RobAley

50 ms·

541.
by RobAley 14y ago
The character of debates in the British parliament changed when it was Televised. Prior to that, it wasn't usual to see MPs having a nap, a bit like during many lectures I went to...
542.
by RobAley 14y ago
The people standing up want to talk next. The Speaker chooses who does speak next, in a kind of opaque way. Senior gov officials are usually favoured over back-benchers.
543.
by RobAley 14y ago
Breaking news - Home Secretary has blocked his extradition see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4659305 Its the first thing she has done right in the job. Probably the last as well. She only did it because of public pressure, which whi
544.
Gary McKinnon saved from extradition to the US(bbc.co.uk)
189 points by RobAley 14y ago|114 comments
545.
by RobAley 14y ago
Some stats: ~350 million users[1] ~17Mb download[2] Lets assume a full 25% is dev tools (I think its likely to be much less), so 4.25Mb per user. That's 1418Tb, or just under 500 3Tb disks. Considering that's spread across 350 million use
546.
by RobAley 14y ago
Can you substantiate your claim that "Biotech crops are probably key to our survival and prosperity as a species"? There is little evidence supporting that that I can find. Globally, we currently produce more food than we need. The problems
547.
by RobAley 14y ago
I've only skim read that as I'm at work, but it looks like it only compares their results with traditional internet surveys, is littered with caveats like it depending on the subject matter (type) of the survey, and doesn't fully show the m
548.
by RobAley 14y ago
Bear in mind that far more people will tell you its a good idea than will buy it (usually) so adjust any projections accordingly. If the time to code the prototype yourself, or the money to outsource the coding, is too much of a risk to tak
549.
by RobAley 14y ago
You do indeed get an answer aligned with their interest, which is often useful (not perhaps in your example), as that is generally the point of the survey (to find out what your respondents think). You need to pick your respondent cohort ca
550.
by RobAley 14y ago
Don't use this if you are going to spend money based on the outcome (or do anything else important with it). People do not have a vested interest in completing the questions honestly or on the outcome. Their motivation is to get to the prem
551.
Facebook campaigners inadvertantly make targeted pages more popular(bbc.co.uk)
2 points by RobAley 14y ago|0 comments
552.
by RobAley 14y ago
When we looked earlier in the year, the only way to get non-signed desktop apps to run from metro was to either have a signed metro app call them or create a fudgy work-around by creating a dummy file/protocol type, assigning your desktop a
553.
by RobAley 14y ago
You need something to stick in the users mind, a visual that they will remember. Although they can do better, at least with tent.io/tent.is you get the image of a tent in your mind which is something your subconcious can latch onto and remi
554.
by RobAley 14y ago
The good programmers today are just as good as the good programmers of yesterday. The challenges they face are just different as the tasks they tackle are different. The other difference is that there are enough computers about that the bad
555.
by RobAley 14y ago
Ah, thats good. If his users want to use the default Metro platform to launch and play the game, then they can right?. Oh wait...
556.
by RobAley 14y ago
> Also, if you want the Foundation to send more documentation to you, they require you to provide a business model. No they don't. That section talks about broadcom, who are the ones who you will need to give business info to to buy the
557.
by RobAley 14y ago
Simply rebranding basic hardware isn't going to compete with the likes of Apple. Cheap and cheerful (read: shoddy) hardware would quickly damage the Ubuntu brand, and the good hardware is locked up tight by the big brands. Canonical would n
558.
by RobAley 14y ago
The trouble is Canonical is and has always been a software company, and Apple is a hardware company (or at least its roots were). To make Canonical in a hardware direction under the Canonical brand, at a level to compete with existing hardw
559.
by RobAley 14y ago
But its more nuanced than that. Ubunut (or rather Canonical) is not just an ad-supported service. It has "real" enterprise support customers, it has OEM engineering services, certification services and other things that puts Ubuntu as at le
560.
by RobAley 14y ago
You're entirely right, but I think you're missing the point. This thread is about how to we change the current situation, i.e. how to effect which way the needle swings. There is enough of an acorn in the number of authors and publishers th
561.
by RobAley 14y ago
Indeed. Lets amend that to "publishers/authors/stores". Many authors and/or publishers are letting you buy direct from their own sites as well as at mainstream ebookstores, so there is often that choice. Again, see [1]
562.
by RobAley 14y ago
Or http://www.ubuntu.com/business/desktop#services if you want to make it a truly commercial relationship.
563.
by RobAley 14y ago
The simplest way is through the use of your wallet. Buy "open". E.g. - Need a new desktop? Buy one that doesn't lock down uefi by default, and runs linux compatible hardware - New phone? Buy one with Firefox OS if you can wait that long, or
564.
by RobAley 14y ago
As the article somewhat alludes to, code isn't like a sequential book, but more like a conceptual system or a complex model. Rather than reading from top to bottom in a literal sense, the top you need to find to start with is the overview f
565.
by RobAley 14y ago
There is a fair amount of overlap in what they do, the main variation is in the interfaces and how the information is presented. I tend to use one or the other depending on the task at hand. They're both of good "pedigree", xdebug has been
566.
by RobAley 14y ago
OK, so everyone else has pretty much covered the arguments for "don't do it, run" and for "re-write it". But assuming that you either a) have to maintain it anyway (can't afford to lose job etc.) or b) are going to re-write it but don't hav
567.
by RobAley 14y ago
In the past 3-4 years, I've never spent more time installing and configuring Linux (Ubuntu) on my PCs than I have doing the same with Windows (even where Windows came pre-installed). And I spend more time trouble-shooting Windows post-insta
568.
by RobAley 14y ago
6 years ago I moved into my current house and bought new CFLs for all of the fittings, all of them are still going. All were the very cheapest the supermarket had to offer. Even if they all go tomorrow, I've saved way more in electric costs
569.
by RobAley 14y ago
Two interesting news stories today related to this in the US: A judge showing surprising common sense that, even in civil cases, you are not necessarily responsible for someone else using your connection.[1] The RIAA continuing their campai
570.
by RobAley 14y ago
In my case, the runs are often run in parallel and in batches of varying sizes, so "same name" or rotation schedules wouldn't work well. They are a kind of hybrid log/storage file (they contain intermediate data sectioned/logged into the ac

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