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mbrookes

336 karma · joined November 15, 2016

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mbrookes··on YC AI
The course is excellent, and thank you for making it and offering it for free - but a word of caution for those considering following it: Along the way you will incur not-insignificant costs for Amazon EC2 GPU instances, and, even if your instance is shut down, SSD EBS storage costs.

Edit: To be clear, I'm not suggesting it's not worth it, just highlighting that theres's more than a time commitment to budget for.

mbrookes··on Enroute Airbus A380 wake flips Challenger business jet upside down
This [1] is one of the most comprehensive examinations of lift, written in layman terms.

You can read the HN discussion here [2], since this appeared on the front page a week ago, much to my surprise [3].

[1]1 http://ljjensen.net/Maritimt/A%20Review%20of%20Modern%20Sail...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13829625

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13835243

mbrookes··on OpenEMR: Electronic Medical Records and Medical Practice Management Software
If you're interested in or working on medical software, you might be interested in Clinical Meteor: http://clinical.meteorapp.com/

"clinical:meteor is an open-source project creating a next-gen framework for building healthcare apps".

mbrookes··on Introducing Sketch: A Playground for React Native from Expo (YC S16)
I opened the QR code with a QR reader, because when I say the app-store buttons, I assumed the QR code was for downloading the app.

You could:

1) Have the QR code contain a real URL, with the Expo ID appended as a querystring.

3) On the server, redirect to the appropriate app-store depending on the browser used to open the URL, or open sketch if installed.

3) Have Expo interpret the querystring to open the correct "sketch".

mbrookes··on Reverse Engineering the Hacker News Ranking Algorithm
Not by itself, but if the age suggest that the content is stale it could be. How the HN algorithm worked 7 years (assuming it has changed) isn't of that much interest, even though the analysis might be.
mbrookes··on The CIA's “Development Tradecraft Do's and Dont's”
ISO 8601: https://www.iso.org/standard/40874.html
mbrookes··on A little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers
I'm sad for you that trawling someone's comment history looking for downvotes is meaningful to you. Maybe it's a signal.

For the record though, since it seems important to you - there was no "heavy downvoting". Even if there had been, please consider that you don't speak for HN, and couldn't possibly know the motivation.

mbrookes··on Ask HN: Weird, curious or bizzarre subreddits that you would like to suggest
Like this, apparently:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13835243

mbrookes··on SEC Rejects Rule Change for Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund [pdf]
Funny you should mention it, as legal judgements are not the sort of thing I normally have reason to read. However (copyright troll) Prenda Law's 9th Circuit appeal on sanctions came up in discussions on HN a couple of days ago and, having watched the humorous video of the proceedings, was curious as to the outcome, so tracked down the ruling [1]. It was similarly well written.

As a lay-person I've come to expect convoluted legalese as found in contract terms, but where those are typically designed to bamboozle and obfuscate, or at least keep corporate lawyers employed decoding and negotiating each others writing, judgements and rulings are designed with the opposite goal in mind. If you are potentially creating case-law, it better be clear what you have decided and why.

[1] http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/13-...

mbrookes··on SEC Rejects Rule Change for Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund [pdf]
This ruling should win an award for plain English - it's exceptionally well written. (not /s)
mbrookes··on Planet Explorer Beta
You're probably getting down-voted because (aside from the off-topic comment) that isn't how copyright works. In most cases copyright starts from the time the work is created, and lasts for a specific period of time (Disney-style exceptions notwithstanding), whether copyright is explicitly declared or not.

The copyright notice only serves (informally) to indicate the start-point for this time.

mbrookes··on Planet Explorer Beta
Not everyone has an eye for graphic design, so if you can't see the that the resemblance is more than just "a circle as part of their logo", that's understandable.

If you need a tool to help, take a look at the google image search for "lonely planet". Their image matching algorithm thinks planet's logo is related to lonely planet's.

mbrookes··on Planet Explorer Beta
Wonder how long they'll get away with using a variation on the lonely planet logo?

https://www.google.com/search?q=lonely+planet&tbm=isch

mbrookes··on A Review of Modern Sail Theory (1981) [pdf]
I'm somewhat disconcerted.

There was an article on HN yesterday [1] in which one of the replies to the top comment about AG Bell's attempts at flight said: "The difference is that Bell didn't understand aerodynamics and didn't seem to do a thing about it."

That reminded me about an article I'd read some time back that suggested that even modern aviation experts don't correctly understand lift.

Today, that article is on the front page of HN.

[1]1 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13817912

mbrookes··on Thinking About Recursion
I clicked it three times before I realized!
mbrookes··on Land Rover’s new Discovery search and rescue SUV has a roof-mounted drone
> I appealed to the fact that they had used the tool and nobody in these comments had.

So demonstrating that you didn't even read the article.

It's not due until June 2017 (how long does it take to fit a roofbox to a car?!) and then then only for pretend use in a training facility.

It's also clear from the video that the GUI is an artists impression.

Like I said "because marketing".

mbrookes··on Land Rover’s new Discovery search and rescue SUV has a roof-mounted drone
Your argument is weak, and clearly you recognise that, as the to appeals to authority, and mistaken [1 8a] questioning of something as trivial as the use of quotation marks are a poor attempt to distract from the question.

[1] http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp

mbrookes··on Land Rover’s new Discovery search and rescue SUV has a roof-mounted drone
Maybe I"m missing something, but what's the purpose of launching from a roof box? It just seems like a gimmick. I can launch a multi-rotor from the roof of my car, but that's hardly news-worthy.

Second, why a quad-copter? Anyone that knows anything about multirotors knows that a quad-coptor has multiple single points of failure, where a hex or octo can be controlled with single or multiple failures respectively.

Seems like they just slapped a hobby drone on the roof of a car "because marketing". It doesn't deserve to be on HN.

mbrookes··on Prenda Saga Update: John Steele Pleads Guilty, Admits Entire Scheme
Also available as audio: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/view.php?pk_id=0000014299

Judge Pregerson to the appellate lawyer, Daniel J. Voelker made me laugh (30:25):

"They abused our court system for illegal purposes, to extort money. [...] This has got to be written about for years and years - you're probably going to be part of the story."

Compared to Voelker, Morgan E. Pietz (beginning 35:30) for the appellee does a superb job of keeping discussions on point when faced with similar anecdotes and trivia questions.

Having (unintentionally) watched the whole video I was curious what the decision was, whether Prenda had their day in (criminal contempt) court, but as it transpires the appeal was dismissed: http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/13-...

Curiously, as good a job as Pietz may have done making his case, it doesn't appear that when reaching their conclusion, the panel depended on much (if any) of the case law he cited.

mbrookes··on Are We Different People in Different Languages?
I believe, at least for your anecdotes, that this has less to do with language, and more to do with context.

We all speak (and behave) differently when we are with our parents, our colleagues and our friends - and arguably online, even when speaking in our native tongue in all these (and other) scenarios.

That is not to say that certain languages don't lend themselves better to certain forms of expression, but I'm not convinced your anecdotes support that argument.

mbrookes··on Satirical Summaries of Hacker News
You have an extra 's'.
mbrookes··on Deep Voice: Real-Time Neural Text-To-Speech
Thanks for the detailed breakdown. The irony is not lost!
mbrookes··on Deep Voice: Real-Time Neural Text-To-Speech
> "Fake News" is about to get a lot more compelling hen you can make anyone say anything as long as you have some previous recordings of their voice.

Adobe has already developed that technology:

https://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2016/11/ado...

Now imagine combining it with this:

Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk

Perhaps using the intonation from the face-actor's voice to guide the speech synthesis.

mbrookes··on Ask HN: Is S3 down?
Frankly, if you don't know the difference between a disclosure and a disclaimer, you shouldn't be commenting.
mbrookes··on Revert the GitHub dark header
Have to say, when I saw the dark top-bar, I presumed it must be part of another go-dark internet protest about something, and wondered why there was no announcement.

Glad to see I can get rid if it (in Chrome at least).

mbrookes··on A330 flight control laws saved Voyager, inquiry finds
"Modern technology may be capable of reducing crew workload to historic lows"

It's stated as benefit, but is this the reason pilots get bored perhaps?

mbrookes··on Apple proposes new web 3D graphics API
Hey Apple, how about developing your browsers to support modern web technologies first?
mbrookes··on Homebrew Amiga Graphics Card (FPGA, Open Source) Finished [video]
This one should be the main link. Amazing work!
mbrookes··on Facebook’s AI unlocks the ability to search photos by what’s in them
I'm assuming that the "I am not a robot" image captchas are being used as a massive source of training data. I've notice there are several tiers of question:

* Select the images containing a street sign

* Select the squares in an image containing a street sign

* Draw a polygon around the sign

Someone better informed than me might be able to comment on how that fits in to deep learning strategies.

mbrookes··on Non-military federal agencies’ purchases of guns, ammunition, etc (2016)
Ah, interesting - thank you! So it's the civic structure rather than a particularly lawless student base. :) Not so bizarre then - just different!
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