bmer

34 ms·

301.
by bmer 10y ago
A series of essays and books impacted my life the most. It all started on a sunny day, when I was a structural engineering intern full of hope and a beautiful girlfriend, waiting for my code to run(blah blah iteratively determine deflection
302.
by bmer 10y ago
I suppose it can only run along routes that aren't crossed by flyovers, or other bridge-like structures?
303.
by bmer 10y ago
> it's an example of how different the playing field is for different people I really liked your response, and am curious to know if you'd be able to comment more specifically on that little bit I quoted above. What exactly is
304.
by bmer 10y ago
Note the parallels with the illegal organ market.
305.
by bmer 10y ago
The title seems derogatory, but it's on point. One could use a euphemism like "Peter Thiel is interested in anti-aging research!", but that kind of downplays the creepiness of the particular approach he is interested in: para
306.
by bmer 10y ago
"invading muslim hordes" sounds weirdly demeaning. Why not just say "invaiding muslim armies"? Just curious. Asian armies = hordes European armies = armies?
307.
by bmer 10y ago
Well put. "Evil tax" arguments are especially bizarre to me as a Canadian, where our taxes do so much for us (have a look at our healthcare), and aren't used as a political weapon. There are often pushes to privatize, regar
308.
by bmer 10y ago
Totally agree with you. I couldn't get past the first few chapters, because it was flat out boring. Compared to something like Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Corey...Ready Player One is so.... boring. There, I said it too.
309.
by bmer 10y ago
The first thing I thought too, when I read this. "Trisolaris" is a reference to an amazing sci-fi novel, "Three Body Problem" which I would highly recommend (it originally came out in Mandarin, but it has a great transla
310.
by bmer 10y ago
Do you understand that new ideas, especially when they go against the grain of old establishment, might often be termed "controversial"? Do you understand that Cobbin's claim is that existing understanding of the event is rev
311.
by bmer 10y ago
From the very article you mention, there are respected counter-points: "In 1988, Rhodes University professor Julian Cobbing advanced a controversial new hypothesis on the rise of the Zulu state; he contended the accounts of the Mfecane
312.
by bmer 10y ago
Keep up the good word: your comments are a joy to read, given the cesspool of stuff they are responding to. I find the "iron age" comments to be especially hilarious given that they completely ignore African civilizations that g
313.
by bmer 10y ago
Something that confuses me after reading this comic: how was Theranos able to keep things "hush hush" for so long? There seems to be at least a good 3-4 year period where this was the case?
314.
by bmer 10y ago
I didn't know anything about the Theranos story, until reading this comic today. So, my first impression is that the comic is a great info-dose. Why would you recommend against it?
315.
by bmer 10y ago
Restrict auto-steering to very specific roads which have sufficient information. That's basically the vast majority of roads.
316.
by bmer 10y ago
I am getting a 403 Forbidden error when visiting the link. Same thing when visiting stephendiehl.com EDIT: the link is working again.
317.
by bmer 10y ago
Also along the lines of single person cars: rickshaws in China and India -- more like a 3 person light car but the concept is the same (fabric roofs, no doors, relatively slow speed compared to full fledged metal cars, but highly agile and
318.
by bmer 10y ago
Neville Chamberlain <--> Adolf Hitler David Cameron <--> Angela Merkel According to your comment, Angela Merkel is about as evil and reckless as Adolf Hitler. Okay. I am not taking this seriously.
319.
by bmer 10y ago
I got introduced to mindfulness through "dialectical behaviour therapy"[0], in a hospital setting. The researcher who developed DBT initially was Marsha Linehan[1], who has many publications you can dig into. Similarly, mindfulnes
320.
by bmer 10y ago
0) Pick something you want to focus on. It could be your breath, a picture, an article you want to read, the sounds in your environment... 1) Set a timer for the period you want to focus on it for. In the beginning, I'd pick short time
321.
by bmer 10y ago
But why bother using conflict as a driving force? Is it simply because we are used to conflict being a driving force in our entertainment for millennia (e.g. chess being set in a military environment, even though it could be completely ab
322.
by bmer 10y ago
I play video games that involve murder, and I wish I could disagree with you, but damn it...I can't. I happen to agree with everything you said. I like to play a top-down 2D space RPG, which has lasers, missiles, and all of that. I wan
323.
by bmer 10y ago
Backhouse's more playful book, focuses primarily on teaching one how to write and use proofs in the "calculational style" of Dijkstra/Hoare/Lamport/others. Backhouse's less playful book covers the same top
324.
by bmer 10y ago
No problem. You'll notice as you go through the links that none are about verification of correctness. Rather, they are about "correct by construction".
325.
by bmer 10y ago
I have learned not to put much weight in Amazon reviews for technical literature. Borrow a copy of the books from a library (my city library actually had access to a digital version of Backhouse's latest book, and you could always Yarr
326.
by bmer 10y ago
E. Hehner has a course called "Formal Methods for Software Design", which he presents completely openly online (including video lectures, a textbook, solutions, and so on): http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hehner/FM
327.
by bmer 10y ago
Full disclosure: a) Dijkstra is a bit of a personal "hero" of mine (hero in quotation marks, because I don't like to think of myself as a hero worshipper), because it was due to him I learned of textbooks written by guys like
328.
by bmer 10y ago
Can someone do a back of the napkin calculation to compare the performance of a quantum simulator with the real deal?
329.
by bmer 10y ago
I am a newb dev, so I am curious to know what you used to build the simulator. You name-dropped webgl, but what else is needed to put together something like this, with the nice drop down menus, the drag and drop, and all that?
330.
by bmer 10y ago
Sorry, I can't comment on that book as I haven't read it!

More ›