camccann

46 ms·

391.
by camccann 17y ago
Doesn't Spolsky write a column for Inc. on a monthly basis or so? Maybe they skipped him to avoid it looking too self-congratulatory or like a conflict of interest or whatever.
392.
by camccann 17y ago
Someone making $50k would be getting $4167/month before tax. If an increase of 10% on state income tax is costing them $20/month, that means they used to be paying about $200/month in state income taxes, or about 4.8%. Afterwards they'd be
393.
by camccann 17y ago
Because in California budgetary politics, one party insists on raising taxes to meet expenditures while the other party insists on cutting expenses to meet revenues, and in the true spirit of compromise the only thing they can agree on is d
394.
by camccann 17y ago
As ridiculous as the whole idea is, it's almost as absurd to imagine this being some terrible hardship. The article makes it sound like it'll be a big deal to a lot of people but it's, what, maybe $30/month for someone with a pretty comfort
395.
by camccann 17y ago
Some people would argue that in the long term, psychologically speaking, hard labor to scrape a mostly independent living in a "direct" fashion (e.g. subsistence farming) feels more intrinsically rewarding than comparatively easy work with
396.
by camccann 17y ago
Ah, Hamming. Definitely a role model for anyone who wants to get out there and accomplish things. This is probably old hat to folks here, since it was mentioned in one of pg's essays, but I remain fond of this part: I went over and said, "
397.
by camccann 17y ago
Well, some percentage of the "can get away with being uninsured" demographic actually can't ... they just don't know it yet. Well, yes. Being uninsured is a reverse lottery--you gain a modest benefit with a small chance of an extremely ne
398.
by camccann 17y ago
Most people going through YC are probably in the "can get away with being uninsured" demographic--young, male, healthy, single, childless, and not frequently engaged in activities hazardous to health--and for those who can do so, not having
399.
by camccann 17y ago
There's an interesting argument in favor of downvoting here: http://lesswrong.com/lw/c1/wellkept_gardens_die_by_pacifism/ For context, the author is someone who posts on HN and was (at the time) trying to launch a new community.
400.
by camccann 17y ago
Sure, thanks for the suggestions. I guess I might give Chomsky a pass if it was purely about linguistics and didn't involve his politics at all. Look, I'm not out to push my politics here, if that's what you're thinking. I read HN because o
401.
by camccann 17y ago
To read any text is to attempt to infer its meaning. This is English, not C. I was mostly trying to suggest that, just maybe , it'd be a good idea to not turn the whole conversation into one about politics, but apparently that's inevitable
402.
by camccann 17y ago
Why throw a fit over somebody else's aversion to the novel? Because it's often assumed that anyone who complains about the writing actually dislikes the politics and is bashing the writing as a disingenuous cover for that; and that anyone
403.
by camccann 17y ago
Cute, but I was hoping the pumpkin was going to say: λf·(λx·f (x x)) (λx·f (x x))
404.
by camccann 17y ago
It's more of a proof sketch, really--there's a few unexamined assumptions in there. It was the best I could do off the top of my head and typing on a smart phone, but I'm reasonably confident that the overall structure is valid. I was actua
405.
by camccann 17y ago
Consider a Turing machine M1 of size X that, given an input value n, calculates a function f(n) such that O(f(n)) > O(BB(n)) and halts. Consider a Turing machine M2 of size Y that calculates a number A and halts, where X + Y < A. Co
406.
by camccann 17y ago
"That's ignoring all the many holes with the case (that ended up requiring using a legal backdoor to convict them without a unanimous verdict." Your choice of terminology here makes me a little uncomfortable.
407.
by camccann 17y ago
A laptop battery may have quite a bit of energy density, but that's not entirely relevant, as he points out in the next sentence. The speed at which the energy is released is far, far more important. Remember all those news stories a few
408.
by camccann 17y ago
So according to the results summary at the end, about half the adult population, and a quarter of college graduates, are under the impression that antibiotics kill viruses. The other questions, despite being rather basic scientific knowledg
409.
by camccann 17y ago
Can I complain about this article continuing to blur any distinction between "computer science" and "software engineering", or would that just make me sound like a cranky old-timer?
410.
by camccann 17y ago
Variables here are time, teacher fatigue, blood sugar, and the students. I'd say that, at least up to some age, any problems attributable to "the students" are really the failing of the parents, though maybe that's what you were getting a
411.
by camccann 17y ago
I don't buy the assumption that the biggest problem is teacher quality. Hasn't it been repeatedly shown that, statistically, the factors that most strongly predict a child's academic success are far and away related to their family, not the
412.
by camccann 17y ago
It's a hook to get attention, that's all. Have a title that sounds surprising and counterintuitive, then explain how you really meant something related but different. Would this have been submitted to HN if it argued "Programmers should a
413.
by camccann 17y ago
Influenza spreads by some combination of airborne particles containing viruses (e.g., from infected people sneezing) and surface contamination. The relative importance of each is unknown, and there's actually not much in the way of research
414.
by camccann 17y ago
A 2% drop in world gdp would lead to at least as bad a recession (likely even worse) than the one we're in now. And a catastrophic failure of the ocean's ecosystem would have no economic impact at all, I guess? An economic analysis can't
415.
by camccann 17y ago
Here's a radical idea: What if there were a country who pegged it's currency not to the dollar, or to gold, but rather to oil? An interesting idea, but would probably get awkward in the mid-to-long term. Oil is a consumable resource with
416.
by camccann 17y ago
"One of the most important things that Sergey Brin’s gift signifies . . . is the possibilities inherent in being a refugee. The debate over immigration has frequently become so bitter that an important element has been lost: refugees are a
417.
by camccann 17y ago
The risk is losing a lot of someone else's money, of course! Of course, the financial sector in general is still a risk-taking operation, even if the individual employees bear little to none of that risk (leaving aside, for the moment, th
418.
by camccann 17y ago
Your career will be damaged if you question the efficacy of the flu shot, because it is current medical doctrine. This kind of thing has happened lots of times before, as the Atlantic article points out. Yes, it's obviously true that anyo
419.
by camccann 17y ago
If memory serves me, yearly flu vaccines are formulated based on predictions about which strains will be most common for a given season. Is it really a surprise that they guess wrong sometimes? Easy, 100%-accurate predictions don't really h
420.
by camccann 17y ago
However much Google is paying, one has to assume that it's "enough" in some sense, in that someone is selling it to them on a voluntary basis. Last mile costs to reach customers would, presumably, be paid for by the customer's subscription

More ›