The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 530 posts.
Humans are notoriously bad at coming up with random numbers. I wanted to be able to quickly generate “random enough” numbers. I’m not looking for anything that great, I just want to be able to come up with the random digits in half a minute. Some looking around brought me to an old usenet post by George Marsaglia…
I've recently set up my own consultancy company and decided to sponsor my local UKGovCamp conference. That entitled me to a logo on the site, a shout-out during the conference, and place to put any promotional stickers. Everyone loves stickers! But I decided to bring along something different - promotional sweeties! I…
In the heart of winter, our family found joy in transforming freshly fallen snow into giant Lego-like bricks using the tops of storage bins. The children eagerly assembled these into a grand snowfort, crafting an impressive igloo with walls sturdy enough to host their snowy adventures. As dusk fell,
Long ago, in a parallel universe three doors down and one to the left of our own, OpenAI headquarters found itself in chaos. A klaxon blared overhead as red lights began flashing. A message played over a loud-speaker: “Warning! Warning! This is not a drill! Artificial General Intelligence window
I recently passed 100 days of practicing math every single day 💯 I’ve wanted to beef up my math chops for a while, but I needed a good reason that would justify the time investment. Plus…
On October 20th, my seven year old son Nikolas suffered cardiac arrest while undergoing a procedure at the hospital to treat an underlying congenital condition. The doctors performed CPR and succeeded in reviving him but ultimately he suffered catastrophic brain damage. My wife and I were in the hospital for
If you find this piece worthwhile, consider the Go Fund Me that’s funding ongoing cancer care. A story from Dan Luu, from back when he “TA’ed EE 202, a second year class on signals and systems at P…
Walk into any Japanese convenience store and you will always find a shelf dedicated to one item: onigiri. The onigiri, often translated as “rice ball”, literally means “grasping a fistful” and is in many ways Japan's original fast food, before fast food. Quick to make, quick to eat, easy
Why is everyone in such a rush? Walk into any bookstore, and you'll see how to Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours alongside endless variations offering to teach C, SQL, Ruby, Algorithms, and so on in a few days or hours. The Amazon advanced search for [ title: teach, yourself, hours, since: 2000 and found 512 such books…
Språkrådet arbeider for å styrke det norske språket og språkmangfoldet. Språkrådet er statens forvaltningsorgan i språkspørsmål og følger opp den norske språkpolitikken.
What better way to start off the new year than with a little rant.
1 There’re only three entities: log, list, structure.
On a supposedly difficult thing
[This is a slightly edited repost of an essay from my old LiveJournal] A friend recently complained about how many people lack the basic skill of believing arguments. That is, if you have a valid a…
How come so many of the most talented engineers of our time work on making our entertainment more immersive?
When the company stops growing, when the founder moves on, when HR is calling the shots, when the executives care more about real estate…
Did the Biggest Loser contestants really damage their metabolism or was something else going on?
Emerging from winter and preparing for our first flight!
Inspired by Becky Chamber's Monk & Robot Series
Discover insightful advice for young people, emphasizing choices, confidence, and personal growth through lived experiences.
The start of my sabbatical has given me a moment to reflect on my publications. But my CV only shows a list of neatly cataloged papers: title, authors, conference. Each one appearing no different from another. But how each paper ended up published is its own story, a story about people and opportunity.
🗺️ Too many invaders to keep track of; I really don't want to run another database; Web Storage to the rescue
Do fun projects
I started dabbling in entrepreneurship over 20 years ago and have experienced the feeling of stuckness more than I can recall...
Reflecting on comics that resonated for me in 2023
Fun stories from my time working as an AppleCare Dispatch contractor going door to door in Chicago.
