camccann

61 ms·

481.
by camccann 17y ago
GPL is not very compatible with commercial enterprises that sell software , I think you mean. It's perfectly compatible with commercial enterprises that only need to use software that lets them get on with their actual business. In fact, i
482.
by camccann 17y ago
The best tool for a job is almost always to select a language you are already comfortable with, which is exactly why it's beneficial to be conversant in multiple languages of different styles. If all you know how to use is a hammer it may b
483.
by camccann 17y ago
Okay, so holding to uncompromising moral principles isn't particularly compatible with real-world success. This is neither new nor limited to Free Software; you either compromise in order to get along, or you retreat with like-minded folks
484.
by camccann 17y ago
Well, at a conceptual level, mutability doesn't really mean what it sounds like in Haskell. Anything that looks like it has mutable state is (roughly speaking) syntactic sugar for sequencing operations via function composition with a guaran
485.
by camccann 17y ago
Being concerned with real implementations largely falls under the category of engineering, and I have yet to hear a concrete example of depending on experimentation that doesn't amount to "we have to use the scientific method to make sense
486.
by camccann 17y ago
Perhaps, but it certainly doesn't seem to be hurting them that much. Not to mention that at least some of the regulation is probably net-beneficial even if it inconveniences a few businesses.
487.
by camccann 17y ago
Also, while Stallman can come across as kind of paranoid sometimes, where Microsoft is concerned they really have earned a lot of suspicion, distrust, and ill will with past behavior. I can't really blame someone for not wanting to forgiv
488.
by camccann 17y ago
So... the state famous for Silicon Valley is one of most hostile to entrepreneurship? Makes sense. California has high personal and corporate taxes, laws that often favor employees over employers, lots of burdensome regulations, and is gene
489.
by camccann 17y ago
Given the stuff that ends up in my spam buckets, I'd tend to expect that anything involving medication or health care is one of the "more valuable targets", at least from the set of things that have CAPTCHAs as a significant obstacle.
490.
by camccann 17y ago
Computer Science is a ill-advised conflation of two different fields, of which one is largely an engineering discipline and one is essentially applied mathematics that the engineering side draws upon for tools and techniques. Neither is a "
491.
by camccann 17y ago
While not exactly synonymous with "amazing programmers", consider the country rankings in TopCoder's algorithm contests: http://www.topcoder.com/stat?c=country_avg_rating
492.
by camccann 17y ago
My guess would be: More groupthink, less bandwagon. That is, comments that (intentionally or not) pander to the audience will get more upvotes, but good comments that happen to get several early upvotes won't get the same pile-on effect. Th
493.
by camccann 17y ago
Well, most people will just be honest, especially in public, even if there's no real way for someone else to tell what they're doing. Also, if eliminating conventional checkout lanes frees up floor space for more products to sell and lets t
494.
by camccann 17y ago
Yes, but sometimes a person's authority is actually relevant . Consider this short exchange from the other day: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=841887 On the other hand, when somebody who is deeply respected (be it pg, or any prolifi
495.
by camccann 17y ago
And conversely, if I consistently find that the community values comments that I think are junk, I'm probably going to eventually leave the community (which is why I'm here, and not on certain other sites).
496.
by camccann 17y ago
It seems that negative-scored comments still start to gray out, so you'll be able to upvote something you think has been unjustly penalized. What you won't be able to do is aim things toward a desired positive score, such as downvoting a on
497.
by camccann 17y ago
or troll first (why you'd want to do that I don't know, but some might) At least on slashdot, the "troll"s are sometimes, in their own way, funnier than the "funny"s (if only because of not involving overdone /. in-jokes).
498.
by camccann 17y ago
Anecodtally, I've been using CFLs exclusively for years and I don't think I've ever had one die. So either you've gotten extremely unlucky or there's something nonobvious causing your problem. Do you lose CFLs at the same rate in other sock
499.
by camccann 17y ago
I don't mean this as an attack, it's an honest question: Why? I don't grasp the value of this sort of thing. If it's meant mostly as a novelty, a "because I could" type thing, then that's always fun, but I get the impression that people w
500.
by camccann 17y ago
Only if they believe you, though. CFLs have a lifetime of around 10,000 hours but some people discovered the hard way that they don't handle some operating environments, and then stopped trusting the rated lifetime at all.
501.
by camccann 17y ago
The link seems to be broken; it's missing the apostrophes. Try: http://blog.jrock.us/articles/Java%27s%20type%20system%20can...
502.
by camccann 17y ago
It's probably more that they failed to expand their power generation capacity to meet demand, then tried to fix the problem by implementing a half-baked "deregulation" scheme that created a distorted market full of loopholes that allowed un
503.
by camccann 17y ago
How often do people actually do a full-lifetime total cost estimate like that, instead of just going for what's cheapest right at the moment?
504.
"A Glorious Dawn": Duet sung by Carl Sagan & Stephen Hawking(youtube.com)
6 points by camccann 17y ago|0 comments
505.
by camccann 17y ago
I agree that this seems to mostly be serving TechCrunch's own interests. However, is it really plausible for it to work any other way, in the end? Building plans around the voluntary cooperation of a bunch of people who would gain at least
506.
by camccann 17y ago
Yay, obscure idiom time! The phrase "terminate with prejudice," largely fallen into disuse today, means basically "fire this person and blacklist them from ever working here again". The variant "terminate with extreme prejudice" was popular
507.
by camccann 17y ago
It may not be illegal , but I'd be shocked if it wasn't a flagrant violation of Google's terms of service and likely to get the advertiser's AdWords account terminated with extreme prejudice. "Illegal" and "nothing wrong" aren't an exhaust
508.
by camccann 17y ago
A manifesto, yes, but don't forget the snappy name. I suggest "Unconditional Programming"
509.
by camccann 17y ago
Yes, but hand-wringing over symptoms is a great way to not actually accomplish much change. The solution to "books about programmers don't have enough women in them" is probably not "write about more women in such books". Seibel's discuss
510.
by camccann 17y ago
Eh, making light of something's flaws is not the same as denying its value or strengths. I haven't been a desktop linux user for 5+ years because I hate the X Window System. Did you read the chapter I linked to? It really is quite enterta

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