o_nate

14 ms·

121.
by o_nate 4y ago
Curious if anyone has written about why estimates of the prevalence of small meteoroids at the L2 point were (possibly) too low? Were the estimates based on data about meteoroid prevalence entering the Earth atmosphere, and the prevalence i
122.
by o_nate 4y ago
I think some of these changes in attitude are a natural result of progression as a developer. For instance, when you're just starting out, having a good project manager or business analyst talk to users is valuable, but as you get more
123.
by o_nate 4y ago
I guess we should be grateful our brains are complex enough to understand anything. Maybe it's too much to ask to ask them to be able to understand themselves. They would need to get more complex to understand themselves, but then that
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by o_nate 4y ago
Its ironic to me that science fiction writers assumed that people would prefer video to audio-only for regular conversations, but now that just about everyone has the option of video for every call (if they're using a smartphone) they
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by o_nate 4y ago
I still subscribe to NY Times online, but in the past couple of years I added a paper subscription to the FT, even though I'm in the US, and it tends to be a bit UK-centric. The paper subscription is their cheapest option, otherwise I
126.
by o_nate 4y ago
Its possible but you can't just diff the file bytes. Because you will get spurious differences due to metadata, etc.
127.
by o_nate 4y ago
This is the best explanation I’ve seen yet of what Deutsch was getting at. I think he actually has a good point. The problem with misapplications of Bayesian probability is that they tend to produce a bogus sense of progress while eliding t
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by o_nate 4y ago
It does seem pretty clear that at this point Putin would prefer trying to grab a chunk of Ukraine over trying to keep NATO from expanding elsewhere.
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by o_nate 5y ago
I'm kicking myself that when I bought the original SE in 2016 I opted for the smallest memory size. 16GB is just not enough any more, with the size of apps and OS constantly increasing. I'm seriously tempted to buy a used one with
130.
Googlemaps, This is an abject failure(twitter.com)
4 points by o_nate 5y ago|0 comments
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by o_nate 5y ago
There were more than twice as many adult nonfiction books than adult fiction books sold in both 2019 and 2020 in the US, according to Publishers Weekly.
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by o_nate 5y ago
I agree. One reason I think people hate VBA so much is because the tooling is abysmal. If you've ever had to work with VBA code in the Excel code editor, you'll understand what I'm talking about. Ironically, both that and Vis
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by o_nate 6y ago
I'm not sure the "API is copyrightable" argument was relevant in the Microsoft-Sun case. Keep in mind that case was settled privately. Since it was never decided in court, it's hard to say what the most relevant claims w
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by o_nate 6y ago
This doesn't work like "else" if doSomething() can change the value of x.
135.
by o_nate 7y ago
Actually it's the BLS that says inflation has not affected car prices. And, yes, he is questioning their methodology.
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by o_nate 7y ago
This tweet was poorly worded, I agree. What he should have said was that the increasing prices of new cars did not show up as inflation in the way economists calculate it, because of the way they adjust for quality improvements. In the full
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The Cost of Thriving(americanaffairsjournal.org)
3 points by o_nate 7y ago|0 comments
138.
by o_nate 7y ago
Jim Holt's book "Why Does the World Exist?" is an interesting tour through different approaches to this topic.
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by o_nate 7y ago
I agree with the qualities of a senior engineer that he listed. Unfortunately these are all really difficult qualities to detect in an interview. Much harder than testing whether someone knows the big O of a hash table vs a sorted list look
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by o_nate 7y ago
Sure, but now explain drag and turbulence using Newton's laws.
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by o_nate 7y ago
Newton's law doesn't do a good job of explaining why airplane wings have the shape they do. Why not just use a flat wing at a 45 degree angle?
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by o_nate 7y ago
I guess it works as a very high level explanation. However, as a practical guide to designing an actual working airplane wing, it's probably too high level to be helpful. For instance, if Newton was a complete explanation, then a flat
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by o_nate 7y ago
The obvious follow-up question is : why does a wing deflect the air down?
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by o_nate 7y ago
A scientific explanation though would explain why those regions of high and low pressure get created.
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by o_nate 7y ago
Well, it sounds like you were using one of those modern fax/printer/copier monstrosities. In the old days, it would've been a dedicated fax machine.
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by o_nate 7y ago
I feel like in the old days they would've just had everybody fax their results into the central office and it would've worked fine.
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by o_nate 7y ago
If he gets really excited about something, it's usually worth checking out. That makes him a useful critic.
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by o_nate 7y ago
Agreed. Their charts are a good way to find recommendations, especially if you filter by particular genres you like. Also good is to look at lists by users who like something you like.
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by o_nate 7y ago
Another analogy would be the theory of perfectly competitive markets. It makes sense for economists to assume this in many cases, even though that would imply that consistently profitable firms are impossible.
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Analysis Ties Hacking of Bezos' Phone to Saudi Leader's Account(nytimes.com)
22 points by o_nate 7y ago|1 comments

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