Something similar was done by journalists for the UK 2015 General Election. They took Democracy 3, an indie game with a very complex neural net simulation, and attempted to find out how the various main parties' policies held up: http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/116017
Readit Newsmdisraeli commented on The Real Mayors of 'SimCity' motherboard.vice.com/read... · Posted by u/samclemens
mdisraeli commented on As a math professor, how can I help grad students find nonacademic jobs? · Posted by u/impendia
Get in touch with your previous students, both those in academia, and those in industry.
If they're in academia, ask about their industry connections. If they're in industry, ask if they can help you. If you can't get direct contacts, at least find out what skills and knowledge is being looked for, and what options exist.
It's very easy to forget the power of an 'alumni' network. Who we know is often our greatest asset.
mdisraeli commented on Why I killed my standing desk blog.pickcrew.com/why-i-k... · Posted by u/stuartmemo
If you are finding it difficult to stand for extended periods, consider getting your feet checked, and if you have already, using your prescribed orthotics (insoles/shoes/other supports) whilst standing.
When I come home, I routinely take my outdoor shoes off. I spent most of my time at home sitting at my desk, but last year I began to learn bass guitar. I found that standing to play for less than an hour was enough to wipe me out for the entire evening, with knock-on exhaustion until the next day.
I have pes cavovarus - a deformity of the feet characterised by high arches and inward turned heels. When I finally got orthotics and placed them into my outdoor shoes, walking suddenly became easier and instances of debilitating cramp reduced in frequency and severity.
Following my experiences with playing my bass, I placed a spare pair of orthotic insoles into my slippers. This was not something my medical team had suggested previously. Suddenly I found it less exhausting to stand for extended periods. The change was actually quite immediate and significant.
Flat arches are far more common than what I have, but I suspect the same concept still applies - and orthotics for flat arches are far more widely available to consumers!
mdisraeli commented on Ask HN: Anyone familiar with Namecheap's JavaScript bot detection method? · Posted by u/redbarn
Oh I wasn't implying that the gif was malicious. I was just saying that whatever script they're using for this is widely-used.
I thought that was probably what you were doing, and it's a good check - one of the ones I tend to do myself when investigating strange things!
Just thought I'd add for other readers some security industry commentary :)
mdisraeli commented on Ask HN: Anyone familiar with Namecheap's JavaScript bot detection method? · Posted by u/redbarn
From first look (I just got it too, oddly enough), they have a spinner-2013.gif: http://www.namecheap.com/cdn-cgi/images/spinner-2013.gif
Type that into the Goog: https://www.google.com/search?q="spinner-2013.gif"&oq="spinn...
![https://www.google.com/search?q="spinner-2013.gif"&oq="spinn...](https://www.google.com/search?q="spinner-2013.gif"&oq="spinner-2013.gif"){kind=link}
Might be a good start.
The Google results start with things like VirusTotal, which has several scannners which declares the gif as being a malicious site.
The gif itself is almost certainly not malicious. There's probably two things happening here. Firstly, the hosting domain of the gif scanned could be known to be malicious. And secondly and more generally, Cloudflare is heavily used by the criminal scene, so to play safe a number of scanners may flag any cloudflare element as malicious.
mdisraeli commented on My Girlfriend Dissociated and Forgot Who I Was vice.com/en_uk/read/the-n... · Posted by u/sz4kerto
Like I said in a previous post, it's not a bug, it's a feature. Think of it like a kernel driver that monitors the currently running application. If it detects that the application would overheat the CPU it swaps it out to disk and runs another one that could handle the situation better. Now, this is a very bad analogy, but at least it should give you the sense that it is a coping mechanism, not a flaw. I'd suggest to avoid comparing the brain to a computer. That analogy would hold you back more than help you.
For the record, I'm completely in agreement with "feature, not a bug". For myself and many people I know, mental health stuff makes more sense when looked at like that, and it also matches up with core concepts of Cogitative Behavioural Therapy. At some point your brain needed certain bits of code to survive, but unfortunately the brain can't be cleanly patched once those times have passed (which is also an awful analogy, but works enough for this).
mdisraeli commented on My Girlfriend Dissociated and Forgot Who I Was vice.com/en_uk/read/the-n... · Posted by u/sz4kerto
I thought dissociation was part of the symptoms of PTSD. Given the history of being abused as told in the article, I am bit perplexed why doctors decide it was DID.
Or is DID some kind of subset of PTSD?
It is often difficult to get a diagnosis of PTSD when you've not been at war or subjected to a singular catastrophic event. And even if you did, there may not exist treatment pathways for those with PTSD from more complex or long lasting situations :(
mdisraeli commented on My Girlfriend Dissociated and Forgot Who I Was vice.com/en_uk/read/the-n... · Posted by u/sz4kerto
It's difficult and unpleasant to acknowledge what happened. By doing so they would have to acknowledge and deal with what happened in the past (that caused DID in the first place). Part of therapy is to take them on this road. They're able to cope with reality because they're able to compartmentalize their history. Hearing about it, while necessary, weakens the coping mechanism that helped them survive. So you can imagine why they wouldn't want to hear about it.
And on a far more simple level, disassociating and returning from it is utterly terrifying, and worse still one might know that their loved ones will have also had a very difficult experience
Interesting side note: If I recall correctly, a variant of this can be used to de-anonymise Tor connections if you have visibility over the entry and exit connections. Measure time and size relationships between packets and look for corresponding matching ones at the other end. Not 100% accurate, but with lots of connections it builds in confidence.