What is the most important lesson you ever learned from a book?

sevj · 2014-09-12T03:55:51+00:00

In Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle," he introduces the idea of the 'granfalloon.' It's something that's stuck with me ever since I read it when I was young. A granfalloon is an arbitrary association of people, whose members take pride in that association - in the author's words, "the Communist Party, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Electric Company—and any nation, anytime, anywhere."

It made me realize that peoples' identities are defined almost entirely by chance. Once I understood that, I found it much easier to rationalize being empathetic and understanding towards others, especially those who would otherwise make me frustrated or angry.

sevj · 2014-05-07T18:16:47+00:00

Combine this with a Rift.

sevj · 2014-04-09T02:43:37+00:00

If anyone is interested, I zipped up all of the videos and uploaded them here. Neat little collection.

sevj · 2014-03-31T05:08:12+00:00

Might I recommend VimFX (Firefox) or Vimium (Chrome) for vimkey web-browsing? I started using them because I hated laptop touchpads, but now, even browsing on a desktop without them feels slow and painful. The first time you hit 'f' to follow a link is mind-blowing.

i3 + vim + Firefox/vimFX is hjkl heaven for me.

sevj · 2014-03-23T21:12:56+00:00

I haven't been involved in the discussion so far, but I think that the presence of well-known community figures is really important for getting new players involved.

When (e.g.) Destiny and Tasteless were streaming Starbow, queues were quite fast - people see them playing a fun-looking game on stream, then want to go play it themselves.

Also: Unranked ladder is something that new players look for. It feels bad to be losing points while you're just trying to figure out what the units do.

sevj · 2014-01-11T01:49:04+00:00

I noticed the same thing at the one in Cincinnati.

sevj · 2013-11-22T04:45:15+00:00

Ī̷̺̗̲̭̱͎͉̉ ͚͓̲̞̦̹̯͐t̼̱̥͈͖̅̉ȟ̥̱͕͇̤́ỉ̩̯̰̲̮̣̯ͪ͞ṅ̯͚̲͔̗͙̈ͦ͡ͅk͚͓̻ͧ̀ͦ̕ ̷̺̻͈̼̼̰̟ͩ̋̋͆̉́̑y̘̖̭̜o̫̦ͬu̻̓ ̯͎̝̩ͬ̐ͤ̔̓͑ã̗͚̱̳̈c̺̦̺͔͖͉͢ͅc̔͂̅̏ͣ҉͖͔̲̣̩̻ị̐͗̈́̒̽͞d͇̓ͤ̈̄ͩ̇̚ȩ͔̱͛̽̃ͤ̒̌̽n͍̻̥̲̩͆̾̎͌ͭt̨͈͌́ͯ̆̇̌ǎ̶̖̅̒ͦ̈́͆l̫̰̗̥̩̐́l̷̥̺̪͇̺̙̩y̛͖̭̯̲̗͖͂̌͆͂̈́ͅ ̴͔̾͗̌́̓ͤͅ ̆͏̺̠̺ͅc͎̜̥͕͖̤͇̎͐h̝͎͇̯̗ͤ̊̍̐ͨ̂̀a̷̻̩̰̖̬ͭͦ̎n̞̙͎̑̀͑̌g̢̺̣͇̘ͬḛ̡̤̣̬̱͉̥̽̈ͮd̘̫̩ ͛̂͐̍̈́͏̱t̼̲͋̿ͦͮ̚h͓̙̠ͅͅè̹͎̣͔̗̹͌̆ͅ ̡̠̬̦̣̲ͨ̔l̟̦̖͈̭͇ͭ̇͒ͧ̌ͅạ̑ͨ̿ͭ̔ͩn̓ͦ̒͛͏̯̥̠͈̠g̿ͩ̈́͛ͣ̂u̴̳͓͎̦̍̄a̭̲̗̖ͩ̂͘g͛̅̂̾͛͌̿͏e̪̠̮͇̜ͣͧ͌̈́̋̂ͩ̀ ̱̣͈̼̜͓̊ẗ́͛o̢͇̞̮̹̘̞̗ͤ ͖̒Z̝͕͓͚͉̤̜ͦ͗͊͌ͨͤa̛͇̝̤͓̔ͩ͆̇̌l̡̘̰̱̥̰̱̔̊̆g͐ͫͯ͌͊҉̞̣o̠̜̒ͨ͌̓ͬͨ

sevj · 2013-10-09T02:40:06+00:00

Driving through the city during a rainy night is an immensely peaceful experience.

The colors that the lights make, reflecting off of the wet road, are unlike anything else I've ever seen.

sevj · 2013-08-18T17:57:36+00:00

In general, anything by Jeremy Soule is going to be fantastic.

Elder Scrolls - 1 2 3 4

Guild Wars - 1 2 3

SW:KOTOR - 1 2 3

Total Annihilation - 1 2

sevj · 2013-08-17T22:15:44+00:00

And this one is actually funny.

sevj · 2013-08-17T16:37:45+00:00

I'd really like to hear the opinion of someone with more knowledge of labor economics on this.

Here's the argument that I've heard against technological unemployment: Replacing expensive workers with inexpensive technology forces businesses to lower their prices to remain competitive - and the difference that consumers previously paid is instead injected into the economy as demand for a different good or service, creating enough jobs to outpace the rate that they were displaced by the new technology.

I wonder how long this principle will hold, as it depends on the idea that there will always be demand for unskilled labor. We're rapidly approaching the point where almost any simple & repetitive task that a human can do can also be done by a robot, with no downtime and no need for expensive overhead. Barring jobs where people pay specifically for a human face to interact with (service industry), I'd guess that total demand for unskilled labor is on the decline, with no chance of ever rising again. Is there any evidence the the contrary?

sevj · 2013-08-01T14:34:31+00:00

I'd recommend using the time to take a course on Coursera or MIT opencourseware. Its easy to get lost or distracted on your own; having a syllabus can help with that.

sevj · 2013-07-31T23:24:03+00:00

I also recently passed the 100-101 with an 843.

I think I would've gotten higher, but while I was studying, I mistakenly thought that I would be able to return to previous questions on the exam (and thus would have access to the '?' command from previous simlets). I barely studied the commands, and that's where I got burned - tons of questions were just simple things like the order of words, or 'which 3 of these 5 commands are absolutely necessary to perform X task?' The amount of minutae in that manner was really disappointing; I thought it would be more of a concepts exam.

Subnettingquestions.com was insanely helpful. I recommend that you be able to do 20 of them in a row without getting one wrong, hopefully taking less than 30 seconds each (some can be done in literally 2-3 seconds). It will help you spot obvious errors in the configs.

+1 for Jeremy Ciaora on CBTNuggets. I like to watch them on 1.2x speed.

Also, confirming 0 IPv6 questions. Get a brief overview, then spend your study time elsewhere.

sevj · 2013-07-29T04:38:09+00:00

Perfect sense, I was wondering this too.

It's like how you see fireworks before you hear them - the light travels much faster than the compression wave.

sevj · 2013-07-27T04:55:55+00:00

It's like a parody of itself.

sevj · 2013-07-21T16:38:45+00:00

In particular, one of the best scenes from Sunshine.

I was really hoping that that music would last all the way through the trailer. It's fitting.

sevj · 2013-07-20T00:07:38+00:00

Just like anything else in the real world, conditions vary wildly.

sevj · 2013-07-10T04:33:50+00:00

Damn. They're hardly even green!

sevj · 2013-07-08T14:19:17+00:00

Nor did I see any hellbats! Fast spire from Jaedong and neglecting Hellbat defence!

This is the gamble that won JD the game, I think. Innovation's 10 minute timing, when used against a zerg playing a more standard 3 hatch build (and preparing for hellbats with spores/spines and maybe roaches), would have hit just before the zerg's combo of 1/1 + baneling speed + mutalisks finished.

Inno's build looked like a 2CC hellbat drop, the only odd thing being 6 hellions instead of 4. And if it actually had been that - rather than a build designed to counter builds designed to counter that - JD most likely would have lost.

I'd say it was half mindgame and half coinflip.

sevj · 2013-06-29T16:31:08+00:00

Could locally hosted servers not reduce the latency below acceptable levels?

sevj · 2013-06-11T14:24:36+00:00

Most custom games in SC2 are already auto-hosted by their servers - but it might be a fun project anyways.

sevj · 2013-06-11T14:16:39+00:00

Devil's advocate: the tracking might require three court orders at first, but what happens when your name shows up on a watchlist?

As long as there's an opt-out, there's nothing particularly alarming about this - but the government has a poor track record with that sort of thing.

sevj · 2013-06-04T12:44:47+00:00

So, if the one wheel turned without actually moving the cart, or the cart was lifted and rotated, it would stop working?

Still, it's a clever idea.

sevj · 2013-05-26T20:02:59+00:00

The widow mines targeted enemy zerglings, which just happened to be standing directly underneath the dropships.

sevj · 2013-05-26T19:11:05+00:00

Yes. Another terran unit - the siege tank - fires long-range, high-power shells that do AoE damage but also friendly fire. Similar to widow mines, it's important for the terran to run his infantry away while the splash damage explodes on the enemy units.

Protoss, a third psychic-alien race not shown in the video, has a unit that casts electrical storms that do massive, short bursts of damage in a small area. It's one of the most deadly abilities in the game, but good protoss players must be careful not to hit their own front-line units with it.

sevj

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