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A primer on Bezier curves
A detailed explanation of Bézier curves, and how to do the many things that we commonly want to do with them.
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I take illegal drugs for inspiration
I take illegal drugs for inspiration Daily Telegraph, Saturday May 21st 2005, pp 17-18 (Note: This version is very slightly different from the published, edited, version) © Sue Blackmore 2005 Every year, like a social drinker who wants to prove to herself that she’s not an alcoholic, I give up cannabis for a month. It…
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JavaScript is Dead. Long Live JavaScript
For 16 years, JavaScript has been the language of the web browser. This language has enabled the building of compelling web applications and contributed to the success of the web. Other scripting languages could have filled the role JavaScript does but JavaScript was in the right place at the right time. Microsoft…
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If you didn’t run code written by assholes, your machine wouldn’t boot
This was passed on to me by Ben Elliston, ex-gcc hacker and good guy. Amusing in context, but the corollary is that working on free software means you'll encounter such people. You may have to work with them. You may have to argue with them (and they may be right). Quite some time ago I was horrified by the private…
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Lovelace's Leap
There's a great deal said about Ada, Countess of Lovelace that I find misguided. And, worse, the real intellectual triumph of Lovelace is ...
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The Ambiguity of Open and H.264 vs. VP8
Google has recently announced their intention to remove the H.264 video codec from its Chrome browser. This decision has been smeared as an evil campaign for controlling video on the web, akin to not-invented-here syndrome. It’s also been lauded as the push that the web needs to remain open and free. Mostly, it’s been…
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Experts often end up where they started as beginners
Experts often end up where they started as beginners. If you've never seen the word valet, you might pronounce it like VAL-it. If you realize the word has a French origin, you would pronounce it val-A. But the preferred pronunciation is actually VAL-it. Beginning musicians play by ear, to the extent that they can play
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How Thomas Jefferson prepared for meetings
Here's an interesting historical anecdote from Karl Fogel's Producing Open Source Software on the value of preparing for meetings. In his multi-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson and His Time, Dumas Malone tells the story of how Jefferson handled the first meeting held to decide the organization of the…
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A “perfect” voting system
A voting system that sidesteps Arrow's theorem entirely. The scare quotes around
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Clojure & Python, Side by Side
Function order has been rearranged here and there to appease Clojure's single-pass compiler.
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Applying to YC as a Single Founder
In a comment I made on Hacker News , I expressed my desire to write an article about the differences and misconceptions between being a single-founder and having co-founders. This is not that article, but it is related. The application for YC W12 is open, and in response to my comment I received a few emails asking…
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Don't give bullshit advice
I chatted with a young guy last night about his new startup idea. He’s got a vision for a social commerce app with a few cool spins on it. As I listened to him, I was thinking about how I had heard this exact pitch half a dozen times before. I also knew I had a lot to offer him in terms of help. I have a good friend…
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Twitter and Me
This is the story of Twitter and the last four years of my life. It's a pretty long story, but one that needs to be told.
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What it's like building a real website in Node.js
Tech Nerd. CEO.
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Dealing with Timezones in Python
The problems with timezones and Python’s datetime object and how you would properly use them.