simoneau

He called me into his office one day to play me a voicemail. It was Steve Jobs asking him what he could do to get MATLAB shipping on the Mac again.

MathWorks had dropped the platform because of it's then-low market share. Steve was having trouble selling Macs to universities because MATLAB was so important there. Apple ended up sending MathWorks a bunch of Macs for the build-end-test system, and MATLAB did soon return to the Mac.

Penny Anderson was in his office one day. They were trying to figure out which LAPACK numerical algorithm to use under the covers to power some MATLAB function. The different algorithms performed better for different types of matrices and different hardware specifications. They were trying to work out some heuristic where they could automatically pick the right one for the user, but they were having trouble coming up with reliable rules. Finally, Penny proposed exposing it as an option so the user could specify the one they wanted. Cleve responded with something like "If you and I can't figure out which algorithm to use, our customers have no chance. So let's just pick the one that usually works well and not make them try guess."

I was lucky to have the office across the hall from him at MathWorks around 2000. He was always interested in chatting with whomever came by and learning about what they were working on. He was always a college professor at heart.

I think I recognize some of these as coming from a tiled background pack I used back in the 90s. Maybe associated with the Enlightenment Window Manager project?

Someone just needs to write “JSON5: The Good Parts” and an aggressive linter to enforce it.

Wonderful high-school-science-fair vibes from this title.

Direct link to source: https://twitter.com/dsnugentmalone/status/171535699852548549...

me: Facebook AI, please post a tender moment between me and my father when I was a boy. Include some photos.

Facebook: I'd be happy to. Are there any more details you'd like to include?

me: Please show how he didn't understand me at first, but then he looks at me and starts crying with love and regret.

Facebook: Done. Your relationship with your father must have been deeply fulfilling.

Me: Facebook AI, please post an entry about my vacation on Cape Cod and create a bunch of photos to go with it.

Facebook: Great. I'd be happy to. Any more detail you'd like to add?

Me: Make us look attractive. Show that we're a having a great time. Also, we went to see the Chatham Lighthouse.

Facebook: OK, done!

...

Facebook: You've received 48 likes. Your mother would like to know if you had any salt water taffy.

Me: Yes, and please create a picture of my oldest daughter having trouble chewing it.

Facebook: Done.

These green squares helped John Resig for about 4 years: https://johnresig.com/blog/write-code-every-day/

The Daily has a good episode on how online sports betting moves into one state at a time: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/podcasts/the-daily/sports...

See also "Courtney Love does the math" (2000) for a similar analysis of the music industry:

https://www.salon.com/2000/06/14/love_7/

In email to customers:

"Over the last 20 years, it’s been our privilege to protect our customers’ memories by hosting over 100 billion photos on our secure servers. We’re reaching out to remind you that we updated our Photo Storage Policy in January 2023; unlimited photo storage is now only available to active Shutterfly customers who make a purchase at least once every 18 months. On March 29, 2023, all inactive account projects and photos will be permanently deleted."

Famously, upscaled Obama: https://twitter.com/Chicken3gg/status/1274314622447820801

I picture someone 20 years from now trying to find out what their parent really looked like when they were young. The obviously smoothed-out face filters are already giving way to AI-powered homogenization. And the filtering is moving deeper down the stack from the app to the camera itself. There will be no "original".

Famously, upscaled Obama: https://twitter.com/Chicken3gg/status/1274314622447820801

I'm with you, but I fear that horse is already out of the barn. I picture someone 20 years from now trying to find out what their parent really looked like when they were young. The obviously smoothed-out face filters are already giving way to AI-powered homogenization. And the filtering is moving deeper down the stack from the app to the camera itself. There will be no "original".

Did I miss it or is there no photo of the new statue?

Dueling Carls (2010):

https://youtu.be/t-7mQhSZRgM

jsMath, now MathJax, took all the wind out of MathML’s sails by rendering LaTeX equations in the client. I know that MathML is better in some ways, but the combination of downloading custom fonts and JavaScript-based layout solved the problem well enough.

I have a moment of morning when a podcast I love disappears behind a firewall, most recently Heavyweight. Then I remember there are tons of other great podcasts out there I’ve never even tried and move on with my life.

FYI: JWZ has long-since disavowed this attitude, and much else.

I recommend this podcast-miniseries "Hot Money: porn, power and profit" by the Financial Times:

https://www.ft.com/content/762e4648-06d7-4abd-8d1e-ccefb74b3...

It spends quite a bit of time explaining how the credit card companies became the de-facto regulators of porn on the Internet.

How much of that $15M went into the sweet domain name, felt.com?

"So you convince yourself that you only need to implement 20% of the features, and you can still sell 80% as many copies. Unfortunately, it’s never the same 20%."

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/03/23/strategy-letter-iv...

It makes me sad if future generations of programmers never have the experience of working with a team in-person. I know it doesn't suit everyone's work style or life style. I'm not even arguing it's more productive. But it can be a lot more fun!

I want to pay for researched, impartial answers to my questions. Would someone build that, please?

Barry Sobel made hay of this aspect of LA culture back in 1992: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLf3EaDEf68 I'm amazed this has been bouncing around in my head for 30 years, and equally amazed I could instantly pull this up with a Google search.

I'm surprised at the level of scamming we tolerate as a society. As technologists, we have a good chance of not falling for it, but my parents are sitting ducks.

Some combination of new consumer protection laws, infrastructure improvements, and law enforcement attention is desperately needed. I don't know why this doesn't get more attention. Is it just the historical attitude that each of us are responsible for protecting ourselves? Is the line too blurry between a legit business and an outright scam?

And I think that's why these are so viral. When you see a question and your friend's answer, it makes you feel like you're responding as well.

I though most of the point of vaxing children and other low-risk groups is to stop the spread, not for their own individual safety. Reducing the chance they'll infect grandma. And reducing the circulating pool of infections to prevent more virulent strains from developing. Have I got this wrong?

This surprised me as well. In fact, this line is misleading. From the article.

"Figure 1’s apparent post‐2010 rise in meeting through bars and restaurants for heterosexual couples is due entirely to couples who met online and subsequently had a first in‐person meeting at a bar or restaurant or other establishment where people gather and socialize. If we exclude the couples who first met online from the bar/restaurant category, the bar/restaurant category was significantly declining after 1995 as a venue for heterosexual couples to meet."