Rod

20 ms·

391.
by Rod 18y ago
I really like your perspective. It's pretty much the same as mine. Pragmatism über-alles , right? ;-) I have no problem with helping others, but I have a problem with being "pressured" to help others who may not be worthy of my time. If I
392.
by Rod 18y ago
"Strange. My family in Germany is very much a part of their community." There are over 500 people in Europe. Only 80 million of those are from Germany. Neither is Germany a good representative of Europe, nor are most Germans exactly role
393.
by Rod 18y ago
Don't friends provide human contact and a social safety net as well?!? Here in the U.S. there seems to be "pressure" for one to interact with neighbors and the surrounding community, and I find that annoying. I think good will and volunteer
394.
by Rod 18y ago
What's so great about helping the "community"? This is an honest question. I am European and I moved to California some months ago. I find it both amusing and mysterious that people here in the U.S. talk about "community" so much. I really
395.
by Rod 18y ago
"In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the
396.
by Rod 18y ago
Your idea is devilishly cool! I am not qualified to assess whether / how it could be implemented, but I wonder if it would be cost-efficient. Smartphones are not that cheap. A criminal organization would need some serious financial incent
397.
by Rod 18y ago
The pop-up maneuver's goal is to minimize exposure to enemy fire. Imagine that you're flying an F-16 over enemy territory and that you want to hit a nuclear power-plant with a couple of JDAM's. Since the target is certainly protected by l
398.
Stepic: Python Steganography in Images(domnit.org)
1 points by Rod 18y ago|0 comments
399.
by Rod 18y ago
I never met anyone who said "I want to be an analyst when I go up". Let's face it: forecasting one quarter ahead is already hard. Predicting where we will be in 3 years is voodoo magic. This article looks like linkbait to me. Just my 0.0
400.
by Rod 18y ago
Thank you for an insightful analysis. It's somewhat interesting that HN'ers believe they are super smart but downvote anything that goes against the mainstream dogma. Finance is complex. Even a smart guy like Philip Greenspun made a fool
401.
by Rod 18y ago
Yup. The LTCM meltdown in 1998 was caused by options, if I remember right. Back then the Wall Street banks bailed out LTCM to avoid a global crisis of nightmare proportions.
402.
by Rod 18y ago
The banks went down because of structured products, not exchange-traded options. Not all derivatives are created equal.
403.
by Rod 18y ago
Yes, your explanation makes sense. That's what I thought. Nonetheless, I was interested in more in-depth technical info... some technical papers / reports on it would be interesting. By the way, have you heard of the pop-up maneuver ?
404.
by Rod 18y ago
You are totally right and I am a fool for having allowed super exaggerated articles like this one to fire that region in my brain dedicated solely to imagining cheesy James Bond-like movie scripts ;-)
405.
by Rod 18y ago
I honestly do hope that paint is mercury-resistant. Otherwise, any terrorist-wannabe with a paintball gun and balls filled with mercury instead of ink would be able to cause a LOT of damage. In the article they mention that it would be da
406.
by Rod 18y ago
Couldn't one assume a priori that not all paints are mercury-resistant? If Aluminium is corroded by mercury, would it be unreasonable to conjecture that some paints are too?
407.
by Rod 18y ago
Wouldn't it be easier to create a modified water-gun (a sort of super soaker on steroids, so to say) and splash airplanes at the airport with mercury from a few hundred yards away? Sounds crazy, I know, but it would be a lot cheaper and m
408.
by Rod 18y ago
The seminal paper in which these findings were published: BRYSON, A.E. and DENHAM, W.F., "A steepest-ascent method for solving optimum programming problems," Trans. ASME. J. Appl. Mechanics, June 1962, pp. 247-257. I can't find a PDF copy
409.
by Rod 18y ago
"we've to be very good in maths in order understand anything about programming and moreover, you are too young" That's nonsense!!! I started programming at age 8. I know people who started at age 4. You DO need to know math if you want to
410.
by Rod 18y ago
I am particularly amazed by the F-22 avionics. More info on this at: http://www.f22fighter.com/avionics.htm An excerpt: "The F-22's avionics and software system is the most advanced ever integrated into an aircraft. It is the first aircr
411.
by Rod 18y ago
That storm-climbing maneuver sounds really cool!!! Do you have more detailed info on that? Other than Wilbur Smith's novel, that is. It reminds me of that classical optimal control problem in the 1960s: the U.S. Air Force wanted to find t
412.
by Rod 18y ago
The one good thing about crises such as the dotcom boom and the current Wall Street meltdown is that they weed out the mercenaries . The coders who stayed in the business after the crash were the ones who did it for the passion, not for
413.
by Rod 18y ago
It's funny that just 2 or 3 years ago, bankers were rock stars . I lost the count of how many friends and acquaintances left Science & Engineering to try a career as investment bankers... and failed miserably. Bankers deserve neither a
414.
by Rod 18y ago
I get the impression that Rushkoff does not know much about Economics, nor Finance. I do agree that Wall Street was making way too much money and that this new gilded age had to end sooner or later. However, I do NOT agree that the collap
415.
by Rod 18y ago
It is possible that some wines will lose a bit of their character, in some years at least. But let us not paint things with such a broad brush: so many different technologies (e.g., biotech, robotics, machine learning, etc) can be used to i
416.
by Rod 18y ago
Calvin Ayre was on Forbes in 2006: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/0327/112.html He seems to be quite fond of regulatory arbitrage. An excerpt: "We run a business that can’t actually be described as gambling in each country we operate
417.
The grapes of math - Science is putting new wine in new bottles(pbs.org)
4 points by Rod 18y ago|2 comments
418.
by Rod 18y ago
I am not an historian, so I don't have any constructive critique to make on this essay. Nonetheless, this inflamatory comparisons seem somewhat exaggerated. The U.S. might be in a bad shape at the moment, but it's far from the catastrophe t
419.
by Rod 18y ago
I didn't get the point you were trying to make when you mentioned that Portugal is a post-empire country. How relevant is that to the future of Brazil? Or South America in general?
420.
by Rod 18y ago
And Brazil is the world's sugar daddy: http://current.com/items/89112645/the_world_s_sugar_daddy.ht... Maybe the time has come for South America. They're rich in natural resources. Let us hope these resources are used for the benefit of t

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