Daniel Lemire's blog

Get into pay sites for free as a Googlebot

, 1 min read

This trick is very clever: many sites limiting access to documents, let Googlebot (Google’s spidering agent) through. I think this is the case with some IEEE archives. So, you can simply tell your browser to identify yourself as the user agent “Googlebot/2.1”. Voilà ! You can go where Google…

Map shortage in the USA?

, 1 min read

I was unaware that the USA could not afford enough maps. I suggest the rest of the world teams up: if you send just one map to the USA, then you will have made a difference. I have decided to do my part: View Larger Map

Where the progress is happening in hardware

, 1 min read

While everyone is getting excited about multicore systems, something else is happening: I just ordered two new 500 GB drives to replace the failing and failed 250 GB drives. Both 500 GB drives cost almost exactly the same as one 250 GB drive did three years ago. That’s progress. (Source:…

Super Flash Mario Bros

, 1 min read

My wife loved this: Super Flash Mario Bros. Flash games can really be impressive. This one looks and feels very much like the Nintendo original. Me? I could never figure out the appeal of a game like Mario. Somehow, I always end up falling into nothingness well before the first level is over. Where…

Teaching radical novelties

, 1 min read

Universities should not be afraid of teaching radical novelties; on the contrary, it is their calling to welcome the opportunity to do so. Their willingness to do so is our main safeguard against dictatorships, be they of the proletariat, of the scientific establishment, or of the corporate…

0xFFFFUL

, 1 min read

I actually had to type 0xFFFFUL in a piece of code I just wrote. This is exactly why ladies stay away from Computer Science, and young geeks can’t get a date.

Weighted Slope One in Haskell

, 1 min read

Bryan implemented the collaborative filtering algorithm Weighted Slope One in Haskell using only 29 lines of code. I must say, I am impressed.

Free ads on my blog

, 1 min read

This post on 43 folders gave me the idea of offering free job ads on my blog. Why not? In any case, if you have cool jobs in the Montreal area having some relation to my blog, just add a comment on this blog post and you’ll get a free ad. I promise to do a nice job at it too! (Ok, the monetary…

Best Possible Way to GET/PUT an XML File?

, 3 min read

After seeking a good GTD-compliant to-do list manager, I finally designed my own. I seek a tool that lets me: backup the data does not suffer from vendor lock-in keeps stuff confidential (sorry, you can’t know what I have to do today) will not lose or corrupt my data (ever). Among the tools I…

Order pocket notebooks in Canada

, 1 min read

Turns out that ditching my PDA is harder than I thought. After spending over an hour at the local Staples, it turns out that there is no market for pocket notebooks. I want something I can keep in my pocket without looking like an idiot. It needs to be elegant, because I am not eager to look like a…

Maybe you don´t

, 1 min read

I have been looking for a written-down version of this deep-sounding quote from my favorite TV show (Battlestar Galactica) ever since I heard it, and I finally found it, on IMDB. It was uttered in the episode Resurrection Ship: Part 2 in 2006. Here it is: Lt. Sharon ‘Boomer’ Valerii: [Adama…

How to manage email (Inbox Zero)

, 1 min read

I have totally blown up the blog categories on this Web site. Sorry, I can’t maintain a taxonomy on the long run. To me, a taxonomy is useful as a screen shot of your mind. But it is not a valid, long term, knowledge management system. I will never sort emails or blog posts into folders ever…