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.