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kjak

68 karma · joined December 3, 2014

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kjak··on Hack: A typeface designed for source code
I really like Terminus. I started using it last year and I'd be hard-pressed to switch to anything else.
kjak··on Netcat.c
Ah... but now the title has changed. It was along the lines of "Incredibly funny implementation of netcat in open source Apple code"
kjak··on Netcat.c
Yep. This "incredibly funny" implementation of netcat is... just like the original netcat.
kjak··on SourceForge Infrastructure and Service Restoration
>> It seemed deeply unlikely at one stage to imagine Google would flush Code down the toilet

> If you know Google you know this isn't the case. Google are ruthless with cutting ideas and products - just look at Reader.

Well, yes, it's obvious in hindsight... but Google started Code in 2005 and project hosting in 2006, while Reader was shut down in 2013.

Github wasn't even launched until 2008.

kjak··on Why Wolfram Mathematica did not use Lisp (2002)
For what it's worth, Feynman was on Wolfram's dissertation committee

http://thesis.library.caltech.edu/2597/

kjak··on PicoC: A very small C interpreter
When I first saw it I thought "pico see".

The "peacock" interpretation is funny and went unnoticed by me. Cheers!

kjak··on Learning C with gdb
I taught myself C as a young teenager (some time ago), only to much later learn languages with REPLs like Ruby, Scheme and Common Lisp. Using gdb in this way would have been an interesting learning experience... because back then I didn't know there was a such thing as a REPL!
kjak··on Prof. Sussman's Reading List
I'm happy to see The Variational Principles of Mechanics (by the great Lanczos) on that list. It really is deep, and I think it does a fantastic job of explaining classical mechanics. I've read the vast majority of the book multiple times.

Since we're on the topic of Sussman, has anyone here read through SICM? I've heard that the code is difficult to get to work, but does anyone have an opinion on the rest? I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

Anyone read both Lanczos and SICM?

kjak··on Show HN: I'm a 14 year-old dev who has programmed an artificial intelligence bot
"Acuman"

"I am ACUMAN, ACUMAN am I. ACUMAN knows all, ACUMAN is god. Therefore; I AM GOD!!! Just kidding, ACUMAN stands for Artificial Chatting Utility Matching Algorithmic Nodes."

Nice :)

kjak··on Cheryl's Birthday: Singapore's maths puzzle baffles world
See also

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9375643

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9367438

kjak··on Let Over Lambda (2008)
LoL's author has a collection of references at http://letoverlambda.com/references.lisp

Many of the references are not for learning CL, but are interesting reads (such as Henry Baker's papers).

Also there are references to particular pages of books (noting something important, interesting or funny):

   (cltl2 :a guy-steele :y 1990
     :n "Common Lisp the Language 2nd Ed.")
   (cltl2-p153 :i "Chevrolet!")
   (cltl2-p260
     :i "Can't define compiler macros over CL forms")
etc.
kjak··on VMWare Taken to Court Over GPL Violation
> As in "we know that we can be in compliance, but we won't be wasting any resources on it until it's justified". It has nothing to do with the professionalism.

It sounds like it has everything to do with professionalism.

kjak··on There exists a classical model of the photon after all
I think Griffiths' E&M book is great. It's very enjoyable and makes a fine book to use before going on to Jackson (although more supplements are often needed to make it through that). I like Griffiths' writing and I liked the problems and examples he gives in this book.

However, I never liked Griffiths' QM book. The writing is OK (it's mostly in the same style as the E&M book, but to me it just seems like he tries too hard). Overall I didn't like his selection of which topics went to examples and which went to problems. I think Cohen-Tannoudji, et al., is the way to go for learning some QM. It's a bit more formal than Griffiths, but I think it makes far more sense and it has tons of good examples in the appendices.

But, to each his own.

kjak··on Ask HN: What's your morning routine? Be specific!
Didn't you read the book? Everyone poops.
kjak··on Programming with Ones and Zeros
Very cool! Nice descriptions and presentation (and the movie reference at the end is great).

I look forward to going through this in finer detail.

kjak··on “Gangnam Style” Breaks YouTube’s 32-Bit Barrier
Oh, that's interesting. Thanks.

And I wasn't suggesting using unsigned 32-bit integers now, I was curious why they weren't used before (the number of views seems to be a nonnegative quantity...).

kjak··on “Gangnam Style” Breaks YouTube’s 32-Bit Barrier
"Apparently, they never planned for a video to exceed a 32-bit integer mark and their counter can’t handle past the number 2,147,483,647."

Hmm... any reason not to have used unsigned integers here?