Hacker News Reader

senkion Wrong scientific beliefs that were held for long periods

The worse belief is that science has anything to do with belief. Or, I believe so...

senkion Image hosting that doesn't suck - just drag and drop

Just use an unsupported browser (Opera)!

Honoured Sir,

Understanding you to be a distinguished algebraist (that is, distinguished from other algebraists by different face, different height, etc.), I beg to submit to you a difficulty which distresses me much.

If x and y are each equal to 1, it is plain that

2 * (x^2 - y^2) = 0, and also that 5 * (x - y) = 0.

Hence 2 * (x^2 - y^2) = 5 * (x - y).

Now divide each side of this equation by (x - y).

Then 2 * (x + y) = 5.

But (x + y) = (1 + 1), i.e. = 2. So that 2 * 2 = 5.

Ever since this painful fact has been forced upon me, I have not slept more than 8 hours a night, and have not been able to eat more than 3 meals a day.

I trust you will pity me and will kindly explain the difficulty to Your obliged,

Lewis Carroll.

senkion Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

It doesn't matter anyways.

senkion Divisibility by 7

The Wikipedia has a good article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisibility_rule

senkion Chess boxing

It's not prior knowledge but a prior conjecture. If you know something, you know it for sure.

senkion The FBI is tracking whom?

The original Wired article was posted five days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1770444

senkion Chess boxing

A good example of a priori knowledge: "All bachelors are unmarried". This is true, because it's so by definition, it's probability == 1. The effect of boxing is not so obvious as you claim (prior probability that repeat head trauma causes damage: <1), and should be verified. See also roel_v's responses in this sub-thread.

senkion Chess boxing

It's like homeopathy. No analysis necessary, it's just works, you know.

senkion Computers are fast

Good idea. They already do it.

senkion A great logo is recognizable in any form

They say, it depends on personality. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test

senkion What is a safest way to set all bits of a variable to true in C?

Platforms differ, and the limits.h reflects this, that's the point. We should use the abstractions (the #defines) of the standard library, i.e. refer to these values by their names, that's the way to write portable software.

senkion What is a safest way to set all bits of a variable to true in C?

The "limits.h" (ISO C99 Standard) defines UINT_MAX as the maximum value for a variable of type unsigned int which is 4294967295 (0xffffffff).

senkion Visualization: The evolution of Python

I found two similar posters, maybe you'll find interesting:

http://www.digibarn.com/collections/posters/tongues/Computer...

http://log-rotation.jp/pyblosxom/images/unix/programming_lan...

senkion Xkcd: Airfoil - So what's the right explanation?

Here is a good (and long) overview from the NASA with wind tunnel simulator Java applets: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/right2.html

senkion Interested in free video formats? We need your help

For Win and Mac... Thanks.

senkion Several Hundred Thousand Germans Opt Out of Google Street View

We need an analogue of 'robots.txt' for the real world.

senkion The Principals of 'Pataphysical Programming

Principal principles.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/principal.html

senkion Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?

Voila:

"The ultimate reason for the lower Japanese body esteem may perhaps concern broader cultural and historical perspectives. Being part of the West, but non-Caucasians, Japanese people seem collectively to experience high incongruence between their Western-oriented bodily ideals and the perceptions of their own body. "

Japanese body image: Structure and esteem scores in a cross-cultural perspective by Rotem Kowner, University of Haifa, Israel, in: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, 2002, 37 (3), 149–159

http://www.sjsu.edu/people/jennifer.anderson/courses/c5/s1/K...

senkion Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?

You are right. edanm asked for some evidence that there are idiots who think Japanese worship white people. It seems there are many, so the article really targets an existing problem. That's the point.

senkion Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?

Look at this: http://www.google.com/search?&q=site:answers.yahoo.com+J...

senkion Factor's Visual REPL

Racket has something similar. You can insert images to the source code, draw new images to the REPL, etc.

http://docs.racket-lang.org/quick/index.html

senkion Google.com has an animated logo using an HTML/JavaScript particle simulator

rubypay's link above works, and pretty fast...

http://www.rubypay.com/google/Google.htm

senkion Maths prodigy, 15, makes Cambridge history

The bird watching doesn't count?

senkion Machine Converts Plastic Back into Oil

It's efficiency is ~85%, according to the Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization

senkion Machine Converts Plastic Back into Oil

From the description of the video: "The Japanese company Blest has developed one of the smallest and safest oil-to-plastic conversion machines out on the market today."

The first hit on Google for "Plastic to Oil" is http://www.polymerenergy.com/

They say: "System capacity can range from 200 tons to 400 tons of plastic wastes processed per month. Overall plant capacity can be easily scaled up by adding additional modules."

senkion Ray Kurzweil Responds to "Ray Kurzweil does not understand the brain"

Here: "the brain prior to learning and adaptation". Unfortunately there's no such thing.

senkion Welcome to the new decade

Hey, I meant to be sarcastic, but actually you are right! The smartphones and tablets are already here, lots of them running Android, and Microsoft really is an underdog.

senkion Welcome to the new decade

Don't forget that 2010 is the year of the Linux desktop!

senkion Strangest language feature

Strangest language feature...