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milesf

5,796 karma · joined June 25, 2009

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milesf··on "why the lucky stiff" disappeared 15 years ago today. Here's the last talk [video]
Watch the last part of this video where he describes his very last project, a card game to help teach coding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ihzA8v89U&t=1560s

Does anyone remember him? He had a huge impact on my life back in 2006 when I was trying to learn Ruby to use Ruby on Rails.

The

Thanks Jonathan for all the foxes, and thanks to whoever is maintaining his legacy: https://whytheluckystiff.net/

milesf··on Firm Caught Fabricating Russia Data Used by NBC to Claim Russia Supports Gabbard
This is happening too often.
milesf··on Unicorns are setting up their own venture capital funds
"When beggars and shoeshine boys, barbers and beauticians can tell you how to get rich it is time to remind yourself that there is no more dangerous illusion than the belief that one can get something for nothing."

  - Bernard Baruch
milesf··on Facebook abandons Aquila, its internet drone
Iridium has finished launching their Low Earth Orbit satellite system using SpaceX's Falcon 9 http://www.spacex.com/news/2018/05/22/iridium-6grace-fo-miss...
milesf··on No Thanks, Google. I'll Speak for Myself
Yeah, the telemarketing people who clog up the phone lines and interrupt dinner times all over the planet won't see the benefit of this at all </sarcasm>
milesf··on Microsoft Adds an OpenSSH Client to Windows 10
Welcome to the 90's Microsoft. Glad you could make it.

No one has used telnet for over 20 years. The fact that it took Redmond over 20 years to incorporte an SSH client proves to me that they really aren't as security conscious as they claim to be.

milesf··on The Bitcoin Flaw: Monero Rising
What's so surprising about that? All cryptocurrencies are still very experimental. Nothing shocking about that.
milesf··on The Bitcoin Flaw: Monero Rising
What are the current crop of cryptocurrencies that are truly anonymous? The list I have so far is: Aeon, DASH, Komodo, Monero , NAV Coin, PIVX, Verge, Zcash, Zcoin, and ZenCash.

Any others?

Edit: Added Aeon

milesf··on Western Digital Plans to Ship More Than One Billion RISC-V Cores a Year
I remember RISC's back in the late 80's/early 90's. CISC's bullied them away and we've been stuck in Intel's quagmire every since. Anytime there's an attack on the status quo, the established players feign concern and beat back the attack then return to the way things were (remember Negroponte's $100 laptop and the netbook response?)

No idea how this will pan out.

milesf··on Bitcoin Blows Past $9,000
What scares me is not the success or failure of BitCoin. What I find troubling is the spirit of BitCoin is paving the way for the exact opposite result.

The idealism is to produce a system for faster, cheaper, and censorship-resistant way to transact. BitCoin is actually becoming unusable for that. It's slower than Etherium, the fees continue to climb when measured against the US Dollar, and the privacy issues are not being addressed.

Sadly, no one will pay any attention to this while the price continues to climb. Only when the price crashes will folks come to their senses, just like when MintPal was hacked which destroyed VeriCoin and when The DAO collapsed with people voting to roll back and fork.

milesf··on Anatomy of a Haskell-Based Application, Revisited
Love this bit: "...we are happy that we chose Haskell, a wonderful language that enables large refactoring with ease, perhaps even turning what could be unthinkable architectural changes in other languages into pure tedium."
milesf··on Britain Moves to Criminalize Reading Extremist Material on the Internet
Where is the actual text of the law? Link or it didn't happen.
milesf··on NASA's plan to save Earth from a supervolcano
Exactly my point.
milesf··on NASA's plan to save Earth from a supervolcano
The idea of any group of humans "saving the Earth" is neighbouring on hubris. It's fine for the plot line of a Hollywood movie, but pragmatically we can't even engage in civil discourse anymore. Tampering with systems like plate tectonic without the ability to even predict the effects of oil shale fracking means we still have a lot to learn.

If the concern of the Earth being wiped out is legitimate, then focus instead on colonizing Space. The end result is the same: preserving human civilization.

milesf··on Musk Confirms 'Boring Company' to Build Underground Hyperloop from DC to NYC
Oh man. I feel dumb. Of COURSE that is why Elon started Boring, to build hyperloop. And to do it in stages: first to transport cars, then transition up to hyperloop.
milesf··on Kyle Miller overcomes cerebral palsy to play in a pro event
His story makes my complaints about how hard software can be and building a business seem like a pathetic joke.

Thanks for the inspiration, Mr Miller. Good luck on your first PGA golf tournament.

milesf··on Ask an Engineer
With so much bad information out there, I wonder how reliable the answers are from MIT whose reputation seems a lot more credible than Quora or Stack Exchange.
milesf··on [dead]
I welcome the up voting of these sorts of things. It's great to see projects with new eyes, and be reminded that not everyone has the same historical experiences that I've had.
milesf··on Why Bitcoin has to succeed
What about Etherium, Golem, and other attempts to turn the mining phase into useful computing power?
milesf··on SFO near miss might have triggered aviation disaster
Of course :) I see it now. Didn't intend to be link bait, although the original may have intended that.

Changed.

milesf··on SFO near miss might have triggered aviation disaster
Title is from the original article. What's your reason for could instead of might?
milesf··on SFO near miss might have triggered aviation disaster
Seems that it was the ATC and another pilot who spotted it.
milesf··on SFO near miss might have triggered aviation disaster
How is this even possible? Is it gross negligence on the part of the pilot, a systems problem, or something else? (IANAP)
milesf··on David Bonderman resigns from Uber board after sexist remark
?
milesf··on David Bonderman resigns from Uber board after sexist remark
If you can't listen to anything without being offended, maybe your thin skinned and need to toughen up a bit.
milesf··on David Bonderman resigns from Uber board after sexist remark
In my experience, women generally do talk more. Is that an offensive statement, or is it the context of David Bonderman making that statement at an Uber staff meeting?
milesf··on David Bonderman resigns from Uber board after sexist remark
The remark:

At an Uber staff meeting earlier in the day, Arianna Huffington, another Uber board member, said one woman on a board often leads to more women joining a board. Mr. Bonderman responded “that it’s much more likely to be more talking.”

Seems ironic that Arianna's own site posted this:

Biological Evidence May Support Idea That Women Talk More Than Men, Study Says http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/21/women-talk-more-tha...

Is it not possible to say anything anymore without someone being offended?

milesf··on Recovering from Burnout and Depression
A nurse once told me "burnout is actually heartache in disguise". While I don't complete agree with that statement, I think there's some truth in it.
milesf··on I'm an ex-Facebook exec: don't believe what they tell you about ads
"We are not Facebook's customer. We are their product."

I have stated that fact so many times to so many people, and yet most people don't care. They continue to use Facebook.

It's almost as if people are addicted to Facebook.

milesf··on Shaw Internet, Cable and Home Phone Outage Across Canada
What a disaster! It's back up now, but to lose internet for a good chunk of the day for an entire country is ridiculous. And the non-apology on their Twitter feed only made things worse: https://twitter.com/Shawhelp/status/857682776190984192
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