mhartl

21 ms·

181.
by mhartl 11y ago
Uber is only losing money right now because it's in a land-grab situation [1]. Barring some cataclysm, someday Uber will be insanely profitable. Their investors understand this, and their valuation reflects it. [1]: http://w
182.
by mhartl 11y ago
Cross-references are all custom. License is MIT. [1] Porting would likely be a huge PITA. [1]: http://github.com/softcover/softcover
183.
by mhartl 11y ago
Not sure exactly what you mean by "backlinks", but most of the software is custom-built.
184.
by mhartl 11y ago
Using Softcover requires a standard shell & text editor, which I doubt is available on iPad. But it works great as a de facto second monitor, as described [here]( http://manual.softcover.io/book/getting_started#sec
185.
by mhartl 11y ago
Softcover handles Markdown + embedded LaTeX on your local machine (no 'net connection required) using a standard text editor and web browser: http://softcover.io/ I use Softcover to write and maintain both the code-hea
186.
by mhartl 11y ago
This was awesome, but I was disappointed to read that he didn't cash in the New York Fashion Week prize. Sure, it would have cost him some $$$, but what a story! I bet it'd have been worth paying a small premium for the adventure.
187.
by mhartl 11y ago
I usually Uber to the airport and taxi back. The latter costs almost 50% more. If this policy goes through, it will be a welcome change.
188.
by mhartl 11y ago
45 kg … and 9960 kg You mean 40 kg and 9960 kg (so the sum is 10000 kg)? <insert "Were you a Putnam Fellow?" joke here>
189.
by mhartl 11y ago
For those curious about what she looks like in her signature cap, here's a video of Tama-chan from a 2008 CNN story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WVPwJIoPWk
190.
by mhartl 11y ago
Those characters are still based on the Roman alphabet, though. Non-Roman alphabets such as Cyrillic are trickier. For example, I can copy-and-paste Cyrillic, as in русский, but I don't know offhand how to produce those characters on m
191.
by mhartl 11y ago
Did Newton speak French? I'd guess not (or not very well). His principal scientific works were written in Latin, which was the academic lingua franca of the day.
192.
by mhartl 11y ago
Ack, fatfingers on my Nexus—I of course meant "sometimes".
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by mhartl 11y ago
I sonetimes describe Y Combinator as the Harvard of startup accelerators, for exactly the reasons mentioned the article.
194.
by mhartl 11y ago
I looked at the sequence and said, "I call B.S.—there is no pattern." Then I saw that the solution is at the end of the bio, not in the article (click on "read more"). Spoiler alert : There is no pattern.
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by mhartl 11y ago
On the contrary, such concerns are of paramount importance to cryonics organizations. A good place to start is the Alcor Patient Care Trust [1]: At Alcor, patient storage costs are paid from the Patient Care Trust. This conservative fundin
196.
by mhartl 11y ago
I'm a YC alum myself. There was no such checkbox the last time I made a recommendation, but that was a while ago, so it may have changed.
197.
by mhartl 11y ago
In this context, it may also be worth noting that (as I think PG wrote somewhere) YC can tell the difference between a recommendation made as a favor to the applicant and a recommendation made as a favor to YC. Obviously, it's much bet
198.
by mhartl 11y ago
My favorite example of mathematics that blends intuition and rigor comes from the works of Archimedes of Syracuse: the mechanical method used to intuit results such as the area of a parabola, followed by the method of exhaustion used to
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by mhartl 11y ago
Summers in Boston are hot and oppressively humid.
200.
by mhartl 11y ago
There's a new textbook on classical physics by Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford. It hasn't been published yet, but the lecture notes on which it's based are online here Heh, it's not exactly new, and I'll believe it
201.
by mhartl 11y ago
Jeopardy! used to work like this. Players would often buzz in immediately, hoping they would know the answer to the question (sorry, the "question" for the "answer" [1]). Since Alex Trebek still finished reading the clue
202.
by mhartl 11y ago
"Jerry, just remember: it's not a lie, if you believe it." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ
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by mhartl 11y ago
Also for John McCarthy
204.
by mhartl 12y ago
As an LA-area resident, I definitely feel like an overall "Los Angeles" category is important. Santa Monica and Venice are LA; leaving them out is like leaving out Palo Alto or Mountain View from a "Silicon Valley" cat
205.
by mhartl 12y ago
You mean $45 billion?
206.
by mhartl 12y ago
A couple of quick observations: * Three of the ten unicorns (Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe) were funded by Y Combinator, while a fourth (Pinterest) was founded by two-time YC alum Ben Silbermann. * All of the unicorns are headquartered in Cal
207.
by mhartl 12y ago
The author appears to be Richard Hamming, not Feynman.
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by mhartl 12y ago
I loved that one, too. Here's the clip on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6lTSPXDOAI
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by mhartl 12y ago
In related news, the fifth-best player on an NBA team is a failing basketball player, because 80% of the starting players are better than he is.
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by mhartl 12y ago
They may not own the content, but they do own the traffic and (I think) your reader list.

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