brainonfire.net

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• Commented on Heartbleed note
  if the folks at the Donut in Cheltenham want to read my blog, patching SSL isn't going to keep them out Of course it will! I mean, if they want to see traffic really badly, they'll use techniques that carry...
• Commented on Schadenfreude
  I have used the Bitcoin ATM! (ATM feels like the wrong word for it, but "Bitcoin vending machine" conjures up an even more incorrect vision. Oh well.) As far as I could tell, it wasn't set up for converting Bitcoin...
• Commented on Schadenfreude
  I feel like you're conflating currencies with financial systems. In an alternate universe (or possibly the future), what stops Bitcoin from having insured banks? Theft still happens with cash. As far as I am aware, the ability to print money...
• Commented on How To Survive A Death March
  It's also important to convey the limited-time and time-trade aspects to your employer if they insist on a death march. "If I do this, it will be for at most 3 weeks, and I'll need a week or so of...
• Commented on Lovebible.pl
  Oh, and doing it by character instead of word (with match windows of about 5 characters) can have nice results as well, including some fun neologisms....
• Commented on Lovebible.pl
  I know this algorithm by the name Dissociated Press. Wonderful stuff. For further tuning, you might consider weighting one source corpus more heavily than another. Say, 75% KJV and 25% H. P. Lovecraft....
• Commented on Another deceptively simple question
  Miracle Jones has written an excellent series of (sometimes NSFW?) posts about the possible futures of ebooks, or more specifically the ebook reading experience: http://fictioncircus.com/news.php?id=147&mode=one While I recommend reading all the posts, "What a Protean Codex Should Look Like and...
• Commented on Parasites
  Orchids and mistletoe have been mentioned, but there's a nuance here that I think has not been discussed: Epiphytes and lianas (vines) can be characterized as "structural parasites". They rely on their host to get them up above other plants...
• Commented on A Bad Dream
  I found that sentence very tricky to parse. Here's a version that excerpts the large clause in the subject: "Any attempt at organizing a transfer of power* risks being denounced as Terrorism. that does not ring the changes and usher...
• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  Bostonian (well, Somervillian) here. As soon as I heard the news -- and especially the small casualty count -- I tried my damnedest to ignore all the news sources. Giving them eyeballs just encourages their terrible behavior (and any real...
• Commented on Me, talking
  I think you mean "Olin College" -- one L....
• Commented on Incidentally ...
  I can confirm bartoncasey's decryption scheme -- you paid $50 for one of the things on this receipt. There is a small amount of credit card information on there, which you may care to black out....
• Commented on En route
  Let's just rewire Australia's network in a ring topology. Take advantage of the coastal population! :-P...
• Commented on Space Cadets
  Just look at trees rooted in cracks in the granite of Yosemite's Half Dome, or at Haleakala volcanic crater, Maui. We need to get away from the idea that ecosystems "are a delicate thing", needing "balance". Ecosystems are neither universally...
• Commented on What I did this weekend
  How much longer are you in Boston for?...