The Servers Are Burning
An engineer pushes a small change and OkCupid goes up in flames.
Hasnain says:
"How could such a tiny change have such an outsized impact on the site? “That same story happened so many different times,” my old boss David told me. “Someone launched a small, relatively innocuous change that did one of the millions of unexpected things it could have done, which then happened to break some part of the site, and then bring it all down—sometimes bring it down to the point where we couldn’t recover it for hours.”"
Posted on 2018-09-07T05:53:10+0000
The man who won the lottery 14 times
How a rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery and won millions of dollars around the world.
Hasnain says:
"Mandel was subjected to a 4-year legal crusade, in which he was personally investigated by 14 international agencies, including the CIA, FBI, IRS, National Crime Authority, and Australian Securities Commission.
In the end, neither Mandel nor the ILF was found guilty of any wrongdoing. “I will live to be 150,” he proclaimed. “I am not the type of person who lays down and dies because some glorified clerk doesn’t know what he’s doing.”"
Posted on 2018-09-07T05:48:56+0000
Medieval Fantasy City Generator by watabou
Not a game
Hasnain says:
This is a really cool example of procedural generation
Posted on 2018-09-07T05:37:11+0000
Why your desk job is so damn exhausting
One of the great mysteries of adult life — and psychology.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2018-09-07T04:53:01+0000
Opinion | I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
Muslim Governments Silent as China Cracks Down on Uighurs
As calls grow in the U.S. and Europe to pressure China to halt alleged human-rights abuses against its Muslim minority, Beijing has so far escaped any serious criticism from governments across the Islamic world.
Hasnain says:
"By contrast, the leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan haven’t released public statements on the clampdown. Neither has Saudi Arabia. Even Turkey, which has in the past offered favorable policies to Turkic-speaking groups and hosts a small Uighur population of its own, remained silent as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan grappled with an economic crisis."
Posted on 2018-09-04T14:13:12+0000
Opinion | Get Sick, Go Bankrupt and Die
What the midterms mean for the future of health care.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2018-09-04T03:06:59+0000
How to Retire in Your 30s With $1 Million in the Bank
Fed up with their high-pressure jobs, some millennials are quitting and embracing the FIRE movement. (It stands for financial independence, retire early).
Hasnain says:
This doesn’t talk about how to get there but is an okay overview of FIRE
Posted on 2018-09-01T23:57:42+0000
Microwave Weapons Are Prime Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers
Doctors and scientists say microwave strikes may have caused sonic delusions and very real brain damage among embassy staff and family members.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2018-09-01T19:31:48+0000
DROPS - On the Worst-Case Complexity of TimSort
drops.dagstuhl.de
Hasnain says:
Interesting how sorting algorithms still show up in new research
Posted on 2018-09-01T05:27:09+0000