JackC

40 ms·

331.
by JackC 14y ago
Nitpick: data compression theory says you can't have a general-purpose algorithm that on average compresses random strings. The best any algorithm can do is make some strings shorter and some strings longer, which is why compression is on
332.
by JackC 14y ago
I wonder why they didn't just make a browser plug-in that simplifies using client certificates (without the expense of supporting a highly reliable 3rd-party site and extra code to make it work. So the goal is basically: I have a computer
333.
by JackC 14y ago
I did check out the list of features, and it sounds very cool. I like the first-class support for contracts and testing. But it's like, if I have to learn new language quirks and find new libraries to do everything and so on, I could also s
334.
by JackC 14y ago
Conversely, if a two people team can hash out their problems together, there is no sign of trouble yet . That's probably a good time for them to address the fundamental flaws/weaknesses/risks of a two people team, one of which I describe
335.
by JackC 14y ago
The docs aren't loading for me, but my first question was, why create a language that is almost, but not quite, exactly like Python syntax? Why give up compatibility with that whole community in exchange for minor syntax changes? (I don't m
336.
by JackC 14y ago
Corporate governance is kind of like, well, every other kind of government: it has serious flaws no matter how you set it up. If you decide three is one too many, the new pitfall you have to watch out for is tiebreaking. Suppose there's a f
337.
by JackC 14y ago
Out of my depth here, but I think functional languages are relevant to distributed/concurrent programming because they tend to provide (and enforce) explicit ways to avoid or manage side effects and mutability. They're likely to be very dif
338.
by JackC 14y ago
I don't think there's any objective way to define "most advanced" -- it just means "best." Their marketers claim the new OS they made is the best OS. If there is some aspect of the OS that is considered the best by someone, they're not wron
339.
by JackC 14y ago
Off the top of my head, it might be relevant to face recognition, or the new real-time (?) panorama stitching, or image processing in scanning apps, or advanced paint apps (properly-smearing finger paint?), or HTML5 apps (say, Google Maps),
340.
by JackC 14y ago
I would think this would hurt their overall adoption rates (especially long term) as people get sick of constantly upgrading their OS and dealing with any fallout that results. Apple's willingness to obsolete their old tech has been the p
341.
by JackC 14y ago
FWIW, I agree with masklinn that it's a little weird not to mention WebOS in the article. In particular when you wrote "In short, Firefox OS is about taking the technologies behind the Web, like JavaScript, and using them to produce an enti
342.
by JackC 14y ago
This kind of request strikes me as kind of similar to the movements to standardize English spelling. There are groups out there who, for at least a hundred years, have been saying "can we please stop spelling the same sounds in five differe
343.
by JackC 14y ago
I wouldn't downvote you, but (purely because you asked) you did trigger my noise filter. Not a big deal, but it sounds like you're interested in how to avoid doing that, so here goes. The reason you set off my noise filter is that "there is
344.
by JackC 14y ago
The problem is that the car dealership would indeed be required to honor the misprinted price tag if it was discovered after they completed the sale. This situation is like, a car dealership misprints the price tags; the salespeople spend
345.
by JackC 14y ago
I think this article is interesting because of Gruber's role in the conversation as an Apple fan[atic]. Samsung has been criticized from the Apple side (and by Gruber in particular) for copying Apple's innovations -- the implication being t
346.
by JackC 14y ago
If nothing else, I think power consumption is a dealbreaker for a 20-year desktop PC. In (say) five years, there will be an iPhone with the same specs, and then you'll be running a desktop PC for 15 years at 100 times the power consumption
347.
by JackC 14y ago
I'm a lawyer with just a tiny bit of experience with whistleblower issues. The part of the story where a whistleblower decides not to go public after consulting with their lawyer strikes me as totally plausible. You could think of being a w
348.
by JackC 14y ago
I think Piskvorr is saying that you could trick Alice into entering the code for the settings page from her email inbox. Once Bob visits the settings page and gets to the two-factor prompt, he pops up a javascript box in Alice's gmail inbox
349.
by JackC 14y ago
Apparently if you ask for questions, what you get is critiques. I'll keep up the pattern. :) This phrase struck me as out of sync with the style: "we have focused on creating compelling templates that drive influence." It's jargon-y, and th
350.
by JackC 14y ago
From kalleboo's link, here's the particular image from Samsung's brief to look at: http://www.groklaw.net/images/Samsung-3.jpg If it's true, it seems pretty persuasive. (The document is pretty amusing in general: "Design was not the only
351.
by JackC 14y ago
Personally, my intuitions change pretty heavily in what I see as a monopoly situation -- especially a natural monopoly based on network effects. So here's why I support Padmapper, in elaborate detail: Part 1: Craigslist has a natural monop
352.
by JackC 14y ago
For those who aren't familiar, Mark Bittman is kind of a foodie god; I'm pretty sure organic wheat springs up under his feet when he walks around. Here's the part of Bittman's article about the fake chicken, from back in March (linked from
353.
by JackC 14y ago
I wonder if it would avoid this kind of objection (which always comes up in logic puzzles) if problems was first stated in mathematical terms, and then analogized to a real world scenario. Something like ... Assume two sets of integers (1.
354.
by JackC 14y ago
Just based on the Times article, I think the idea is, define a simulation of a cell and subject it to a bunch (100s) of simulated experiments, based on real experiments that have been run on real versions of the cell. If you get the same re
355.
by JackC 14y ago
It may not add totally new information, but it does more than create an image that looks nicer. It's not just inventing plausible information, it's providing the most likely new information given the available data. For example, "given
356.
by JackC 14y ago
Saying that government regulation for financial markets is a red herring is like saying that SSL for ecommerce is a red herring. Sure, it's imperfect. It's not a complete solution. It gets circumvented sometimes. It creates a false sense of
357.
by JackC 14y ago
You could potentially detect it in Javascript (if there's no better way) by measuring the width of an off-screen element -- especially if you added a ridiculously-wide glyph to your icon font. Like "if this div isn't at least 3 times as wid
358.
by JackC 14y ago
This would only make sense if the sole effect of not shopping at Amazon was to end warehouse jobs. But the alternative to "shop at Amazon" isn't "set my money on fire." If I don't shop at Amazon, I'll either buy the same things somewhere
359.
by JackC 14y ago
Can anyone who's done outsourced hardware comment on how hard that part actually is? I mean, if I met with someone from Foxconn and said, "listen, I need to you to take this 3d model of a plastic case, slam in an Android SoC and some I/O po
360.
by JackC 14y ago
I totally agree -- Posner's contribution to the law in general is incredible, and this article is a great example. Tangent, re: Posner and his place in the law: The thing to keep an eye on is where his approach is helpful and where it isn't

More ›