Comments for Embracing Chaos

Comment on Learning to do Math in your Head by Ben

Ben — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:17:02 +0000

Nice video. I like the term “mathemagician”.

Comment on Flashbacks to College Math by Embracing Chaos » Blog Archive » Learning to do Math in your Head - Leo Parker Dirac on Business and Technology Trends

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:34:43 +0000

[...] forced me to look over a lot of the old content I’ve written. A couple years ago I found Benjamin’s Ted talk, which has inspired all this craziness. I think it’s good to keep [...]

Comment on iSlate’s amazing tactile feedback keyboard by cowboys4fire1

cowboys4fire1 — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:33:27 +0000

Thanx for your great article. I also must say that your blog design is awesome. Keep up the good posts.

Comment on Participatory Culture and the Democratization of Information by Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:04:51 +0000

As an political science (and economics) student at the University of Washington I specialized my major in "Political Economics". Part of that is rational choice models.

I'd add to "The general principal is that large numbers of individuals can together make better decisions than any small group" that group decisions are also more rational and predictable than individual actions.

The principle above is also the core driver of the success of free markets. Consumers voting with their wallets will outperform D.C. car czars every time in directing society's resources best.

Comment on Buy More Stuff! by chase

chase — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:42:04 +0000

If it is the health of OUR economy we are speaking of then buy less stuff; support local artists and manufacturers. But to live this is harder than preventing a wave from crashing. In the meantime, "buy less stuff". "Buy More Stuff" being appropriately sarcastic!

Comment on 2009: A Year of Commitments by tonx

tonx — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:02:25 +0000

congrats on a year of good fortune and adventure. may the next one continue it…

Comment on Moving from Typepad to Blogger by leodirac

leodirac — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:56:40 +0000

Considering giving this another try. I just found this file which I might try if Mr. Ulster's technique doesn't work.

http://skull.piratehaven.org/~epu/python/typepad2blogger.html

Comment on Moving from Typepad to Blogger by Mr Ulster

Mr Ulster — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:04:30 +0000

I had same issue, and have a relatively simple solution (alas you lose embedded html). The process is essentially: 1. TypePad export .txt file; 2. import to WordPress account; 3. WordPress export .xml file; 4. clean up .xml file via MovableType2Blogger conversion utility; 5. import to Blogger account. For me, worked flawlessly, retained all post text, comments, and tags/labels. (I just have to reinsert the Flickr and Vimeo embeds.):

http://www.mrulster.org/2009/08/how-to-import-typepad-blog-into-blogger_21.html

Post comments at mrulster.org and I'll try to help. This long-time TypePad user ultimately got fed up. Posterous is where it's all going.

Comment on Rhapsody Artist-Linker Greasemonkey Script Part 2 by JavaChip

JavaChip — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:37:43 +0000

Leo,
I just stumbled across this blog entry as I was scratching my head, trying to figure out how to implement client-side genre filtering of Rhapsody's Just Added function.

Your script was very helpful in understanding how to craft effective regexs for matching MANY things at once. It's pretty cool.

Here's my script, if you are interested. I'm very open to comments.

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/56062

Thanks,
JavaChip

Comment on Problems Scaling Ruby to Complex Systems by Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:20:21 +0000

Sorry, as a follow-up to my last comment, the hosting servers I'm referring to here were for the management interface only – those 9 servers did not actually handle the hosted sites.

Comment on Problems Scaling Ruby to Complex Systems by Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:18:32 +0000

Good post - I've encountered the exact same problems you're having. The "add more servers" answer is really stupid, too, given the number and cost of servers involved. I've worked on a large on-line payment platform written in Java which used exactly ONE server to cater to over 60 countries, but a hosting company I've worked for requires 9 servers running RoR to handle Canada and the USA.

As for the question of tools - there will really never be an instance where an IDE can really help you. Part of the problem is that so many libraries, tools and framework rely on "method_missing" to handle functionality. It would be challenging if not down-right impossible for an IDE to fathom what would be an acceptable "method" name under these circumstances (as a point of reference, ActiveRecord makes heavy use of "method_missing")

Comment on XMPP PubSub: a great compliment to Atom/RSS by Ram M.

Ram M. — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:26:13 +0000

XMPP/PubSub as a trigger and then the actual content download through http is what I have implemented for a our internal services. The preference would be to keep the messages through xmpp servers to be smaller size, then to send the large size messages.

Comment on Alarm Clocks, Geeks, Hippies and the Robot Revolution by KVM Switches

KVM Switches — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:59:53 +0000

I just came across this community,they’re pretty much hippie/rock style shirts, some are just so funny and geeky…

Comment on XMPP PubSub: a great compliment to Atom/RSS by tuttle

tuttle — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:27:31 +0000

I really dislike this poling everywhere and I very much appreciate these efforts! But to make things easier for the beginning: why not just use XMPP/PubSub as a trigger for RSS/Atom feed updates? So all the content transport is as usual, but the client, if the feed supports it, doesn't poll anymore but waits for the "new feed entry" message on the XMPP connection. I think this is the most modular and most likely successful approach, since it is less effort to implement. In general, although capable of a lot more, XMPP/PubSub can have a success as a "trigger protocol".

Comment on Moving from Typepad to Blogger by leodirac

leodirac — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:33:13 +0000

Alas, not yet.

Comment on Moving from Typepad to Blogger by matthead

matthead — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:36:36 +0000

Hey Leo -
Any luck on getting your TypePad blog converted to be Blogger-importable?
I've got a memorial-tribute blog that I don't want to lose, but I also don't want to pay $5/mo for the rest of my life for it either!

http://matthead.typepad.com/pk/

Comment on Why Desktop Computers Matter as Laptops Speed Up by refurbished computers

refurbished computers — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:11:59 +0000

Desktop units are much faster and laptops and they are long lasting too.

Comment on Microsoft’s 3 levels of Technical Support by Computer Technical Support

Computer Technical Support — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:28:28 +0000

An interesting and informative article…thanks for sharing this info post.

Comment on Dinocams – The legacy of SLR cameras in the 21st century by Polaroid Sunglasses

Polaroid Sunglasses — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:45:53 +0000

Well in my opinion, DSLR is much better that regular digital cameras.

Comment on Why Desktop Computers Matter as Laptops Speed Up by Neal Walters

Neal Walters — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:03:20 +0000

I can stick a cassette tape in my desktop and turn it into an mp3 file. Some odd devices like that just haven't gone USB yet.

Comment on UAW vs. Chrysler: friends at last! by Hazel Ferriss

Hazel Ferriss — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:06:25 +0000

Your argument posits high costs of labor as a causative factor in favoring the production of large, low-efficiency vehicles. But Japan has costs of labor, too. The cost of living is high there, but blue-collar workers serve as primary wage-earners for middle-class families. Yet they've been making small, efficient vehicles. Why?

The UAW's 55% ownership is an unexpected twist on Marx's "bloodless revolution", no?

Comment on XMPP PubSub: a great compliment to Atom/RSS by Jean-Claude Mason

Jean-Claude Mason — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:23:31 +0000

Great article! Just as a contribution, I found http://www.nardol.org/2009/3/18/pubsub-with-xmpp4r-simple that eases XMPP and PubSub.

Comment on Dinocams – The legacy of SLR cameras in the 21st century by Brad Templeton

Brad Templeton — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:15:12 +0000

Your points are valid, though you miss a lot of why many people will tolerate all the problems of SLRs. A larger sensor allows shallower depth of field, which is a must for certain types of photos. (It would be interesting to see if techniques could be developed to adequately simulate it. This should be doable on static shots but much arder on dynamic ones.)

Larger sensors also produce much lower noise. That's why my full frame 5D can shoot at 3200 ISO with barely any noise, and can even do monitor-resolution shots at 12,500 ISO. I can shoot in a dimly lit room handheld. The other cameras can't and for now, this is a matter of physics.

However, there is a possible solution for the future -- lenses with integrated sensors, and a "body" that is just a holder, screen, computer and storage device. No mirror, so TTL viewing is lost, but as you point out, the mirror has many downsides.

You may want to read and comment on this issue here: http://ideas.4brad.com/professional-lenses-built-sensors

Comment on Dinocams – The legacy of SLR cameras in the 21st century by Jen

Jen — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:30:03 +0000

I don't think DSLR's will be going away anytime soon, but it is akward to carry around a bunch of different lenses to get the perfect shot.

Comment on Covers for Kindles by Dave

Dave — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:20:16 +0000

Any word on whether the pdf import works for multi-column papers yet?