alankay1

31 ms·

331.
by alankay1 10y ago
Screens used to have a "quarter wave plate" that would knock down a lot of the reflections -- I'm not sure why the glossy screens came back (more light out? cheaper?). I have an older MacAir that does not have a highly reflec
332.
by alankay1 10y ago
I don't identify the general notion of "functional programming" with any particular language, including Haskell. I stay with the "idea of a function" as a reliable mapping. Similarly, I don't identify the gener
333.
by alankay1 10y ago
Thanks for the additional references (Yes, I should have mentioned Amir's work also). A good basic point is that the central ideas of "reasoning with time" go back into the early 60s and -- unfortunately -- did not get into t
334.
by alankay1 10y ago
There's no question that electronic media as readable as paper can be done -- and, in a way, it is not too surprising that it hasn't (I don't think most technologists care). I am quite curious why the super-high-res screens d
335.
by alankay1 10y ago
The way I have looked at this is that a big problem is the confusion of "objects" with "abstract data types" and the clinging to "data" and "assignment statements". As soon as encapsulation is really
336.
by alankay1 10y ago
Thanks!
337.
by alankay1 10y ago
Yes, I think you are characterizing what is called "possible worlds reasoning" in AI. A notable system was "ART" (Automated Reasoning Tool) by Inference Corp some years ago. More recently you might be interested in the &
338.
by alankay1 10y ago
Good questions. To keep my first comment as short as I could make it, I didn't mention the next wave of researchers who got interested in this perspective on computing, for example: Dave Reed ("the slash in TCP/IP") in h
339.
by alankay1 10y ago
Nope (I just read a lot)
340.
by alankay1 10y ago
A piggy-back on "Gutenberg Galaxy"? I just ordered it just for the heck of it -- I'll admit to a prejudice of "not high hopes" for this, but it's worth a look. This prejudice is part of a larger one (which is p
341.
by alankay1 10y ago
Interesting suggestion! I think it was around when I made the list but I hadn't read it yet. I think it might be too long for the intended purpose (maybe a little too academic?). On the other hand Mumford also wrote a trilogy "Tec
342.
by alankay1 10y ago
Thanks. This is interesting (and somewhat related to a Stanford thesis done by Steve Wyer ca 1980). And it has the fun irony of presenting a rather abstract result in the medium it says emphasizes concreteness ... It would be good to know i
343.
by alankay1 10y ago
They have verve, and that's generally a good thing. In this case there are a lot of details that need to be grokked to make any reasonable comment. The use of combinators (a kind of dual of lambda calculus) harks back to an excellent t
344.
by alankay1 10y ago
Hi Don I think I'm so out of context wrt video games here and now that I can't come up with a worthwhile reply. I liked Rocky's Boots because of the brilliant combination of the content and the idea behind the game play -- an
345.
by alankay1 10y ago
I don't think I understand the question. This is by far the best book about how the major research funding and community happened in the 60s (Parc was one of the outgrowths). I would say that our "age" (or any age) could be e
346.
by alankay1 10y ago
You could start a topic on HN for example.
347.
by alankay1 10y ago
See above for one of them.
348.
by alankay1 10y ago
Up to you
349.
by alankay1 10y ago
This is a reasonable question, but it is also the kind of question that led to the list we are discussing (and I'd like to respectfully avoid trying to generate another one).
350.
by alankay1 10y ago
There is also a lot of really important "high hanging fruit" that needs to be done (for example real education for the entire world).
351.
by alankay1 10y ago
One of them is quite a bit of interesting work and play with Sam Altman and his new YC Research initiatives. A recent one is: https://blog.ycombinator.com/harc
352.
by alankay1 10y ago
Ars longa, vita brevis. I don't have time to do justice to the top three things I'm trying to do.
353.
by alankay1 10y ago
I don't want to ding this book, if only because the topic is well chosen and important. I was quite surprised that I didn't warm to it.
354.
by alankay1 10y ago
Thanks very much! Good question, but I don't have a good answer (perhaps too much of an idealist ...)
355.
by alankay1 10y ago
There seems to be a depth limit on replies: too bad. Also, I wonder if there is a provision (perhaps in a "preferences" section I don't know about) to have an email sent when someone replies (this is a very limited format for
356.
by alankay1 10y ago
It is off topic here. But I'm happy to say something elsewhere.
357.
by alankay1 10y ago
There have been quite a few books since that would be good for this group to look at (I will avoid the trap of mentioning any). Why don't you have a crack at it?
358.
by alankay1 10y ago
It's a bit like the problem of comparing great composers and great music -- for example, it doesn't really make sense to try to decide whether Bach was a greater composer than Beethoven or any other great composer. Thresholds are
359.
by alankay1 10y ago
I did a lot of work at PARC on the design of readable fonts, and a few years later on reading from a display (CRT) using a super-good eye tracker we had. This was prompted by "bad feelings" when trying to read from displays. The d
360.
by alankay1 10y ago
Life is too short period! Just to remind again that the list was for people in business -- they were quite intelligent, had college degrees, but were not well read or "broad". They were very goal-oriented, and I think they did not

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