moxy

While interesting, this dream team of engineers is trying to tackle a problem that has many more commercially, economically and environmentally viable solutions.

For one, solar power may be easier to harness in outer space. But there's a problem: it's in outer space. There is no reason why we should be resorting to such measures when we have the potential to harness solar energy here on the earth's surface.

There are energy demands that must be met, and it is true that our needs will grow exponentially. However, more earthlings than ever (percentage-wise) have a sufficient source of energy, and I believe this number will continue to climb.

This is not to say that this company's efforts are a waste of time. Far from it. We need overambitious entrepreneurs to at least attempt these solutions so that we can better gauge the difficulty of the problem at hand. While this technology may not be realistically implementable, it very may well lead to a newer, more efficient way of harnessing solar energy. If this technology works, more power to them. And to us.

When I first filled out my profile at the site I didn't even notice that you were selling shirts. I wouldn't be surprised if other visitors didn't notice either.

Your page is tactful, clean and direct. I immediately recognized what your application did, and signup appeared easy and simple. It appears to me that you've taken the most commonly articulated criticisms of webapp pages into account and adjusted accordingly. However, I feel like I wouldn't be true to my HNness if I didn't offer some trivial criticisms.

The logo is a bit cheesy. The site may appear to be too... clunky - it could use some fit and finish, but not so much that you lose the Zen feel. But you already knew that.

Overall, good job. I'm sure some other perspicacious HN goers can offer some more insight.

My meditation is hardly regimented and strict, and is the result of many hours of searching the internet for proper meditative technique. I would say it most closely resembles Zen meditation, as it is primarily centered around maintaining a steady breathing rhythm and concentrating on nothing.

I try to meditate several times a week, though I rarely meet my goals. I'd say an average of twice a week for the past few months.

With respect to your comment about the green tea, you will certainly acquire a tolerance to the caffeine after consuming it for an extended period of time. While I no longer experience the caffeine boost that I used to, I still nonetheless feel more alert after drinking.

I get my tea from a local shop in Athens called Fooks Foods which specializes in oriental imports.

I've found in my experience that (many, not all) self-proclaimed "experts" do tend to grossly overestimate the capabilities and competence, and will impede those who are more capable than them for fear that they will diminish the value of their "expert" status. I feel this article is correct in stating that the appropriate way to approach a problem is from the perspective of an amateur, as amateurs typically have little fear of abiding by rules that have congealed within the minds of the "experts", and are more willing to take the chance of being wrong when success is imminent.

As they say, "an expert is someone who has made the greatest possible number of mistakes in their field."

I'm not going to mod this article up because I've seen this (and similar articles) countless times before, however I will answer your question, because I do believe there is merit to what is being said in these articles.

1. Exercise. It does help. Not only does it keep you feeling fit, but the chemicals released in the process have been shown to improve cognitive performance. On an unrelated (but interesting) note, people who imagine working out for twenty minutes a day or more actually perform better in exercise tests than people who do not. Cool, eh?

2. Meditation. Again, it not only feels refreshing, but trains your brain to ignore distractions and perform more efficiently. I semi-regularly practice meditation and I find that afterwards I'm endowed with a keen sense of euphoria and concentration.

3. I drink green tea. I've managed to pick up some minimally-processed imported Japonica whole-leaf green tea and I must say, it is bliss in liquid form. The slight caffeine boost enhances cognitive performance, or at least it appears to.

4. Everything else: diversifying your habits, getting hobbies, coding, reading, organizing, starting new projects, communicating with people, writing, etc. all help to get the proverbial gears turning (churning?).

There are no shortcuts to a genius brain, however. Though if you work hard, work efficiently, and supplement your efforts with the activities mentioned in this article, you will most likely see a significant improvement in your mental faculties.

Have you seen this? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=485813

The release clearly stated that the Kindle 2 was 20% faster (now corrected on the page). The video demonstrated that this figure was certainly within reason.

This is not relevant to Hacker News.

I'm certainly not opposed to this, but wouldn't a "suggested revisions" option be more suitable? I could see users quarreling over appropriate article names, and perfectly valid ones being changed without need. For instance, a user could suggest a grammatical revision, and in a small space beneath the title, people could vote on whether or not the revision should supersede the original. A certain set threshold would allow for this. Of course, these changes would also be subject to moderation.

I do not regularly pay for any online service. Why? Because there are an enormity of free and open source alternatives. Granted, some "free alternatives" aren't entirely legal, however they're alternatives nonetheless, just with an associated risk.

For movies and music, I use torrents. For applications, I go open source or free -- I can hardly think of any non-entertainment media whose function couldn't be replicated by a readily available free alternative. For storage, there are plenty of sites which offer gigabytes of online storage, gratis.

Well then, here's a pretty interesting example of complex visual patterns arising from relatively simple systems: http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pubs/paper249/PAPER249.HTM

One physicist (Wolfram) maintains that natures rules are quite simple (I prefer "elegant"), and that beautifully complex patterns can arise from these. http://www.ur.umich.edu/0203/Oct14_02/m_wolfram.shtml

Alternatively, it seems intuitive that when given a complex system (or a multitude of parameters) that objects within the system will have less room for deviation from these given parameters.

Let's take baseball as an example. With its plethora of rules, only a few possible outcomes can occur, and the game is actually quite simple. All agents operating within the system can only act along the limitations given by the rules, and because there are so many, there is little room for deviation.

These puzzles aren't necessarily used in interviews, and I'm sure that employers who are looking for intelligent employees have several ways of attaining them.

Your product is great, and I'm sure you'll have no trouble making sales.

However, the two pictures on the "Tanks" page looked a bit tacky, and I thought the splash page was unnecessary. Also, three videos on the home page seems excessive. Might I recommend a more modest approach (perhaps one video on each page)?

Otherwise, the site speaks for itself. And I like it.

I'm not so sure. After becoming conditioned to having to click the "Allow" button over a long period of time, it might become rote for people to allow even the most detrimental processes (having become accustomed to UAC's paranoia). It seems likely that the average user who would be afflicted by such maladies (spyware, viruses, etc.) couldn't tell the difference between a malicious and non-malicious process.

Even if they could recognize these processes as dangerous, would UAC really do all that much to protect the computer? Although it does reduce the potential for damage, it doesn't inhibit one from acquiring a virus in the first place.

Of course, if a person is messing around with their own system files, I'm not sure how effective a warning box will be in preventing whatever it is that they're doing. UAC seems to be a textbook case of "security theater."

I'd like to understand what's being described in this article, but unfortunately I lack the necessary educational background. Does anyone have any links to other resources that will allow me to better understand what is being discussed in this post?

I can't say I'm too fond of the color scheme. However, I left the site feeling impressed, primarily because I'm quite fond of the site's purpose.

It might be beneficial to replace the tag cloud with something a bit less abstract and considerably more specific -- possibly even a "recommended games" or "top games" page. Though you could always use the tag cloud to supplement the interface.

Here's the audiobook version (courtesy of RapidShare):

http://rapidshare.com/files/106778954/HIGH_PERFORMANCE_MIND.... http://rapidshare.com/files/106839635/HIGH_PERFORMANCE_MIND....

Man, I love the whole evolution of the Ebook movement. Think of what it will be like to have access to any quantity of information at any time, in a format which allows you to process the information without the fatigue associated with standard monitors.

Presumably, Ebook readers will assume capabilities reminisce of today's laptops - i.e. the ability to download most books and store them indefinitely. This means we might be able to store entire libraries on these paperback-sized devices. Not that the progression of this technology isn't fairly obvious, but it's still nice to fathom what will be possible in the future, as far as distribution of information is concerned.

Who knows, maybe no more college textbooks? One can only hope.

Not too dark to read, but dark enough (at least on my screen) that it's a bit uncomfortable. Other than that the theme is quite pleasant.

From jm4:

"Compiz and Beryl. Beryl forked from Compiz and, if I remember correctly, relations were very sour between the two projects. Several months later they merged into Compiz Fusion."

Wow. I'm usually pretty keen on the current "urban myths" and was completely unaware of this one. Thanks for the information.

What's the deal with For Frak's Sake's “GMail's Report Spam Button is Worthless” article? Is it just me or does that article do absolutely nothing to articulate any of the problems with GMail's service, only calling it "worthless" because in his/her own experience it doesn't appear to be doing anything, even though it's one of the most effective spam blockers on a free email service to date?

Hm. A sample size of one.

Yes, to say the least. But they are far more specialized, and more difficult to invite people to. And, you probably wouldn't be interested anyway.

However, What and Waffles are the largest and most content-oriented.

I would imagine that one could use the RSS feed directly from utorrent either to automatically download torrents, or to choose torrents to download based on the incoming feed.

I fail to see why this is news. I assumed it was pretty well known within the neuroscientific community that the physiological structure of the brain not only influenced personality, but actually contained and, in essence, was the personality.