michaelf

Can anyone hazard a guess as to how Linus was able to measure the cost of a page fault and an iret so precisely? What tools and techniques might he have used?

Ditto.

It seems very weird to put the word "experiences" in quotes. It makes it seem as if the writer is using it sarcastically, or is in some way disclaiming what they are writing. What in the world justifies the quotes, and why wouldn't an editor get rid of them?

Is it also the case that all transcendental numbers have approximations of unbounded quality? Or only that Liouville numbers have approximations of unbounded quality, and therefore cannot be algebraic?

FYI, I was about to join up, but I declined because it wanted my contacts.

For the most part, contracts are signed by relatively new contacts (people not yet in my address book). E.g. new customers, partners, contractors, or employees.

I hope you'll get rid of this unnecessary intrusion into my privacy in the future. And, for what its worth, people who send around lots of NDAs, LIOs, term sheets, employee agreements and other sorts of contracts usually value their privacy.

And yes -- I understand that you say you won't be spamming my contacts or mining it for data. It's just that I don't know you.

I can't agree more. When I was a freshman, I was required to do a work study as part of the deal for my loans. I didn't want to do it -- my course load seemed hard enough -- but I found a job as an "undergraduate research programmer" at a small computer-vision oriented lab at my school. I worked around 10 hours a week during the school year, and 40 during the summers. Particularly during my freshman and sophomore years, I felt completely useless. But, even without noticing it, you pick up a LOT just by struggling with it (e.g. gdb, complex build systems, working with legacy code, version control systems, common patterns of software development, and how to get into a flow state even while hacking on bits of software that aren't all that interesting to you personally). By the summer between my sophomore and junior year, I was finally starting to feel a bit productive.

In any other environment, I would have never had the opportunity to be a completely worthless drain on resources for so long.

So certainly avail yourself of any opportunity to get a job while in school. I was lucky in that I was essentially forced to do it based on the terms of my loans. Any parents reading this: see if you can do your kids a favor and secure them a loan that requires your kids to get a work study, coop, or internship. And no, working as barista at the campus cafe doesn't count!

I'd think that a huge benefit "gamification" is that it allows students to learn at their own pace and without much teacher guidance. Kids figure out how to play Portal and Civilization, for instance, without a teacher hovering over them to tailor their lessons.

Is this the first step in YC pivoting away being a "seed investor", where the goal is to pick winners? Does PG see the future of YC as being an alternative to post-graduate education where the goal is instead to develop winners and have a stake in their success?

If this model works out, I wonder if we'll eventually see traditional universities funding startups for top students out of their endowments.

Very exciting experiment, if you ask me.

I agree. If you exploit a site and then say "will you pay me for security audit?", then that's extortion.

That story was posted on April 1st in 2009, and isn't hosted on BBC's website. There isn't even a first name given for the researcher (only "Radio astronomer Dr. Venn"). Looks sketchy to me.

I can't find any other information about it, so I'm guessing its a hoax / April Fools joke.

One of the most thought provoking books I've ever read is "A Terrible Love of War" by James Hillman. This books explores the topic of the linked article from a Jungian point of view (motifs, archetypes, metaphors, mythology, etc...) which may turn off some people, but I found it expansive and fascinating. Highly recommended if the topic of the Esquire article was interesting to you.