Patient0

25 ms·

211.
by Patient0 13y ago
The answer is "Yes" to all of these, IMO
212.
by Patient0 13y ago
Not working for me either running Chrome 27.0.1453.110 m
213.
by Patient0 13y ago
Regarding: http://wry.me/hacking/Turing-Drawings/#4,3,0,1,3,1,1,2,0,2,3... looks like there's a bifurcation diagram buried in there somehow: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bifurcation+diagram
214.
by Patient0 13y ago
That's where the nanobot idea would come in - divide and conquer <=> replicate and multiply? Somehow a single DNA strand turns into a 3 kg baby in 9 months... so maybe it's possible to make a tiny machine that makes some bigger tiny
215.
by Patient0 13y ago
You might find this page interesting too - goes into some detail on how it works: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs184/sp12/assignments/Archiv... I'm itching to go try writing one now...
216.
by Patient0 13y ago
Once you can manipulate atoms directly, I wonder why you couldn't create any of the following: - Tiny self-replicating machines which produce other things to atomic precision? i.e. Nanobots... which could in turn create: - "Surfaces" with "
217.
The roundest thing in the world(mungowitzend.blogspot.co.uk)
2 points by Patient0 13y ago|0 comments
218.
by Patient0 13y ago
> There is a massive difference. Other people can make use of funds deposited in accounts. This is why banks take in deposits, to lend it out at a higher rate and pocket the spread." Only because of fractional reserve banking. Absent fr
219.
by Patient0 13y ago
I absolutely love the sound track to this!
220.
by Patient0 13y ago
Another good phrase: "picking up pennies in front of a steamroller" - which is when you do the opposite strategy (lots of little gains, but with the risk of losing it all and more).
221.
by Patient0 14y ago
"Encouraging people to spend money for the sake of it sounds like a good idea when people have created the concept of 'hoarding' - which is just saving with a scary name." But to be clear: there's a fundamental difference between "saving" a
222.
by Patient0 14y ago
Yes the overall tone of the article was clear that it was "this is what you shouldn't do" - but I read it as implying that somehow this rube-goldberg-esque contraption was arrived at by a series of logical and reasonable steps, one of which
223.
by Patient0 14y ago
"Before we used it in production, I performance tested it - HTTP is really slow" Slow compared to what? direct memory access? If you're going to say "HTTP is really slow" I contend you really probably meant "communication over a network is
224.
by Patient0 14y ago
He lost me at: "At some point it occurred to one of us that the reason our HTTP API was slow was of course that HTTP was slow. " Why "of course" is HTTP slow? There's nothing intrinsic to HTTP that I am aware of that would make it "slower"
225.
by Patient0 14y ago
I am also genuinely puzzled how such an article made it to the front page of HN. Who upvoted this?
226.
Penguins' coats are colder than surrounding air(bbc.co.uk)
2 points by Patient0 14y ago|1 comments
227.
by Patient0 14y ago
I've always thought that this would be a better definition of what a "compiler" is vs what an "interpreter" is: A compiler, if asked to "execute" itself a million times will generate code that is still reasonably fast. An interpreter, if as
228.
by Patient0 14y ago
I like the alliteration! Except that I feel a need to wipe my imaginary spittle from my face... ;-)
229.
by Patient0 14y ago
To say that each of the 40 companies will be worth at least 1 billion is indeed unlikely. But all that is required for the investors to be "rational" is for the total value of all 40 companies to exceed 40 billion. So if two companies end u
230.
by Patient0 14y ago
I disagree that there's something wrong with writing your own parser. A simple recursive descent parser is very easy to write, and more importantly is very easy for someone else to understand. It does not require any esoteric knowledge of l
231.
by Patient0 14y ago
I found this article quite informative: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&... edit: changed to non-paywall link (thanks "mef")
232.
by Patient0 14y ago
I've been navigating using OS maps on my iPhone for over a year now using ViewRanger. To "download" an OS map you still have to pay - ViewRanger license the data from the Ordnance Survey. They charge you so that they can pay OS for the maps
233.
by Patient0 14y ago
Such a great article! I always wondered how Hashlife worked but assumed the algorithm was fiendishly complicated - but it isn't. I am inspired to go write a life simulator now!
234.
by Patient0 14y ago
I think the Keynesian contention right now is exactly that anyone who has money at this moment is choosing not to invest it in things that will employ people. That is, despite record low interest rates, most people and corporations who ha
235.
by Patient0 14y ago
I think many floating point functions (e.g. sin, cosine) are implemented using Pade rational approximations - basically, the ratio of two polynomials. ( http://www.dattalo.com/technical/theory/sinewave.html ) This usually gives enough accur
236.
by Patient0 14y ago
"A random walk down Wall Street" by Burton Malkiel is the classic layman's introduction to investing. I would also recommend "Fooled by Randomness" for the introduction of the essential idea that most returns are not "normally distributed"
237.
by Patient0 14y ago
This has all the hallmarks of a "PR" story along the lines of: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
238.
by Patient0 14y ago
I find that very hard to believe... that's way too low.
239.
by Patient0 14y ago
True - but there are also real jobs for this rate and higher. The advertised rate for that posting is lower than my current daily rate.
240.
by Patient0 14y ago
Have you taken a look on Jobserve lately? Contract rates in London of 500gbp per day are easily achievable with your skill set. You have to be good though... Here's an email I received just a couple of days ago from a recruiter: "Are you in

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