kalid

44 ms·

511.
by kalid 17y ago
Hey, just saw this thread in my referral logs -- thanks for the support! :)
512.
by kalid 17y ago
I've been following tarsnap from afar and think it looks like a great service. That said, an "unprofessional" look & feel is a deterrent for most people because it implies the service may be unprofessional (people tempted to click away
513.
by kalid 17y ago
Agreed. In my head, I call this the "blender" comparison that many technophiles seem to use. Want to compare two meals? Put them in the blender and analyze the nutritional content of the resulting goop. What? You don't compare food by spec
514.
by kalid 17y ago
Just wanted to say thanks for posting this thoughtful comment. I completely agree that many such "needs" are actually fear-driven.
515.
by kalid 17y ago
Thinking about it now ;).
516.
by kalid 17y ago
Just wanted to say thanks for the article -- I'm using your script for my blog :).
517.
by kalid 17y ago
That is quite amazing that it wouldn't be treated in civil court or as a bankruptcy -- I wonder how many senators had to be bought to make that happen :).
518.
by kalid 17y ago
Hi all, this is Kalid from BetterExplained -- thanks for the submission! Hacker News has been a favorite source of article discussions for me :). I'm hoping to crank up the posting frequency, topic suggestions are more than welcome.
519.
by kalid 17y ago
Unfortunately that seemed to be part of the culture -- don't even bother learning about / using competitors products because you "know" yours is better. Many MS programmers have only ever played on the MS stack.
520.
by kalid 17y ago
Yep, definitely -- actually I have an article on radians which does just that (comparing height on the circle, sin, to distance traveled around, x). Always happy to discuss on email (kalid.azad@gmail.com) -- I'm not sure if there's somethin
521.
by kalid 17y ago
Ah, thank you for the clarification -- yes, Newton loved his fluxions, didn't he? In future examples I'll s/Newton/Leibniz/ :). I think the general point is true about the brain freeze and too many big topics -- it's way too easy to just th
522.
by kalid 17y ago
Thanks for the comment. I did contemplate mentioning the definition of sin(x) = x - x^3/3! + ... but thought it would be too leading & tangential -- I wanted to show visually that most curves can in fact be modeled by a straight line ov
523.
by kalid 17y ago
Great point. I think one of the issues with calculus is that it can be studied at so many levels. Most high school classes give lip service to limits (somehow they're important), and then get into symbol manipulation (move the exponent down
524.
by kalid 17y ago
Yep, I agree with your points about pure intuition leading you down blind alleys unless you have some structure in place. For the examples, my approach is definitely tailored for people who need to grok the subject after getting a rote unde
525.
by kalid 17y ago
Hey, thanks for the comment. Yep, there is a fundamental tension between intuition and rigor. Unfortunately, I feel that rigor (and not even rigor -- rote details) are overemphasized, without giving any context, and more importantly without
526.
by kalid 17y ago
I think the gmail answer would have sunk her too. Google is an advertising company -- 1/4 (25%) clickthrough on Gmail ads (not even search) is just crazy. People click search ads because they're looking for something, Gmail ads probably get
527.
by kalid 17y ago
I agree -- it's easy to forget the tradeoffs technology & specialization gives us. The fact that we spent years learning to read, write, do math, etc. means that most of us don't know much about farming and wilderness survival compared
528.
by kalid 17y ago
Glad the articles were useful for you :). I really like Euler's Formula, but feel many explanations focus on the raw bits (showing the series are equal). The physics explanation "90-degree rotation" is a good one. Here's how I explained it
529.
by kalid 17y ago
"No successful web company (not eBay, Flickr, Amazon, Facebook...) succeeds because of a significant technological barrier to entry. It's not insanely difficult to copy what they've done. Yet they win and the copycats don't." Amazon had bil
530.
by kalid 17y ago
This is a wonderful example of how to demo an idea to the public. Yes, yes, it's cool that it's 100x thinner than our hair and twice as energy efficient, but seeing a pickle glow just makes the video pop out.
531.
by kalid 17y ago
I read a sobering fact somewhere -- we'll only be able to read about 1000 books in our lifetime (50 years, 20 books a year or nearly 2 a month). Maybe 2000 or 3000 if you're a voracious reader. Given that, it doesn't make sense to waste tim
532.
by kalid 17y ago
The 5-paragraph essay with the self-similar structure (first sentence is an introduction, body sentences have the meat, final sentence is a conclusion) leads to incredibly rigid and repetitive essays. I too wish it was more well-known that
533.
by kalid 17y ago
Thanks -- and you're more than welcome. I'm always happy to share what I've managed to learn... what Amy, Peter & others have said has made the process so much less daunting.
534.
by kalid 17y ago
Thanks Peter! I'll consult with the marketing department to see if we can't get you a promo copy :). I really appreciate you sharing your insights with us.
535.
by kalid 17y ago
I just got into the process of self-publishing so I thought I could give you some numbers. Background: I run a blog (betterexplained.com) which has built up a solid base of traffic over the years. I've had some requests to make the content
536.
by kalid 17y ago
That's really awesome. I'm a huge proponent of finding the real, actual insights and lessons behind a subject (plug: I blog at betterexplained.com). The dirty little secret of education is that it's "ok" to cram and forget. Most classes rew
537.
by kalid 17y ago
I second toastmasters -- it really helped me discover what aspects of teaching I enjoy. My tip would be to use stories/anecdotes, especially for something meant to be entertaining (vs. informative) for a best-man's speech. Think of some fun
538.
by kalid 17y ago
That brings up interesting ethical issues -- could you play a FPS game knowing the bad guys were 'conscious'?
539.
by kalid 17y ago
Just wanted to second it, the presentation was really good.
540.
by kalid 17y ago
Exactly. I was running a much older version of WP and it took 6 hours to upgrade, including making sure all the plugins worked correctly. I immediately got the "white screen of death" afterwards and had to do a binary search to figure out w

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