dwc

52 ms·

451.
by dwc 15y ago
I've had almost identical conversations with my child in the past, which is not surprising since we do not have cable or an antenna. Who would easily accept the broadcast model who was not brought up with it? Perhaps more interesting is my
452.
by dwc 15y ago
If I can and have built good or even excellent software in language X and then run into people telling me that X stinks then it's quite easy to find myself defending it. Not on the basis that it's a perfect language, but that it's a workabl
453.
by dwc 15y ago
The real trick is predicting which ones will really stay productive over the long term. Just buying a broad index is often not a winning strategy when you factor in the taxes, inflation, and survivor bias. Certainly Buffet hasn't just boug
454.
by dwc 15y ago
I don't mean to say that you shouldn't find and use plugins, because there are some really great ones that answer real needs. But it seems that a lot of people new to vim get distracted by plugins, tweaking their config, et al, when they co
455.
by dwc 15y ago
> I never bothered installing plugins and spent all my time instead learning This wisdom should be shared with everyone learning vi/vim, since this leads directly to the largest payoff.
456.
by dwc 15y ago
I agree about deciding what you do and do not want. I think a really simple, no-frills system can actually help there. There's just no way to spend much time "procrastiplanning" without realizing it. As for deciding what you really want, I'
457.
by dwc 15y ago
Branches are a method for organization. I organize papers by putting them in a stack on my desk. If the stack gets too big I throw them in a box, intending to go through them later. But of course I never do. This is obviously a horrible s
458.
by dwc 15y ago
I've noticed that I do not often give feedback to services I use but have little investment in. So any answer from me means I'd be at least a little sad to see it go away.
459.
by dwc 15y ago
To those recommending headphones, I find headphones/earbuds uncomfortable, and listening to music distracting. But more to the point, think of what you're really saying: a disruptive, unproductive work environment is my problem. The idea
460.
by dwc 15y ago
> That's what tooling is for. I disagree. Essentially requiring tools for a supposedly human-readable markup nullifies the whole human-readable aspect. Tools such as equation editors can be a great boon, but those can be had without giv
461.
by dwc 15y ago
> PS: MathML seems to get little attention, why is it so? MathML is hard to write and harder to read. The only time I pay any attention to MathML is when sites do not have TeX as an option. Others may feel differently, but this is my re
462.
by dwc 15y ago
There's a bit of comflation (implied, not stated) in pg's article of brightness, and willingness to listen and then research and follow through. There's no need to instantly grasp the implications. The thing is, if someone only hears you
463.
by dwc 15y ago
Another reason to focus on goals rather than obstacles is that it's the goal that matters, and there will be more than one way to get there. Obstacles on a given path may be unsolvable no matter your focus or perserverance, and the only way
464.
by dwc 15y ago
The missing meta lessons: don't fall for overly simple characterizations, and don't be a language bigot. "C is Efficient" is largely true, but it's certainly not always true, and there are problem domains where it's seldom true. If you don'
465.
by dwc 15y ago
If you find this interesting, you might like Pandoc (see http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/try ). That's a "try it online" page, not quite meant for online authoring but could be made to be. Also available as a standalone utility app and a
466.
by dwc 15y ago
I think that few people are actually aware of this as an idiom. Rather, many people are aware of just a few special cases, but have not considered this in the more general form. All the examples of various languages providing this for open
467.
by dwc 15y ago
As Knuth was given his task, McIlroy was given his own which he performed well. I disagree that code reuse only works in rare instances. Rather, code reuse works better in small focused pieces than in large chunks. Utilities such as "sort"
468.
by dwc 15y ago
> we're talking about "how to make really good passwords". I feel like this has been answered But that's not what we're talking about. As you say, that's been answered. But in the real world the answer doesn't work well, and whether or
469.
by dwc 15y ago
This is exactly correct. It is usual in other areas such as constitutional law for organizations and groups to devote themselves to either legal xor moral obligations. The US's ACLU seldom condemns the reprehensible acts of some of its clie
470.
by dwc 15y ago
There are two parts to these attitudes, and the largest problem is that people in the USA often conflate them. One part is satisfaction (and yes, pride) in real invention, innovation and achievement. I have no issue with this part. People i
471.
by dwc 15y ago
You are not completely alone in this. And there's also the statement right alongside that equates the difficulty level with working late. One problem is that the term "programmer" covers such a wide range, from "code monkey" through "busine
472.
by dwc 15y ago
> To clarify, by "better" I mean such that actually get you building and making things, rather than what to me at least boils down to playing with a toy. To me, this is one of the attitudes that relegates robotics to the background. Tin
473.
by dwc 15y ago
In my experience, most people who think they don't have an itch to scratch are so used to living with their itches that they think that's just the way things are. Realizing that every time you are frustrated in any way represents an opportu
474.
by dwc 15y ago
I'm with you on this, and I'm currently working on an actual NASA project.
475.
by dwc 15y ago
Years of advancement or years of wandering aimlessly? It depends on the coders, of course. More often than not I've seen exceptions used for non-exceptional errors: normal errors best handled immediately by the code that triggered it. The u
476.
by dwc 15y ago
Given only what you've written above, I'd recommend the Software Engineering general survey. All of the things you've listed under that are useful and needed, and you should at least get some familiarity with all of them as a budding entrep
477.
by dwc 15y ago
I'm responding here, because all the responses to this so far qualify and I don't want to single one out. I'd like to address them all. I'd like to point out that chunky and heavy v. thin and light is not all about looking cool. A better co
478.
by dwc 15y ago
I recently left Facebook and I am acutely aware of the social cost. I had some idea what the cost would be before I left, and I have found it well worth it. Also, I think the author overstates the amount of event organization going on with
479.
by dwc 15y ago
Too many times I have stopped making something because well-heeled competitors showed up before I launched, only to see someone else come in later and eat their lunch. Maybe it could have been me eating their lunch, but now I will never k
480.
by dwc 15y ago
Put it in bottles, charge a lot of money, and label it "Egawes"

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