KennyCason

I read the whole post and did not get that impression. I thought it was a pretty good write-up explaining the concept of a “partition attack” on Bitcoin (and in distributed systems in general). I had not previously been aware of this form of attack.

Sure the author linked to his service, but I believe the intent was to show that if a government could recognize the signature of encrypted traffic and block it, then it would only be easier to block portions of bitcoin transactions.

Which ultimately paves the way for a bad actor to block large portions of external transactions, while allowing local transactions, then unblock transactions, which given a sufficiently large control of the network could “undo” other external transactions, in what was described as a partition attack. Thus ultimately result in the loss of trust in Bitcoin.

Played on desktop. Love the look and feel! Scored 348.

Agreed.

We’ve been running large Elasticsearch clusters as our primary search/analytics engine. While it’s overall very stable, stuff does occasionally happen that requires an index rebuild. We use HBase as our primary store and index via map/reduce or Spark Batch.

As much as I love Elasticsearch, I definitely wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing it was the primary datastore.

This is not about mapping a fractal to a sound which is what I see more often discussed. Instead this video is about zooming into a piece of music and finding self-similarity as you zoom in.

Most definitely. Must respect the weight. Ironically, I originally injured my back when lifting weights. In my case I was just being sloppy and beer may have been involved. :) This has been a hard lesson.

I was about to mention this as well. In the list of things the author tried, they didn’t mention strength training. Since I started deadlifts, rack lifts, and more strength training in general I have had no back problems. Granted I’m sure this isn’t the solution for everyone of course, but with more desk zombies, I’m sure it’s more relevant than ever.

This is so cool! I recently just started tinkering with a fractal expressor that results in voxel world in libgdx to roam around in. But secretly in the back of my mind, I think you are building what I really want! Love it. I’ll be following your project. :)

I'll assume you are indicating that the visitor logs are often empty. Given that, I do not see how no visitors correlates to the families doing it out of vengeance or spite. In general, I feel the poster extremely amplified the reasons why people put family members in nursing homes. Based on this wording, specifically the paragraph about "letting them rot all drugged up... in a urine soaked room". This indicates a rather extreme, and I'd wager rare stance to take. I'm wondering if this is from their own anecdotal evidence.

I do know for sure nursing homes are definitely used to "remove a burden." Dealing with elders at that stage of life can very taxing, and many people would rather simply avoid it. They may even, as the poster hinted at, dislike their family member. However, even then I don't think they share as strong emotions as the poster.

Indeed. That was what I was trying to convey.

I completely agree that people in general do not want to deal with near death elders , or elders who need caretaking. As of course this is a huge burden and very distracting. I’ve also dealt with this a number of times. It’s certisnly not fun or easy. BUT all the other undertone and reasoning (e.g. spite), I completely disagree with and do not think this is representative of the majority, or even a large minority.

Holy wow. I can assure you that this is NOT what the majority of Americans who send elders to nursing homes think. It’s more often to simply avoid the burden; laziness rather than spite. Other major reasons are because their families aren’t properly equipped to take care of them. E.g. physically, mentally, financially, or non-existent family members.

Anecdotes based on my experience with mother working as nurse in nursing home, and being American.

Your first two paragraphs really stand out to me. It can be very difficult to piece these experiences into tangible sentences. It truly is ineffable. Yet, when you’re there it’s so trivially effable. It’s at times comical and yet sad when you become aware you are experiencing something ineffable and won’t be able to bring it back to convey to the world. It can only be experienced.

Once back, it can easily take a year to unpack the experience, and find the right metaphors to attempt to, almost, but not quite really, slightly describe an infinitesimal part of the experience, maybe. :)

I’m a huge fan of these sorts of simple programming languages. I consider the simplicity of Purebasic and TI-83/89 Basic to be one of the main reasons I was able to successfully get into programming in high school despite not having any programming classes. I was also simultaneously learning x86 ASM and while that was also super fun, my Basic programming was far ahead of my ASM. Being able to successfully build simple games in Basic is extremely motivating when learning to code.

In terms of wasting your time, I think it's only a waste of time if you perceive it to be a waste of time. If you had fun developing the game, then I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. Simply because, as you've noticed, releasing a successful game is in general very difficult! The odds are not in your favor. I'm also developing an Indie Game (Ninja Turdle), and will release it to steam but have pretty low expectations on any success. I'm just doing it for fun, with the extra hopes that it could make some extra cash, but if not, oh well, I will have accomplished one of my life goals of releasing a video game. If no one buys your game but you still want to get it out there, maybe just wait another half year or so, and release it as freeware, Then at least people still get to enjoy your game. That in itself is a very rewarding feeling.

Great job on the game, the videos look very smooth and I will be sure to give it a play!

This. I spent a solid year reflecting and trying to understand everything that happened during my first LSD experience. The whole thing simply transcends anything you have ever experienced.

When you “see” a strange loop involving your mind creating the physical world as you know it, and at the same time realizing the physical world enables your mind, it can take a long time to unpack. Sure when I’m here, we say that the mind is just a construct within he physical world, that just happens to be modeling the physical world. But that Doesn’t make it any less of a significant experience.

It was like seeing the concept of ying-yang (duality and mutual dependence) reflected onto mind-body problem, and everything else.

Oh great times when you get bored of all the analytical logic problems of the everyday world. :)

Grew up in Arkansas, I can confirm this phenomenon.

And no, your average Chinese person doesn’t know about the Uighur situation. And what they do know is that there are many Muslim terrorists. When I have brought it up they think I’m preaching false news or propaganda ha. I speak Chinese so get a good dosage of random and mixed conversations. Intend to just not bring it up in too critical of a sense as It’s clear I’d just become “that foreigner who is always criticizing China”.

Certainly. I try not to take too high of a moral high ground for many similar reasons. US’s constant wars/conflict, our ridiculous murder/violence/crime rates, the fact that China likely needed a very strong handed government to unify China and push it forward.

I’m just mainly sour about having crappy and extremely restricted internet, and wish more Chinese cared and could do anything about it. :)

It’s always interesting to me to see posts like this. While I certainly agree with the author’s sentiment and concerns, I feel like I never hear about Chinese people actually complain about these concerns in China. Sure I hear occasional and minor complaints about Facebook/Instagram being blocked.

If you told me to guess what percent of Chinese people actually have concerns about the heavy monitoring by their government, I’d say <1%. Most aren’t even aware of the extent of the monitoring/restrictions.

I do wish more people were aware. But there really aren’t many good ways to go about bringing awareness. If you try anything, you’ll be squashed or jailed. Me as a foreigner would also not attempt anything as it would likely mean losing my visa which means I couldn’t visit my family, etc. Quite a complex situation.

My anecdotal evidence says, yes, it can be very stressful on the marriage. :)

I agree with most people’s advice about going to Google. My additional reason for advising you to go to Google is that you seem to be on the fence. The startup option is a great option if you’re very passionate about it.

While I didn’t have a Google offer, I had a Lockheed offer and that was always a company I really liked growing up (also former Marine). It was a difficult choice for me as well, but I chose Lockheed and I have zero regrets. I learned a lot about large organizations and got to work with a huge team of very smart people. Many of which who very directly mentored me. I worked there for two years + 3 years previously for internships.

When the startup bug became irresistible, I knew it was time and went and co-founded DataRank with some friends. The Lockheed experience helped me in the sense that it “validated” me, much like Google on your resume will certainly validate you.

In regards to money: When I finally went the startup root I made 1/4 my salary and had zero benefits for the first 1.5 years. If you’re passionate enough about it you won’t really care about that 1/3 salary (for a while at least). Then I bumped my salary to 1/3 my previous salary! It wasn’t until after 2 years when my salary returned to 80% my previous salary. Eventually a surpassed my previous salary, then double and tripled it, and now I optimize more for doing what I love.

My recommendation is to go to school if you can. In addition to getting a good formal education in computer science, you also get exposed to many other subjects such as math, philosophy, physics, etc. Even classes like English/writing that may seem unrelated, all help you become a better professional as you discover how important communication and documentation is in the workforce. The university experience can be very fulfilling. You are also exposed to various extracurricular activities which can further supplement your growth. For example I was part of the game development club and even got to lead it for a few years. That bit of experience was not only super fun, but also helped me land my first job at Lockheed after graduation. I also randomly stumbled into learning Japanese and Chinese and got a scholarship to study abroad In Japan for a whole year. Absolutely amazing and life changing experience.

I also made some of my best life-long friends, and now business partner, in college. As you can see going to college is more than just the degree.

As others also mentioned having a degree significantly improves your chances of getting a programming job. I’ve helped many people prep for job interviews, both with and without a degree, there is a stark difference for better or worse.

I’m not saying college is a must-have. But I’m saying it can be a life changing and amazing experience, that is way deeper than just studying computer science.

I still reflect on those nostalgic days sitting in the coffee shop or student union on campus discussing math, philosophy, politics, programming with numerous people, many smarter or more knowledgeable than myself. I feel that I had a major “awakening” in college. :)

This is a really good point I’d like to second.

Completely agree. I understand the intent and sentiment of the OP, however in my mind abandoning and further isolating ourselves from China, will not be ineffective. I just don’t see the whole world lining up and agreeing to do this. This would also negatively affect the United States. Even if it did succeed in limiting China’s growth, it would be at the cost of billions of innocent Chinese people who just want to live better. The government would probably just control the story and China would become more isolated and I doubt a New Democratic government would just open up in its place.

I think the only way this is going to work is to continue investing in China. Play their game, call them out on foul play and punish China on a case-by-case basis. As the Chinese population becomes even more united, rich, educated, we have to hope that China naturally evolves towards a more open form of government and economy. It’s already making massive progress compared to where it was before.

In recap, this will be a long process of challenge and play. Any extreme action such as further or completely isolating China is not only extremely unlikely to even be possible, but also unproductive.

I feel that my life is a giant Sine wave oscillating between learning and unlearning lessons. Haha I will not use my phone for large periods of time, then years later realize that I fell back into the trap, and begin taking steps to take back my life. This happens with health, hobbies, and various other aspects of my life all at different times. Fortunately, as I get older there seems to be some convergence. :)

Alternative method: Drink too much beer, accidentally break 1000 dollar iPhone, realize that you don’t want to pay another 1000, so you force yourself to go 6 months without a phone as punishment. Conclusion: it was inconvenient at first, but by the end it was pretty nice. Nowadays I just turn off all my notifications.

/disclaimer I didn’t read the article.

Completely agree. The sad part is that I know many Chinese people who have studied in the United States and want to stay, but we do not make it even remotely easy to do so.

Correct. I can confirm. This is what I do as well.

I wonder if Google having a stronger presence and relationships in China, even if censored, would in fact be a better alternative than not having a presence in China. Another way the west can influence China and its direction is from the inside. It seems pretty clear that just avoiding the market due to morality isn’t really achieving anything. It just leaves a bigger void for local Chinese companies to fill. I’m in China now and I can tell you most people don’t really know or care about Google. Also, for the most part, your average person doesn’t even perceive the fact that their internet is restricted, and those that do, use VPNs anyways and have probably traveled abroad at some point. I’m beginning to think we should be injecting as much influence INTO China as possible if we want to have any ground later.

That makes sense. I probably overlooked the difference between grammatically correct and sounding natural. Chinese (and Japanese) have such a different cultural background that I also find the "natural way" to speak is quite different than English for example. The natural way to speak takes many many years. I've only ever seriously studied East Asian languages so have been able to build on top of each other to some degree. I just assumed this would be an issue in all languages, though now I could see how learning Spanish for example, is likely far less "eccentric" for a native English speaker than something like Chinese/Japanese.

Thanks for your response!