etfb

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241.
by etfb 14y ago
I can understand where you're coming from, but I think you lack empathy and experience. If you like, send me a copy of every piece of creative work you've ever produced -- songs, poems, articles, computer programs, graphics, whatever -- an
242.
by etfb 14y ago
Did the commenter named julianpenrod get confused about causality (the article said "the weak version would follow if the strong were true"; he replied that it is "not correct in stating that, if the weak conjecture is proved, then the stro
243.
by etfb 14y ago
"Stallman, conocido por sus excentricidades..." The wonderful thing about having a smattering of French and Latin is that I can recognise "damned with faint praise" even in a language I don't know. (Hint for the mono-lingual: http://transl
244.
by etfb 14y ago
"Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein."
245.
by etfb 14y ago
Even for JavaScript, that's an accessibility nightmare. Horrible!
246.
by etfb 14y ago
Never mind the length; that name is bad because of the rhythm. Consider the current big players. Facebook, Google, Apple: all trochees (two syllables; stress on the first syllable). Microsoft, Oracle: dactyls (three syllables, stress on
247.
by etfb 14y ago
I'm perversely glad that I never finished my degree and don't have the specific kind of skills that would make Google call me in for an interview. Everything I read about the interview process there fills me with a nameless dread. Come to
248.
by etfb 14y ago
I think it probably is true, but there's not enough evidence either way to allow that to be a factor.
249.
by etfb 14y ago
I would rather say they dismiss it as dangerous overall. Religion is many things, and some of the things are good: it provides community, a sense of perspective above the rat race, and an answer to the questions that don't really have an
250.
by etfb 14y ago
Is it insanely laggy because it's being Slashdotted/Reddited/Hackernewsed, or is it just the godawful Tasmanian internet again?
251.
by etfb 14y ago
I'm disappointed that the designer of this language has limited himself to just the semicolon (";", U+003B) and the reversed semicolon ("⁏", U+204F). What about the Arabic semicolon ("؛", U+061B) and the Greek question mark (";", U+037E)?
252.
by etfb 15y ago
If I'd answered this a couple of months ago, I'd have had to say 20+ years. But it was late January or early February 1982 when my parents bought a Commodore CBM-8032 "business machine" with an 8050 dual 5¼" disk drive and a daisy wheel pr
253.
by etfb 15y ago
Welcome to Nymwars. There's a reason Google+ has earned itself nothing but contempt from many quarters. Come back to Facebook; as long as you keep clicking their ads, they don't care what you call yourself.
254.
by etfb 15y ago
I suspect that if thirteen months isn't sufficiently patient, then there is no such thing as sufficiently patient.
255.
by etfb 15y ago
PPK is usually such a polite lad, so it's all the more effective when he really goes off. This is how bad customers should be outed, in public. Bravo!
256.
Never ever do business with Samsung India Software Operations(quirksmode.org)
157 points by etfb 15y ago|54 comments
257.
by etfb 15y ago
I recall an article, possibly in one of the April (spoof) editions of Computer Language magazine, outlining a method of adding GOTO to Forth. Probably considerably easier in principle - a buffer containing unresolved jumps, a support funct
258.
by etfb 15y ago
Must be an American thing, I guess. Is EFTPOS (ie debit card) less common in the US than in Australia? Seems odd to provide a credit card service by itself. People don't pay for coffee and things on credit, do they?
259.
by etfb 15y ago
Damn - something's wrong with Google Translate. Usually it pops up at the top of foreign language websites. "Oh stewardess - I speak Jive!" "Oh good."
260.
by etfb 15y ago
The Australian system is quite functional and, unlike the USA, we still have a functioning economy. Granted it mainly comes from digging up bits of the country and selling it cheap to China, but it's not all bad news. The USA could do wit
261.
by etfb 15y ago
Idealism is like sex: everyone can enjoy it in private, but you shouldn't do it in public unless it's your whole reason for existing. From this we deduce that Richard Stallman is really Ron Jeremy.
262.
by etfb 15y ago
I have my own version of this, if you prefer your short stories sung to the tune of old country songs... http://flurf.net/batpage/TerryBissonMeetsAnOldCowpoke
263.
by etfb 15y ago
I think the heading is wrong. Should be "Sixteen Concerned Physicists, Administrators, Politicians and a Couple of Ex-Climatologists: No Need to Blame Us For Obama Getting Re-Elected"
264.
by etfb 15y ago
Quite right. That earlier rant about the moral superiority of piracy was just embarrassing. Nobody who produces anything of value needs to be told that they should be giving it away for free. They can choose to give it away, but being req
265.
by etfb 15y ago
That metaphor is wrong in an intriguing and illustrative way. The problem with drugs is that they're illegal, so criminals have a monopoly. If they were legal, that part of the problem would largely disappear. Granted, it would be replac
266.
by etfb 15y ago
The bit about Emacs being updated so often that it's hard to keep up with its features confirms that it wasn't a version that RMS had anything to do with...
267.
by etfb 15y ago
That's excellent. Thank you! As they say on Reddit, have an upboat! (Do they still say that on Reddit? No? Oh, never mind then.)
268.
by etfb 15y ago
The definition of a mixed blessing: your mother-in-law driving off a cliff in your new Porsche. No, scratch that. I quite like my mother-in-law, and I wouldn't own a Porsche in a pink fit. Revised version: The definition of a mixed blessi
269.
by etfb 15y ago
Someone posted the question on StackOverflow and it got closed as "not constructive". Is there a way to browse the "not constructive" questions on SO? They seem to be all the best ones.
270.
by etfb 15y ago
Makes sense, but it's insane. More general answers are more generally useful than specific ones, by definition.

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