Yeah, I was just talking about the easier concept of x^0. Going the other way, 0^x it makes a lot less sense to me. I know that for all positive x, 0^x = 0. That it pops up to 1 at the origin means the thing is not smooth so drawing lines isn't going to help us.
Plotting z = y^x could be interesting but we're going to see asymptotic behaviour at x = y = 0 (when going in the x direction). So no easy wins there.
I've also heard this about large maglites. In fact they are often carried by being held near the globe end with the body of the torch resting on the shoulder. This allows the torch to be swung down onto a victim's collarbone breaking it and disabling that arm. (Apologies for the gruesome detail.)
The city of London has it's own police force called the Meltropolitan Police (the Met). This is a different organisation to the normal English police. I think the Met carry guns but the normal police don't.
Rome has a similar thing with the Carabinieri, I understand these guys are part of the military.
The Met is responsible for Greater London (where all the riots seem to be so far). The City of London Police is responsible for the Square Mile (the actual City) in the centre.
The City of London police don't especially carry firearms. That said, you may see more of the specially armed police in the City, simply because of a high terrorist threat
The Met is just another regional police force, similar to (and on a level with) the Hampshire or Sussex police. It is only really special because of the size and importance of its area of operations.
Agree, but perhaps without the "be a man" part. The offer to to do "anything we can" comes across as an offer to do what is asked, so a passive stance. "We're here to help" is not the same as "we're helping by doing this."
Is this sort of thing an issue in other countries. I'm a tech founder in Australia. I don't think we have the same level of anxiety about being sued for unknowingly breaching a software patent. Can anyone comment on this? Is our patent system different or can we expect to see our industry similarly affected in the future?
Patents are territorial. That is, unless someone has filed an application (or designated Australia as part of a national phase of a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent application, nothing will issue in Australia. Generally, companies try to figure out where their likely markets are, and where the expense can be justified. Australia is becoming more and more relevant, but it was not nearly as common to file there a few years ago. (Full disclosure, I'm a U.S. patent attorney (but I'm actually a good guy!).)
That's a bit reassuring to me. I'm not anyone special, but I've got some ideas I want to code up that likely won't get anyones attention. After seeing patent topics popping up here on HN so often, I'm seriously terrified of even being a programmer anymore. This stuff makes me want to give up and find a job digging ditches or something, Office Space style.
But, I'm Canadian. Your comment makes me feel a bit safer, but I have the feeling that little things like hosting the site in the US or collecting money from Google AdSense or an Amazon Affiliates account could make me horribly liable.
I know that rationally this practically a non-issue, since I'm such a low value target, but the fear is still there, lurking beneath the surface, scaring the hell out of me.
As a total noob in comparison to most readers of HN, I have to totally agree with this sentiment--not that it's a noob idea but I feel like there are very skilled and brilliant people here that want to show the world their amazing talents and sometimes lose sight of things. It reminds me of what I always see on that show with Chef Gordon Ramsey where he's always telling these hot shot Chefs to stop being so cocky with their creations and that simple is often better; no one wants a 58 flavour chocolate creme brulee steak muffin.
Better is Better, but again I think we have to remember, that it's all subjective.
Few downvotes there. Like to hear why people disagree or if I've said something clearly wrong.
Note that my comment was specifically about criticism of the design being familiar and not innovative. I'm saying these things are ok if the design works well.
As I understand it you default on a loan, you don't default as an entity. So it's doesn't really make sense to talk about Greece defaulting without saying which loans they defaulted on. Hence the "kind of"/"selective" etc.
I read this as Greece defaulted on kind of all it's loans, so defaulted on some and not on others. The others may have been renegotiations, longer terms etc.
Apparently investors were fond of thinking that Greek debt was as safe as any in EU because it was backed by the Germans.
This seems not unlike the belief that Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac were effectively backed by the US Treasury. In the the US scenario these investor beliefs have been upheld by bailouts.
But in the Greek situation, this bet was just now shown to be wrong. The open question is just how big of a house of cards has been built upon this assumption.
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for a lot of people.
Typically (for a company at least), debt has 'cross-default' provisions in it. So that failure to pay any particular creditor causes legal triggers to trip on every piece of debt. This is prevent the company persecuting particular sets of holders, and makes it a huge incentive not to miss payments to anyone.
The problem with the arm-twisting idea is that it only requires one hold-out, and everyone gets pulled through the default process.
Right, I didn't realise that mechanism existed, thanks for the heads up. It makes sense, removing the opportunity for slippery dealings with preferential treatment of some debt over the rest.
The story here is, 'hide complexity'? Or perhaps 'Focus on the details of user experience'?
I love the reference to "all of this business at the top". Perhaps there's a design principle in there. If a user is ever referring to "all this business..." then you've gone off track.
You draw the line 3^x. It "passes through" 1 when x = 0. So don't think about the point, think about the line. It's not rigorous but it's intuitive.
http://fooplot.com/index.php?q0=3^x
edit: added link and fixed typos