analog31

13 ms·

361.
by analog31 7mo ago
Taking it to an extreme, the house I lived in while in grad school had wall lamp fixtures that doubled as electric and gas lamps. At some point I imagine it would have been possible to choose between using electric or gas by either flipping
362.
by analog31 7mo ago
Ask HN: Is there a list of preferred routers for security?
363.
by analog31 7mo ago
The natural extension to Spolsky’s quote is: Unless someone else is paying for the jeans. I think the smaller the organization, the more likely that a software projects has real stakeholders. In bigger, more mature organizations, the experi
364.
by analog31 7mo ago
This is something I've wondered for a long time. Does a software state become more like an oil state, or more like an industrial state?
365.
by analog31 7mo ago
>>> But do we have reason to believe that no AI system can synthesize novel technologies We don’t even know if they want to. But in general, it’s impossible to conclusively prove that something won’t ever happen in the future.
366.
by analog31 7mo ago
I think sale and purchase are too hard to police. Possession of data should be illegal, with a level of statutory damages that invites litigation.
367.
by analog31 7mo ago
>>>> Software engineering is a mostly solved problem at this point... I'll believe it when AI can tell me when a project will be done. I've asked my developer friends about this and I get a blank stare, like I'm s
368.
by analog31 7mo ago
My daughter had to replace the LiPo battery in her headphones twice after they would not charge at all.
369.
by analog31 7mo ago
I'd go further and say it's dangerously untrue. What I advise people is that your results are constantly decaying. Only a rate of progress that exceeds the rate of decay will get you out the door. Decay happens for a number of
370.
by analog31 8mo ago
It was kind of a hodgepodge, since I gave myself a couple of rules. First, it had to be free. Second, it had to run on both Windows and Linux. Those were harder constraints in the 2010's. To give a flavor, I tried Python, GCC, Javascri
371.
by analog31 8mo ago
I did something similar. I’m not a developer, but I use programming as a problem solving tool, and have written little apps for limited uses such as controlling a fixture in the factory — stuff that the devs won’t touch. My first language w
372.
by analog31 8mo ago
This is going to be the year of refunds from the government.
373.
by analog31 8mo ago
That's true. But people have had formal language for millennia, so why don't we use it? Here's my hunch. Formal specifiation is so inefficient that cynics suspect it of being a form of obstructionism, while pragmatic people r
374.
by analog31 8mo ago
This raises an interesting point. I've speculated that if someone has a hard time expressing themselves to other humans verbally or in writing, they're also going to have a hard time writing human-readable code. The two things are
375.
by analog31 8mo ago
Aside from it being sponsored research, I’m not surprised by the claim. I blame the GUI. Sure, the GUI did great things for us, but I don’t think it evolved with sufficient attention paid to physical ergonomics. I get massive eye strain hea
376.
by analog31 8mo ago
I see this frequently. People want data that are organized in some fashion, so they start with a spreadsheet. The drawback is that spreadsheet cells are a terrible way to convey narrative information. I’ve seen detailed product requirements
377.
by analog31 8mo ago
Is it enough to have an audible effect? We’re not talking cesium clock levels of stability here. Now my curiosity is piqued, I have to figure out a way to measure this.
378.
by analog31 8mo ago
One simplistic way is to successively add a small constant to a large integer, and generate the waveform from the most significant bits. A "cent," which is 1/100 of a semitone, is a factor of about 580 parts per million, so y
379.
by analog31 8mo ago
Indeed, and another factor is that a fingered note has a different tone quality. Disclosure: String player.
380.
by analog31 8mo ago
Or Europeans before potatoes.
381.
by analog31 8mo ago
This could be an age thing. I’m 62. I didn’t know there was such a thing as an em dash until I was nearly finishing grad school. My buddy had an Apple Mac and was up to date on typography, and told me about em dashes. I ignored him and have
382.
by analog31 8mo ago
At first glance, the thread title made me think this was going to be about the halting problem.
383.
by analog31 8mo ago
While we're at it, water use is another externality.
384.
by analog31 8mo ago
I wonder if anybody's manufacturing was great before the Japanese quality revolution. It took Germany longer than the US to adopt modern quality control. Granted, Germany did a lot of it, for instance their chemical industries were sta
385.
by analog31 8mo ago
This is part of a plan to bring back inches, pounds, and the quarter-twenty.
386.
by analog31 8mo ago
If you know, you're probably dead.
387.
by analog31 8mo ago
I don't know if this figures into the engineering formulas, but an e-bike needs to be stronger due to the higher speeds and power levels. On a human powered bike, if you're hauling 150 pounds, you're probably going pretty slo
388.
by analog31 8mo ago
I once proved to my boss that a font was crashing System 7. And we always unplugged the network when we didn’t need it because a crash on one Mac could bring down every other Mac on the network.
389.
by analog31 8mo ago
I think there’s an actual barrier. I’ve seen it, especially since the (until recently) brisk market for programmers was sucking people out of traditional engineering. It’s puzzling because programming seems so easy and fun. And even before
390.
by analog31 8mo ago
I have a feeling that the cost of bad / inefficient / late software runs into at least the billions. The biggest risks are unavoidably attached to the most costly software projects, that are probably the most likely to be conducte

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