901
Mars Problems vs. Venus Problems
Posted on Wednesday 23 Sep 2020. 825 words, 7 links. By Matt Webb.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 3,290 posts.
902
Why neural networks struggle with the Game of Life
The Game of Life is based on very simple rules, but artificial neural networks struggle to learn its rules through the classic deep learning training process.
903
How the CPython compiler works
In the first post of the series we've looked at the CPython VM. We've learned that it works by executing a series of instructions called bytecode....
904
Assange Hearing Day 15
When Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers, the US Government burgled the office of his psychiatrist to look for medical evidence to discredit him. Julian Assange has been obliged to submit himself, while in a mentally and physically weakened state and in conditions of the harshest incarceration, to examination…
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Time spent programming is often time well spent
I concur so strongly not only because he writes about RSS, which I'm on record as supporting and using. I enjoy rolling my own simple software in almost any domain. Simple has a lot of advantages. Under my control has a lot of advantages. But the biggest advantage echoes what Dr. Drang says: Programming is often more…
907
Frugality Is Non-Linear (2019)
Most people have a mental model of budgeting which is roughly linear. If you spend half as much money, your money will last twice as long. As you approach zero spending, your runway goes up to infinity.
908
How to Drive on Sand Without Getting Stuck (2017)
Tips and techniques for driving in sandy conditions. Must read before hitting the beach or dunes in your vehicle to avoid getting stuck because it is very easy to get stuck in sand. Avoid joining the 'digging club'!
909
Firefox usage is down despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up
Mozilla is in an absolute state: high overheads, falling usage of Firefox, questionable sources of revenue and now making big cuts to engineering as their income falls.
910
The Era of Visual Studio Code
Roben Kleene’s blog
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No script is too simple
I write very short scripts, sometimes for single-line commands. Here's why you should do it too.
913
2020 Bundles
The state of bundles in 2020: Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. Plus, Microsoft’s purchase of ZeniMax.
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Assange Hearing Day 14
Monday was a frustrating day as the Assange Hearing drifted deep into a fantasy land where nobody knows or is allowed to say that people were tortured in Guantanamo Bay and under extraordinary rendition. The willingness of Judge Baraitser to accept American red lines on what witnesses can and cannot say has combined…
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Small Tech
I frequently see debates about whether it's better to be a cog at a giant semi-monopoly, or to take investment money in the hopes of one day growing to be head cog at a giant semi-monopoly.
916
Really Atari ST?
This blog has previously examined a very very strange code fragment in the BIOS module of DOS. To recap, when deciding whether a boot sector might have a valid BPB, DOS checks whether the first byte is a relative jump (opcode E9h) or a short jump (opcode EBh), both used by different DOS versions. But it also checks…
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X-COM
X-COM seemed to come out of nowhere. Its release was not preceded by an enormous marketing campaign with an enormous amount of hype. It had no video demo playing in the front window of Babbages, it wasn’t advertised twelve months in advance on glossy foldout magazine inserts, it had no flashing point-of-purchase…
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How to take meeting notes
Sep 10, Thu, 2020
919
My least favorite Rust type
Idx is typically an integral type, but you can make a Range of anything, which will become important later. Here’s a range of Unit:
920
Is revenue model more important than culture?
HN Discussion Here: I always loved getting problems of the type “What is the limit as x approaches infinity” type in high-school/college. You’re given an equation (of the classic y=x format), and a…
921
Moving your SSH port isn’t security by obscurity
I just came across another post on Hacker News talking about why you shouldn’t move your SSH port off of 22 because it’s Security by Obscurity. Ther
922
Creating a Home IPv6 Network
One of the recent experiences of Linux Plumbers Conference convinced me that if you want to be part of a true open source WebRTC based peer to peer audio/video interaction, you need an internet address that’s not behind a NAT. In reality, the protocol still works as long as you can contact a stun server to tell you…
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How to catch a spy that is using a numbers station – The KGB Experience
From 2019 on, the Latvian National Archive offers access to various KGB documents.The Archive digitized operation cases and also special KGB training manuals.
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We need young programmers; We need old programmers
The software industry loves young people, but old-timers serve an important purpose, too.
925
Build Personal Moats
My favorite career advice
926
On the Use of a Life
First, to dispense with the philosophical argument: Yes, this is my life, and yes, I'm free to use — or waste — it however I please; but I don't think there's anything wrong with asking if this is how my time could be best spent. That applies doubly if the question is not merely about the choices I made but is rather…
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The Little Things: Speeding up C++ compilation
This post is based on an internal training I prepared for my employer, Locksley, and showcases some source-level techniques for improving C++ compilation times.
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Why aren’t you more serious?
Feedback about random posts and sporadic seriousness.
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Why Not Rust?
I've recently read an article criticizing Rust, and, while it made a bunch of good points, I didn't enjoy it --- it was an easy to argue with piece. In general, I feel that I can't recommend an article criticizing Rust. This is a shame --- confronting drawbacks is important, and debunking low effort/miss informed…
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We need physical audio kill switches
PARDON!?