in math and science. In English and history, the best I could do was get social promotion. In college I saw that math and science looked far and away like the best subjects for a good career. Early in my career, in applied math and computing on national security problems near DC, I saw more value in math and did a lot of independent study of both pure and applied math. Then I got a Ph.D. in applied math with a lot in pure math -- some of my publications can be regarded as both pure and applied. For competition, just for the prerequisites, people would have to study and learn brilliant work in math going back 200+ years or reinvent that material. The studying is too hard for all but a tiny fraction of the population and reinventing is much harder, essentially impossible. The people Sand Hill Road likes to back haven't studied the material, won't, and certainly won't reinvent it. Then they'd be faced with my original work. Nope: I don't expect competition. That's just the way the project is. Seems entirely reasonable to me. But you want to laugh at it. Hmm ....

anonytrary 8y ago

How exactly will you know a user's "meaning" when they are asking for content? Do you intend to read their minds, somehow? Or perhaps you might hook them up to a heart rate monitor, track their eye movements and use ML to obtain user sentiment without requiring them to provide click-based feedback (like likes/dislikes).

graycat 8y ago
That doing well with meaning is a bit amazing as it is. Saying "exactly" how is a bit much for a blog post. Besides the key is some deep pure and applied math with no way to explain those. Even if I gave an explanation, say, from my math derivations typed into D. Knuth's TeX math word whacking, nearly no one in the Sand Hill Road culture has the math prerequisites to understand it. Only a small fraction of those could do the original work I did. Even if they did do that work, no one on Sand Hill Road would have any interest at all. I wasted MONTHS jerking the chains of the firms on Sand Hill Road, and all I got were laughs or silence. I explained as here the opportunity for the other 2/3rds of search but no one cared. I never got even to first base with Ycombinator. One lesson is that Sand Hill Road just will not, Not, NOT do technical due diligence on original technology. Right: They want a big market. My work stands to be of high interest to nearly everyone in the world with any access to the Internet, smartphone to high end work station. My Web pages will look just fine on nearly any smartphone. Big enough market? World class research university pure/applied math Ph.D.? No interest. Long background in much of the best in computing at IBM's Watson lab? No interest. Running code ready for production? No interest. Another lesson is that Sand Hill Road will be interested when I have a few servers busy, revenue significant and growing rapidly. Then they will offer me a term sheet where I go from owning 100% to owning 0% with a vesting schedule with some chance of getting back to maiybe 40% ownership if I don't get fired except it is in the fiduciary interest and responsibility of the board member investor to FIRE me so that I don't get my stock vested. The US DoD, NSF, NIH, NASA, DoE, etc. WILL do careful evaluations of technical material; Sand Hill Road just will NOT do that. I also have to ask if I want to report to a BoD with people who have shown with their feet locked deep in reinforced concrete and their eyes and ears totally shut: They can't play a productive role in my work now, and I can't believe they would be able to play a productive role later as the technology improves. One of the least pleasant ways to spend an hour is to listen to a math lecture when don't understand anything said. I can see clearly: I give a presentation to the BoD about a small, new direction or initiative for the business, based on some applied math, complete with theorems and proofs, one of the best sources of credibility, and several of the BoD members get physically ill and rush to the restrooms. Then the BoD leaves, convenes in a local bar, has a dozen rounds of drinks, and votes me out of the CEO slot. Those Sand Hill Road people just don't belong on the bridge of my ship; they are NOT qualified; they are a severe threat to the ship. From some Mary Meeker (KPCB firm) data and some of my software timings, if I can get traffic enough to half fill my first server, then I'll have ballpark $250,000 a month in revenue with essentially all of that pre-tax earnings. At that time, no way will I accept a term sheet; not a chance. Instead I'll expand into three spare bedrooms, put in some good window A/C, get more electric power, install UPS boxes, get a backup generator in a hut out back, and grow to a few $million a month. Then I'll lease or buy some space enough to grow significantly more, hire, and plan for a major organization and server farm. Ah, it's just 2/3rds of search for nearly everyone in the world. And no way will Sand Hill Road fund anyone to compete with me. I've funded all of this from my own checkbook and am 100% owner. Some external funding would have helped, but now it's too late for that and for Sand Hill Road and Ycombinator. It's really a math project; given the math, the rest is nearly all just a lot of routine typing although I did cook up a few maybe new computer science style algorithms, programmed them, and am using them in the code. When I have alpha and beta tests, you will be able to see more although it will look like magic. I can't keep people from calling it AI/ML, but I call it applied math.
- anonytrary 8y ago
  That's not an elevator pitch, you just used my question as an opportunity to fume about toxic Silicon Valley culture. I can't deny, you gave me a few good laughs: > Then they will offer me a term sheet where I go from owning 100% to owning 0% with a vesting schedule with some chance of getting back to maiybe 40% ownership if I don't get fired except it is in the fiduciary interest and responsibility of the board member investor to FIRE me so that I don't get my stock vested. > I give a presentation to the BoD about a small, new direction or initiative for the business, based on some applied math, complete with theorems and proofs, one of the best sources of credibility, and several of the BoD members get physically ill and rush to the restrooms. Then the BoD leaves, convenes in a local bar, has a dozen rounds of drinks, and votes me out of the CEO slot. > Those Sand Hill Road people just don't belong on the bridge of my ship; they are NOT qualified; they are a severe threat to the ship. I honestly can't tell if you're trolling or not. Are you yanking my chain?
  - graycat 8y ago
    Not jerking your chain or trolling at all. I know; it's possible to set up a corporation so that I have investors but control all the voting stock so that, then, really, the BoD can't fire me. But doing that would be a constant fight; I would be inviting into my company some potential enemies and would spend a huge fraction of my time, money, and energy fighting them. They would be there for themselves and trying to take from me. Easy solution: Don't invite them into the company. They don't want me now, and when they do I won't want them. I'm going to stay a sole, solo founder. Some people in business have been successful doing that. I know some, and one of them, whom I don't know, is sitting in the White House now. Indeed, from the time I spent in yacht clubs, nearly all the members did that -- sole, solo founders, a family company, private company, no VC/PE or other outside investors, no public corporation. My point about how much people hate math lectures with theorems and proofs is exactly correct. Then the scenario of the BoD rushing to the toilets and convening in a bar, getting drunk, and firing me is only a slight exaggeration for what would likely happen. E.g., I'd be like that guy in Scion Capital in the book and movie The Big Short and Billy Beane in the book and movie Money Ball. They were both right and for the right reasons, but they nearly got shot down by skeptics. Indeed, the skeptics or their skepticism was the cause of much of the opportunities. My views of Sand Hill Road versus DoD, NSF, NIH, NASA, DoE is literally, rock solidly true. DoD, etc. will invest in some applied math and mathematical physics, e.g., the US Navy's version of GPS (I worked in that group for a while), and Sand Hill Road just will not; they won't even consider original, powerful, valuable, advanced applied math. I have hundreds of e-mail messages proving that. You seem to have wanted an "elevator pitch". Okay: As has been clear going way back in information retrieval, key words do well in only about 1/3rd of the content on the Internet, searches people want to do, and results they want to find. I'm going for the other 2/3rds. Sufficient for this, I've derived some original applied math based on some advanced, pure math prerequisites, written the production quality code, and am rushing to go live. The math makes powerful progress on the challenging problem of the meaning of the content. The work stands to be of intense interest to nearly everyone in the world with access to the Internet via any device from a smartphone up to a high end workstation. First I will target users in the US and then Europe and then target the rest of the world as there are revenue opportunities. That's just what I've done and am doing. Nothing could be more simple or true. The main issue is the math, but the set of people in a position to understand the math and with confidence to see its power is really tiny. Even among the best trained Ph.D. mathematicians, the prerequisites are not well known. From my Ph.D. work, but NOT from my time at IBM's Watson lab, I know some people with the prerequisites. When I did original work building on those prerequisites, those people liked my work right away. When I went to publish, my work was published right away. Now should I explain my original work, those people would think for a few days and then say something like "Nice. Right, that should work.". I was confident in my research then, and I'm equally confident now. Much of the confidence comes from theorems and proofs -- I've always liked those because they have saved my skin many times since no math teacher or prof has ever been able to find anything wrong with my correct proofs, and after I had started to learn the material, my proofs were correct. Maybe the teachers/profs hated me; it was clear that some of them did; maybe they wanted to laugh at me, and too often did, like you do and like the people in those two movies did; but they can't find anything wrong with my proofs. If I were not confident, then I wouldn't be doing this. I got into math and science partly because in high school the teachers had to give me A's in math and science. In English and history, the best I could do was get social promotion. In college I saw that math and science looked far and away like the best subjects for a good career. Early in my career, in applied math and computing on national security problems near DC, I saw more value in math and did a lot of independent study of both pure and applied math. Then I got a Ph.D. in applied math with a lot in pure math -- some of my publications can be regarded as both pure and applied. For competition, just for the prerequisites, people would have to study and learn brilliant work in math going back 200+ years or reinvent that material. The studying is too hard for all but a tiny fraction of the population and reinventing is much harder, essentially impossible. The people Sand Hill Road likes to back haven't studied the material, won't, and certainly won't reinvent it. Then they'd be faced with my original work. Nope: I don't expect competition. That's just the way the project is. Seems entirely reasonable to me. But you want to laugh at it. Hmm ....