dbingham

83 ms·

751.
by dbingham 16y ago
It's not just Google who is evil. They're just getting called out on it, because they've pledged not to be evil. It's rather expected of other corporations because we expect them to operate with out morals in search of maximum profit. But
752.
by dbingham 16y ago
Google's generally done well at not being evil. This, however, is being evil. I don't care if everyone does it. By skimping on paying their taxes, Google and other corporations the world over are forcing people to cut education budgets,
753.
by dbingham 16y ago
Iteration Underway (iterationunderway.net is available) I like the idea a lot. It would be interesting to see how startup homepages evolve over time. It would also be interesting, where possible, to see other pages. For web applications
754.
by dbingham 16y ago
It's an interesting use of Twitter, made more effective by the new Twitter. But it's no substitute for a real website. Frankly it feels rather gimmicky to me.
755.
by dbingham 16y ago
Yes. I've often wished there was something like this! Not just at the city level, but county, state, and national. I would do this in a heart beat -- is, if I weren't rather busy already. I may still apply, from half-way across the worl
756.
by dbingham 16y ago
Just off the top of my head - putting a link next to each feature is cumbersome and messes with my design. Is there a better way? Maybe work it into good error catching system. Provide a way to have the report a problem thing show up on
757.
by dbingham 16y ago
You're much too focused on allowing people to 'use google as usual' and I dislike having to hit the back button to access other engines. I also dislike that I get that popup notice telling me about hitting the back button long before I get
758.
by dbingham 16y ago
They aren't hiding anything, they were combining three monocolor photographs into a color composite, but had to account for the time difference and the motion of the two planets. They posted the raw photos, there's nothing in them. People
759.
by dbingham 16y ago
Those were just example problems. A way to represent a class of problem. The real problem might not even be that Americans need a healthier lifestyle, it might be that it's really difficult to live that healthier lifestyle in the face of
760.
by dbingham 16y ago
I think doing odd things that push the boundaries of a language is a great way to become a great programmer, but isn't something to try when you are just learning your first language. That's someone you do once you understand where those
761.
by dbingham 16y ago
Python's a good language, but it's a soft-typed interpreted language. Which means it will let you get away with certain things. It is also has some differences in syntax from a lot of other languages that might give you some trouble when y
762.
by dbingham 16y ago
The author of this article has clearly never been a teacher. The teacher has, on average 5 hours a day in the classroom. The really bad ones, however, will put in another 3 hours a day in prep work, grading, staying up to date on their to
763.
by dbingham 16y ago
The only way to learn how to program is to just do it. Pick a language. Start with small programs. Learn the features and syntax of the language. When you feel you know the language well enough to write a program that uses most of its f
764.
by dbingham 16y ago
It's strange, given everything you hear about Al-Jazeera back in the states, but their English language service is the best news I've ever gotten short of NPR's All Things Considered or the PBS New Hour. I was never even exposed to it until
765.
by dbingham 16y ago
The author misses the point of Gladwell's piece completely. "He’s wrong. Facebook does motivate people to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do -– like donate to the Save the Darfur coalition via a Facebook page." He agrees with the post a
766.
by dbingham 16y ago
About time. Wonder why it took them this long? Fuel supply caravans have been a weak point since the internal combustion engine became important to warfare!
767.
by dbingham 16y ago
You're just getting old. I'm pleased to say that geekdom is not aging with you as you posit in this article. I know people who are doing all of the above and more. But the real pioneers aren't doing any of those things. They're doing thi
768.
by dbingham 16y ago
I know we like to keep Hacker News non-political, but I can't help this. Get a load of Fox. Could they be any more blatant? I mean, seriously! Compare their five most shared headlines with all the other news sites. You read those and
769.
by dbingham 16y ago
I don't know if I agree with his assertion that Firefox users are jumping to Chrome and IE users are jumping to to Firefox. Google does some pretty aggressive advertising for Chrome. I think the average IE user is more likely to discover
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by dbingham 16y ago
A quick google search yielded this list of open source projects written in Python: http://pythonsource.com/ I have no idea what size any of them are, and whether or not they are looking for contributors. More important than either of thos
771.
by dbingham 16y ago
They do and always have. But the problem with them giving a damn is that they have a certain type of user in mind. And to give a good user experience to that user, they need the control. If you happen to be the type of user who wants maxi
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by dbingham 16y ago
Right, I know all that. What we're waiting to see is whether or not that's really what Google is up to. I strongly suspect that the poster has it right in thinking that this is what Google is doing. Like I've said, they've done a pretty
773.
by dbingham 16y ago
Probably something to do with the whole "don't be evil" thing. Google has always done a pretty good job of that. Sometimes doing the right thing isn't the same as doing the thing that's best for business. In fact, REALLY OFTEN doing the
774.
by dbingham 16y ago
I'm not sure what to make of this. So far Google has largely succeeded at not being evil - as much as any large corporation can, really. Google's stated reason and the posters logic holds up to the test of possibility. And it would seem
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by dbingham 16y ago
Whatever you do, steer clear of Acer. I made the mistake of buying my laptop off of NewEgg, which I'd always trusted when buying desktop parts. I bought the top rated laptop from them that fit my specs. An Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T. Si
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by dbingham 16y ago
It can be used for just about anything except maybe low-level operating system stuff. "What should it be used for?" is a different question and depends at least somewhat on your preferences. I go to Java when I want a desktop applicatio
777.
by dbingham 16y ago
It depends on my mood and the day. Sometimes I need silence to focus. Other times I want driving hard rock to get my blood pumping. Sometimes I like traditional Irish fiddling and ballads. Other times pop-rock or folk. Really it varies
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by dbingham 16y ago
That is pretty seriously evil. Although, with a little modification it could be made less evil. Such as if they started all auctions at .0001 the normal price of the item. And if they had enough users, so that any one user only bid a cou
779.
by dbingham 16y ago
It says it right here: "Synaptic pruning and other mechanisms for synaptic plasticity allow for learning and memory, but they are energetically costly. Indeed, one hypothesis holds that sleep is the price we have to pay for plasticity the p
780.
by dbingham 16y ago
I think the article was talking specifically about humans, and not other species. In that case, there's a baseline of sleep required for a human. Need more than that? You're a generalist. Need less? You're a specialist. When you go bri

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