WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]

MisterMashable's comments

MisterMashable | 11 years ago | on: Isobuild: why Meteor created a new package system

I was a bit turned off by the term 'isomorphic javascript' when I first read it mostly because of how it is so fundamental to mathematics and we can say the term isomorphic definitely earned its keep there. In programming I'm not so sure. The term does fit but it's a mouthful, almost as bad as XMLHttpRequest. Is there a cool word like AJAX to take the place of Isomorphic Javascript? Airbnb has a certain coolest factor and they've been using the term so it's most likely here to stay.

MisterMashable | 11 years ago | on: Is The Speed of Light Everywhere the Same?

If we take relativity at face value, the speed of light is c = 2.997 x 10^8 <<<locally>>>. <<<Globally>>> the speed of light can be anything. Cosmologists talk about the universe expanding faster than light during the inflationary phase, which sounds confusing because we're told nothing can move faster than light. While it is true that the speed of light must propogate at only one velocity for all freely moving frames of reference, the speed at which space itself expands can be anything! Relativity does not restrict the speed at which space itself expands or contracts. TL;DR The maximum local speed of anything moving through space in a freely moving frame of reference is c. The speed at which space itself expands or contracts is not limited in any way by Einstein's theory and is consistent with observations of the the inflationary universe in which the universe expanded at faster than the speed of light.

MisterMashable | 11 years ago | on: Is The Speed of Light Everywhere the Same?

I hope this clarifies the appartent contradiction. Light can't help but move at any other speed than c = 2.997 x 10^8 m/s. It can't go faster, nor slower. So how does the speed of light appear to slow down in certain circumstances? In a vacuum, the speed of light is always c. There is nothing to interfere with the propogation of the individual photons (little atoms of light) as they move through the vacuum. However, in a material such as glass the individual photons of light are absorbed and reemitted many trillions of times by the molecules making up the glass. The photons do a "stop over" and don't move at all, the velocity of these photons is zero (actually the photons temporarily don't exist except as energy absorbed by the atoms in the glass). Between lattice points or individual atoms the photons travel at velocity c. The combination of stop overs (absorbtion and reemission events) and free propogation gives the appearance light is travelling at a slower overall velocity than c.

MisterMashable | 11 years ago | on: A Unified Mathematical Language for Physics and Engineering (1996) [pdf]

From experience I would have to say 'differential forms' seem to fit the bill for a unifying mathematical language as applied to geometry and physics. GA seems to me as more of a computation tool. Differential forms are pretty standard in many maths and physics texts. Many paper on the preprint Arxiv use differential forms. The only thing about DFs is that they are very efficient for communicating ideas and doing proofs. For practical calculations they don't really simplify anything (actually get in the way) but it's easy to transform them into the usual vector tensor notation. GA seems less flexible in this regard, you take the product it uses and you either like or lump it.

MisterMashable | 11 years ago | on: A Unified Mathematical Language for Physics and Engineering (1996) [pdf]

I studied several of Hestenes' papers around ten years ago. Most of them are computational in nature and do not proceed to do geometry in an axiomatic way. This isn't to say he didn't write such a paper but I never found one and I read nearly all his extent papers. The thing I liked most was his derivation of the Kerr metric for a rotating black hole. I couldn't find anything wrong with it and I could actual understand every step, unlike Kerr's original paper. Other than that GA has done absolutely nothing to help gain a better understanding of QFT, GR, string theory, Lie groups etc. (for that an in depth understanding of differential forms is best. Physicists, even mathematicians who truly understand the magic of differential forms are even more rare than programmers with a deep understanding javascript!!!) IMO Geometric algebra is a useful collection of interesting computation tools. It reminds me of Pedrag Cvitanovic's "bird track" diagrams to calculate representations of Lie algebras. Nothing unique or fundamental is gained but it is remarkable that a completely orthogonal viewpoint to some very traditional topics exist. Other examples (from mathematics) of surprisingly novel viewpoints of traditional topics include Kuratowski who has a very unique approach to general topology and F. Riesz came up with the notion of "nearness" which simplifies difficult theorems in functional analysis but it could be used to recreate all of basic mathematical analysis.

MisterMashable | 11 years ago | on: Don’t Blame Malaysia Airlines

The point is this has nothing to do with software or anything of interest to Hacker news. Why bother reading HN if it's going to be cluttered with posts and comments that clearly belong elsewhere (Huffingtonpost.com, Disqus, Twitter whatever...) then some sour grapes crybaby who seeks attention voted down your Karma to prove a point. I'll still read HN but some participants are just trollish. I'll never hire or work with anyone with the usernames above because in my world civility and good behavior counts, even with the "little things" like respecting HN guidelines (see below) but it's your life and do what you want with it. Sooner or later you'll put your foot in your mouth in the very worst way and panic all day over your mistake.

Hacker News Guidelines https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

What to Submit

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

MisterMashable | 11 years ago | on: Don’t Blame Malaysia Airlines

Unless the plane crash was due to a software bug, this story, however important it is, has no place here. I appreciate your interest and concern but this isn't the right forum.

MisterMashable | 11 years ago | on: Why Teenagers Act Crazy

Teenagers act crazy bc biologically they are adults. If we were doing our job raising kids and not depriving them of real life experiences and honest learning opportunities, they would be better prepared to channel that amazing youthful energy, the risk taking, the ability to stay awake longer, learn faster, compete. They would be starting businesses of their own perhaps even competing against well established players and occasionally beating them at their own game. Most would simply become (find out) who they are and find their place in the world. They would be thinking independently, writing their own life script. Parents don't like that bc it doesn't validate the choices they made. Their child might fail in their endeavors thereby making the parents look bad, God forbid! Universities don't like it bc success is supposed to depend entirely on whether or not they get paid lots of money. Governments don't like it bc it would force them to change and adapt. Corporations hate it bc those kids are supposed to work for THEM for cheap and buy their CRAP. Did I mention clergy? They don't like it bc some of those kids might become something they aren't and usher in a new form of spirituality they don't 'agree with'. Kids (especially teenagers) are DANGEROUS. It's far better to undereducate them, setup barriers to keep them out of the real world, and deprive them of all the respect and responsibility accorded to 'read adults'. Then when they become neurotic and act out, claim that's the real reason kids need to be watched so closely and excluded from participating in the real world.

MisterMashable | 11 years ago | on: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

This was an amazing and somewhat sad story. How's Gembe doing today? Based on his near adoration of the Valve developers, it would be fitting if he worked in the gaming industry. Maybe he could set things right by helping to make Half-Life 3?

MisterMashable | 12 years ago | on: Why it’s so easy to believe our food is toxic

Sugar is the stuff life runs on but at our modern level of consumption it's undoubtedly the number one food toxin. Sugar is the secret to addicting the consumer and peddling high profit mush. It doesn't really matter much what form it's in sugar, evaporated cane juice (euphemistic term for what sugar actually IS), corn syrup a.ka. HFC (vilified but not substantively different than table sugar), molasses, wheat, corn starch, rice flour, etc. Modern wheat actually has a higher glycemic index than table sugar! Most of our food isn't toxic, just barely acceptable and sometimes poisonous e.g. food born illnesses. Our food is great at killing us slowly, lowering the quality of life and overall health and most of all attracting huge government $ubsidies! It's all about the money after all. Anyhow, I blathered on about this because it's probably the single most effective thing anyone could do for their health, keep their blood sugar stable and avoid cheap high glycemic addictive foods. BPA in tomato cans and other 'problems' deserve very low priority in relation to the sugar epidemic.

MisterMashable | 12 years ago | on: Jack Parsons: Occultist involved in early rocketry

Pascual Jordan, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics along with Dirac, Heisenberg, Pauli and Born had his name essentially written out of the history books because of his association with the Nazi party which really amounted to overlooking what the Nazis were doing and saying some positive comments about the Nazis. I don't like what Jordan did. Heisenberg is a less controversial figure which some people claimed had skeletons in his closet regarding the Nazi party. Nothing really came of it and Heisenberg's reputation has been untouched except a few still hold questions regarding his conduct. I'd like to know if this issue was ever cleared up. Heisenberg is still (rightly) remembered as a chief architect but Pascual Jordan whose contributions equal or exceed Pauli is almost entirely written out.

MisterMashable | 12 years ago | on: Google+ Is Walking Dead

I was really surprised one day to find all my youtube comments on Google+ for all my friends to see. Try explaining away comments about a fart video, drunken bums, cock fighting or some other unfortunate mistake. Oh well (shrugs shoulders)

MisterMashable | 12 years ago | on: Jack Parsons: Occultist involved in early rocketry

That's a shame really. Recording history shouldn't be motivated by politics and other peoples' sensibilities being offended. Regarding Aleister Crowley being 'The Wickedest Man on Earth', not even close. If you've ever read M. Scott Peck's 'People of the Lie', then you know what I mean.

MisterMashable | 12 years ago | on: Free Programming Books

It wouldn't be a bad thing to repost it every now and again. Which reminds me, people are as burried in bookmarks as they are in email. Solution = new startup?

MisterMashable | 12 years ago | on: In Some Ways, It's Looking Like 1999 in the Stock Market

During the 90s internet stocks were doubling or tripling in a matter of days. That isn't happening now. This market is very frothy but this most certainly isn't 99. That said, the market can go anywhere. The market could be topping right now and on it's way to DOW 5000, or it could be taking a break then go merrily on it's way to DOW 35,000. It doesn't matter what Schiff says, it doesn't matter what the cheerleaders say. The market will do its own thing.

MisterMashable | 12 years ago | on: The Best Programming Language (or How to Stop Worrying and Love the Code)

Have you ever seem a simple Prolog program solving the 'four coloring problem'? Try programming that in anything else. Prolog or something similar like Lisp with pattern matching is the tool of choice for speech recognition programs. Why these tools get dismissed in a world of tablet devices using Siri or Google is beyond me.
page 2
newer