kwantam

27 ms·

181.
by kwantam 15y ago
Hackers might delight more in the HP-16C "Computer Scientist" calculator[1]. It can be set to perform calculations on variable word sizes up to 64 bits, which is amazingly useful when you're working with processors that use non-standard wor
182.
by kwantam 15y ago
In order to actually address the total energy consumption of the world using solar energy, based on 2009 consumption numbers (~500 EJ), we'd have to convert 30% of the total incident solar energy (~1600 EJ) to a usable form. Doing this woul
183.
by kwantam 15y ago
My girlfriend is a Ph.D. candidate doing work related to algae biofuels. Her experience indicates that at present biofuel production is still too inefficient (the algae aren't easily persuaded to produce massive stores of triglycerides) and
184.
by kwantam 15y ago
Looks nice. On the read-only version of the page, placing the cursor and hitting "enter" adds newlines. They don't show up in anyone else's session AFAICT, but it's a little disconcerting to get the impression of editing what was supposed t
185.
by kwantam 15y ago
Ahh, a simpler time. Compare to today's (approximate) equivalent: Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Optimization Reference Manual http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/manual/248966.pdf
186.
by kwantam 15y ago
Actually, nits are bugs. They just haven't hatched yet. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louse
187.
by kwantam 15y ago
Then it says the T-Mobile deal: ...will thus benefit consumers by reducing the number of dropped and blocked calls, increasing data speeds, improving in-building coverage, and dramatically expanding de
188.
Performance of siprtmp: multitask vs gevent(p2p-sip.blogspot.com)
2 points by kwantam 15y ago|0 comments
189.
by kwantam 16y ago
Specifically with respect to the OP, they have a gigantic datastore of their users' social graphs. That's a "real thing" that can be monopolized: their users' data.
190.
by kwantam 16y ago
Last week on a whim I whipped up a URL shortener that expires the forwarded URL after one week[1]. Using that plus hashify, you can essentially make expiring web pages. [1] pygm.us
191.
by kwantam 16y ago
You pull the plug on a product when you start losing money on it, not because you can see marginal net going to zero several years in the future. I would very much like to know the inside scoop on this one. While this
192.
by kwantam 16y ago
...it can't be both? :)
193.
by kwantam 16y ago
Totally true. It seems to me that for most of the legitimate temporary uses (e.g., shortening a google maps URL), that's not a huge issue. Agreed that there's still, e.g., the problem of people hiding affiliate links behind shorteners and t
194.
by kwantam 16y ago
I wanted a project to get myself familiar with the pyramid framework, so I threw together this little jobby. As I say on the site, the idea is that if a URL shortener is known to be unreliable, it'll force people to use it only for short-te
195.
Show HN: pygm.us, the fail-only URL shortener(pygm.us)
2 points by kwantam 16y ago|4 comments
196.
by kwantam 16y ago
It's fair to observe that there is a whole lot to learn. I'm not sure the extent to which you're disagreeing with me, but I'll submit that if it's not possible to learn it all in 4 years, adding a SE major won't magically make it possible.
197.
by kwantam 16y ago
Having done degrees in both electrical engineering and computer science, it seems to me that EE schools on the whole manage the theory vs. practice a bit better than CS schools do. Just as in CS/SE, EE has a wide range of topics, from the v
198.
by kwantam 16y ago
http://www.glassdoor.com can be a helpful resource in this regard. It needs a bunch more critical mass before it's truly useful, but some information is usually better than no information.
199.
by kwantam 16y ago
Yeah, I concluded the same thing. Languages with standards seem to be largely worse off than languages with canonical implementations with regard to interoperability and ecosystem coherence. I think maybe the problem is that if your standar
200.
by kwantam 16y ago
I'm curious what industry you're in that you're able to make significant use of Haskell? Haha. I'm an integrated circuit designer. When I write Haskell, it's for my side projects or for some kind of optimization or signal processi
201.
by kwantam 16y ago
A few years ago, I had some time off from work and decided to spend the week learning *ML. I spent a bunch of time with Standard ML, including the entirety of the older version of the Harper book, and implemented a bunch of nontrivial toys
202.
by kwantam 16y ago
You could do this without allowing the hashes to act as passwords directly by establishing a "skeleton key" approach: WHERE user.password = hash(input) OR hash(user.password + skeleton_key) = input If the police want to log into a
203.
by kwantam 16y ago
You're being pedantic in English in response to an exchange that presumably happened in French. :)
204.
by kwantam 16y ago
My then-girlfriend and I did some work to help start a Waldorf school in western Massachusetts, so I've had a bit of direct experience with Waldorf schools despite not having attended one, and I agree with most of your assessment: the focus
205.
by kwantam 16y ago
I share the concern voiced by several sources in that article that using performance in AlgII as a predictor for success misses the correlation/causation distinction. Engineering, science, math, and medicine all require AlgII, and even a su
206.
by kwantam 16y ago
I'm not sure I follow. Are you claiming that unless one is well versed in css and html5, one is incapable of creating a decent linux distribution? debian.org gives the lie to such a notion, methinks. I suppose you might counter that the goo
207.
by kwantam 16y ago
Another friend of mine from grad school did his thesis on something like this. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/18013 "We propose a novel variation of a doubly-fed induction generator which aims to improve power density and simplify co
208.
by kwantam 16y ago
The article incorrectly implies that the only way to make a synchronous machine is with a permanent magnet, and thus all synchronous machines have temperature issues. On the contrary, it is entirely possible to build synchronous machines wi
209.
by kwantam 16y ago
Given the way your eyes work... yes! 120FPS is beyond almost everyone's internal "frame rate," so going any higher really doesn't make much sense except in special cases (trying to deliver different frames to each eye using higher frame rat
210.
by kwantam 16y ago
Not sure if you read the article but Jacques specifically states there's a clear difference between a rich dude shooting the Elephant and a native Zimbabwean game warden doing it to protect his crops (which btw, there are many other ways o

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