alextp

15 ms·

121.
by alextp 16y ago
This is very interesting and very true. I think the main points of this article are: 1. Constants do matter, specially most programs end up with an asymptotic that looks like a N^b, and a and b are often not what you'd expect. This matches
122.
by alextp 16y ago
When I didn't own a kindle I used to buy and read a lot of kindle books on my iPod touch. Even now that I own a kindle I share it with the wife, and we might both be on a bus/airplane without internet wanting to read. I really hope this is
123.
by alextp 16y ago
There are loads of duplicate papers. Searching, for example. for "latent dirichlet allocation" shows the same JMLR paper about four times in the top results.
124.
by alextp 16y ago
I'm not sure about the market, as it doesn't seem to be explored, but the culture is certainly different. First and foremost, we don't have the concept of a date in the same way, and we don't have the concept of a pick-up bar/pub either. As
125.
by alextp 16y ago
As a brazillian, yes, there are lots of points in common. Also, orkut is pretty much dead now among my social circle; facebook has pretty much got all users of orkut and some more people who wouldn't have joined orkut (like parents and gran
126.
by alextp 16y ago
> Anything that's free but is limited gets abused. You need look no further than the NHS in the UK were most GPs are employees of the NHS. Office hours of 9-4 (ie no incentive to provide a better service) are typical, the system clogged
127.
by alextp 16y ago
With my mother this failed miserably. After I gave up on her nagging for someone to do the dishes, she started nagging that the dishes weren't coming out as clean as they should. After I started scrubbing a lot longer and harder she started
128.
by alextp 16y ago
Here in brazil (at least in são paulo) there are around four companies (groupon included) fighting tooth and nail for this market, even using black-hat-ish techniques (unsolicited email, misguiding website, impossible-to-unsubscribe mailing
129.
by alextp 16y ago
I get a lot of spam on facebook. The main categories are: 1. Applications unwittingly installed by naive friends that post annoying updates all the time to my wall, effectively hiding the little signal in there. Each time a friend uses a ne
130.
by alextp 16y ago
You should read the new yorker story http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_... . It answers your questions, mostly. For (1), if the health insurer is forced to treat those patients and acknowledges who they are they
131.
by alextp 16y ago
I wish I could pay extra when buying a paperback and get the electronic edition "on loan" until the paperback arrives. This would be the best of both worlds, for me.
132.
by alextp 16y ago
The instant purchase, instant gratification part is particularly important. I ordered two books to brazil in dec 22 and they still haven't arrived. I've heard of, bought, and read many more books since, using the kindle for ipod touch.
133.
by alextp 16y ago
I'm another brazillian who reads hn and comments regularly enough. Live in são paulo, phd student in machine learning at unicamp.
134.
by alextp 16y ago
Or you see no new stuff at all (if you don't have enough contacts/topics) while there are lots of interesting things going on in the other parts of quora that you have almost no way of finding out about without heavy searching. This pretty
135.
by alextp 16y ago
I agree, and I should have formulated my answer better. What I mean by sufficiently smart is a person that will be recognized as smart enough to be functional in any other field that requires thinking, from the arts to the humanities.
136.
by alextp 16y ago
I agree with the part about every sufficiently smart person being able to program if they're willing to learn and put the time. In my experience most people (even students in intro to programming classes) are really unwilling to drop some m
137.
by alextp 16y ago
I've always been an independent learner, so I think this is great, but the concept of a "course for independent learners" sounds a lot like herding cats.
138.
by alextp 16y ago
About previews, I find amazon's free sample on kindle to be really useful most of the time.
139.
by alextp 16y ago
Actually, as far as pain goes, my hand hurts a lot sooner with a mouse than with my laptop's touchpad. The touchpad makes it easier to (1) switch between the right and left hands to move the pointer around and (2) move the pointer around wi
140.
by alextp 16y ago
This might save you some time/money, but it certainly can't bridge the gap between different languages. Keep in mind that "to translate is to betray" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traduttore,_traditore
141.
by alextp 16y ago
Actually, one of the best ways to learn applied bayesian stats, used by most machine learning researchers I've asked about this, is to read Gelman's books on bayesian data analysis and hierarchical/multilevel modeling.
142.
by alextp 16y ago
Conversely, it'd also be an impossible problem for a lot of users, as for users that don't have that much activity a good global model is crucial to the proper functioning of the system, and you can't have that with completely local process
143.
by alextp 16y ago
Cameras and computer vision? I think the same rules for public space apply.
144.
by alextp 16y ago
What's the point of owning a driverless car? Apart from luxury/status, it should be far cheaper to rent one as you go, in the driverless cab fashion. Also, I can't help but cringe inside when people act as if the only benefit of living in t
145.
by alextp 16y ago
Actually Apple until recently didn't have a cash cow per se. When the iPod was first developed Apple was making very little money, and broadening its product base was a good strategy. I think the main popular tech giant that seems to avoid
146.
by alextp 16y ago
The founder of http://afterthedeadline.com/ hangs out in hn, so I think you should take this issue up with him.
147.
by alextp 16y ago
Is it wrong that I'm disappointed because this doesn't seem to make much sense? The actual topology involved has to be discrete, not continuous, as can never continuously deform from one branch to another. Also, a tree of trees is still a t
148.
by alextp 16y ago
I use magnesium hydroxide, usually sold as a laxative. It is nearly the same thing as the active ingredient in most deodorants, except it isn't an antiperspirant nor is scented nor has a creamy consistency, etc. It's also really cheap, and
149.
by alextp 16y ago
Also, I only ever enjoy traveling by the second or third time I go to a place, when that horrible feeling of being lost, helpless, completely ignorant, and not belonging has subsided a bit. In most of my friends who enjoy traveling I see a
150.
by alextp 16y ago
Hold him, have a talk with him, let him go. This usually shakes people up and is completely legal

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