Inside Google’s Secret Drone-Delivery Program
After two years of development, the Silicon Valley company reveals to The Atlantic that it has substantial research effort into building flying robots than can deliver products across a city in a minute or two.
Hasnain says:
"A decade traveling the continent for The Economist, reporting on everything from jihadis to the spread of cheap Nokia cell phones has convinced him that a technological paradox will permeate poor countries in the 21st century.
“A community will have access to a flying robot even though it will not have access to clean water, or security, or be able to keep its girls in school.”
This may sound absurd, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be the future we live."
Posted on 2014-08-29T21:00:36+0000
[1101.2245] Invertible Bloom Lookup Tables
arxiv.org
Murder Brothers #1
murderbrothers.noobtheloser.com
Click to view the original at murderbrothers.noobtheloser.com
rxin/db-readings
db-readings - Readings in Databases
Scientists agree: Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone
Caffeinate immediately before napping and sleep for 20 minutes or less. You won't regret it.
The Myths You’ll Hear About Working as an Engineer at a Startup — Karl L. Hughes | Technology...
that the true experience of working at a startup is much more textured. Since college I?ve been working in startups at various stages and I?ve met hundreds of employees at other startups as well.
The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni
Feds call it “twelve triple three”; whistleblowers says it's the heart of the problem.
Hasnain says:
1. CIA created black propaganda in USSR linking Soviets and international terrorists to foment dissent in Russia.
2. Somebody picked it up from outside and wrote a book about Soviet-terrorism links.
3. CIA director read the book, took it seriously, freaked out, lobbied for more powers.
3a. CIA people told new director, "er, boss, that was actually us".
3b. CIA director does not believe his own people.
4. CIA and NSA got more powers.
You suck at technical interviews | Seldo.Com Blog
You are bad at giving technical interviews. Yes, you. You're looking for the wrong skills, hiring the wrong people, and actively screwing yourself and your company. Without changing anything about your applicant pool, you can hire different people and your company will do better and you will enjoy y…
Despite Promises, Little Progress in Drawing Poor to Elite Colleges
Surveys of top colleges found virtually no change from the 1990s to 2012 in enrollment of students who are less well off despite a huge increase in the number of such students going to college.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2014-08-26T22:53:44+0000
Mozilla Unveils $33 Intex Cloud FX Smartphone
Mozilla, known for its Firefox web browser, is venturing into the low-cost smartphone war by launching a cellphone priced at about $33 in India.
The fundamental problem of programming language package management : Inside 206-105
The fundamental problem of programming language package management Why are there so many goddamn package managers? They sprawl across both operating systems (apt, yum, pacman, Homebrew) as well as for programming languages (Bundler, Cabal, Composer, CPAN, CRAN, CTAN, EasyInstall, Go Get, Maven, npm,…
How Norway avoided the 'curse of oil'
Norway is one of the richest places on earth, yet displays of ostentatious wealth are rare. How has Norway avoided the pitfalls of mineral wealth, and what comes after the oil runs out?
The Relative Cost of Bandwidth Around the World | CloudFlare Blog
To be a part of the Internet, CloudFlare buys bandwidth, known as transit, from a number of different providers.
Gridland
Match. Build. Survive.
Hasnain says:
This was made by the folk who made "A Dark Room".
Here goes my productivity...
Gogs: Go Git Service
Gogs(Go Git Service) is a GitHub-like clone in the Go Programming Language
Hasnain says:
gogs is insanely easy to set up; I just decided to self host most of my code.
Posted on 2014-08-26T04:54:48+0000
roots
Around 2006, my friend Dan Christensen created a fascinating picture of all the roots of all polynomials of degree ≤ 5 with integer coefficients ranging from -4 to 4:
gogits/gogs
gogs - Gogs(Go Git Service) is a painless self-hosted Git Service written in Go.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
feynmanlectures.caltech.edu
Hasnain says:
"Caltech and The Feynman Lectures Website are pleased to present this online edition of The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Now, anyone with internet access and a web browser can enjoy reading a high quality up-to-date copy of Feynman's legendary lectures."
Posted on 2014-08-25T20:33:31+0000
philsquared/Catch
Catch - A modern, C++-native, header-only, framework for unit-tests, TDD and BDD
How did the Napa earthquake affect sleep?
The Napa Earthquake was the strongest to hit Northern California in 25 years. See how it impacted the sleep of UP wearers in the Bay Area.
Hasnain says:
An analysis showing how people woke up during the earthquake.
Posted on 2014-08-25T20:29:05+0000
Twitch
Twitch is the world's leading video platform and community for gamers.
Hasnain says:
Amazon buys twitch for over a billion.
I'm just so happy it's not being bought by google.
Posted on 2014-08-25T20:24:05+0000
GlassWire Network Security Monitor & Firewall Tool
GlassWire is a free network security monitoring tool and analyzer that visualizes your network activity on an easy to use graph, alerts you of possible threats, manages your firewall, and more.
The British Undercover Cop Who Went Too Far
In the eighties, an animal-rights activist fell in love with Bob Robinson and had his child. Years later, she learned that Bob Robinson was Bob Lambert, and Bob Lambert was a spy. Lauren Collins reports.
Hasnain says:
"The revelation of the extent of the British police’s spying, and the dubiousness of some of their tactics, caused a scandal that has yet to be resolved. Reporters and activists have confirmed that at least nine police officers—including one woman—conducted sexual relationships with unsuspecting citizens during their undercover deployments. At least twelve women, including Jacqui, are suing the Metropolitan Police for deceit, assault, misfeasance in public office, and negligence. Those whose relationships began after 2000 are also bringing suit under the Human Rights Act, arguing that the Met’s “systemic abuse of female political activists” breached Articles 3 and 8, which forbid inhumane treatment and guarantee the right to private life. Jacqui has said that she feels as though she were “raped by the state.”"
Posted on 2014-08-20T00:28:22+0000
VisuAlgo - visualising data structures and algorithms through animation
VisuAlgo was conceptualised in 2011 by Dr Steven Halim as a tool to help his students better understand data structures and algorithms, by allowing them to learn the basics on their own and at their own pace. Together with some of his students from the National University of Singapore (see "Team"),…
Hasnain says:
These are absolutely amazing and really helpful for anyone looking to learn data structures and/or algorithms.
Posted on 2014-08-19T18:24:50+0000
Time exchange rate | The Endeavour
Time exchange rate17 August 201417 August 2014JohnComputingAt some point in the past, computer time was more valuable than human time. The balance changed long ago. While everyone agrees that human time is more costly than computer time, it’s hard to appreciate just how much more costly.You can rent…
Hasnain says:
This is an important note. Though it does come with caveats (consider user cpu time, doesn't apply at scale, premature optimization is the root of all evil etc)
Posted on 2014-08-18T01:43:16+0000
The War Photo No One Would Publish
When Kenneth Jarecke photographed an Iraqi man burned alive, he thought it would change the way Americans saw the Gulf War. But the media wouldn’t run the picture.
Hasnain says:
I don't want to get into a political debate but it surprises me how, in the US, it seems the media likes to talk about violence often but doesn't really show horrific images of war - it seems people aren't shown how bad it can be.
I have seen a distinct lack of dead/bloody bodies on the news since moving to the US (not that I watch too much news). I feel like people should just scroll down and see the first picture, even if they don't read the article.
Posted on 2014-08-18T01:38:58+0000
How to Be Polite
Most people don’t notice I’m polite, which is sort of the point. I don’t look polite. I am big and droopy and need a hai…
Hasnain says:
I don't know why, but this really resonated with me.
"People silently struggle from all kinds of terrible things. They suffer from depression, ambition, substance abuse, and pretension. They suffer from family tragedy, Ivy-League educations, and self-loathing. They suffer from failing marriages, physical pain, and publishing. The good thing about politeness is that you can treat these people exactly the same. And then wait to see what happens. You don’t have to have an opinion. You don’t need to make a judgment. I know that doesn’t sound like liberation, because we live and work in an opinion-based economy. But it is. Not having an opinion means not having an obligation. And not being obligated is one of the sweetest of life’s riches."
Posted on 2014-08-18T00:17:14+0000
Drop that spoon! The truth about breakfast cereals: an extract from Felicity Lawrence's book
Britain is one of the world's largest consumers of puffed, flaked and sugared breakfast cereals. How did that happen when many were said to contain less nutrition than the boxes they come in? Felicity Lawrence investigates
Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
In the murky world of unpaid-bills, a banker and an ex-con can make a fortune — if they don’t run into too many crooks.
Hasnain says:
I knew debt collection was messed up but this takes the cake. An interesting perspective into a totally different world.
Posted on 2014-08-16T23:32:25+0000
ARM: Introduction to ARM: Start | DaveSpace
David Thomas's website.
Edward Snowden: The Untold Story | Threat Level | WIRED
The message arrives on my “clean machine,” a MacBook Air loaded only with a sophisticated encryption package. “Change in plans,” my contact says. “Be in the lobby of the Hotel ______ by 1 pm. Bring a book and wait for ES to find you.”
Hasnain says:
"One day an intelligence officer told him that TAO—a division of NSA hackers—had attempted in 2012 to remotely install an exploit in one of the core routers at a major Internet service provider in Syria, which was in the midst of a prolonged civil war. This would have given the NSA access to email and other Internet traffic from much of the country. But something went wrong, and the router was bricked instead—rendered totally inoperable. The failure of this router caused Syria to suddenly lose all connection to the Internet—although the public didn't know that the US government was responsible. (This is the first time the claim has been revealed.)"
Posted on 2014-08-13T17:34:14+0000
Windows 1.0 and the Applications of Tomorrow
Windows 1.0 and the Applications of Tomorrow
Hasnain says:
This is from 2005, but the nostalgia...
"I know that many of you swear by assembly language for PC programming and I’m very sympathetic. The PC wouldn’t be where it is today without assembly language. And many of you are hesitant about using high-level languages like C because of the performance issues."
Posted on 2014-08-13T05:26:37+0000
Computational Knowledge and the Future of Pure Mathematics—Stephen Wolfram Blog
Proposing technology for pure mathematics: curating concepts, constructs, theorems, & literature; precise symbolic language; automated computations...
"Reverse Engineering for Beginners" free book
Topics touched: Oracle RDBMS, Itanium, copy-protection dongles, LD_PRELOAD, stack overflow, ELF, win32 PE file format, x86-64, critical sections, syscalls, TLS, position-independent code (PIC), profile-guided optimization, C++ STL, OpenMP, win32 SEH.
Push for Pizza app a Silicon Valley triumph - CNET
An app that tackles one of the world's most pressing problems has arrived. Now, with a simple few taps, you too can realize what it's like to live in the year 2014.
Hasnain says:
This app is going to revolutionize all our lives.
#firstworldproblems couldn't get any worse.
Posted on 2014-08-10T02:02:06+0000
Get Your Hands Off My Laptop
This work will be presented in CHES 2014 and published in its proceedings. An extended version (PDF, 5.3MB) is available.
Coccinelle: A Program Matching and Transformation Tool for Systems Code
The development of Coccinelle is supported in part by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France) under the contract ANR-09-BLAN-0158-01.
Hasnain says:
Why had I not known of this before? This is amazing
Posted on 2014-08-08T01:22:35+0000
CoolGithubProjects
Sharing cool github projects just got easier!
Particle Clicker
An addictive incremental game that was made during the CERN Webfest 2014. It takes the player on a historic journey through modern particle physics.
Hasnain says:
CERN came out with a clicker game. What is the world coming to?
Posted on 2014-08-07T18:16:32+0000
Extracting audio from visual information
Algorithm recovers speech from the vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass.
Hasnain says:
So much for us making fun of CSI. This is mind blowing.
Posted on 2014-08-04T18:21:37+0000
Your Steak Would Taste Better if Grilled With Molten Lava
British designer duo Bompas & Parr, who designed the world’s first edible fireworks and are best known for their ambitious and sometimes monumental jelly-based sculptures, traveled to Syracuse, New York, this summer to try out their idea for the world’s most extreme barbecue session—grilling meat ov…
Patching the Newton | Dadhacker
This one ends with me going into a Good Guys electronics store in a suburb of Boston, flashing my employee badge and saying “I’m from Apple. Take me to your Newtons.” I wanted to use a deep G-man voice, but I didn’t have the build for it. Also, I was wearing the slightly redonkulous khaki-pants and…
Hasnain says:
"The Guy from Apple exits Good Guys, checks it off the list, and proceeds to the next store on his assignment. G-Man is surprised what we was able to do by flashing his Apple badge and adopting some bluster; just walk in, make some demands and start cracking open merchandise. That’s kind of disturbing, really."
This is a really great story about patching devices in the 90s. Also kind of worrying how easy it was/is to do social engineering.
Posted on 2014-08-04T03:19:56+0000
Critics Raise Concerns About Sovaldi
Critics have raised an outcry over Sovaldi, a hepatitis C drug heralded as a breakthrough but costing $84,000 for a typical person’s total treatment.
— Localizing Papers, Please Papers, Please was...
Localizing Papers, Please Papers, Please was released on August 8th, 2013 without multilingual support. Even though it would’ve been great to support other languages besides English, I decided to push...
Hasnain says:
This is another reason why computers suck. Localization is difficult. Really long 2-part article.
Posted on 2014-08-04T01:54:16+0000
Hitbox Team - Designing game narrative
Imagine one day you are struck with a flash of inspiration: freshly seared onto your mind is a story, one that is undoubtedly the greatest tale ever conceived by Man. It has all the elements of a great narrative: a gripping plot, nuanced characters, and an evocative setting.
Hasnain says:
This is beautiful and engrossing - I wish some game designers took lessons from here.
Posted on 2014-08-04T01:33:18+0000
India’s Toilet Race Failing as Villages Don’t Use Them
Sunita’s family in the north Indian village of Mukimpur were given their first toilet in February, one of millions being installed by the government to combat disease. She can’t remember the last time anyone used it.
Hasnain says:
"“The fact that India’s health administrators failed to spread mass awareness on diarrhea management speaks volumes of the inefficiency of previous programs,” he said in a written statement on July 28."
Posted on 2014-08-04T01:21:37+0000
Cloudy With a Chance of War - Issue 15: Turbulence - Nautilus
The burial detail, which had come for the corpses in the pigpen, was surprised. The “dead” were getting up and speaking English.…
Hasnain says:
"War, Richardson taught us, can be as out of our control as a summer thunderstorm. The least we might do is check the forecast."
Posted on 2014-08-01T01:26:19+0000