_benedict

10 ms·

61.
by _benedict 4y ago
I think your assumption that everyone agreed on your definition in the first place is incorrect. Words are fuzzy, most people don’t look at dictionaries, let alone OSI or FSF definitions. A word changing usage often just indicates the meani
62.
by _benedict 4y ago
Yep, I didn’t use them as an example of a company that has lost their trademark, only that in common usage often means something different to its original intent.
63.
by _benedict 4y ago
I really dislike the “didn’t try hard enough” angle. He seemed to be trying, he really wanted to be able to settle in to a productive life with his wife there. It’s lacking in empathy to assume you have all the relevant facts to pass judgem
64.
by _benedict 4y ago
No, it means some people started using the word differently, no more no less. Cool your own use of language, I don’t think it’s at all appropriate or within HN guidelines.
65.
by _benedict 4y ago
Yep, and if a bunch of people manage to communicate with others successfully using this term then…
66.
by _benedict 4y ago
Nope, it isn’t special. Indeed your example is why companies try very hard to prevent words from changing meaning. Google for instance no longer means “search with Google” but to search the internet for something, with Google or some other
67.
by _benedict 4y ago
Some people are really bad at language, and depending on the context it’s probably fine to let them off the hook. I once participated in a French class in Paris with a guy whose wife was French, and he was utterly hopeless. I’m not sure he
68.
by _benedict 4y ago
None of these facts are relevant for how people use language. You may lament that people are beginning to use a word differently, but you cannot stop it and you cannot declare it authoritatively wrong. You can only lament and exhort. Langua
69.
by _benedict 4y ago
You forgot to mention that the effect was not statistically significant; the confidence intervals include the null hypothesis.
70.
by _benedict 4y ago
What you describe is quite different: humans may well mislead themselves or others when there is a reason to do so. But most of the time, if there is no cost or benefit associated with an explanation, a human is fairly good (with great vari
71.
by _benedict 4y ago
A good example might be static constructors that indicate the semantics of the parameters, such as of(array), copyOf(array), ofSorted(array) Where perhaps the first wraps, the second copies and the third may wrap and avoid sorting the input
72.
by _benedict 4y ago
Pretty sure mini splits are significantly more efficient today, with SCOP of above 5, so that seems unlikely?
73.
by _benedict 4y ago
The U.K. is even more monolingual and still uses icons for the obvious UX benefit of faster recognition with less distraction from the road.
74.
by _benedict 4y ago
Literally right now it’s being reported that 300-500 people are dying weekly just because of extreme delays to emergency medicine. It doesn’t take many years to rack up 120k deaths at that rate (though I recognise the study was prior to thi
75.
by _benedict 4y ago
Also, this is not a measurement that yields symmetric action, since it’s harmful in only one direction. Your actions based on the same level of accuracy are likely to be different. If a device can tell you something is maybe poisonous, a po
76.
by _benedict 4y ago
Yep.
77.
by _benedict 4y ago
The AQMD website has tested devices, and any they found accurate is probably a good place to start. My limited research suggests the most affordable and reliable gaseous measurements like NO2 want a metal oxide sensor, which you don’t see o
78.
by _benedict 4y ago
Sure, but it’s not measuring NO2, just things that sometimes correlate with the presence of NO2 in some environment. So, maybe it’s sometimes rightish in a general ball park sense, but often it won’t even be that as these correlations are n
79.
by _benedict 4y ago
NO2 is not easily measured accurately with inexpensive sensors like the uHoo. The US government tests a number of sensors and generally finds them lacking - my limited research suggests NO2 in consumer equipment is generally estimated mathe
80.
by _benedict 4y ago
If you just said “flu kicks your ass more than the common cold” we’d be in agreement, since “common cold” means a mild non-specific viral infection, and “flu” means a severe non-specific viral infection. But once you arbitrarily declare so
81.
by _benedict 4y ago
I am responding to two claims: 1) that influenza knocks you out and anything that doesn’t isn’t influenza; 2) that flu even means influenza in common usage, and so appeals to influenza symptoms are meaningless. > typically characterised
82.
by _benedict 4y ago
This is just as untrue as it was for Covid. Some people are asymptomatic with flu, others mildly ill, others bedridden but for an unpredictable period of time, and others are hospitalised or killed. Without a PCR test it’s just a non-specif
83.
by _benedict 4y ago
Even v1 can be sorted if the database is remotely smart about it - Cassandra clusters v1 UUID that are part of a clustering key (and partition keys if the ordered partitioner is used) by sorting on the time components first (and in an upcom
84.
by _benedict 4y ago
Didn’t Fyre Festival turn into a very public humanitarian crisis? I don’t know that the two situations are comparable as a result.
85.
by _benedict 4y ago
The area is for all vehicles, and most petrol vehicles registered before 2006 must pay to enter it.
86.
by _benedict 4y ago
No. It’s a minimum fuel efficiency standard that petrol cars registered after 2006 were legally required to meet. So it is a very lax standard in reality, and only removes the worst vehicles from the roads.
87.
by _benedict 4y ago
And yet in not many years that will be atmospheric levels. This is the element of fossil fuel emissions nobody seems to be discussing, and we don’t know its consequences
88.
by _benedict 4y ago
I’m referring to software engineers in finance? They are definitely looking for the same people.
89.
by _benedict 4y ago
That would only seem to confirm my point. There are plenty of non-US firms competing with FAANG comp in London.
90.
by _benedict 4y ago
FAANG in London are competing with finance, and there are plenty of non-American firms in finance paying high salaries.

More ›