HN user

CaptainMorgan

565 karma

Drink responsibly.

Cheers

Posts61
Comments87
View on HN
www.usatoday.com 14y ago

Oregon couple downsizes, lives ultrasimple life

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
en.wikipedia.org 15y ago

Zipf's law

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
news.yahoo.com 15y ago

Goodbye Iraq: Last US combat brigade heads home

CaptainMorgan
4pts5
women.timesonline.co.uk 15y ago

How our brain controls our accent

CaptainMorgan
3pts0
blogs.kansascity.com 15y ago

"Boston Med" producer Terry Wrong: How I got all that access

CaptainMorgan
3pts1
www.nytimes.com 15y ago

Congress Rethinks Its Ban on Internet Gambling

CaptainMorgan
3pts0
www.computerworld.com 16y ago

Some experts question efforts to identify cyberattackers

CaptainMorgan
2pts0
www.wired.com 16y ago

Security Watch: Beware the NSA’s Geek-Spy Complex

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
page.mi.fu-berlin.de 16y ago

An empirical comparison of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx, and Tcl

CaptainMorgan
38pts16
cryingwife.com 16y ago

The Official Crying Wife at Movies Site

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.nytimes.com 16y ago

The Spies Who Got Left in the Cold

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
sandersn.com 16y ago

Solving Cryptograms, Part 1

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
feeds.sciencedaily.com 16y ago

Poisonous Prehistoric 'Raptor' Discovered in China

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.wired.com 16y ago

TJX Hacker ‘Will Never Commit Any Crime Again’

CaptainMorgan
2pts0
feeds.sciencedaily.com 16y ago

Men Think Their Dance Moves Improve With Age

CaptainMorgan
1pts1
www.sciencedaily.com 16y ago

Formula to Detect an Author’s Literary ‘fingerprint’

CaptainMorgan
2pts0
www.sciencedaily.com 16y ago

Facebook (& Sys Biologists) Take Note: Network Analysis Reveals True Connections

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.courant.com 16y ago

SCIENCE OF MEMORY: Researchers To Study Pieces Of Unique Brain

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.sciencedaily.com 16y ago

Program Uses Interactive Genetic Algorithm to Help Witnesses Remember Criminals

CaptainMorgan
19pts5
www.sciencenews.org 16y ago

World's biggest atom smasher sets first record

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.informationweek.com 16y ago

Bill Would Ban P2P Use By Federal Employees

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.sciencedaily.com 16y ago

Search Engines Are Source of Learning

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.linuxjournal.com 16y ago

Paranoid Penguin - Brutally Practical Linux Desktop Security

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.theregister.co.uk 16y ago

Crypto pioneer and security chief exits Sun

CaptainMorgan
3pts0
www.newscientist.com 16y ago

Ripples in space divide classical and quantum worlds

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.sciencedaily.com 16y ago

Facial Biometrics System Capable of Creating a Facial 'DNA'

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.wired.com 16y ago

The Troubles of Korea’s Influential Economic Pundit

CaptainMorgan
7pts4
www.wired.com 16y ago

C++ Smackdown

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
news.yahoo.com 16y ago

Ex-Madoff computer programmers arrested

CaptainMorgan
1pts0
www.guardian.co.uk 16y ago

What should you say to a parent scared of Wi-Fi?

CaptainMorgan
24pts45

For those of us (me) that do not have alternatives, take care to note that the petition makes use of a check box to signal that you support the cause, yet have no service alternatives. It would be helpful for those on the fence and feeling hopeless to read how this will be implemented in the final draft. Do we become targets for Comcast or other such companies (monopolies) with no viable competitors... scrutinized and watched if the petition fails, labeled as a "un"-valuable customers from here on forward?

If you're like me and more of an optimist, I'm hoping that it will be used in such a way that reflects positively on us the consumers.

Seems simple to me: the major issue with this resume is the amount of noise. If you're submitting this via email or through online application forms you should stick to one page. If this is to be displayed on your website then I would just reduce the number of images(possibly all of them), and do a spelling check. Objective statements should be short and to the point. Same with descriptions... I really don't see the need for the long paragraphs and the bloated number of tags you're using. Whether it's a site or as a printout on paper, the hiring manager is limited on time.

Take a look at some of these examples, a lot of them are ideal in terms of efficiency and noise. Best of luck.

http://microformats.org/wiki/hresume-examples-in-wild

I had Lasik approximately three years ago in the month of November, using wave/topography (expensive) technology. After waiting whatever the usual time period for enhancements after healing, I went back in for a second surgery around January/February, to my right eye because the Dr (or the machine) didn't get the numbers right. I was 20/15 in my left eye, and about 20/25 in my right eye after the surgery and this was a difference I could literally see, sorry for the pun, so it did cause me on a certain level, problems.

Had that corrected and haven't had to go back since, with both eyes at an astounding (to me) 20/15. I was a -6.0 in my left and -6.5 in my right before the surgery.

I do see halos at night from other vehicle lights, but I was prepared to accept this because my glasses prescription already gave me halos. I do not find them after the surgery to be a huge pain.

To this day, I occasionally use eye drops - but that's not even a complaint. I'll take using eye drops any day of the week versus the coke bottle glasses I had to use 24/7.

I program and stare at computer screens just as much as the next programmer, but it hasn't damaged my vision. If anything, it's as someone else said with the issues of staring at screens with minimal air flow through the office: dry.

Like others, this operation made me question why I didn't get it sooner. It truly is life changing, as it was for me. I don't consider what happened to me as a "complication" but as something less. I could've walked out of there blind forever, but I didn't. So, indeed, you have to understand the risks before going in.

Agreed. For high traffic communication as this link implies, email is obviously not very efficient, unless you favor that much work. In person meet-ups, IMs or IRC chat for your company, are all better ideas if your time is more valuable in other work environment aspects.

He got your email because he has your laptop - same for the backup software. Depending on how valuable your information is consider a sizable monetary amount to get the name of the person he bought it from or just offer more than the laptop's value to get it back and end it. Consider reporting to the police what you're doing... if a physical/in-person exchange of the information occurs and he didn't take you up on your offer, the police might be able to legally influence the buyer into giving up the details of the seller/thief since the buyer committed a crime too.

Good luck.

I know this isn't the typical hacker-preferred content (possibly), but after reading this article, and having watched Hopkins and currently Boston Med, this article made me think of doctors (surgeons, nurses, interns, etc..) as being a different kind of hacker. Wrong makes notes of the fact (paraphrasing) that you can do the same show again, with the same staff, same location, but undoubtedly the outcome would be very different. Something struck a chord with me in the hacker-realm...

"Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

I'm not an Israeli, but I would have to assume that maybe the poster thought Israeli hackers might find this intellectually curious. Also, there are and were plenty of topics on health care legislation in the US, so this doesn't appear to be outside the scope of HN rules, but I could be wrong.

Flagging, in my opinion, is what killed the HN post - not a policy or moderator decision. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You asked about beauty and history, with an idea on how to discover... personally, I started with "The Math Explorer: A Journey Through the Beauty of Mathematics": (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591021375). That book got me hooked and from there I went on to pre-cal studies at university, eventually completing sequences in discrete structures, probability, up to and including calculus III, a level I never imagined I'd get to. That book was literally my starting point since I never took high school math seriously nor was I any good at that level. I think it'll serve you well considering the level at which you're at, as it did me. I've reread that book four times to date and still enjoy it.

I saw the headline for this submittal, saw it was unixwiz.net, recognized Freidl and thought hmm... didn't I just post that? But ironically when I arrived at the page it appeared very different to me. The article I posted a year ago seemed shorter in comparison and to me it would seem Freidl has updated it a lot... but I could be wrong, as is often the case.

I second the lower case, being a Linux user type. I was also expecting more analysis in this post than just whether the zeros were slashed or not. adg below posted a link to a former and similar article that I think has that analysis I was looking for.

I believe this is only true for civil cases, as indicated in your last sentence regarding the divorce. I found this definition on criminal contempt:

In a criminal contempt charge, which is aimed at punishing bad behavior, a defendant is afforded the due-process safeguards of the criminal system, including a possible jury trial.

I'm not a lawyer, but I would suspect that if Chen is under suspicion for a felony, the above definition might apply.

Agreed. The article states permanence, but who's to say they're not actually pulling the curtain on you and keeping your information on file? I think the bottom line is, if one is not comfortable with the sharing of information, don't sign up in the first place and consider the repercussions of your actions before making anything public if what you might do would later concern you... in that sense similar to getting a tattoo.

Definitely an info addict here, in your terms... I like to think I let that information come to me through email, one of the only mediums I check and if not, I let my natural curiousity drive me. However, rather than an addict, which might be acceptable, I prefer to call it a case of being a human sponge. I consider the stimulation of my brain to be a great exercise and therefore of great importance, having learned it from a late family member through anecdotal evidence of them having lived a very long and intelligent life. Of course, even too much of a good thing can be bad, so a healthy balance should be encouraged.

I can't help but point to this: http://www.ehow.com/how_2070387_keep-aging-brain-active.html

Scroll down to where it says "Exercise the Brain". While I believe the 1st notation is obvious - exercise both body and brain of which I do to deal with it, not everyone has the energy to keep a regular physical regiment. However, I practically endorse #2: Keep your brain active every day. Play trivia games, do crossword puzzles, word games or read daily. and #3: Start something new to challenge your brain. Take up a brand new hobby, learn a new language or write a book. Get on the computer and research something that interests you, like genealogy or your family history.

To answer your question, sitting here and being an info addict are quite possibly two different things. It's all about prioritization and balance - in that case maybe a better question might be: could one instead be a HN addict?

Early adopter here too. I fully enjoyed the linked university concept - before universities started to engage more in their online departments, facebook was the only way outside of email or class to connect to a classmate about the course in question. I was deeply disappointed when they removed the university/courses currently taking, feature.

Why I read fiction 16 years ago

This is ironic timing for me. For more than five years I haven't read a single fiction book. Recently, I saw more than a few articles on being well-read and they all offered convincing arguments. I also enjoy how this linked article points to the positive social factors related to fiction. This was an area I found myself lacking and after being further convinced that reading fiction: the art of being deeply immersed in a book's story, often relating to or putting one's self in the situation, can reduce stress - I decided to make a change.

Recently, driving by the local library, my wife asks "what are you getting?", to which I replied, "I think it's time I start getting back in touch with the classics." I quickly picked up and read Of Mice and Men and The Pearl. I never knew how good these books were, books that I once read in high school and at the time never understood and ultimately despised having to read. My next read from the late Steinbeck will be Grapes of Wrath.

Lately though, I've been addicted to Vince Flynn's political thriller novels, and having never read Clancy, some critics say he's a Clancy protege. Flynn's books are incredibly difficult to put down, in my opinion.

Today, I'm about 60/40 for non-fiction/fiction reading and I find myself happier in general. Sometimes at least for me, always reading non-fiction can get kind of bland. Reading fiction a waste of time? Unless it's someone's only form of reading, I wholeheartedly disagree and I'm glad I got back into them.

To the best of my knowledge, git is for smaller teams that need more of an ability to be dynamic (maybe web apps dev) whereas subversion is for larger teams that need centralization (network/server; maybe large systems - however Torvalds would disagree here since git was initially for kernel dev).

Great article... wish I read it four years ago, then again in hindsight it's nice to be critical of a journalist having knowing the content a bit. Particularly, this was quite comical: "Nadal ... his way of always cutting his eyes warily from side to side as he walks the baseline, like a convict expecting to be shanked." soo true, ha.

Pretty accurate description of, "if you've only watched pros on TV, then you really have no idea how" fast the game really is or how hard they are hitting the ball, that suffering from TV you lose that extra dimension to viewing the game, also where he talks about the foreshortening of the court assists in lessening the effect these players actually have if you were in person.

Another area that I found interesting: "The metaphysical explanation is that Roger Federer is one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws."

"... a creature whose body is both flesh and, somehow, light." Well, if you've ever really looked at Federer, he really is one of the skinniest out there, in both tennis and overall sports... even Tiger Woods who is the same height and weighs less than Fedex, looks at least to me, heavier than Fedex... can't deny Woods has more muscle mass than Fed and might well explain Fed's ability to float around the court.

Finally, what can we learn when he talks about what the game looks like to Fedex? It's almost like it really does depend on what's going on inside his brain, pistons firing like no other brains can.

Good find.

[dead] 17 years ago

From the FAQ:

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

Thusly, as a hacker or someone that knows them, I can't help but find this to be highly in the Off-Topic category, uninteresting and certainly not gratifying my intellectual curiosity.

I can't help with SF, but I've been looking in the Boston-North area for a while, and in my experience apartment companies require a years worth of proof so that you can prove you can pay off the lease. I dropped the apartment market a while back and have been strictly looking at condos - which do require a more stringent investigation into your finances.

Is living in SF a must - how are the burbs or just outside of SF comparable? You may be able to find something for less a month and also easier on the financial investigation.

Best of luck.

My advice is absolutely not. References are just that - to be looked up for something you've lost or just don't have the capacity for in your own memory; they're not made to be read back to back, or at least I could not do that. Question to ask might be, would you read the English dictionary back to back? Kudos to those that can or would. :)

You talked about learning C and ASM, and K&R and the other books (excluding C:ARM and CS:APP) are fine learning tools. So to answer your question, do not read it first, but have it by your side when something isn't clear... think of it like a dictionary to look up functions that were not well addressed (or even talked about at all) in the learning books.

I'd like to second the K&R book.

In addition, I've found if you're taking an engineering approach, "Applications Programming in ANSI C" by Johnsonbaugh & Kalin was to me a very valuable learning tool.

Do not go without the "C: A Reference Manual" by Harbison & Steele, which to me has been the most valuable reference book to have on my person if I couldn't get or chose not to fancy a good Internet reference.

For Assembly, my coverage has been limited to MIPS, which was in comparison to Intel's version, a lot easier to understand and thus learn from. Check out "Computer Architecture and Design" by Patterson & Hennesy. While of course mostly a book on architecture, it's rooted in learning MIPS to understand architecture and comes with the SPIM simulator software(which I assume could be had online). I also own the book by Bryant & O'Hallaron, "Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective" and personally I found that learning MIPS first brought home Intel's ASM a little softer.

The latter part of your post is largely why we didn't go with this option, although it would be nice if they could take care of their waste themselves.

Not all at the same time, I grew up with cats, dogs, iguanas, fish, ferrets, hamsters and rabbits. By far for me cats have been the most worthwhile investment. Dealing with the small inconvenience of the litter box is something I shouldn't complain about since simply having my cats around for companionship has paid off such valuable dividends.

Given your parameters, I highly suggest a cat, fish or both. When programming, I've found that my companion of a cat (two tiger striped male and female, 6 yrs and 4 yrs old) are fantastic mood enhancers, that is when they're not crying like babies for food. Barely any maintenance when compared to a dog, but the only downside for me personally is cleaning the litter box (could always get the automatic litter box that cleans itself), but it's extremely necessary if you expect your pet to be clean, which translates to a more hygienic living space for you too.

Fish are also great mood enhancers but can be a bit more work in my opinion than cats, at least for the initial setup and routine tank cleaning. But overall - just sitting back, reflecting on some code while staring at the fish tank has worked wonders for me producing small epiphanies.

The way I understand it and correct me if I'm wrong, but as shin_lao pointed out above: "Full drive encryption is meant to protect against theft or loss, not against trojan horses (be that hardware or software)."

This is a good point with regard to the Maid scenario, so I don't think the developers of TC were running away from the question at all.

And from the article: "After some 1-2 minutes, the target's laptop gets infected with Evil Maid Sniffer that will record the disk encryption passphrase when the user enters it next time." -- so the attacker is depending on the user reentering the system, and they are depending on confiscating the system afterwards. Loss and theft scenarios where an attacker has not utilized EMS, or is just out to steal the laptop, still protects the data.

So in summation, you need encryption to protect against loss or theft, which may be sufficient for your vulnerability level (maybe you don't travel a lot but one day you simply lost your laptop), but you need to go further to protect against what looks to me to be a more advanced version of a keylogger (EMS - frequent traveler with sensitive information).

At first I wasn't seeing backed up claims for "shutting down the Internet"... I read that over one time and I thought, okay, they're talking about (new) cybersecurity applications for already existing Federal and Department of Commerce systems and implementations. So I thought, okay - providing more security for governmental systems is a good thing, right?

Then I read it through a second time: "The bill also calls on the Department of Commerce to establish and maintain a clearinghouse on information related to cybersecurity threat and vulnerability information to public and private infrastructure deemed "critical" by the President. The Secretary of Commerce would be given access to this information "without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access." The bill would also give the President new authority to "declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network.""

''deemed critical'' ? I welcome your opinion, but to me that seems like too much power for one person. I'd say Google is quite critical... so let me get this straight, Rockefeller wants to allow the President to be able to shut down anything (like Google) he feels is necessary? pfft I think I'd like to recommend these old fogie Senators to actually use the Internet - don't attempt to interfere with something you don't understand.

Upon waking up I have 1-2 cups of coffee, minus the sugar.

Throughout the day I have close to a gallon of water. Also, I drink Weight Watchers soda: contains no sodium, no sugar, no calories, etc... Coke zeros contain sodium, no? If a drink contains sodium I always thought it defeated the purpose of drinking it - which in my case has always been to quench thirst... sodium acts as an agent to make you drink more never actually quenching my thirst - in my experience.

As far as alcoholic beverages, my handle speaks for itself. :)

Indeed. There's an okay discussion going on at New Scientist, where they talk about how we can liken a human baby to doing the exact same thing - getting what they can (food). So I think we can use a better word than "exploiting" which has negative connotations - it's more based on survival. I must say though that when I put down the wet food, I certainly get a different cry, likely because they like it and I give it to them only when I think it's appropriate (rare) - not when they want it. They do run out of dry food daily or every other day, but they don't call for it, or cry for it... they'll come running when the bag or box is opening, but it's like "aww.. dry food again!? I guess we'll live".

Baby pups at malls or breeding grounds are simply too difficult to ignore. ;)

With both of these species, going back to the Egyptians for cats, and not sure when for dogs, over time they've evolved to be alongside us - and sheesh, we have kennels, animal daycare, grooming, the Wag Hotel in San Fran, and a new airline that is in talks to be only used for our pets?? Isn't it our fault as humans for the "exploitation"? I don't think it should come as a surprise, but the media putting a negative spin on it isn't necessary I think...

This is gonna sound strange an probably not a discussion for HN, but I found the study interesting...

I'm a cat person, but I also like dogs - I just don't have the time or space to give them a good home. So, meanwhile I'll suffice with cats. I always make it a point to train my dogs with the utmost respect and obedience, had them most of growing up just like cats, so I usually put in a lot of time training dogs, but we haven't had one in about 4-5 years.

Maybe this study does 'suggest' or show something (I haven't seen the data), but I know my cat doesn't control me. At least anyways, when it comes to food. There are some that I can see where they are trying to manipulate, but heck, what would you do if you were starving? I usually leave food down (dry) all day and night for my present felines, unless it's wet food it doesn't smell, and I only give them wet food when I feel they deserve it (maybe once or twice a week), based on the type of day I've had. And reiterating, I'm a bastard when it comes to discipline, so it makes sense when they give my wife more attention...

They'll cry when they want to get out of a room that I've locked them in for their safety on some occasions, but that's about it - and when that happens, there's no doubt I'm firm and stubborn, so based on the study, my cats don't yet have the cry down for us, lol.. are they stupid? Maybe. The article says that they've only figured out the call for food - nothing else. Funny? definitely. But evil? Some are, the current ones I own are not, but I have had owned troubled cats before, I've also owned troubled dogs before. My local radio show host insinuated from this and other studies that cats are evil; there's another article floating around about whether they're "Little Satans" and if they get the "concept of nukes" to watch out.

http://atheologian.blogspot.com/2009/07/study-suggests-cats-...

LOL

Ultimately, I love animals, and like any good hacker, a cat while typically nocturnal can certainly be a worthwhile companion while hacking away in the wee hours. My advisor when I'm busy at work: http://img194.imageshack.us/i/myadvisor.jpg/

So maybe the topic of hackers owning animals has come up before -- care to share any thoughts on your pets with respect to this article?

Cheers

I'm with the initial commenter's: this is crap.

What I find ironic and laughable at the same time is the article doesn't mention usability of the software deployed by the two sites and how that might actually factor in. Assuming it has a racial connotation is absurd. IMO, Facebook has a better interface, making it easier on the eyes, makes use of less ads, etc. etc. -- any part of that racial? I'd like to answer by using more derogatory words in this space because the assumption by this author is simply ignorant, but then I'd be lowering myself to this author's level.