Hacker News Reader

espeedon Product Updates Based on Your Feedback

C'mon, that's a bit of a cartoon characterization. Privacy related stuff must go through legal first when a change is more than just testing a shade of blue. It's not the Wild West in there.

espeedon LogP: Towards a Realistic Model of Parallel Computation (1993) [pdf]

LogP is a general-purpose adaptive parallel model so not tied to a specific architecture. However, I too am curious if anyone knows the Cell lineage and if there is a connection. A cursory search on Google Scholar [1] shows the LogP paper is cited more than 2000 times, but I did not see a direct lineage reference between the IBM Cell architecture [2] and the Berkeley LogP model [3]. Does anyone know the history and if there is a connection?

[1] https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=52811921455145789...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_architecture

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LogP_machine

espeedon You Could Have Invented Spectral Sequences (2006) [pdf]

Here are some illustrations of chain complexes:

Chain Complexes https://www.mathphysicsbook.com/mathematics/algebraic-topolo...

Homology for Normal Humans http://isomorphismes.tumblr.com/post/127950269154/graded-cha...

espeedon SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

I haven't used Pandora in years and Spotify almost never. I use SoundCloud sparsely, on occasion when someone posts an indie or to listen to podcasts like a16z. But for everyday use, I use Google Music or YouTube / Music.

Years ago I spent a week recreating my long lost high school and college CD collections on Google Play was able to find almost everything, even some of the most ecsoteric remixes.

And when entertaining, people always gravitate towards DJing through YouTube videos on the TV, and so I wired everything up with Chromecast / Chromebook pairs to make it easy. Even though they can go to any app/site they want, everyone uses YouTube.

espeedon A conversation with Gilbert Strang [video]

The book is "expected to appear in December 2018" [1] (send an email to the address located on the cover page below to get updates / early notification)...

[1] http://math.mit.edu/~gs/learningfromdata/dsla_dlnn.pdf

espeedon A conversation with Gilbert Strang [video]

Here's the link for his upcoming book and new MIT course videos that be will posted online in a few weeks:

Linear Algebra and Learning from Data

http://math.mit.edu/~gs/learningfromdata/

espeedon Holding a Program in One's Head (2007)

This ability to see -- an ability honed by the product of relentless determination combined with a mind possessed with an almost singular desire to seek and see true -- is a master key found among many of the most penetrating insights. Feynman said it this way:

  You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems 
  constantly present in your mind, although by and large 
  they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear 
  or read a new trick or a new result, test it against 
  each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. 
  Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people 
  will say, “How did he do it? He must be a genius!" [1]

[1] http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~cahn/life/gian-carlo-rota-10-le...

[1] http://wiki.c2.com/?FeynmanAlgorithm

espeedon NewSQL databases fail to guarantee consistency and I blame Spanner

Google also reports software and hardware security vulnerabilities and infrastructure security issues to external companies, organizations, and stakeholders responsible for the the design, operation, and maintenance of external systems. Google isn't the only company that does this - other organizations do too - but at this level expertise is a scarce resource, and we're all in the same boat so it behooves everyone when those capable can and do cooperate and participate in keeping a vigilant watch. This ethos is one if the reason the West dominates.

espeedon Idle Until Urgent

> I'm not sure why you trust Google Web "Fundamentals" that 0-100ms is perceived as instant.

Those numbers go back to the studies Jakob Nielsen did at the Sun Microsystems usability lab and the results posted in his oft cited AlertBox articles from 1993 and 1997...

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/website-response-times/

espeedon Network topologies for large-scale compute centers: It's the diameter (2016)

For some reason the above URL doesn't include a link to the paper [1], just the embedded video [2] of Torsten's talk MSR posted a few days ago and a link to the slides; however, this URL includes everything (slides, video, and paper too): https://htor.inf.ethz.ch/publications/index.php?pub=187

[1] Slim Fly: A Cost Effective Low-Diameter Network Topology (2014) [pdf] https://htor.inf.ethz.ch/publications/img/sf_sc_2014.pdf

[2] Network Topologies for Large-scale Datacenters: It's the Diameter, Stupid! (2016) [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8F0JN6X0fE

espeedon Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements

He said he had funding secured for a buyout at $420

420...was is really $420? And then smoking weed on Joe Rogan? LOL, now that's funny ;-)

espeedon Enumerating Trees (2013)

Have you seen the VDB tree...?

VDB: High-Resolution Sparse Volumes with Dynamic Topology (Academy Award Winning data structure)

http://www.museth.org/Ken/Publications_files/Museth_TOG13.pd...

OpenVDB is an open-source C++ implementation with Python wrappers: https://ken.museth.org/OpenVDB.html

https://github.com/dreamworksanimation/openvdb

Ken works at SpaceX now, but a few years ago he gave a lecture on VDB at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS)...

OpenVDB: An Open Source Data Structure and Toolkit for High-Resolution Volumes [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hUH92xwODg

espeedon Enumerating Trees (2013)

Re: pairing functions, two of my favorite are:

1. Moser–de Bruijn sequence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moser%E2%80%93de_Bruijn_sequen...

  n = x + 2y
  x = n & 0x55555555
  y = (n - x) / 2

2. A 'Binary' System for Complex Numbers, by Walter Penny

https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/tec...

Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10648847

espeedon Tell HN: Google requiring phone number to log into Chromebook

Get a Google Voice number https://google.com/voice and link it to Google Hangouts or Google Messenger so you can send and receive texts via your phone or Wifi Web apps.

espeedon Isochronous Curves

And I suspect this is the common connection weighting the algo's recommendation...

Feynman's Lost Lecture (ft. 3Blue1Brown) [video] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17927217

espeedon Companies worry more about access to software developers than capital

Strange.

The reason this article seems off is because it's trying to capitalize on an earlier article by Nick Bilton, but this attempt at adaptation is missing the essence and mangles the point. The idea this article is trying to convey is better presented here:

We're F--ked: There is only One Antidote to Silicon Valley's Ills... Their Engineers

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/there-is-only-one-an...

espeedon Feynman's Lost Lecture (ft. 3Blue1Brown) [video]

search for the LA course by "maththebeautiful" on YouTube. Also check out Gilbert Strang's MIT lectures.

I just realized there's a deep connection among your recommendations...Gilbert Strang was Greenfield's PhD advisor: https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/29345. Pavel has a clear and precise teaching style like Strang, and I've heard him reference Prof's Strang's courses before but didn't make the connection. Good trees produce good fruit. The small world graph and the truth of that never ceases to amaze. Good trees, good stuff.

espeedon Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

Yes. Jones and Trump both subscribe to the philosophy of "there's no such thing as bad publicity...all publicity is good publicity." Jones was overjoyed when Clinton referenced him publicly in her campaign.

espeedon Feynman's Lost Lecture (ft. 3Blue1Brown) [video]

Indeed, the MIT lectures by Prof Strang and the MathTheBeautiful videos by Prof Grinfeld provide perfect pairings to go with the enhanced visual intuition you acquire on 3Blue1Brown.

NB: MathTheBeautiful [1] is by MIT alum Pavel Grinfeld [2]. He approaches Linear Algebra from a geometric perspective as well, but with more emphasis on the mechanics of solving equations. He has a ton of videos organized into several courses, ranging from in-depth Intro to Linear Algebra courses to more advanced courses on PDEs and Tensor Calculus. Highly recommended.

Esp note his video on Legendre polynomials [3] and Why {1,x,x²} Is a Terrible Basis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYoGYQOXqTk&index=14&list=PL....

[1] MathTheBeautiful https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr22xikWUK2yUW4YxOKXclQ

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Grinfeld

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendre_polynomials

espeedon Feynman's Lost Lecture (ft. 3Blue1Brown) [video]

A similar concept related to elliptical constants and proportional areas, is the curve formed by the cycloid [1] of a circle, which is the curve formed by tracing a point on the circumference of a circle as it rolls across a surface from point A to point B.

For example, the fastest distance between two points is not a straight line, it's the cycloid, specifically the Brachistochrone curve [2]. This is the path light follows.

One common misconception of the cycloid is related to its arc-length. At first glance many assume the arc-length of the cycloid is equal to circumference of the circle, but this is not the case. The line-of-sight distance between the cycloid starting point A and ending point B is equal to 2πr, the circumference of the circle -- however the arc-length of the cycloid curve is 8r, which is an integer value given an integer radius. The cycloid curve is full of interesting properties, many yet to be discovered and all its implications are not yet fully understood.

Another interesting aspect of the cycloid is not only is it the fastest path, but no matter where two objects begin on the curve, they'll both traverse the curve at maximal/optimal speed and both will arrive at the bottom of the curve at the same time, regardless of the delta between their starting positions. This aspect of the cycloid is referred to as the Tautochrone curve [3].

So if you're looking for ways to distribute partitions or encode invariants in your models, data or otherwise, the geometrical aspects of elliptical and cycloidal curves are a good place to explore.

Grant did a 3Blue1Brown video with with Steven Strogatz on the Brachistochrone a few years back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cld0p3a43fU

And Vsauce did one with Adam Savage on the Brachistochrone where they build a mechanical model of one that shows it's the fastest/optimal path among different curves, and their experiment also shows the cycloid Tautochrone invariant property where objects begin up the curve at different distances apart and yet all arrive together simultaneously in constant time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skvnj67YGmw

NB: Consider this, two seperate impulses of light beginning at different distances away from the observer, both impulses of light traveling along the optimal path at the optimal speed, and both arriving at the observer simultaneously, without bending time. And as shown above, on a cycloidal curve, this phenomenon is not unique to light.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycloid

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachistochrone_curve

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautochrone_curve

espeedon S2 Geometry

See the "Alternatives Considered" at the bottom of this page: https://s2geometry.io/devguide/s2cell_hierarchy

Somewhere there's an older doc/presentation that goes into the reasons for the cube in more detail, and if I remember where it is, I'll post it here later.

Consistent uniform cell size, minimizing distortions and relegating them to remote parts of the ocean, grouping land masses together (one cube side is almost pure ocean), optimizing for geodesics, and making it easy to index and reason about were some of the considerations in the design decision. It's been a while so I'm little fuzzy on all the reasoning, but I'm sure someone else on here can provide ptrs or fill in the details.

espeedon Bernanke Says U.S. Economy Faces a ‘Wile E. Coyote’ Moment in 2020

> Bernanke is the fed chairman

NB: Bernanke [1] is not the fed chairman and hasn't been since 2014 when he was succeeded by Janet Yellen [2].

Jay Powell [3] is the current fed chair.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bernanke

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Yellen

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Powell

espeedon WTF: A personal information dashboard for your terminal

That's a good reason! The best kind :)

espeedon Zig: programming language designed for robustness optimality and clarity [video]

OT FYI: I just looked at your profile and noticed we have something in common. Your HND matches my DOB ~> 224

espeedon Zig: programming language designed for robustness optimality and clarity [video]

> i.e. adding this check (as a warning) to rustc doesn't look too hard and wouldn't break existing code.

One point of distinction: Zig does not have compile-time warnings, only errors. Simplicity by design. Either it will complie or it won't. Removing the uncertainty here means less greyarea, no space for edgecases in between.

espeedon Zig: programming language designed for robustness optimality and clarity [video]

Right at about the 20m mark: https://youtu.be/Z4oYSByyRak?t=20m2s

espeedon Zig: programming language designed for robustness optimality and clarity [video]

There was a HN discussion ~4 months ago that touched on some of this:

"Unsafe Zig Is Safer Than Unsafe Rust" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16226235

Also see this previous thread on Rust's stdlib OutOfMemory errors:

"Containers should provide some way to not panic on failed allocations" https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/29802

espeedon Zig: programming language designed for robustness optimality and clarity [video]

> I wonder if zig will ever pursue some sort of memory safety.

That's exactly what Zig is designed for [1].

Andrew Kelley (andrewrk) discusses this in the talk. Zig is similar to Rust, but with memory safety designed into the core, not bolted on as an afterthought. And as the SHA-256 demo tests in the talk show, Zig is as fast or faster than C.

[1] http://ziglang.org

[2] https://github.com/ziglang/zig

espeedon Bloom Programming Language

See the just released paper on Anna, which subsumes the related projects:

Anna: A Crazy Fast, Super-Scalable, Flexibly Consistent KVS

https://databeta.wordpress.com/2018/03/09/anna-kvs/

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16551072

Also see...

Peter Alvaro / Disorderly Labs https://people.ucsc.edu/~palvaro/

Data-Centric Programming: Rendezvous, Bloom and CALM (Joe)

https://ucbrise.github.io/cs294-rise-fa16/rendezvous.html

BOOM http://boom.cs.berkeley.edu/

Paper summary. Blazes: Coordination analysis and placement for distributed programs

http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2017/11/paper-summary-blaze...

A functional and logic programming language inspired by Scala, OCaml, and Datalog.

https://flix.github.io/

From Doom and Gloom to BOOM and Bloom [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voQKPymcCfA

espeedon Fake it till you make it: the wolves of Instagram

He didn't start out getting special deals. This is an example of the Pareto Principle [1] / Matthew Principle [2], which appears to be a natural law, an organizing principle like gravity.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect