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capstoneon Math genius Grigori Perelman explains why he turned down $1 million prize

I don't know about this. My father is a scientist, and while he signs his correspondence as Sasha, he publishes under Alexander. As for метмах vs. матмех - it could easily be Perelman having a dyslexic moment, or the journalist misquoting. All these "clues" are so nitpicky... not worth a conspiracy theory IMHO.

You are right about nicknames though. I used it in a colloquial sense but the correct term would be a familiar form.

capstoneon Math genius Grigori Perelman explains why he turned down $1 million prize

I really think that Joseph Gotlieb - your first link - is grasping at straws. For brevity's sake I will address his first objection even though I feel others are just as shaky.

[Objection #1: According to the interview, Gregory Perelman bristled at being addressed as "Grisha" by the media (Gregory/Grisha being similar to Robert/Robbie in familiarity). This could not possibly be true because he signed his own emails as "Grisha".]

This is a pretty big stretch. The Russian language defines 3 tiers of familiarity/address: a nickname for family/friends, a full first name for acquaintances of the same age, and a full first + patronymic name for everyone else. (This is similar to a French person being offended by an overly familiar "Tu" when a "Vous" is appropriate). Moreover, it is not uncommon anywhere to use a nickname in correspondence with friends and colleagues and a full name in more formal situations.

The forum discussion - your second link - is nothing more than a reference to Richard Feynman's auto biographical anecdote about the Nobel prize, followed by a bit of general bitching about journalists. One poster casts doubt on how Perelman and the interviewer connected (seems perfectly plausible to me that a Russian-Israeli journalist would connect to a Russian-Jewish scientist through his mom, whom he lives with, via the St. Petersburg jewish community). It really doesn't prove or even suggest anything of importance.

As far the claim that Russian bloggers couldn't track down the person who interviewed Perelman, well, I just spent a minute on google and found this: http://cursorinfo.co.il/news/novosti/2011/04/28/zatwornil/. Apparently, the Israeli paper was able to find the interviewer... not particularly surprising given that he had moved to Israel in the 90's.

capstoneon Talkbee: book Skype sessions with awesome people (beta sign-up)

In all fairness, the title does say beta sign-up.

capstoneon With A New API, Aviary Wants To Become The Twilio Of Photo Effects

Direct link: http://developers.aviary.com/effects-api

Does anyone know the pricing levels beyond the free 1,000 photos a month?

capstoneon Meet Craiggers: It Blows Craigslist Out of The Water

How does this blow Craigslist out of the water? As far as I can tell, it's the same old craigslist, questionably skinned, and with less options.

capstoneon Is “Hiring only the Best” a really Practical Advice?

I guess it depends on your definition of "done". If something is sorta slapped together in a way that is hard to read/debug or non-performant, to me that's not "done". So perhaps it's a matter of semantics.

capstoneon Is “Hiring only the Best” a really Practical Advice?

Oh I get that (did read the whole thing) however conversely, couldn't it then just be titled, "Smart" with an explanation further down that smart people know that they have to get things done or else it's just talk? I mean, you can redefine and contextualize anything, but I think if you promote a slogan as strongly worded as Joel's quote below, you have the responsibility to make it complete without a further explanation.

The #1 cardinal criteria for getting hired at Fog Creek:

Smart, and Gets Things Done.

That's it. That's all we're looking for. Memorize that. Recite it to yourself before you go to bed every night.

He wants us to memorize a short slogan, and that slogan, in programming speak, is buggy and wasteful (wasteful in the sense that I described above, and buggy in that a smart gets-things-done a-hole will single handedly kill your project). Gets Things Done and Gets Along on the other hand is complete in and of itself.

capstoneon Is “Hiring only the Best” a really Practical Advice?

There is one big problem with JS's paradigm of Smart and Gets Things Done that I never see addressed. It's right there in the title. If a programmer Gets Things Done, what does Smart add to the equation? Say you have a cat who habitually walks all over your keyboard and bangs out perfect code, every time. Do you really care?

No one would praise a program that takes 2 steps to do something that can be done in 1 step. So why does Smart and Gets Things Done get so much credit? I'd understand Gets Things Done and Gets Along much better.

capstoneon LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

I've seen several and they are underwhelming. Those photos of glowing curtains of color are taken from space, here on earth they just look like dim green glow (brief explanation below). You are not missing anything, I promise you.

Most of the energetic particles from the Sun are deflected around the Earth by the magnetosphere, but some get trapped. Electrons trapped in the Earth's magnetic field (the magnetic mirror effect) are accelerated along the magnetic field toward the Polar Regions and then strike the gases into the upper layer of the atmosphere, called the ionosphere. In the ionosphere, the speeding electrons collide violently with gas atoms. This gives the gas atoms energy, which causes them to release both light and more electrons. In this way, the gases of the ionosphere start to glow producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras.

Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding. The most common auroral color, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 miles above the earth. Rare, all-red auroras are produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of up to 200 miles. Nitrogen produces blue or purplish-red aurora.

capstoneon Raganwald says, "Bullshit"

The video cuts off after 7 minutes, anyone has a link to the whole video?

capstoneon Amazon EC2 outage: summary and lessons learned

For those of us waiting to learn what happened, the title is baity and misleading. A more accurate headline would be: "Rightscale outage: some speculation and customer service suggestions for Amazon".

At the time of writing Amazon has not yet posted a root cause analysis. I will update this section when they do. Until then, I have to make some educated guesses.

That pretty much sums it up. Well, that plus some contradictory lesson learned, such as The biggest problem was that more than one availability zone was affected, followed by, must have live replication across multiple availability zones.

capstoneon [dead]

EasyDNS does this beautifully:

https://web.easydns.com/About/

capstoneon YouTube is going Live

It could be YouTube, or it could be your ISP "shaping" the traffic. You can use Glasnost (http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest-mlab.php) to test the latter.

capstoneon Getting to Know Americans

Well, I've often liked your posts so I presumed you are a rationalist. Let me keep my delusions, please!

capstoneon Getting to Know Americans

It really depends on where you are. America's states are analogous to European countries, albeit with a common language. The cultures are very, very different.

capstoneon Getting to Know Americans

People tend to forge their identities when they feel inadequate about their past. As an immigrant privy to no Americans present get-togethers, I see it all the time. The same people who lump all Southerners or Midwesterners into a overweight, bible thumping yokel stereotype, will froth at the mouth about Americans' ignorance of latest political discourse in their small corner of the world. People from predominantly white countries will claim that the US is less cultured because there is too much brown immigration. People who didn't have toilet paper back home will talk about the lack of museums. And so on and so forth.

My personal observation is, the majority tend to forget all the bad and remember all the good about their former home, and conversely, pick out all the bad and none of the good of their new home. It may be hard for you to believe because you are a rationalist, but it's very common.

capstoneon How to damage your brand in one smooth shot - Way to GoDaddy

I've moved about a dozen domains away from GoDaddy over the last year. The time savings (less spam, cleaner interface) well exceeded the effort involved.

capstoneon Where meritocracy fails

I think it's rather impractical to attempt to guess a stranger's intent. Drblast responded to the article by quoting a hypothetical statement of his own ("if I were to say X") and then quoting a supposed statement from the article ("but apparently it's ok to say Y"). You can interpret that 10 different ways but why? Isn't it simpler to point out that the article never made statement Y in the first place?

Incidentally, I find the point you make - meritocracies aren't ipso facto diverse - worthy of debate. However I don't believe it's the same point as the parent.

capstoneon Where meritocracy fails

There are exactly zero occurrences of the words "women" or "female" in the article. The only reference to gender at all is a brief and completely inconsequential mention of the fact that your typical Postgres hacker is, among other things, male.

Yet somehow you end up debating the veracity of, "Since there are so few women contributing to Postgres, it's obvious that it's not a meritocracy", a statement neither made verbatim nor in any way implied by the actual article.

Isn't it just a little crazy? Can a writer mention a simple fact without it becoming all about battle of the sexes?

capstoneon Samsung installs keylogger on its laptop computers

He seriously saw this on one laptop and is accusing Samsung of a conspiracy?

He saw it on TWO laptops.

Not that I put anything above big multinational companies, but some due dilligance would be nice.

He called Samsung to report the issue and had Samsung supervisor confirm that keyloggers are knowingly installed on Samsung laptops in order to monitor usage.

capstoneon Samsung installs keylogger on its laptop computers

On March 1, 2011, I called and logged incident 2101163379 with Samsung Support.
...

The supervisor confirmed that Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to "monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used."

capstoneon Wife Said No, Apple Said Yes

So... joking about blacks being [racist stereotype] on a majority-white website is ok because (a) it makes the majority laugh and (b) it's not making fun of any one black person individually? Please explain your logic here.

capstoneon Another Inside Job

In all fairness, those of you downvoting the parent need to address the following:

The FDIC receives no Congressional appropriations – it is funded by premiums that banks and thrift institutions pay for deposit insurance coverage and from earnings on investments in U.S. Treasury securities.

Source: http://www.fdic.gov/about/learn/symbol/index.html

I remember there being some talk about FDIC potentially needing to borrow from the Treasury during the financial crisis however as far as I know, it didn't happen.

capstoneon First dump of Anon BofA Documents is up

You will find the following read illuminating.

I’ve been in contact for with attorneys involved in foreclosure defense. One thing they stress is that a significant number of their clients facing foreclosure has made every single mortgage payment. Read that again.

Now how can that be? It’s actually very simple.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/11/servicer-driven-forec...

One number that stood out for me:

Thompson estimates that servicer-driven foreclosures represented about 50% of the cases she handled.

capstoneon Salary negotiations for techies

My experience has been the opposite. A few observations based on 7+ years consulting in NYC, some through headhunters, some direct:

- Companies that hire through recruiters have deep yearly budgets; companies that hire direct have shallow project budgets. I have never not gotten a higher rate through a recruiter.

- Companies that hire through recruiters pay on time; companies that hire direct pay late and usually after repeated prodding; sometimes they don't pay at all.

- Companies that hire through recruiters pay for hours worked; companies that hire direct fight for upfront concessions and then fight some more when the bill comes.

- Most recruiters make a percentage and not a set fee, although yes, it's usually capped at around $25/hour. However that means that you need to be making upward of $100/hour to hit that cap. Which means that for the majority of people, the recruiter does make more when you make more.

All in all I never understood the customary programmer/recruiter animosity. Making more and never having to deal with collections is awesome. In my book, recruiters' cut is well-deserved.

capstoneon Text messages to replace stamps in Sweden and Denmark

Short version: Danish service Post Danmark and Swedish postal service Posten AB are adopting a high-tech system to make it easier to post letters, packages and cards. Users simply text-message the word 'porto' to the number 1900. In return they receive a unique code that is written where people would have previously stuck a stamp. The letter or parcel is then posted as normal, and the code is read by sorting machines just like a normal stamp.

capstoneon Sleep is more important than food

Or, drowning swimmers to find dopers (provigil etc).

capstoneon Ask HN: Tips for a new dad?

I wanted to contribute a couple things that probably won't get mentioned by others, especially because there are likely not too many new mothers on here.

First, find out the percentages of cesarian birth and breastfeeding for both your obstetrician and your hospital as compared to the national average. If the numbers don't look good, don't hesitate to switch (even if you like your doctor but they are affiliated with a knife-happy hospital). You can adjust your parenting style as you go but the window of opportunity for the birth and breastfeeding experience - which will lay a foundation to the mother's happiness and the baby's health - is literally hours. (The breastfeeding window is minutes after birth - the longer you delay, the harder it becomes, for both mother and baby, so if your wife ends up with an unnecessary c-section and cannot breastfeed due to post-op issues, or if the hospital doesn't have any nurses to show her what to do, you may lose that window for good).

Second, don't go crazy on parenting do's and dont's until the baby is at least 3 months old. They won't remember anything so there is no reason to do sleep training or any other training. If the baby wants to sleep with mommy, let them, and if the baby cries to be in mommy's arms, let them. (Research shows that babies who get lots of mommy time are more independent later on, as opposed to getting used to it as disciplinarians will suggest). I think one of the nicest things you can do for your wife is let her know that you won't judge her if she is being a bit of a pushover for baby. Keep telling her she is a good mom - every time my husband says that, it makes my day.

Third, be understanding of her need for some untouched time. I mean that literally. It's draining to have a baby holding on for dear life 24/7. Don't take it personally. Go out constantly for the first several months, it's an amazing luxury that will not last forever.

Lastly, buy her a moby wrap. It works for a newborn with no head control, it keeps the baby and mother close and happy, and it's amazing for weight distribution, especially if she is a wimpy 100-pounder like me. It's just as good for "wearing" the baby at home. Seriously, a total back saver.

(I also second @kerben's motorized swing/cradle).

I think it will be a great experience for both of you. It sounds like your head is in the right place and she is lucky to have you as a partner. My husband is a rockstar daddy as well and that makes a huge difference. Everyone talks about sleep deprivation and all that but my experience has been "baby rainbows" (a term I've come up with to indicate the opposite of "baby blues") and he is largely to thank for that. I wish you the same.

P.S. Apologies for the TMI (non-parents feel free to stop reading) but I thought I must mention something else since you are having a boy. If she is breastfeeding, they will put her on special contraceptives in order to avoid dosing the baby with estrogen. These will be an absolute killer for her sex drive so I highly recommend that she look into a copper IUD instead. No hormones, no daily pill popping, and no side effects such as mentioned above. Daddy happy too :)

capstoneon Ask HN: Ideas are cheap link?

I believe this is the one that had started it all:

http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2005/08/ideas_are_just...

And here are some others (more links on the same subject within each article):

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100604/0954389689.shtml

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/01/cultivate-teams-not...

capstoneon Show HN: "Never wait on hold again" service built with Rails and Twilio

Just bought your app for my IPhone. One comment: the app is not searchable on Fast Customer, only on FastCustomer (no space). If you just added Fast Customer to your description, it would be searchable.