Simple Set Game Proof Stuns Mathematicians | Quanta Magazine
A new series of papers has settled a long-standing question related to the popular game in which players seek patterned sets of three cards.
Hasnain says:
"Now, however, mathematicians have solved the cap set problem using an entirely different method — and in only a few pages of fairly elementary mathematics. “One of the delightful aspects of the whole story to me is that I could just sit down, and in half an hour I had understood the proof,” Gowers said."
Posted on 2016-05-31T22:41:44+0000
Moving Forward on Basic Income
We have a few updates we want to share on our Basic Income Project: Our Research Director Elizabeth Rhodes is joining Basic Income Project as our Research Director. She recently...
Hasnain says:
"We think everyone should have enough money to meet their basic needs—no matter what, especially if there are enough resources to make it possible. We don’t yet know how it should look or how to pay for it, but basic income seems a promising way to do this.
One reason we think it may work is that technological improvements should generate an abundance of resources. Although basic income seems fiscally challenging today, in a world where technology replaces existing jobs and basic income becomes necessary, technological improvements should generate an abundance of resources and the cost of living should fall dramatically."
Posted on 2016-05-31T17:15:15+0000
The New Napster: How Sci-Hub is Blowing Up the Academic Publishing Industry - The Art of Ass-Kicking
There has been an explosive new development in how scientific research is read and distributed. It’s name is Sci-Hub. Founded in 2011 by Alexandra Elbakyan (who was, at the time, a 22 year-old graduate student based in Kazakhstan), the site has seen a major uptick in the last year. In February 2016,...
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-30T21:01:01+0000
The Quiet Crisis unfolding in Software Development
About MeI’ve been working in software development for twenty-eight years. My current position is Senior Development Director at a software consulting compa…
Hasnain says:
An engrossing read on managing software developers.
"Even worse is when bug fixes are included in completed work item counts when those bugs are fixed by the software developers that caused them in the first place. For example consider a project that developer #1 is likely to complete in ten days with a low or nonexistent bug count vs. developer #2 who is likely to complete it in five days but the feature ends up with four bugs eventually being discovered, each of which take two days to patch. Not to mention the extra support costs and negative customer experience that will result from those bugs.
In this scenario developer #1 only completed one work item in ten days and developer #2 completed five work items in thirteen days. Which developer is more productive? Your own completed work item metrics are probably lying to you. Don’t trust them and absolutely don’t publicize them."
Poverty: What Does It Mean To Be Poor? - SPIEGEL ONLINE
Poverty is measured on the basis of income, but that is often too one-dimensional for such a complex phenomenon. Researchers have developed better ways of defining who falls below the poverty line, but do those concepts stand up to the test?
Boys who live with books ‘earn more as adults’
Italian economists find access to books can materially affect earnings compared with those who grew up with few or none
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-30T00:47:13+0000
We need to challenge the myth that the rich are specially-talented wealth creators
In this article Andrew Sayer revives some concepts – ‘unearned income’, ‘rentiers’, ‘functionless investors’, and ‘improperty’ – to explain why the very rich are unjust and dysfunctiona…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-29T17:15:25+0000
Backreaction: The Holy Grail of Crackpot Filtering: How the arXiv decides what’s science – and...
Where do we draw the boundary between science and pseudoscience? It’s is a question philosophers have debated for as long as there’s been science – and last time I looked they hadn’t made much progress. When you ask a sociologist their answer is normally a variant of: Science is what scientists do.…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-28T05:50:09+0000
I’m a black man. Here’s what happened when I booked an Airbnb. — Stay Woke
This is a story of an AIRBNB experience I recently went through. I met this awesome lady Crissie in my Facebook Group. Super nice lady…
Hasnain says:
"So I had a white friend book for my same dates and all of a sudden her plans changed back hahaha. Approved immediately! LOL"
Ouch
Posted on 2016-05-28T04:54:37+0000
Two-hundred-terabyte maths proof is largest ever
A computer cracks the Boolean Pythagorean triples problem — but is it really maths?
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-27T08:41:43+0000
The superbug that doctors have been dreading just reached the U.S.
For the first time, researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort. CDC chief says this could mean "the end of the road" for antibiotics.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-27T08:39:03+0000
This industry helps Chinese cheat their way into & through US colleges
A cheating ring at the University of Iowa demonstrates the damage being done by a booming Chinese cottage industry to the U.S. higher education system.
Krister Walfridsson's blog: Type-based aliasing in C
kristerw.blogspot.com
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-23T18:08:57+0000
A controversial theory may explain the real reason humans have allergies
Allergies may have evolved as a way of protecting our ancestors by flushing out toxic chemicals.
Hasnain says:
Super exciting to hear a fresh view on allergies. I need to look this guy up.
"For now, however, Medzhitov would just be happy to get people to stop seeing allergies as a disease, despite the misery they cause. “You’re sneezing to protect yourself. The fact that you don’t like the sneezing, that’s tough luck,” he said, with a slight shrug. “Evolution doesn’t care how you feel.”"
Posted on 2016-05-23T15:35:13+0000
Automation Should Be Like Iron Man, Not Ultron - ACM Queue
Q: Dear Tom: A few years ago we automated a major process in our system administration team. Now the system is impossible to debug. Nobody remembers the old manual process and the automation is beyond what any of us can understand. We feel like we've painted ourselves into a corner. Is all operation...
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-23T07:27:24+0000
For World’s Newest Scrabble Stars, SHORT Tops SHORTER
Nigerian players are dominating Scrabble tournaments with the surprising strategy of playing short words even when longer ones are possible, in an extreme form of rack management.
Hasnain says:
"Across the developing world, more governments are funneling money and organization into the sport. In Pakistan, 700-plus people competed in last year’s national championship, which was televised live. A Gabonese man’s second-place finish in the French-language world championship sparked a national Scrabble league in that African state."
Posted on 2016-05-23T07:21:47+0000
How the West (and the Rest) Got Rich
The Great Enrichment of the past two centuries has one primary source: the liberation of ordinary people to pursue their dreams of economic betterment
Hasnain says:
"Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, had the right idea in what he said to Reason magazine last year: “When people ask, ‘Will our children be better off than we are?’ I reply, ‘Yes, but it’s not going to be due to the politicians, but the engineers.’ ”"
Posted on 2016-05-23T06:59:31+0000
Pakistan's Senate Gets Smart About Terrible Cyber-Crime Bill
Over the last few months, Pakistan's Internet community has been fighting to stop the passage of one of the world's worst cyber-crime proposals: the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (PECB). Thanks in part to the hundreds of messages sent to Pakistan's senators, they secured a major victory this…
The Day the Moon Blew Up
Bill Gates reviews the book ”Seveneves” by author Neal Stephenson.
The Father of Modern Metal - Issue 36: Aging - Nautilus
Sometime in 1882, a skinny, dark-haired, 11-year-old boy named Harry Brearley entered a steelworks for the first time. A shy kid—he…
Hasnain says:
"What’s more, Harry Brearley didn’t know it then, but the stuff he cast from the electric furnace at Firth’s on Aug. 20, 1913, was nothing new. At least 10 others had created it, or something like it, before; at least half a dozen had described it; and one guy even explained it, and explained it well. Others had patented it, and commercialized it. Before Brearley got around to it, at least two dozen scientists in England, France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the United States were studying alloys of steel by varying the amounts of chromium, nickel, and carbon in it. Faraday had tried as much nearly a century earlier. It’s not like Brearley was exploring unknown territory. That he is credited with discovering stainless steel is due mostly to luck; that he is credited with fathering it is due mostly to his resolve."
Posted on 2016-05-21T06:43:38+0000
Fox 'Stole' a Game Clip, Used it in Family Guy & DMCA'd the Original - TorrentFreak
This week's episode of Family Guy included a clip from 1980s Nintendo video game Double Dribble showing a glitch to get a free 3-point goal. Fox obtained the clip from YouTube where it had been sitting since it was first uploaded in 2009. Shortly after, Fox told YouTube the game footage infringed it...
The Daily Post_ Search the Archive.pdf
View and download The Daily Post_ Search the Archive.pdf on DocDroid
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-21T06:24:03+0000
Edge.org
You can subscribe to Edge and receive e-mail versions of EdgeEditions as they are published on the web. Fill out the form, below, with your name and e-mail address and your subscription will be automatically processed.
Hasnain says:
"And as if that were not enough, here’s the kicker. This was not some kind of massive high-throughput screen of the kind we so often hear about in biomedical research these days. The researchers tried this approach just once, in essentially their back yard, on a very small scale, and it STILL worked the first time. What that tells us is that it can work again—and again, and again."
Posted on 2016-05-21T06:18:49+0000
How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes.
Hasnain says:
Super well written, and extremely scary. I also had no idea google had a design ethicist.
"We need our smartphones, notifications screens and web browsers to be exoskeletons for our minds and interpersonal relationships that put our values, not our impulses, first. People’s time is valuable. And we should protect it with the same rigor as privacy and other digital rights."
Posted on 2016-05-21T06:14:39+0000
A Secret Forest Grew for Millennia in North America Without Anyone Noticing
Cedar trees living on steep cliffs were centuries old, and no one knew.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-21T06:09:56+0000
The Most Disturbing Thing About My Meeting With Mark Zuckerberg
Yesterday, I had an opportunity to meet with some of the senior staff at Facebook, including the CEO and COO. I found the meeting deeply disturbing — but not for the reasons you might think. Before I dig in, since I’ll be talking about bias, let me share a bit about mine. I have been an avid Faceboo...
Scott Adams Blog
Evaluating the Political Chess Board Posted May 19th, 2016 @ 10:38am in #Trump #clinton2016 Trump has pulled ahead of Clinton nationally in both the new FOX poll and the Rasmussen Poll. And Trump passed Clinton in favorability according to the newest national poll on that topic. The Megyn Kelly inte...
Hasnain says:
"I’m teeming with confirmation bias, but from my kitchen counter, I don’t see how it can go any direction but a Trump landslide from here."
It can only go downhill from here
Posted on 2016-05-19T17:08:20+0000
Tips for beginning systems and software engineers
From time to time I’m toying with the idea to give a lecture to newcomers in the IT industry (systems or software engineers). Here are some of the points that I would include in it: Human fa…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-19T15:24:44+0000
Google’s 9 lines
After reading about the Oracle v. Google trial I looked up the famous 9 lines of code that Google allegedly stole from Oracle, which implement the rangeCheck method for arrays. Note that arrays and…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-19T04:37:39+0000
Gov. Brown's "as of right" housing proposal could have sweeping Bay Area changes - San Francisco...
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed sweeping statewide legislation that would allow new market-rate projects with at least some affordable housing onsite to be approved "as of right," with big ramifications for the Bay Area.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-19T04:27:04+0000
Google supercharges machine learning tasks with TPU custom chip
cloudplatform.googleblog.com
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-19T04:15:05+0000
Theranos Voids Two Years of Edison Blood-Test Results
Theranos, led by Elizabeth Holmes, voids two years of Edison blood-test results and issues tens of thousands of corrected blood-test reports to patients and doctors.
New Support for Alternative Quantum View | Quanta Magazine
An experiment claims to have invalidated a decades-old criticism against pilot-wave theory, an alternative formulation of quantum mechanics that avoids the most
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-18T05:28:03+0000
Apple Sent Two Men to My House. No, They Weren’t Assassins.
“I hope something goes wrong tonight,” said Tom, as he met my eye. He’d just finished petting my dog, and he was on his way out the door. “Well, not really, but you know wha…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-18T04:19:19+0000
A Brain Dump of What I Worked on for Uncharted 4
This post is part of My Career Series. Here is the Chinese translation of this post. 本文之中文翻譯在此 Now that Uncharted 4 is released, I am able to talk about what I worked on for the project. I mostly w…
support.microsoft.com
support.microsoft.com
Hasnain says:
"To resolve the issue, do not create a user account contains the string "user" on the computer."
Posted on 2016-05-17T05:57:24+0000
Issue 820 - project-zero - Symantec/Norton Antivirus ASPack Remote Heap/Pool memory corruption...
bugs.chromium.org
Updating a classic - Charlie's Diary
In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services—the predecessor of the post-war CIA—was concerned with sabotage directed against enemies of the US military. Among their ephemera, declassified and published today by the CIA, is a fascinating document called the Simple Sabotage Field Manual (PDF). It's not…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-16T01:59:26+0000
A Plan to Flood San Francisco With News on Homelessness
Journalists in San Francisco, frustrated at inaction over the city’s homeless crisis, are planning coordinated coverage on the issue.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-16T01:57:07+0000
Hidden Microphones Exposed As Part of Government Surveillance Program In The Bay Area
A clandestine government surveillance program that has been operating around the Bay Area is being exposed.
Hasnain says:
"Imagine standing at a bus stop, talking to your friend and having your conversation recorded without you knowing. It happens all the time, and the FBI doesn’t even need a warrant to do it."
Posted on 2016-05-15T00:27:09+0000
The NYPD Was Systematically Ticketing Legally Parked Cars for Millions of Dollars a Year- Open...
The NYPD Was Systematically Ticketing Legally Parked Cars for Millions of Dollars a Year- Open Data Just Put an End to It New York City is a complex place to drive. And when it comes to parking, there...
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-12T05:43:42+0000
Off the Podium: Why Public Health Concerns for Global Spread of Zika Virus Means That Rio de...
Commentary Off the Podium: Why Public Health Concerns for Global Spread of Zika Virus Means That Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic Games Must Not Proceed Amir Attaran, DPhil, LLB, MS. Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa Share to Twitter Brazil’s Zika problem is inconveniently no...
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-12T05:42:13+0000
Robots didn't take our jobs
I live a strange life - due to a funny life situation, I travel regularly between India and the US. One of the starkest differences is observing how many jobs machines have taken in the wealthy US, leaving the US with a dire surplus of labor. A day in the life ...
How Breakfast Became a Thing
What made breakfast into a distinct meal dominated by cold cereal? Ad campaigns like the one that coined the phrase "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" in 1944.
Hasnain says:
Engrossing read. I had no idea about the first part, which seems to be treated as gospel by a lot of folks in health too
"You’ve probably heard that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”
What you may not know is the origin of this ode to breakfast: a 1944 marketing campaign launched by Grape Nuts manufacturer General Foods to sell more cereal. "
"It’s always a good idea to remain skeptical of the claims made in advertisements and the ideas expressed by organizations with vested interests. But with breakfast foods, skepticism is particularly necessary. Since advertising is the foundation of the entire ready-to-eat industry, the incentives for deception are strong.
Be vigilant. Breakfast is the most marketed meal of the day. "
Posted on 2016-05-10T01:20:58+0000
It Costs $84,000 to Cure Hepatitis C Through U.S. Insurance: I Did It for $1,500 Ordering the...
How I got around one of the most obscene examples of Big Pharma overreach.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-09T06:49:47+0000
Death by GPS
Why do we follow digital maps into dodgy places?
Dropbox cut a bunch of perks and told employees to save more as Silicon Valley startups brace...
Dropbox is just one of the many startups bracing for the wind to turn in Silicon Valley.
Panama Papers Source Offers Documents To Governments, Hints At More To Come
Source known only as John Doe says income inequality
Hasnain says:
This is a pretty deep statement.
"Banks, financial regulators and tax authorities have failed. Decisions have been made that have spared the wealthy while focusing instead on reining in middle- and low-income citizens.
Hopelessly backward and inefficient courts have failed. Judges have too often acquiesced to the arguments of the rich, whose lawyers—and not just Mossack Fonseca—are well trained in honouring the letter of the law, while simultaneously doing everything in their power to desecrate its spirit."
"That being said, I have watched as one after another, whistleblowers and activists in the United States and Europe have had their lives destroyed by the circumstances they find themselves in after shining a light on obvious wrongdoing. Edward Snowden is stranded in Moscow, exiled due to the Obama administration’s decision to prosecute him under the Espionage Act. For his revelations about the NSA, he deserves a hero’s welcome and a substantial prize, not banishment. Bradley Birkenfeld was awarded millions for his information concerning Swiss bank UBS—and was still given a prison sentence by the Justice Department. Antoine Deltour is presently on trial for providing journalists with information about how Luxembourg granted secret “sweetheart” tax deals to multi-national corporations, effectively stealing billions in tax revenues from its neighbour countries. And there are plenty more examples."
Posted on 2016-05-08T00:25:47+0000
'You want a description of hell?' OxyContin's 12-hour problem #InvestigatingOxy
OxyContin's 12-hour problem
Ivy League economist ethnically profiled, interrogated for doing math on American Airlines flight
Move over, Clock Boy. Another swarthy-looking nerd is alarming the authorities.
Hasnain says:
"In this true parable of 2016 I see another worrisome lesson, albeit one also possibly relevant to Trump’s appeal: That in America today, the only thing more terrifying than foreigners is…math."
Posted on 2016-05-07T17:19:01+0000
The Startup Zeitgeist · The Macro
Reading applications to Y Combinator is like having access to a crystal ball. Twice per year — once in the winter and once in the spring — thousands of men and women apply to Y Combinator. Each of these bright minds has his or her own vision of the future of technology. They pitch ideas related to B...
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-06T06:07:22+0000
Students at Fake University Say They Were Collateral Damage in Sting Operation
The federal government’s fictitious University of Northern New Jersey was aimed at dishonest recruiters, but foreign students who signed up lost thousands and face deportation.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-06T06:05:32+0000
Should Prostitution Be a Crime?
A growing movement of sex workers and activists is making the decriminalization of sex work a feminist issue.
Hasnain says:
Pretty interesting points, though I have to admit I haven't read it in full yet
Posted on 2016-05-06T02:58:34+0000
Are Your Taxes Paying for the Cost of Your Street? | My Mapstory Blog
Believe it or not, almost everywhere in the country, people are not paying for the cost of the street right in front of their own properties. I made a map of my home town to illustrate – you can hover over any property and see for yourself (click on the image below to open). I was recently interview...
Click to view the original at mapstoryblog.thenittygritty.org
Hasnain says:
" First and foremost, we need to abolish the laws that caused
this all to happen. Yes, that’s right – all of this was
required to happen, by law. Many people think that sprawl is
a free market phenomenon, and they are exactly wrong. Sprawl
is caused by the following policies – I call these Sprawl
Laws; you can find them for yourself in your local city code
(for the most succinct explanation, see this paper[1]):
* Zoning
* Setbacks
* Minimum parking requirements
* Minimum lot sizes
* Maximum units per lot
* Minimum road widths
"
30 years later, QBasic is still the best | Personal Registry Editor
30 years later, QBasic is still the best (5 minutes read) My oldest son Noah turned 7 three months ago. If he could trade his family for a 2 hour session of playing minecraft, he would do it in a heartbeat. The other love of his life is Super Mario Maker, and it’s been a thrill to see him play the s...
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-06T02:34:59+0000
Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously.
“The software is functioning as intended,” said Amber. “Wait,” I asked, “so it’s supposed to delete my personal files from my internal hard drive without asking my permission?” “Yes,” she replied. …
Hasnain says:
"For about ten years, I’ve been warning people, “hang onto your media. One day, you won’t buy a movie. You’ll buy the right to watch a movie, and that movie will be served to you. If the companies serving the movie don’t want you to see it, or they want to change something, they will have the power to do so. They can alter history, and they can make you keep paying for things that you formerly could have bought. Information will be a utility rather than a possession. Even information that you yourself have created will require unending, recurring payments just to access.”"
Posted on 2016-05-06T01:04:15+0000
Frozen Foods Recall From Trader Joe's And Costco Supplier Just Got Way Worse
The recall now affects 358 products sold under 42 separate brands.
oss-sec: Re: ImageMagick Is On Fire -- CVE-2016-3714
seclists.org
uvloop: Blazing fast Python networking — magicstack
TL;DR asyncio is an asynchronous I/O framework shipping with the Python Standard Library. In this blog post, we introduce uvloop: a full, drop-in replacement for the asyncio event loop. uvloop is written in Cython and built on top of libuv. uvloop makes asyncio fast. In fact, it is at least 2x faste...
Soccer’s Most Remarkable Season
A year after narrowly avoiding relegation, Leicester City is on the verge of a Premier League title.
Hasnain says:
I haven't been following the premier league this year but this is kind of crazy
Posted on 2016-05-02T16:37:34+0000
Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security
Fewer T.S.A. screeners, tighter budgets, new checkpoint procedures and growing numbers of passengers have led to epic security lines, and there’s no end in sight.
Hasnain says:
"While the T.S.A. says it is hiring and training hundreds of additional screening officers, matters are not likely to improve anytime soon. Airline and airport officials have said they fear that the current slowdown will last through the year and could cause a summer travel meltdown when travel demand peaks."
Posted on 2016-05-02T14:40:06+0000
Why you shouldn't exercise to lose weight, explained with 60+ studies
Physical activity may have less to do with weight loss than we think.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-02T03:43:03+0000
How to Pay No Taxes: 10 Strategies Used by the Rich
If you have lots of money, Tuesday, April 17, was one of the best tax days since the early 1930s: Top tax rates on ordinary income, dividends, estates, and gifts remain at or near historically low levels. That’s thanks, in part, to legislation passed in December 2010 by the 111th Congress and signed...
A cache miss is not a cache miss
When writing performant code, we are careful to avoid cache misses when possible. When discussing cache misses, however, we are usually content with counting the number of cache misses. In this post I will explain why this is not sufficient, as data dependency also make a huge difference.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-02T03:20:15+0000
Handcuffed to Uber
A quick scan of LinkedIn for former employees underscores the point. Of Uber’s roughly 6,700 employees, only a tiny fraction have left, and in most cases,..
Berlin Bans Most Airbnb-Style Rentals
Airbnb's offerings in the city dropped 40 percent in a month, even before the laws take effect.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-02T02:55:27+0000
What Happened to Google Maps?
Surprising Changes to Google Maps's Cartography Browsing Google Maps over the past year or so, I've often thought that there are fewer labels than there used to be. Google's cartography was revamped three years ago – but surely this didn't include a reduction in labels? Rather, the sparser maps appe…
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2016-05-01T05:45:16+0000