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511.
by ced 16y ago
Yeah, I thought about that. But he mentions "emptiness testing" a few times in the rest of the post. If there's no empty list representation, what's the point?
512.
by ced 16y ago
How does deletion work in ring-style lists when there's only one element in the list? Wouldn't that break a branchless implementation? How is the empty ring represented, anyway? As for his test purportedly showing that A is better than B on
513.
by ced 16y ago
Why would IV bribe them? In fact, why would a patent troll care about PR at all ? Does a good reputation help in court? I'm also going to invoke Hanlon's razor, in "defense" of the freakonomics guys.
514.
by ced 16y ago
Technically, that's true, but the more interesting question is "How do languages handle non-integers ?" Quite a few languages (like Lisp) have a rational data type, such that 1/3 + 1/4 is done exactly. Others have a decimal data type, whos
515.
by ced 16y ago
What variable did mathematicians use for summation before physicists started using group theory to describe symmetries in systems of differential equations? Isn't that a fairly recent development? My search for an old paper with a bloody su
516.
by ced 16y ago
At my uni (University of Montreal), A was worth 4.0 and A+ was worth 4.3. I don't think it comes from grade inflation, though. Just a different convention. According to Wikipedia, the 4.0 scale is anything but standard. http://en.wikipedia
517.
by ced 16y ago
It's already common language in French: internaute. News anchors use it frequently, and there's 7,380,000 results on Google. It sounds a bit cooler in English though.
518.
by ced 16y ago
So when Google uses A/B testing to improve their design, we should call it "web structure", not "web design"? Human minds and evolution are both algorithms.
519.
by ced 16y ago
A country that encourages entrepreneurship? Free access to high school education? Genes that drive you forward instead of slouching on the couch? A home? Food on the table?
520.
by ced 16y ago
For some reason, math notation has always felt less formal and rigorous to me than any programming language. Think of how liberating it would be if you could just write pseudo-code, and the computer would figure out what you meant, instea
521.
by ced 16y ago
Subsidizing is such a loaded word. Your comment is an example of the pie fallacy. Yes, your colleagues may get a bigger paycheck because you're a top engineer. But that doesn't necessarily imply that the additional money they get is "taken"
522.
by ced 16y ago
For those interested about the possibility of life on other planets, there's a great essay by Michael Crichton: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~scranmer/SPD/crichton.html He rails against Drake's equation, and the larger scientific damage
523.
by ced 16y ago
The point is that there's incredible uncertainty about "What are the odds that life would develop on an earth-like planet?" and (to a lesser extent) "How many earth-like planets are there?" This problem was "solved" by Drake's equation. ht
524.
by ced 16y ago
Though at least this one is lighter than usual. That's the whole point. If you read it without thinking "Wolfram wrote this therefore it will be self-centered", then it sounds perfectly fine . The GP's snark was merely appealing to peo
525.
by ced 16y ago
The post by Wolfram is a great discussion of logic and the philosophy of mathematics throughout the 20th century. Yet the top comment on HN is a snark, tribal bashing of the author.
526.
by ced 16y ago
It's amazing how this post has received 233 upvotes in 4 hours, and it's not even on the front page. There's something weird with the ranking algorithm.
527.
by ced 16y ago
But the size of the vegan movement is totally out of proportion to its veracity. That's a weird statement. When is "movement size" ever a good indicator of truth? Anyway, veganism is not about "veracity", it's about a different set of mor
528.
by ced 16y ago
Playing with infinities is dangerous business, and it's very easy to yield paradoxes like the OP. But note that before the 20th century, mathematicians like Gauss would avoid playing with such ill-defined objects, for precisely this reason[
529.
by ced 16y ago
The comment in question: I'm in systems just down the road from Matt and Mike. I don't think I could have better said why academia appeals to me than Mike. Fundamentally, it's just very hard to find a job with more flexibility and freedom
530.
by ced 16y ago
Ah, so that's where the confusion comes from. I thought that edw519's post was about "The typical bread-an-butter language in the 70's, in the 80's, etc." I'd still be curious to know what were the de facto languages to get a good salar
531.
by ced 16y ago
If you're the one dude who wrote an entire package that runs a billion dollar multinational, you can pretty much charge whatever you want. It's like the ultimate job security. Any changes have to be made through you. That's true regardles
532.
by ced 16y ago
Good to know... but that's not the description of a "bread and butter language", at least, not by the definition in the OP. Or else, Lisp, Haskell and Prolog would all be BBLs! I wasn't around in the 60s to witness software development, but
533.
by ced 16y ago
Was there really a time period where BASIC and QBasic were bread and butter languages? I thought they were toy languages, like Logo.
534.
by ced 16y ago
English undoubtedly is the world's richest language in the sense of having the largest vocabulary. Citation needed. I have, however, found this: Is it true that English has the most words of any language? This question is practically imp
535.
by ced 16y ago
I lived for three years in Asia without working (Turkey, India, China). My standard recommendation is Kunming, China. You can live there very comfortably on 400$/month. There's a good foreigner community, ultimate frisbee, awesome food, and
536.
by ced 16y ago
I've made this point on HN a few times, but "space weather forecasting" has become an industry in itself. A lot of scientists have made predictions for the next cycle. The big problem is that cycles last 11 years, and the predictions are of
537.
by ced 16y ago
As this article points out, the problem with these studies is not statistics. The issue is non-reproducibility, and the ever-present possibility of deception (fraud, incompetence, cheating participants, etc.) Studies "demonstrating" ESP are
538.
by ced 16y ago
I severely doubt that anecdote. See for yourself: http://books.google.ca/books?id=8jZBksh-bUMC&lpg=PP1&#38... I had cited it from memory. It wasn't paint; it was asbestos. Nearly every government decision (e.g. where to build roads
539.
by ced 16y ago
Perhaps it would be best for those who do these studies to stick to the facts and let others do the advocacy. It would give them a higher degree of credibility as scientists if they separated these roles. That's a good point, but on the o
540.
by ced 16y ago
Science now includes morality. Yes, but only in a descriptive fashion. Science can now explain why homo sapiens has evolved specific moral feelings and customs. Science is now about how things work and how we should act. This "science

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