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throwaway0094on Writing a Planner to solve a tricky programming optimization problem

> Its been tuned over years for use in competitions. So it probably runs faster than the author's, even though it has more features.

For OP's use case, which appears to have a max depth of maybe 3, invoking a shell program is going to be a LOT slower than just running the search. No matter how slowly it is implemented.

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

Anecdotal, but as a non-smoker, I don't find any withdrawal or cravings symptoms at all when I stop consuming nicotine. It's milder than stopping caffeine.

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

The more you know. Thanks :).

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

Not necessarily a trade-off with non-tobacco nicotine.

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

Really? I thought adderall (contains 1/4 dextro-) or vyvense (don't know which amphetamines it contains) were pretty common.

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

It isn't now. It has been edited from the original.

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

Compared to e-cigs, sure. Compared to food, or conventional cigarettes ... they're really really cheap. 96 x2mg gums for $22 comes out to 45¢/mg. I use maybe 0-2 (edit: gums (90¢-$1.80)) a day (I probably save at least that much by making sandwiches for lunch / not eating out -- I work from home).

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

For non-smokers, less is more... nicotine is a pretty powerful stimulant, you don't necessarily want strong hits. My 2¢.

(I am a non-smoker; have tried 2mg and 4mg gum, and find 4mg similar in some ways to having a 'bad trip'. (Light-headedness, freaking out, nausea, time-dilation.))

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

Dexedrine is dextroamphetamine (commonly prescribed for ADD and other things, like staying awake). Methamphetamine is a different chemical with an important legal distinction (if subjectively and objectively very similar).

throwaway0094on Briefly profitable alt-coin mining on Amazon through better code

Might kill the GPU faster than gaming alone, unfortunately[0].

[0]: http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/cpu_reliability.html

throwaway0094on Briefly profitable alt-coin mining on Amazon through better code

I don't think it would, actually. Enough people are willing to mine for a loss and the difficulty rises with availability of cheap hardware that it never becomes profitable. OP only made a (slight) profit because they could temporarily make renting a miner cheaper than the payout. This was temporary and now the market is back to status quo.

Maybe OP could automatically run his miners when such situations arrive, but I think it's unlikely to net anything like $17k/yr.

Edit: sliverstorm described this way better than I could.

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

But perhaps more importantly, not a big subjective difference ;-).

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

Meth is only prescribed for ADHD in the US. Is it prescribed for ... nevermind, you edited your post. (Original said something to the effect of "meth is prescribed for drowsiness in pilots," which is inaccurate for the US.)

throwaway0094on Tobacco increases work capacity (2011)

From his Nictotine article, gum or patch. But e-cig might be fine too if the parts don't have lead or other hazardous substances in them, modulo maybe higher risk of addiction.

throwaway0094on Briefly profitable alt-coin mining on Amazon through better code

As others have pointed out, this is not remotely passive.

throwaway0094on Briefly profitable alt-coin mining on Amazon through better code

Yeah, but I don't recommend singing in the shower for 1.5 weeks while your employer is paying you sick leave ;-).

throwaway0094on Briefly profitable alt-coin mining on Amazon through better code

So: 1.5 weeks of work. $50-$75/mo/instance. x20-60 instances. Worked for 3-4 weeks.

If we assume the most optimistic parameters: $75 * 1mo * 60 instances = $4500 in profit for 1.5 weeks of work, or a rate of ~$156k/yr.

Edit: It looks like I misread his revenue numbers for profit. Oops! Even lower margins:

"My gross revenue was about $1000, and I paid Amazon $500 of that."

$500 for 1.5 weeks' work is only $17k/yr rate. Maybe flipping burgers pays better.

throwaway0094on Never create Ruby strings longer than 23 characters

Hm, ok. Still, at some level fragmentation is eating gobs of space even if correct for the "average".

throwaway0094on Never create Ruby strings longer than 23 characters

This isn't quite right. Even if your average string length is 1k+, you shouldn't change the embedded string size to 1k+. I think these objects sit on the C stack internally, which doesn't handle large objects like this well.

Also, I would guess the performance gains (from skipping malloc) would wash out the longer your average string gets -- even if the huge stack use doesn't kill your performance for some other reason (blowing the d-cache?).

throwaway0094on Never create Ruby strings longer than 23 characters

Is Ruby's internal encoding UTF-8, then?

throwaway0094on A list of Google's corporate Active Directory users

I'm guessing empty message, check for error status later. Just send a bunch of emails, see which hostnames resolve (vs not).

throwaway0094on Obscure C++ Features

"The tokens and, and_eq, bitand, bitor, compl, not, not_eq, or, or_eq, xor, xor_eq, <%, %>, <:, and :> can be used instead of the symbols &&, &=, &, |, ~, !, !=, ||, |=, ^, ^=, {, }, [, and ]."

In C, the first few are only if you include the C99 header <iso646.h> (the later ones are just digraphs). Are they included by default in C++?

throwaway0094on Uruguay legalises production and sale of cannabis

Washington state actually (partially) legalized alcohol ahead of the Federal repeal of prohibition. So there's a kind of historical example.

throwaway0094on Why Johnny Can’t Write Multithreaded Programs

Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down. When did I become an Applications developer and not a systems developer? The kernel I work on uses TONS of threads and locks. And sure, it's fucking crazy to debug. But I don't think you'll be prying mutable state from the cold dead hands of kernel developers any time soon.

throwaway0094on TextSecure, Now With 10 Million More Users

Can someone explain how the keying system works? What is the secret information a user needs to decrypt messages addressed to them? What prevents a 3rd party from decrypting those messages? What is the 'key'?

throwaway0094on 23andMe bows to FDA, drops all medical information from new tests

Yeah, me too. The primary reason I purchased this is that I know I have 50% odds of having a BRCA mutation (1 of my parents does). I was really looking forward to that test.

throwaway0094on The ups and downs of the HTTP header

Although no one will give a fuck if you don't handle HTTP/0.9.

throwaway0094on The ups and downs of the HTTP header

Not only that, but ... prioritized!

throwaway0094on 2013, the year of Usenet

They were already doing random names in early 2013 too ... but it seemed like the enforcement groups were grabbing NZBs and issuing DMCAs rather quickly, even for those. shrug

throwaway0094on 2013, the year of Usenet

The TV networks, MPAA, RIAA started issuing automated DMCA notices in early 2013, making it more or less useless for content. Have things changed?