There are many companies (and government agencies like NASA) that do a lot of high-end 3D visualization and processing on linux. Having one of these desktops would be nice in one of those environments.

I would love to read a technical discussion about the structure of these snowflakes. There seems to be something about hexagonal shapes that mother nature likes. You see them in several of the images. These images are stunning (to me anyway)!

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/primer/prime... , and click through the rest of the "Snowflake Physics" in the left sidebar. Best site I've ever seen about snowflakes, a .edu site at its best.

Snowflakes don't always form hexagonal shapes. Snowflakes are only hexagonal if formed in very high clouds at 32-35 degrees Fahrenheit.

Water molecules in the solid state, such as in ice and snow, form weak bonds (called hydrogen bonds) with one another. These ordered arrangements result in the symmetrical, hexagonal shape of the snowflake. During crystallization, the water molecules align themselves to maximize attractive forces and minimize repulsive forces. Consequently, water molecules arrange themselves in predetermined spaces and in a specific arrangement. Water molecules simply arrange themselves to fit the spaces and maintain symmetry.

Get some buckyballs, spherical rare earth magnets, you'll find hexagons are a very attractive place for them.

very interesting ... thanks for the explanation.

I live in the area, but am unable to attend. I'd also like to watch a recording. Is there a cheap / easy way to do this? If there is enough interest, could someone attempt to record it?

Are there enough HN readers in Northern VA to warrant a NOVA Meetup?

I'd be happy to schedule something in NOVA if you suggest a location.

I'm in NOVA and would come. Though, downtown is really only a metro ride away for most in the NOVA area.

I'd be glad to visit that one as well.

I'd come too.

Wow, who edited that article? a 5 year-old?

Can you explain in just a bit more detail how you did this? This sounds really neat. I faced a problem like this a while ago, but luckily the file was still open in emacs (and in an emacs buffer), so I just re-wrote it back to disk.

This was a linux laptop. I immediately powered off and booted with a live CD. To be honest I'm not sure exactly what I did next. I might have just done "less -f /dev/sda5". I think what I actually did was make an image of the partition using dd to an external drive so I would be able to recover the file at leisure. Trying now, it seems that vim won't open a /dev block device directly, but an image is just a regular file.

where are you located?

Michigan. Ideally I'd like to get in a program like y combinator or techstars and relocate, but unless that happens it'll probably be a telecommute initially.

He should release these interviews as an audio book...I would buy that.