alister

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211.
by alister 8y ago
> “A computer was too slow to do anything at video speeds anyway. So once Ted had invented his motion circuit, this trick, you didn’t need the computer anymore.” I'm surprised to learn that Pong had no computer, no microcontroller
212.
Ghostery Celebrates GDPR Day by Revealing Hundreds of User Email Addresses(gizmodo.com)
5 points by alister 8y ago|0 comments
213.
Pitfalls of India's biometric ID scheme already used by 1 billion Indians(bbc.com)
2 points by alister 8y ago|0 comments
214.
by alister 9y ago
Sure, TVs are much harder to make than mattresses. I agree completely. But that doesn't explain why mattresses are so expensive and why we have 500 mattress manufacturers and obfuscated models and prices. In fact, your line of reasonin
215.
by alister 9y ago
The journalist spoke to all these founders and to marketing people, but didn't ask a fairly obvious question: What makes the mattress market so much weirder than for other products? Let's compare mattresses to big-screen TVs, whic
216.
by alister 9y ago
>> It's been known for decades on other Unix systems that you shouldn't pass passwords by command line parameter > could you provide some references to the statement? If you search the Usenet archives, you can find ma
217.
The mysterious “laff box” invention of American sound engineer Charley Douglass(en.wikipedia.org)
2 points by alister 9y ago|0 comments
218.
by alister 9y ago
I have an observation about scanning documents that results in good quality and smaller files, but I can't satisfactorily explain why it works. Consider these two cases: (1) Scan document at very high resolution as a JPG and then use a
219.
by alister 9y ago
Reading code just for fun was a thing in the early and mid years of UNIX (eg., 7th edition or System V). People eagerly passed around faint 10th generation photocopies of Lion's printout of and commentary[1] on the UNIX source code. Th
220.
by alister 9y ago
Oddly, Brazil doesn't have 24-hour convenience stores[1]. Labor is very cheap and there are plenty of 24-hour gasoline stations, restaurants, bars, and pharmacies. But if you want a large bag of nuts or microwave popcorn or a banana at
221.
by alister 9y ago
I would add: - Privacy. A dedicated device with a one-way incoming signal (GPS) and no out-going signal cannot track you. This is not true of any smartphone app no matter what they claim or what their settings are. I'll grant that the
222.
by alister 9y ago
> other than to add to their palmares I learned an interesting, though obscure, word today: palmarès: a list of races a (bicycle) rider has won. (French, meaning list of achievements or list of winners).
223.
by alister 9y ago
It's explained in the linked BBC[1] article: " The machines dispense strips of toilet paper measuring 60 to 70cm (24 to 27.5 inches) to each person. They will not dispense more paper to the same person until after nine minutes hav
224.
by alister 9y ago
> Why would you use more spaces when and only when you have a longer space? I've also wondered this. Referring to this mock-up[1], I have the same monospace text with single vs double spaces after sentences, and proportional font
225.
Edward Snowden's app to protect your laptop(theverge.com)
5 points by alister 9y ago|0 comments
226.
by alister 9y ago
The same thing happens with a Motorola RAZR V3 GSM quad-band cell phone (a flip phone). I have that on video as well though I didn't upload it. I haven't tested any other phones.
227.
by alister 9y ago
Along the same lines, I had a hell of a time tracking down the reason my washroom GFI (ground fault interrupter) tripped on random occasions; i.e., the electric outlet would lose power and need to be reset. It turned out that an iPhone rec
228.
by alister 9y ago
> Someone explained it properly That's a hypothesis, a very good hypothesis, but the Reddit thread and Hacker News offer many other reasonable-sounding hypotheses. I can't tell you the number of times I've tracked down a
229.
by alister 9y ago
> Adobe (accidentally?) released CS2 for free to everyone My theory is that Adobe lost the ability to generate licenses -- those product activating serial numbers -- for old versions of software, so they just made it all free. How could
230.
by alister 9y ago
Google's instant answers are generally pretty good in my opinion, but in situations where the answer really matters, it could cause dangerous situations in the cases where Google does get it wrong. A good example is how Google chose th
231.
Drug that doctors can track remotely approved by FDA(engadget.com)
1 points by alister 9y ago|0 comments
232.
by alister 9y ago
> The article is already the 4th google result if you look for "best micro controllers under a dollar". That worked because you're mentioning the "$1" from the article's title. Google is not interpreting &
233.
by alister 9y ago
I've had this exact experience many times myself and I'm also at a loss to explain how it happens unless Google is (unintentionally) facilitating it. An observation I can add is that the dummy site may not appear on my first sea
234.
by alister 9y ago
If I hadn't seen this article on Hacker News today, is there any combination of plausible keywords I could have typed into Google to find this particular article if I were looking for an in-depth review of microcontrollers? I tried &qu
235.
Nobody is learning Braille anymore: only 13% of blind students read it now(washingtonpost.com)
4 points by alister 9y ago|0 comments
236.
by alister 9y ago
> it's not like you can ask questions about a random paper you are currently reading In the early days of the web, I remember a service that allowed you to comment on any page on the web. I think it used frames. It embedded the page
237.
by alister 9y ago
Talking about gaming the ratings and user reviews on sites likes IMDB, I surprised by how often it doesn't happen. The Matrix at this moment has 1,336,956 user votes and 3739 user reviews -- and that's to be expected. But I regu
238.
Hackers slipped malware into popular PC software CCleaner(engadget.com)
1 points by alister 9y ago|1 comments
239.
by alister 9y ago
By "big", I assume he means biggest storage, not smallest form factor. By the way, unless there is some technology I don't know about, microSD cards have consistently been the highest density storage devices for many years ru
240.
by alister 9y ago
The mention of the Waffle House Index reminds me of the Big Mac Index used to compare currencies. The idea is that a Big Mac, being something of commodity made from common ingredients, should cost the same everywhere in the world. If it is

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