I think this may refer to the second law of thermodynamics - entropy cannot decrease over time in an isolated system. One could argue the entire universe is one.
But our local "system" has a gigantic miasma of incandescent plasma on our doorstep. The Earth itself should not need to worry about entropy for a long while yet...
>But our local "system" has a gigantic miasma of incandescent plasma on our doorstep. The Earth itself should not need to worry about entropy for a long while yet...
I interpret GP's reference to thermodynamics/entropy as generating the "arrow (asymmetry) of time,"[0]
Which exists (at least for us matter-based beings) as remembering the "past," but not the "future," and local fluctuations in entropy don't affect that at all.
What @stared means with the entropy quote is that in a world tending from organised to disorganised, it is impossible to KNOW the future, but also very hard to TRULY KNOW the past. As each step into the future causes the remnants of past to decay.
Perhaps not specifically what you're looking for, but I've always found Wikipedia's current events portal to be a good source for info on major events.
> I run my own mail server, create a unique address for each vendor and ban the address if it is abused
I do the same and it's immensely useful!
I find it's also a great indicator of how well that vendor protects my info... if there's a sudden surge of spam to an address only that vendor knows, there's a chance they leaked/sold my info and I know it's time to change passwords and/or reassess my relationship with the vendor.
Yes. I knew all I needed to know about Dell's infosec when I started receiving pornographic spam addressed to dell@majid.fm (my old vanity domain, no longer in use).
It's hard to tell from images available online, but it may have been anthracite or bituminous coal, which are both surprisingly hard - more like a brittle rock than, say, the charcoal you'd use in a BBQ.
True, this article claims it was varnished but I don't see any evidence for the claim. Regardless, it was a silly stunt but did show his allegiance clearly.
After I stumbled upon this site years ago, the Ian knot is how I tie my shoes every time.
The hardest part about this knot is making sure that somebody is watching while you do it. Every time I tie my shoes alone, I feel an upwelling of regret, as if there has been an opportunity lost.
Agree, the other problem is that the knot hardly ever comes loose. So you have to put in extra effort to create those spontaneous moments where you have to tighten your laces after someones points out they went "loose".
Given a clockwise counting of corners, with the "outside" facing away from you (so you are looking at / reaching "into" the sheets from the elastic side):
grab the inside of 2, invert, shove into the inside of 1.
do the same for 3 into 4.
now you have a sheet folded in half, with two pairs of corners together.
grab the inside of 1+2, invert, shove into the inside of 3+4.
now it's folded to a quarter, and all the messy stuff is together.
lay out flat, straighten messy stuff a bit, so you can do the next step more easily.
grab the whole thing, chuck into the closet.
I never understood the need to fold bed sheets. Crinkled sheets simply aren’t a problem I’ve ever had; you barely notice the difference once they’re stretched over the bed and pillows. I have a blanket box at the end of the bed; I just shove the second set of sheets in straight out of the dryer.
(I do fold sheets for the guest bed but that’s because the alternative set might spend months on the shelf. Most of the time the same set is washed and put straight back on the bed.)
You fold them so you can stack them on other folded things. If they're messily folded, the pile falls over as you carry the basket upstairs, or stack other things onto them on your shelves.
For me bedsheets are their own wash cycle, so there’s nothing to stack them with. I just carry them upstairs and dump them into the blanket box when they're done. No need for a basket.
But let's say your washing process is different to mine. I'd still rather do two trips upstairs than fold sheets.
That would not work for me. I need to keep one finger on the slip knot at all times or it becomes loose, resulting in a very unsatisfying knot. This has been by far the biggest hurdle to teaching my kids to tie a decent knot in their shoelaces: they can move through the motions just fine but it's always loose. I actually start with my left index finger on the slip knot then transition to my right index finger halfway through - much more complicated than it at first seems.
Not sure if this would help, and I'm not exactly sure I'm understanding you correctly, but when I tie hockey stakes, instead of a single "left-over-right starting knot" (using terminology from the post), I wrap around two or even three times. This provides enough friction for that first knot to stay put while I tie the loops of the standard shoelace knot (not the Ian knot, with which I'm unfamiliar).
The reason your knot does not come undone has nothing to do with tension and everything to do with the order of the way you tie it. Left over right, then right over left. If you learned the standard knot as a kid in the right order and continue to do it the same way today, then the Ian knot will tie the exact same knot. The only difference is that the Ian knot will wear your laces more evenly and it ties faster.
Knots I've tied Ian's way are the most taut, precisely because I have no issue applying tension all the way, instead of the old method with switching hands and stuff, where that was impossible.
If you're doing it right, the result is not like keeping a finger on the slipknot - it's better (and simpler, faster and as taut as you want).
I didn’t mean that tension keeps my knots tied (though clearly some tension is necessary), it was two separate replies — and I’m pretty sure I make granny knots. Eh maybe knot.
I use a similar technique to the Ian knot except I pinch the shoelace instead so only the forefinger and pinky are involved and my middle finger is free to hold the slip knot.
This is my issue and the sole reason I haven’t adopted the Ian knot. I didn’t realize it but I do the same finger swap that you do.
I’m a runner and it’s important for my laces to be exactly as tight as I need them to be. I’m wondering if others here aren’t as exacting with their knot tension needs.
I've been using the Ian knot for probably 10 years now, if anything it's easier to tie it tight since you can keep the tension on the first not held until the very end.
With the Secure Ian's knot, I keep the slip knot loose and only strengthen the other one against that one. It stays firm and my shoe stays comfortable.
I’m not sure if it was “invented” by the author, I’ve been doing the same knot for 30 years. We call it rå-bands-knop (raw-strings-knot would be a literal translation) and I believe most kids here learn it at an early age.
Råbandsknop is the same as square knot; granny knot (kärringknut) but the right way around. As shoelace knots, (rosetter) both are of course "slipped".
The "Ian knot" that people are discussing is neither square nor granny knot in and of itself, but how you make it: The technique of having a loose loop in each hand and "pulling both through each other", which is much faster than tbe "ordinary" ways of making each that he presents on each separate knot's page. Topologically it results in the exact same end result: Do it the right way around and you get a square knot; the wrong way, a granny knot.
A bit weird of the tomtenisse to link to that exact page of the site; granny knot / kärringknut is the absolute worst result you could end up with. The whole site is pretty much about how to avoid ending up with one. (OK, slight exaggeration there.)
This is how I've been tying my shoes for a while and can recommend! Unfortunately I did not learn it from the inventor's website but rather from this site[1], which may be a total knockoff or may be a case of "parallel thinking".
Well so either way the "proper" way is to end up with a bowknot, as demonstrated. However, the TED talk's method of getting there I would actually classify as wrong.
If you want to use the "bunny rabbit" method, the easiest way to turn your granny into a bow is just to switch which way you tie the laces over each other at the beginning – that is much easier than trying to invert the bunny ear thingy.
However, the even easier way (and what GC was pointing out) is the "Ian" method, where you pull the bows through each other simultaneously, which (with practice) is faster and always guarantees a bow knot.
Mr Fieggen's site is a lot older than that, so possibly "parallel thinking"... But because of the cutesy story, cheesy layout, and above all, "Freedom Fries!" name, I'll go with knock-off.
Tried that knot and aside from taking several minutes for me to figure it out, it didn't seem to result in a knot that held very well. I'll stick with the standard way I learned 40 years ago and can do without thinking.
The end knot is identical to the standard bowknot, so it seems unlikely that this would hold any worse. If you're currently tying your shoes in a granny knot, I would be very surprised if that held better than a bowknot.
I've used this method to tie all my shoes for more than a decade and it holds much better than the granny knot, which I'd guess is probably 50% of people (as whether not you end up with a granny or a bow knot is just the toss of a coin). The benefit of Ian's tying method is that it is impossible to end up with a granny knot.
My shoes never* come untied, without needing to resort to a "double-knot".
* Except my Sperry Docksiders, which have leather laces and don't seem to keep any kind of knot very well.
I actually switched to the Ian Knot specifically to handle the stiffer leather laces of boat shoes and boots. Previously, getting a knot in leather to hold was a miracle and I would slip the shoes on and off (causing unnecessary wear and tear) just to avoid disturbing the knot. The Ian Knot allows me to treat leather laces like any other material and has extended the life of several pairs of shoes as a result.
I will say that I cinch the knot tighter with leather laces than any other material because, like you mentioned, they are fussy.
My regular shoes have round laces, I'd guess they are nylon, some kind of synthetic fiber. Sort of slippery. Never have a problem with them coming untied if I pull the knot tight though. I don't double knot.
Maybe I did the Ian knot wrong. Don't have a problem with the knot I use so not investigating further.
I don't know why anybody makes round laces, especially out of a material that slips.
I have a pair of dress shoes that came with round laces. Even with a "correct" knot, even with double-knotting, they always came undone. I replaced the laces with standard flat laces. They might not look as good, but they look better than having to re-tie them every 30 minutes.
For those who are required (or prefer) to use a Chromium-based browser, you might want to give ungoogled-chromium [0] a shot.
I switched recently based on a recommendation from a HN reader, and so far it has been a surprisingly seamless transition. I have yet to encounter any issues aside from being unable to install extensions directly from the Chrome Web Store, which was easily remedied by first installing the chromium-web-store extension [1].
My biggest gripe is that there are no 'official' binaries, so you'd either have to build your own or trust the user-submitted builds, though apparently the project owner is currently working on setting up an official build server [2].
Thanks for your feedback. We felt that it's hard to get the concept across without showing both clients. But thanks again for the input, we'll show the real interactions more prominently.
My initial reaction was, “no, there was no video on that page,” so I went back to look.
A lot of browsers disable audio on auto play videos. The fact that the controls are also hidden and the background color being the same as the website, it just looks like an animation, not a video. So some icons move but the meat of the video doesn’t start until after people will have disengaged.
Would you please elaborate on this?