alf

9 ms·

31.
by alf 15y ago
"Microsoft or Linux" -> "Microsoft and Linux" Speaks to how far Linux has come. This might be just be my isolated geeky viewpoint, but does anyone else see a world without Microsoft more likely than a world without Linux?
32.
by alf 15y ago
By "big" I mean problems that require many distinct, intelligent decisions. These problems always has and always will require very large groups of people working cooperatively. For example, the Apollo program at it's peak employed 34,000
33.
by alf 15y ago
>They basically assume that the National Security Agency (NSA) is in all their networks. This a really interesting point. With all the media coverage to all the alleged Chinese hacks, we tend to forget that the US Government is likely
34.
by alf 15y ago
Humans also weren't meant to build pyramids, send men to the moon, or write operating systems. Big organizations are needed for big problems. But I do generally agree with the article that big organizations are not the best place to devel
35.
by alf 15y ago
Losing the auction is more a failure of partnership than anything else. The Apple team included MS, Sony, RIM, Ericsson, and EMC, while the Google only teamed up with Intel. Where were all the Android partners? There are enough companies wi
36.
by alf 15y ago
Right, agreed. :)
37.
by alf 15y ago
C shouldn't be used for anything other than low level programming these days. There are other higher level programming language that would make your job a whole lot easier. Some programmers, like me, are stuck maintaining legacy C applica
38.
by alf 15y ago
Although this is a valid point in many cases, I don't think this is one of those cases. It's in these "infrastructure" type projects like kernels, compilers, interpreters, and parsers where "micro" optimizations are actually really importa
39.
by alf 16y ago
In your defense, a modern compiler will generate code very similar code from the code linked in the OP. Non-optimized recursion is very expensive in C :) http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34125/which-if-any-c-comp...
40.
by alf 16y ago
Something tells me Google would have been very happy to help Nokia add the Dalvik VM to MeeGo. Nokia would get Android apps and developers, while still being able to diversify their OS and and UI from the competition. Google would get Dalv
41.
by alf 16y ago
I think part of the reason has to do with the water sensors mentioned in another comment. In the case of accidental, non warrantee water damage, these screws would prevent someone from replacing the water sensors with new ones, or at least
42.
by alf 16y ago
I don't quite understand how he gets a 10,000x speedup from a 100x transistor count decrease. Does die area increase with the square of transistor count?
43.
by alf 16y ago
.. and it's only with their (relatively recent) use in cryptography that prime numbers became "important". G.H. Hardy, one of the leading number theorist in his era claimed that none of his work was useful, and therefore never could be app
44.
by alf 16y ago
Except the rich man in this case is still drinking beer (benefiting from government services) while not paying any of the bill.
45.
by alf 16y ago
I haven't really thought of it, but every cyclist I've met has too. I haven't yet (knock on wood), but then again I only started biking this year.
46.
by alf 16y ago
Thanks! As a developer looking to get into web programming, this is <em>exactly</em> what I was looking for!
47.
by alf 16y ago
T-mobile offers less expensive plans with no contract (and no subsidized phone).
48.
by alf 16y ago
I think many alcohol drinkers would find it easier to drink 1.5 oz of liquor, than 12 oz of beer or a 6 oz of wine, especially if the beer is in a bottle. I think the main benefit here is that holding a different drink separates you from t
49.
by alf 16y ago
epub version: http://github.com/downloads/ieure/sicp/sicp.epub
50.
by alf 16y ago
This article a little hard to believe to me. It's unsettling to see it from the NYT. Is there a need to bring up Android twice? I fail see to how Verizon running Android phones strengthens the notion that these two companies are forming
51.
by alf 16y ago
This makes it pretty pointless to have discrete ATI graphics under Linux. I have an integrated ATI graphics card in my desktop and discrete ATI graphics card in my laptop. They both have the same use cases; they can handle basic desktop f
52.
by alf 16y ago
I wasn't trying to say science is useless when it comes to sports, just sports science tends to be very very bad scientifically as a whole. Modern recreational running shoes are the PERFECT example of how wrong sports science can be. All t
53.
by alf 16y ago
How did an article from t nation end up on hacker news... I wish I could down vote. This is not a quality article. The article titled with the incendiary "Interval training doesn't work," doesn't say that it's primarily concerned with fat
54.
by alf 16y ago
Lets also not forget that millions of people in China were starving 30 years ago. The flow of jobs into China pulled 1 billion people out of poverty. This is not insignificant and is not mentioned enough. Americans will go back to work