Readings in distributed systems
Inspired by a recent purchase of the Red Book , which provides a curated list of important papers around database systems, I?ve decided to begin assembling a list of important papers in distributed systems.
Game about Squares
A little HTML5 puzzle game that takes a few seconds to take off and a few hours to beat. Playable right in the browser, including mobile
Hasnain says:
For all those people who want their lives sucked into another addictive game, here you go.
(also I'm counting down till the mobile clones appear)
Posted on 2014-07-27T18:04:41+0000
What Do Chinese Dumplings Have to Do With Global Warming?
A refrigeration boom is changing the way Chinese people eat — and threatening the planet in the process.
Hasnain says:
"‘So many people these days have these massive refrigerators, and there is this sense that we need to keep them well stocked,’ Bloom said. ‘But there’s no way you can eat all that food before it goes bad.'"
Posted on 2014-07-27T18:01:35+0000
"Learning to Read" by Malcolm X
Born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, Malcolm X was one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of black America during the 1960s. A street hustler convicted of robbery in 1946, he spent seven years in prison, where he educated himself and became a disciple of Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nati…
Hasnain says:
"I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, “What’s your alma mater?” I told him, “Books.” You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man."
Posted on 2014-07-27T17:49:30+0000
Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation
cs.brown.edu
Hasnain says:
A free book on functional language interpretation and implementation.
Posted on 2014-07-25T05:25:39+0000
The New Yorker Stories You Should Read Before the Paywall Goes Up
Yesterday, The New Yorker made all of its magazine pieces since 2007 freely available online for three months. After that time, everything will go behind a metered paywall, along the lines of what the New York Times has in place. So what should you read during this three-month free-for-all? We canva…
Hasnain says:
I'm going to have to read all of these, this is a well picked list.
Posted on 2014-07-24T19:30:36+0000
Mistakes You Should Never Make • Climb Higher
I was walking to a team meeting where I was going to announce that we would likely have to lay off nearly all of our employees because we unexpectedly had almost no money left, and that it was all my fault. On the way, my co-founder and our CTO... | Seth Bannon | Founder & CEO, Amicus. Y Combina…
Hasnain says:
"Entrepreneurs often write about what’s going right, but too rarely write about what’s gone wrong."
There are tons of valuable lessons in here.
Posted on 2014-07-24T19:25:28+0000
Blacklisted: The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist
The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtaine…
Hasnain says:
It's quite scary that this database exists in the first place.
Posted on 2014-07-24T01:06:15+0000
Quantum bounce could make black holes explode
If space-time is granular, it could reverse gravitational collapse and turn it into expansion.
Hasnain says:
This is an interesting phenomenon. I'm wondering how it would work out. Can any of the physicists in my friends list comment on how plausible this is?
Posted on 2014-07-22T21:43:25+0000
Count to ten when a plane goes down...
Just a little under 31 years ago, I played a key role in a conspiracy theory that grew up around a passenger plane downed by a Russian missile. Trust me, I did not mean to be involved. On September 1,...
Hasnain says:
"As this was a very early computer with limited backup capability, hours of work of dozens of experts had been lost when I inadvertently closed down the computer.
I, naturally, felt terrible and was, appropriately, fired."
All I can say is "ouch"
Posted on 2014-07-22T00:27:56+0000