dasht

31 ms·

211.
by dasht 17y ago
This is one of the better "Ask HN: Critique my New Startup" posts I think we've seen. The web site is tightly constructed affording obvious use paths and little opportunity for user error. The functionality is obviously useful to all sen
212.
by dasht 17y ago
FYI, and hopefully not just morbid: Local TV news (sorry, no link) reports that planes taking off from that run-way must turn 10 degrees left or 10 degrees right after take-off. They can't go straight because of a nearby field (Moffet fiel
213.
by dasht 17y ago
I'm not sure I agree that that's what Boolo's clarification says however, it makes not a whit of difference to my analysis. For, if, indeed, "Hey A, are you Random?" is not one of my three questions, then it has no True answer other than
214.
by dasht 17y ago
That is a flawed puzzle. Warning, partial spoiler to the bogus solution included here. ------------- ------------- The solution proposes that for the first question, I turn to god A and ask "Hey, A, if I were to ask you 'Are you Random',
215.
by dasht 17y ago
Why is this any different from letting Google store my spreadsheets [etc.] It's not, much. I think those things are stupid and irresponsible as well. So much for cloud computing... Centralized services != cloud computing. If you had sa
216.
by dasht 17y ago
I'm very skeptical of this idea. I don't mean to spread "negative energy" or flame but, may I be frank? Walking it through: Let's start with the straw-man that I'm a small single shop and don't want CC processing. Cashierlive will take
217.
by dasht 17y ago
It's not a conspiracy theory - it's kinda-sorta true and is as intended. Some say it's a good thing, others object. In any event, askHN is probably not the best way to get a grip on it. Perhaps, start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik
218.
by dasht 17y ago
Re "A tool library is an intriguing, possibly beneficial idea. But whether it's actually worth what's spent depends on facts not in evidence: how many people use it, how efficiently is it run, what's the cost of the next-best-alternative,
219.
by dasht 17y ago
rglovejoy asks: "What happens when someone gets injured or killed because he or she was improperly using a tool from the tool lending library? What if the low-hours guys you mentioned were cutting corners on the tools' upkeep? Or is this re
220.
by dasht 17y ago
As one small point, Greenspun waxes eloquent about the "big government" stupidity of the Berkeley Tool Lending Library. Well, what is the Berkeley Tool Lending Library? It's a couple of sheds and some low-hours guys there taking care of th
221.
by dasht 17y ago
A "self-replicating probe" is either so weak in capability that it would hardly amount to colonization, or so strong in capability that it would amount to a rival life form. What functionality would you build into such a probe and by what
222.
by dasht 17y ago
Here is one possible (plausible) answer to Fermi, I think: Some various assumptions: Space travel is limited by the speed of light and the faster you are going, the more energy it takes to go a little bit faster. Relatively is more or less
223.
by dasht 17y ago
That's the first I'd heard that RMS wrote the first TECO "scope" command. As I (quite possibly incorrectly) recall that was the "q" command and it updated the full-screen display on a smart terminal. I knew he had become the first curat
224.
by dasht 17y ago
Something to keep in mind if you are inclined to try solving the puzzle is that solutions ought to work on NFS file systems. Why does that matter? Well, consider a system call like rename(2) or mkdir(2). Suppose that on a local file syste
225.
by dasht 17y ago
I must brag (because hopefully it's interesting): About 22 or 23 years ago my mentor at the time, a unix guru, beat more or less that same list into my thick skull with a heavy schtick. It was considered part of "basic competency" for unix
226.
by dasht 17y ago
Don't be so fast and loose with the word "realistic". We live in tough times but, you know, in the details - in the minutiae - there is some good beauty and pleasure to be had. We struggle, as a rule, sure, but... I dunno, look at the bug
227.
by dasht 17y ago
Escape to what, exactly? Subsistence farming? To an ownership position of the labor product of wage slaves, alienated from their work? To communal ownership of the means of industrial production and the division of labor by consensus? T
228.
by dasht 17y ago
"I think that semantically, they are a wonderful, powerful, useful idea;" I agree. "but syntactically they are awful, confusing, unusable crap." Pretty much the opposite of my experience, and I seem to not be alone. Anecdotally, it's inte
229.
by dasht 17y ago
XML is an extensible framework starting with two main things: a data model (very good) and a text-based surface syntax that is portable across a great many character set encodings. Encoding binary data (as, say, CDATA) and then shipping or
230.
by dasht 17y ago
It's serious. In small snippets, the end tags and "<...>" nonsense actually aids readability, I think. Not that I've done any experiments to test that. In large snippets, those things are a pain for both readability and writability
231.
by dasht 17y ago
Hmm. I'm disappointed to see the article getting voted up but I suppose that fairly reflects a certain amount of widespread frustration with XML. As a standard, XML is actually pretty simple and, in my opinion, well thought out. Alas, fr
232.
by dasht 17y ago
I am a satisfied customer of and recommend Nolo Press. They publish books about "How to start a corporation" that answer questions like yours here, and also guide you through incorporating properly without paying excessive lawyer fees. One
233.
by dasht 17y ago
Why should Gruber pass on "ownership" in the absence of a prospective owner who's work on the project he likes? What "problem" would be solved here other than the problem that Atwood is bad-mouthing Gruber, apparently to force him to pass o
234.
by dasht 17y ago
Atwood's blog post is an example of why I sometimes say that the main point of inventing "open source" was to turn the free software movement into the gratis labor movement. Atwood's account of history here is misleading, judging by the mai
235.
by dasht 17y ago
Public schools are, by design, redistributive. For that matter, the very bestest of the private schools are, by design (these days) redistributive. So, I don't think you can pin this one on misaligned government incentives to public scho
236.
by dasht 17y ago
I live in Berkeley and have tried to puzzle out this particular issue a bit. Here are some things I've learned: * The title is misleading. Science labs will still be offered at BHS only they will take up more hours of regular class room
237.
by dasht 17y ago
A polite way to do it would be for the assistant to say: "Hello, my name is Bob. I'm calling on behalf of Alice who would like to speak with you on the phone. Might you have a moment to speak with Alice now or may we schedule a phone appo
238.
by dasht 17y ago
They are structured as a for-profit LLC. They appear to rent (and also simply lend) storage space and studio space and equipment as well as host events. They appear to have bootstrapped through a mix of self-funding, grants for the arts,
239.
by dasht 17y ago
Hi! I went through stuff that sounds awfully similar. I "dropped out" in a very similar way. I had similarly difficult dealings with relatives, etc. I have roughly 20 years on you so on the one hand, my advice might not apply because I'
240.
by dasht 17y ago
re: "I am perplexed why this kind of information is not classified." I speculate that it is mis-information: half-truths. What is described is an incredibly involved maze launch procedures and potential elaborate security violations leading

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