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NobleSir

64 karma · joined March 3, 2015

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NobleSir··on Ask HN: If you don't permit telecommuting, why?
ah yeah, I actually use a macbook and surface pro 2 at the same time as pictured: (http://imgur.com/a/fqf3P) combined specs are actually similar to a new mb pro (combined 512 gb ssd, 16 gb ram, ~4.7 pounds), and cost is less, given that the sp2 was bought used so total ~ $1900.
NobleSir··on Ask HN: If you don't permit telecommuting, why?
for whiteboarding: onenote on surfaces? (which syncs almost real-time) This is what I use, for those kind of things, as someone working remotely
NobleSir··on Windows 10 a failure by Microsoft's own metric
Well, I wasn't there so idk about that, but it looks like 3/7 of the "most important announcements of build 2016" are directly related to windows 10 mobile ^[1]

1. "Microsoft is launching its latest version of Windows 10"

(you realize this is for pc and mobile?)

3. "Facebook committed to bringing native apps to Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform"

7. "Windows 10 Mobile users will be able to "beam" Continuum sessions to compatible monitors."

The point I take from this is that they seem to be considering windows 10 as one platform (desktop and mobile), which makes sense to me since the several apps I've written for UWP worked on mobile/desktop with the same code. Also I think the react-native-windows news isn't listed there, but I personally consider it fairly huge news for win 10 mobile (and desktop) as someone who uses react-native for android / ios

[1] http://www.windowscentral.com/most-important-announcements-b...

NobleSir··on HyperTerm – JS/HTML/CSS Terminal
For windows, conemu ( http://conemu.github.io ) is a bit more annoying to configure than terminal.app, but works just as well, and even has the more powerful built in features like tmux. Of course you have to run something like msys2 (or maybe the bash for windows, but I haven't tried it yet) to get the "unix" environment.
NobleSir··on Malware in the browser: how you might get hacked by a Chrome extension
4ish years ago I had an old, unupdated netbook get infected with conduit extension, which spread through the sync mechanism to my newer laptops.
NobleSir··on Windows 10 a failure by Microsoft's own metric
Well, I haven't used the 620, but my anecdotal experience has been the opposite.

List of recent devices I own that are unbroken:

lumia 521, 950, and Kyocera Rise.

broken:

nexus 7 (screen after 2 months), asus fonepad note 6 (screen after ~1 year), galaxy s4 (won't connect to tower, probably my fault for installing roms incorrectly)

In particular the 950 has been dropped in the river in breckenridge, and the 521 in a natural hotspring / taken on many rainy hikes / dropped more times than I can count.

NobleSir··on Windows 10 a failure by Microsoft's own metric
>given up on mobile

I don't know about that, they sure have been pushing a lot of new builds lately :

https://www.reddit.com/domain/blogs.windows.com/search?q=bui...

though I guess they did sell part of Nokia or something.. Sad because those phones are super durable for someone like me who breaks devices constantly

NobleSir··on Justice department 'uses aged computer system to frustrate Foia requests'
So glad I pay taxes
NobleSir··on Your license to use React.js can be revoked if you compete with Facebook
So, basically if you plan to compete with facebook territory as a small startup, then it seems to follow that you either

(1) Have patents / use a react alternative, such as vue (note this is annoying since there is no cross-platform native app version of vue ) (2) Don't have patents / protect your intellectual property in other ways (maybe by publishing a public whitepaper or something) / use React / Bust your ass since facebook can likely implement better and faster than any small team.

NobleSir··on Your license to use React.js can be revoked if you compete with Facebook
>So, in that case, I don't feel like Facebook is really being contrary here. They are basically saying, "As long as you don't sue us for patent infringement, we promise not to sue you for any patent infringement related to our open source software (including React).

So basically if you have this awesome, let's say, middle out compression algorithm patent, and have an interface in react, then they can use your middle out without being sued? (Just trying to clarify what you are saying here..)

NobleSir··on Robert Fano has died
just looked myself up through that link, and apparently, me too!
NobleSir··on Bolt: Anonymous Payment Channels for Decentralized Currencies
Afaik there is lightning, thunder, raiden, and now bolt. That said, bolt looks pretty useful on first skim, and I wouldn't be surprised if it gets implemented for monero (I know the authors are the zcash authors, but on first skim looks applicable to any coin)
NobleSir··on Apple is killing the headphone jack
One downside compared to micro-usb in my experience was having my macbook stop charging after (apparently) using the wrong usb-C adapter. I don't think I ever worried about which actual adapter I used for a micro-usb device, but I guess you have to be more careful which usb-c chargers you use... another example: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/google-engineer-finds... )
NobleSir··on Why I'll never abbreviate a variable as long as I live
>Why is okay for mathemeticians to abbreviate things but programmers? Is it because they deal in more abstract entities where the name is irrelevant?

for example, xyz^2 in a piece of written math means something different than it would in a program (in the math case we are obviously not taking the variable "xyz" and squaring it). I guess what I am trying to say with this example is that perhaps variable names in math are one symbol because concatenation, in many cases, already means "multiply".

NobleSir··on Experimenting with Post-Quantum Cryptography
cool, thanks
NobleSir··on Experimenting with Post-Quantum Cryptography
Maybe this is a naive question, not knowing chrome well, but is the source available? Would love to play around with this..
NobleSir··on “I have a copy of a Terrorism Blacklist. Should it be shared?”
Eh, I don't think we should discourage whistleblowers because it's not "cool" anymore because someone else did it first..
NobleSir··on How Signal Beats WhatsApp
Ah ok I'm not necessarily so much interested in using it, but have been looking into the details of the signal ratchet recently, and was wondering what the specific changes / rationale..
NobleSir··on How Signal Beats WhatsApp
Would also love to hear a point-by-point comparison of the two..
NobleSir··on How to Backdoor Diffie-Hellman
I see - I searched for a while and it seems (if I'm reading correctly) that right in the RFC from 1999 it says to use / check prime-ness of the modulus: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2631 so I'm still a bit confused - maybe the point is that it's commonly not done?
NobleSir··on How to Backdoor Diffie-Hellman
For someone whose almost exclusively studied cryptography in cyclic curve groups rather than cyclic integer groups (coming from an algebraic geometry background). Maybe someone can explain to me why the modulus isn't always chosen to be prime for DH? Is there some reason you would ever want to allow composite modulus in DH?
NobleSir··on Why isn’t the fundamental theorem of arithmetic obvious? (2011)
My favorite proofs of these basic number theory facts are in Apostols, Intro to Analytic Number Theory. At best the FTA using the proof there is only slightly less than obvious (of course obviousness probably varies widely based on mathematical background / maturity).
NobleSir··on Ask HN: How do you take notes other than using paper?
I used a script which organized latex/ screenshots of papers the first two years of my ph.d, which sounds sort if like what your talking about.. After that I switched to (premium) OneNote, mainly for the handwriting capability, which is nicer for quick math notes than latex Imo.
NobleSir··on Why Online Voting Is a Danger to Democracy
Thanks I didn't know those terms.
NobleSir··on Why Online Voting Is a Danger to Democracy
I'm not going to claim that "current" electronic voting machines are good, but the article makes no convincing arguments beyond an "I am a computer scientist" appeal to authority that it "couldn't" work. Honestly if you are going to talk about the problems involved in voting at least discuss some of the interesting anonymity preserving and deniable cryptographic techniques people have come up with- ring signatures, blockchain verification, etc. Maybe he's just assuming the powers that be would never let an actual trustless system get into play. If I can manage and view my money trustlessly with, e.g., bitcoin (and verify all transactions back to the original block) then there is no reason I shouldn't be able to do the same for votes - and verify all votes back to the original block.
NobleSir··on Bitcoin crosses $10B market cap again
I wish.. I just spent 5 years of minimum wage grad school so my pockets are not that deep.
NobleSir··on Bitcoin crosses $10B market cap again
This is inevitable as everyone saw what happened at the litecoin halving last summer (if you don't pay attention to such things, it was a massive spike then dump).
NobleSir··on Mathematicians are chronically lost and confused (2014)
As someone who just finished a ph.d. in (non-applied) math I would agree profit incentives are a large percentage of the reason - in programming, you can learn enough basic skills to make money, and then smoothly transition that to higher skill / profit levels just through the experience you gain doing more actual programming. In math, you can't really make money with a lower level of math skill (your options of making money at a lower math level are maybe accounting or teaching, and neither of these provides a transition to deeper math skill levels). Thus your option to increase your math skill is to tough it out through 5 years of grad school making about minimum wage, and then another three years of a postdoc, making a 1/3-1/2 of the average software developer salary, and then you can start making more money if you are lucky enough in the problems you choose, and work hard enough.

I would guess the more applied math you care about / the closer to software your math is, the better you can do as a self-taught. I actually know of one guy who transitioned from an engineering ph.d. to teaching applied math doing self-taught / working on fluid dynamics in aerospace, but I expect the examples of someone doing this in more abstract / pure areas are extremely few.

NobleSir··on Show HN: Vector: a Matrix-powered open-source collaboration Web/Android/iOS app
Except email and gmail are words that are clearly related (and suggest message transference) even for someone who doesn't know linear algebra..
NobleSir··on Julian Assange: Google Working Closely with Hillary Clinton’s Campaign
Not sure I'm understanding your rebuttal - in your example are the doctors the politicians, or the providers of the voting system? If the two doctors are the politicians, then I think you are misunderstanding my point, and probably the objection raised that I was referring to. If your doctors are the people running the voting blockchain, then that's the whole purpose of having the chain - that it's mathematically verifiable by "anyone." This would be like if all the doctors in the world have a chance to oversee the operation and make sure it goes down smoothly.
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