ejames

10 ms·

31.
by ejames 15y ago
I always enjoy (from an intellectual perspective) seeing two translations of the same thing... When I compare your rewrite to mine, I notice that I semi-unconsciously had Matz and Keiju writing some lines as full sentences with correct Engl
32.
by ejames 15y ago
Something like this, plus or minus English chat-slang: (EDIT: dangit, I forgot that HN chops up linebreaks. hold on) (DOUBLE-EDIT: Text file from my Dropbox: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9485376/chattranslation.txt )
33.
by ejames 15y ago
A link to the original (scroll down a bit): http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-dev/5... I might try my hand at a translation with better flow... although, remember, the original is a chat log. Chat logs read in retros
34.
by ejames 15y ago
I think this is also the best way to understand the results of editing wars and the like. A requirement for consensus is incompatible with individual rights, since people have the right to disagree. For low-interest topics, Wikipedia event
35.
by ejames 15y ago
Because there are storage costs other than the literal cost of maintaining data on a server. Is the data accurate and up-to-date? Are the links still viable? Do the citations check out? etc. It's just like having a project with a huge nu
36.
by ejames 15y ago
The halting problem: Given a program and an input, determine whether that program, given that input, will ever halt, or if it will loop infinitely. One of the fundamentals of academic computer science is learning that it is mathematically i
37.
by ejames 15y ago
In theory, a patent is supposed to be specific enough that the patent itself accurately describes the object, to the extent that a reasonably knowledgeable person could actually manufacture the object using only the patent as a blueprint.
38.
by ejames 15y ago
It tends to work the other way around - a game world is set up, then economists study it. It's difficult to set up a world just for study, because people will not actually join and play unless it's an enjoyable game, and at that point you'
39.
by ejames 15y ago
I find this interesting because TPM's solutions reminds me of the classic UNIX "pipes and filters" strategy - a series of small components with well-defined inputs and outputs that can be strung together to produce a sophisticated result.
40.
by ejames 15y ago
"Isometric" refers to the style of the 3D viewpoint. The x and y axis are presented at a 45° angle, and the camera looks 'down' on the surface diagonally. Escher's work is an example of how an isometric perspective can be manipulated to pr
41.
by ejames 15y ago
There's basically three categories where this problem shows up: grade inflation, cheating, and discipline. Grade inflation is most relevant to colleges, discipline only matters for levels of schooling with mandatory attendance, and cheatin
42.
by ejames 15y ago
I'll have to go back through my reading list to see what I recommend - I've been following education issues to some extent for a long time, long enough that I remember reading better articles but not where I found them. It's a bit much for
43.
by ejames 15y ago
I can't say that I find this particular blog post that interesting. "Teacher applies firm standards, which a spineless administration then undermines" is a well-worn subject if you have spent time reading about education, and this particul
44.
by ejames 16y ago
Since several commenters have been asking for an explanation of honeypots and timestamps, here's a link[1] I happened to run across just recently and a quick explanation. - Honeypots: Add a field to your form that is styled to be invisible
45.
by ejames 16y ago
Ah, but that is human error - the error of the person who used a program in a manner for which it was not intended! They erred in not understanding that the program was written years ago and not intended for that use. Of course, then it i
46.
by ejames 16y ago
Yes, but it's a different and more serious kind of human error. "Someone made a typo" is one kind of human error. It's common and easily corrected. "We are running our servers such that someone can ruin everything by making a typo, and we
47.
by ejames 16y ago
Actually, this is something of a new problem in privacy considerations - broader than the strict "is a GPS device on my car illegal" question. A great deal of what we call "privacy" - in the common English meaning of the word, rather than t
48.
by ejames 16y ago
In that sense, at least, the event is being held by people who understand the hack mindset. I noticed that the puzzle was very easy, and that the "elite hackers" are in fact a recruitment agency, and therefore that the main purpose of the
49.
by ejames 16y ago
It's typical for Microsofties to use IE, search on Bing, etc. simply for dogfooding purposes, but it's not a specific requirement. It does draw some raised eyebrows if you show up at the office with, say, a personal laptop that's a MacBook
50.
by ejames 16y ago
Perhaps the best compromise would be to sell it very cheaply. As a practical matter, a buck or two isn't much of a barrier to people who want to use your software, and if you spread a useful product far and wide, that still benefits humani
51.
by ejames 16y ago
The problem is that your assessment of risks also depends on your valuation of the underlying issues. For the sake of argument, suppose that someone considers a 15% chance of going broke and having to live with their parents to be a "modera
52.
by ejames 16y ago
Advent calendars are known in the U.S. as well, although I can't vouch for how widespread they are.
53.
by ejames 16y ago
It may be irrelevant in the big picture, but I think it's quite relevant and interesting from a psychological point of view that talented individuals sometimes have difficulty judging their own work because, from their perspective, it was e
54.
by ejames 16y ago
> ...but they never asked. That's rather the problem - asking every person who holds the rights can be genuinely difficult. In your case, the original magazine was published years ago. Even if the publisher had kept your contact inform
55.
by ejames 16y ago
What Groupon wants doesn't particularly matter to the situation. Unless Groupon has somehow convinced you to sign a contract promising that you'll never give anyone a better discount than the Groupon, you can handle regular customers howev
56.
by ejames 16y ago
Quitting after you've vested is 100% honorable. It's unethical to fire someone the day before they vest because that makes it clear you did not intend to ever hold up your end of vesting agreement; it means that you entered the agreement i
57.
by ejames 16y ago
Unfortunately, radiation lends itself very well to sensationalism - "Invisible death rays are killing you right now!" That's exactly the kind of thing you would actually, really want to be very afraid of if it were happening, because devel
58.
by ejames 16y ago
Interestingly enough, there's now an Austin-area group that focuses on exactly this theory: Volunteer technology work to bootstrap both startups' products and individuals' careers. You work for free as a way of building social capital. I
59.
by ejames 16y ago
> At the same time I don't know why CNN and other American network report junk. Don't they simply report what American public wants to see and hear? Isn't that a commentary on the quality of American viewers? They are in the business of
60.
by ejames 16y ago
As Microsoft is the only very large corporation I've worked for so far, I'm afraid I can't really make a comparison.

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