Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 1,420 posts.
How to Back Up Gmail In Linux
I really like Gmail, but I also like having backups of my data just in case. Here’s how to use a simple program called getmail on Unix to backup your Gmail or Google Apps email. We’ll b…
Why the secret to speedier highways might be closing some roads: the Braess paradox
"All will be well if you use your mind for your decisions, and mind only your decisions." Help me make more videos and posts! A monthly membership directly supports the channel and allows me to make more videos that inspire students and teachers around the world. You also get early access to new videos. Support with a…
How My Startup Failed
Share a story that could only come from you. A spiritual experience, unexplained mystery, or an unlikely series of coincidences.
Scheming is Believing (2005)
Scheming is Believing Stevey's Drunken Blog Rants™
The Einstein Principle: Accomplish More By Doing Less
Einstein’s Push Between the years 1912 to 1915, Albert Einstein was a focused man. His previous work on the special theory of relativity and the ... Read more
What Does $14 Million Worth of PageRank Look Like?
CircuitCity.com is back after Systemax purchased the brand and domain at bankruptcy auction for $14 million. Systemax also owns TigerDirect.com and acquired CompUSA last year. CircuitCity.com was quickly relaunched last week to capitalize on the remaining brand strength and traffic to the website.
The best way to load external JavaScript
The Official Web Site of Nicholas C. Zakas
The 6502 in “The Terminator”
In the first Terminator movie, the audience sees the world from the T-800’s view several times. It is well-known that in two instances, there is 6502 assembly code on the T-800’s HUD, and many sites have analyzed the contents: It’s Apple-II code taken from Nibble Magazine. Here are HD versions of…
Ruby’s Most Underused Keyword
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Why GPSes suck, and what to do about it
I’m the lead of the GPSD project , a service daemon that monitors GPS receivers on serial or USB ports and provides TPV (time-position-velocity) reports in a simple format on on a well-known Internet port. GPSD makes this job looks easy. But it’s not — oh, it’s decidedly not — and thereby hangs an entertaining tale of…
Vim Plugins You Should Know About, Part IV: snipmate.vim
This is the fourth post in the article series "Vim Plugins You Should Know About". This time I am going to introduce you to a plugin called "snipmate.vim". If you are intrigued by this topic, I suggest that you subscribe to my posts! For the introduction and first post in this article series, follow this link - Vim...
Automatic Differentiation: The most underused tool in the machine learning toolbox?
Update: (November 2015) In the almost seven years since writing this, there has been an explosion of great tools for automatic differentiation and a corresponding upsurge in its use. Thus, happily,…
The original IBM Thinkpad
This is the notepad (the pencil and paper kind) that in the late 80s / early 90s inspired an IBM researcher to name the company's new mobile computer the ThinkPad. To me, the IBM ThinkPad was the classic laptop computer to have. At least that was the case until I went full-time Apple and the Chinese
Daring Fireball: Copying the Wrong Thing
The key ingredient I see in successful apps, Mac or web — and, really, in creative commercial endeavors of any kind — is that the creators are building something they themselves love.
Scheme: The Swine before Perl
In November 2001 I gave an invited talk at the inaugural Lightweight Languages conference that has since become somewhat notorious (in netspace, it is said to be “ kickassing genial ”).
Your People
In your career as a geek, there's a list of essential career intangibles. These are the things you need to do in order to be successful, which are also maddenin
From Geek to Freak: How I Gained 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 Weeks
After holding off for nearly two years, I’m posting this because too many people have asked for it. The lasses should read it, too, as the same principles can be applied to bodyfat loss. I weighed 152 lbs. for four years of high school, and after training in tango in Buenos Aires in 2005, that […]
ha ha only serious
[from SF fandom, orig. as mutation of HHOK, ‘Ha Ha Only Kidding’] A phrase (often seen abbreviated as HHOS) that aptly captures the flavor of much hacker discourse. Applied especially to parodies, absurdities, and ironic jokes that are both intended and perceived to contain a possibly disquieting amount of truth, or…
Personal Webpage Responsibility Acknowledgement
This article outlines the responsibilities of users, including employees, students, and faculty, who create and maintain personal webpages to ensure that the content is appropriate, accurate, and accessible to all users.