theoh

46 ms·

391.
by theoh 8y ago
YMMV, but, outside of technical contexts, the phrase "increased exponentially" is often used by people who don't even know the difference between linear, geometric and exponential growth. In many cases they don't even un
392.
by theoh 8y ago
That (Big O as slang) sounds like a horrible situation. It feels analogous to the widespread use of "exponentially" to mean "a lot" or "quickly" which is a really bad, silly thing. The difference is that few ph
393.
by theoh 8y ago
I try not to be snarky, but only because it invites downvotes. Your "pity" comment came across as sententious. What do you mean by "that kind of thing"? Searching for " conversation with Daniel dennett" returns
394.
by theoh 8y ago
It's only a pity if you can't be bothered to Google "pinker dennett" and find multiple recordings of the pair in conversation.
395.
by theoh 8y ago
I think this conclusion results from the form of projection discussed in the article, except that you're applying it to the past. The risk is of overemphasizing even slight similarities (projecting your own circumstances onto past cond
396.
by theoh 8y ago
It's so bizarre that in NASA-speak the word nominal means not the value that a parameter should have ("in name") but the fact that the parameter is within a specified tolerance of that value. It's like a contraction of &
397.
by theoh 8y ago
I didn't describe them! I just told you what the state of play is. A lens is a "functional reference". Say you have a data structure of some kind. You can create a lens which points at one of the fields. It lets you get and s
398.
by theoh 8y ago
The papers define the "profunctor optics" mechanism, so it's not really that it isn't understood: it's really Haskell code that implements lenses and prisms, which previously had less elegant formulations. Yes, ther
399.
by theoh 8y ago
This is basic, though. If the stuff was stored in a Unix filesystem it would be the difference between a symlink (correct strategy) and a hard link (risky). Correctly implementing the hard link strategy (in the Unix analogy, this happens in
400.
by theoh 8y ago
I'm not sure I follow your thinking about kitsch, but's a very contested term. Master art forgers represent an existential threat to art "connoisseurs", it's like what they do is an exploit aimed precisely at foolin
401.
by theoh 8y ago
"Art was never about difficulty of reproduction." While it's true that a skilled forger can effectively copy an old master painting, it's a pretty rare skill to have at a really high level. "Painting factory" c
402.
by theoh 8y ago
Anonymous downvoting is the violence of HN (and it's probably a lot more antisocial than we admit). Politely pointing out errors is... well, it's something else. Probably at least OK. Sorry I don't have a Monty Python line fo
403.
by theoh 8y ago
It's the convention
404.
by theoh 8y ago
Google AMP is another way around this particular barrier (on mobile). You need to Google the article title to get the AMP url.
405.
by theoh 8y ago
Hmmm, yes, though they do say "In this paper we focus on primary (camera) rays, i.e. rays with a common origin or parallel rays, because only these are also covered by rasterization. We consider secondary rays and efficient global illu
406.
by theoh 8y ago
Historically, rasterization has been away of putting triangles onto the screen, maybe with a Z-buffer to determine visibility. It's basically an image space idea, with things like Gouraud shading happening in image space, and though yo
407.
by theoh 8y ago
Forbes published an article containing this line "To understand its functioning and functionality, it is necessary to start first with the definition of blockchain." It's annoying in the same way that people in marketing usin
408.
by theoh 8y ago
The phrase probably refers to Unix pipes: https://wiki.tuhs.org/doku.php?id=features:pipes
409.
by theoh 8y ago
You seem to be quite keen on the notion of lambda lifting a function "in place", so maybe you can explain why one would want to do that. From where I'm standing, the lifting is about actually displacing the functions out of t
410.
by theoh 8y ago
The paper that introduced the term makes this very clear: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.48.4... "The process of flattening out a program involving local function definitions, possibly wi
411.
by theoh 8y ago
> the formerly free variables, which have now been lifted to the scope of the caller. This risks obscuring the basic reason why the operation is called lambda lifting, which is that the lambda is "lifted" out of its local scope
412.
by theoh 8y ago
In the case of this video, you aren't missing much. It's deliberately 'dense', according to the author, but the concept is simple. Almost any app will involve some imperative code, but using pure functions within that, w
413.
by theoh 8y ago
The process of pairing two Bluetooth devices, for example, usually needs physical input on both devices. This setup weakens that requirement, and it's unclear why, other than convenience and gimmickry. One possible risk is that streami
414.
by theoh 8y ago
Well, we're all saddled with git's total disregard for the user experience. We'd still be struggling with the positive and negative aspects of open source software if Linus hadn't existed, just as the first world war wou
415.
by theoh 8y ago
Have you seen that his statement was a reaction to a New Yorker investigation about how his attitude had discouraged women from contributing to the kernel? "Torvalds’s decision to step aside came after The New Yorker asked him a series
416.
by theoh 8y ago
This isn't so much about the "threat" in terms of candidate devices which could act as bugs, or wifi devices in general (which aren't unusual, these days) but a question of whether the convenience being provided to guest
417.
by theoh 8y ago
What specific range of threats is this supposed to robustly defend against? It's not difficult to imagine significant, inexpensive attacks that it doesn't prevent, just the presence of an audio bug of some kind, for example. It se
418.
by theoh 8y ago
That's the spirit that got Linus Torvalds where he is now — "Be abrasive, don't pull punches, be a 'git'. People don't care about you, so you can't really hurt them anyway"
419.
by theoh 8y ago
So what should the book (following the example of "The Newtonian Casino") be called? I mean, what is actually nontrivial (pun intended) here?
420.
by theoh 8y ago
It's fair to mention that he is well known, though in fact I'm one of the old guard that remembers when he had a higher profile. But, as with a new Paul Graham essay, surely we can critique the blog post on its merits instead of f

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