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logicalmindon Ask HN: Where and how do you find entrepreneurial backend hackers?

Agreeing to be a co-founder is a pretty big commitment. Are you sure that the people you've talked to just aren't interested in your idea? The more interesting the idea, the more likely you are to find people. No offense to your idea, just a thought.

logicalmindon The Acceleration of Addictiveness

There is a much easier explanation. There are people who have crappy lives. Whether by their own decisions, by fate, or by circumstance, their normal daily lives are something they are trying to avoid. Anything that helps them avoid the reality of their life becomes addictive. The only way to fix this problem is by changing their lives. But Oprah is already making a large profit by selling them that idea.

logicalmindon Ask HN: What's been your best investment?

I had the same experience. Time and time again I'd walk into a situation where some enterprise app had been put together in some haphazard fashion by any number of people. As the person brought in to fix this otherwise unmaintainable system I had to figure out a way to deal with the mass of code and complexity that was already in place and somehow transform it into something worthwhile. That is when I got the idea for code generators. Now I can walk into a mess and generate reliable code for various application features and slowly replace functionality as necessary.

logicalmindon The Top Idea in Your Mind

I'm reminded of someone (maybe John Taylor Gatto) who wrote about the education he got as a boy from long hours spent at a pond.

If you discover what you were referring to, please post. I am curious to read about that. I did a bit of searching and as far as I can find, Gatto discussed ponds and education in relation to Thoreau's Walden Pond experience.

logicalmindon How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

It's really not difficult for them to find some violation that could be some kind of "dangerous" situation. Is every outlet in your house child-proof? Is every bookshelf, dresser, etc. secured to the wall so it cannot tip over onto a child? Are your toilet lids locked closed to a child cannot fall into them? There really is no limit to the things they can find.

Even worse, they can bring your children to psychologists and ask them leading questions that could lead to concerns about anything they like. DCFS can make your life a living hell if they like. And the more you piss them off the more they are likely to do just that.

logicalmindon Video: Don Syme - Intro to F#

My experience is the same, but you have to think that F# would be a possibility much more so than Lisp/Haskell/Erlang/etc. would be.

logicalmindon Video: Don Syme - Intro to F#

For all intents and purposes, it is OCaml on .NET. I currently work in a .NET shop and it has made functional programming a real possibility when using the .NET stack. Combine that with the functional capabilities of C# and you have a real possibility of at least some of the features of functional languages becoming mainstream. I am hopeful.

logicalmindon Two Weeks Vacation is only a Recommendation, not a Rule

I have a somewhat-related story about the last place I worked. During my first year there the company was in the process of replacing half a dozen consultants with a handful of full-time employees. We worked very hard with limited resources and weren't allowed to take a vacation. Even working on the end-of-year holidays to complete deadlines before the end of the calendar year. Our manager kept telling us that we could carry over our accrued vacation time and be "taken care of" next year. And there was a policy of carrying over vacation days to the next calendar year.

So the start of the next year comes and my team gets our first paycheck and for some reason we all have zero vacation time. We are all stunned and quickly talk to HR. It turns out that employees can carry over vacation days, but _NOT_ in your first year of tenure. So the team lost all of our vacation days and restarted at zero. Our manager looked into it and discovered that those were the rules. He went to his manager to see if we could get our vacations back but he couldn't get anyone from HR to change their mind as "that was the policy". Needless to say, we were pretty pissed off.

logicalmindon Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

I work in enterprise software, trying to improve it one company at a time, and the biggest niche I see for excel is bypassing existing security mechanisms or procedures. We tend to expose data to users in a secure manner based on roles or authorities. But once users can export the data into excel, all of those security mechanisms are bypassed and they can send the data to other people or take it home.

I've even seen instances where excel exports are used as disaster recovery mechanisms.

logicalmindon Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

It depends on how big of a problem you want to tackle. The biggest problem I have every day is that I get tired and have to go to sleep. This time spent sleeping could be better used by doing more productive things. Finding a solution to the "sleep problem" would be a huge win in many ways.

logicalmindon What do Bill Gates and Richard Stallman have in common ?

If anyone is interested, here are the textbooks for the course:

Math 55a

* Required: Axler, Linear Algebra Done Right, Springer, 1997.

* Required: Artin, Abstract Algebra, Prentice-Hall, 1991. * Recommended: Halmos, Naive Set Theory, Springer-Verlag, 1974.

* Also useful: Halmos, Finite-Dimensional Vector Spaces, Springer-Verlag, 1987.

* Also useful: Fulton and Harris, Representation Theory: A First Course, Springer-Verlag, 1991. See especially Appendix B.

* Also useful: Bott and Tu, Differential forms in Algebraic Topology, Springer-Verlag, 1982. See especially Chapter 1.

Math55b

* Required: Rudin, Principles of Mathematical Analysis, McGraw-Hill, 1976.

* Required: Marsden and Hoffman, Basic Complex Analysis, Freeman, 1999.

* Recommended: Stein and Shakarchi, Fourier Analysis, an Introduction, Princeton University Press, 2003.

* Also useful: Stein and Shakarchi, Complex Analysis , Princeton University Press, 2003.

* Also useful: Bott and Tu, Differential Forms in Algebraic Topology , Springer, 1982. See especially 1.1-1.3.

* Also useful: H. M. Schey, Div, Grad Curl and All That , Norton, 2005.

* Also useful: Hubbard and Hubbard, Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra and Differential Forms, Prentice Hall 1999.

* Also useful: T. Needham, Visual Complex Analysis , Oxford University Press, 1997.

logicalmindon Some Notes to Congress on the Economy

It's nice to see the nod to Y-Combinator and the realization that many businesses can be started with much less money today. But there is also another point to realize. Have you noticed how large the barriers to entry are in some industries? Could anyone today really start a bank, an oil company, a car company, etc.?

Some markets (especially in technology) are opening with very low barriers to entry. But some markets are more closed than ever.

logicalmindon Being God is a big responsibility

For the sake of argument, let's say that world zero (W0 for short) is at some arbitrary level. Worlds being simulated below that level would be -W1, -W2, etc. Worlds above would be W1, W2, etc. If everything is deterministic then worlds at all levels take the same path and arrive at the same outcome. But if W0 has control over the -W1 timeline, then W0 can view it's own future by moving the -W1 timeline forward. W0 now knows it's own future (lottery numbers for arguments sake). W0 can now use that knowledge to change it's future. The W0 future is now different from the W1 future which contradicts the ability for all worlds to be deterministic.

logicalmindon Being God is a big responsibility

But if the simulated worlds are deterministic as implied then you could run the simulation forward into the future if your reality also followed the same determinism. Doing this would cause an interesting paradox where knowledge of the simulated future could change what you do in the real world. For example, simulate forward to the next lottery drawing to discover the numbers. Then play those numbers in the real world and win the lottery.

This all depends on the fact that the simulation and the real world are deterministic which, it would seem, is highly improbable.

logicalmindon How to make McDonalds french fries

You probably already know about it, but there is a place in the chicago area called "hot doug's" that makes duck fat french fries on fridays and saturdays. They also have wonderful sausages.

logicalmindon Interviewing programmers: coding test example explained

You can add a little twist to this test to make it slightly more difficult by changing the char to remove to be an array of char's to remove.

logicalmindon Larry Ellison On Sun Ex-CEO: Blogging Was Silly Diversion

Maybe so, but a sales person guilting a customer into making a purchase in order to save his job would be something a bit different.

logicalmindon Larry Ellison On Sun Ex-CEO: Blogging Was Silly Diversion

Are you sure this wasn't simply a sales tactic? Or did you know this sales person personally? I generally don't find sales people to be the most honest and trustworthy individuals.

logicalmindon LINQ is better than foreach

I'm not sure if you find it easier to read, but this is analogous:

  var developerNames = from emp in employees.AsParallel().AsOrdered()
                       where emp.Role == Role.Developer
                       orderby emp.LastName
                       select emp.FullName;

logicalmindon LINQ is better than foreach

I'm not following why you are trying to specify the providers implementation of the list comprehension when it doesn't matter to the LINQ query you write. LINQ is working on lists and provides standard query operators. When you write a LINQ query it's turned into an expression tree. Based on the provider of the original list the query is turned into an actual implementation of your LINQ query. Whether this is ultimately translated to a SQL query, an LDAP query, assembly instructions, etc. is of little concern to the writer of the LINQ query. Of course, there are some instances where you do care if performance is of importance.

I believe that the point of author was that any time you are iterating over a list, you should really think about whether you can replace the iteration with a LINQ query. It really doesn't matter whether the list being iterated is an underlying list of objects, a table in an RDBMS, etc.

logicalmindon LINQ is better than foreach

I find it somewhat ironic that you try to specify that the term LINQ be limited to LINQ to Objects and then proceed to explain how it doesn't matter whether the provider is for objects or SQL. Granted, his examples are all LINQ to Objects, but I see no need to be that specific. The provider could be Objects, SQL, Parallel Objects, etc. But the LINQ is still the same.

logicalmindon LINQ is better than foreach

I use LINQ as much as possible in my code. Any time I do any type of looping construct I re-evaluate whether I should be writing it using LINQ.

Most C# developers think LINQ is some fancy new concept but in reality they are just an implementation of Haskell list comprehensions ported to C# by Erik Meijer. I love watching the the imperative and functional languages converge like this.

logicalmindon Cook Your Meat in a Beer Cooler: The World's Best Sous-Vide Hack

I highly recommend that anyone read this information before attempting sous vide. It outlines the various bacteria involved and the time/temp calculations for various items:

http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html

logicalmindon Cook Your Meat in a Beer Cooler: The World's Best Sous-Vide Hack

Killing most bacteria is a function of temperature and time. The higher the heat, the less time it has to be at that temperature. The lower the heat, the longer it has to be at that temperature. It's all a numbers game. Nothing is completely safe.

logicalmindon Cook Your Meat in a Beer Cooler: The World's Best Sous-Vide Hack

Except for poached eggs. Cooked in nearly boiling water. Quite excellent.

logicalmindon Cook Your Meat in a Beer Cooler: The World's Best Sous-Vide Hack

I don't want to burst your bubble or anything, but you should call omaha steaks and ask them what the USDA grade of their steaks would be if they paid for them to be graded. Combine that with the fact that they are usually frozen and you're not getting a good deal on their meat.

logicalmindon Tell HN: I got screwed by my employer

I wasn't saying a verbal contract is not as good as a written one, I was just saying a verbal contract cannot amend a written one. ie. If he signs a contract stating he can work independently on nights/weekends, they cannot amend that contract verbally and change their minds. Amendments to written contracts must be agreed upon by both parties in writing. Though I'm not sure if this applies in the Netherlands...

logicalmindon Tell HN: I got screwed by my employer

And not only that, but a verbal contract cannot modify a written contract. At least in US law. So he is only bound by what is written in the contract he signed, not what was said outside the bounds of that contract.

logicalmindon Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

That's interesting. I had no idea you were the person who did the pi calculation. My co-worker and I setup all of the computers in our development area to help the cause. Looking at the old stats, we were the #4 producer (Viper). Brings back memories. Thanks for putting that together!

logicalmindon My Mega HN Dinner Party (32 people, 7 courses)

Very impressive! I am a cooking-obsessed hacker too, but I haven't attempted something this ambitious.