hexagonc

20 ms·

151.
by hexagonc 14y ago
Android SDK != Android. Not saying whether this move by Google is good or bad, just pointing out an important difference. You can still fork the Android source code to your heart's content, you just have to write your own toolchain for bu
152.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I think that the Kurzweil skeptics are focusing entirely on the wrong thing when they criticize Kurzweil's technical chops. He isn't being hired as an engineer; he's going to be Director of Engineering. If any of his ideas or proposals ar
153.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I think what you're really saying, in so many words, is that research in important medical treatments, vaccines and drugs shouldn't be left in the hands of drug companies at all. Maybe all basic research should be funded by the public and m
154.
by hexagonc 14y ago
Politicians aren't going to do anything about patent trolls until politicians start getting threatened and/or sued by patent trolls.
155.
by hexagonc 14y ago
Magic tricks are hacking! You are hacking someone's mind, particularly their assumptions and attention. The exploits to human psychology and attention are just as sure as the exploits to crack or unlock a smartphone and many other softw
156.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I'll definitely look up Apollo. I've been interested in mentalism and magic for a long time but only learned one sleight of hand trick which I'm not very good at. Looks like Derren Brown, who is currently my favorite magician, might have s
157.
by hexagonc 14y ago
Spoken like a brat spoiled by an embarrassment of riches. Even if one grants that not much innovative has happened since the iphone was released in 2007, and other comments have already falsified this claim, 2007 really isn't that long a
158.
by hexagonc 14y ago
You say, I don't think I could have picked up all the others so quickly if I didn't have a strong C/C++ foundation. , but I ask you this: was it the C or the C++ foundation that helped you learn the others? I can see how knowing C could e
159.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I think part of the problem with patents for software is precisely the point that has been made again and again -- software is much closer to mathematics than any other type of patent. If you have a large group of people who are smart and
160.
by hexagonc 14y ago
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it! -- Upton Sinclair
161.
by hexagonc 14y ago
But this is not just an ornamental artifact. What it attempts to do is simulate the actual way someone would turn a page in a large book, such as a dictionary, with lots of thin pages. I would argue that the technical way of implementing
162.
by hexagonc 14y ago
One should always be open to the possibility that a pet theory can be falsified, but doubting some form of evolution and the big bang theory is probably irrational at this point. Quite simply, there are no better explanations for the unive
163.
by hexagonc 14y ago
You know, I feel ashamed every time I think this because I know I haven't fully thought it through, but why do we need to share the same country with these bird-brained politicians? I mean, would it really be so bad to let these people sec
164.
by hexagonc 14y ago
My intuition says that they should almost always run at about the same time if you don't know anything about the distribution of guesses. Your algorithm has the advantage that it will find an upper bound for the number much faster than t
165.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I'm not sure what's new here. All the Windows Phones (7+) had a unique user interface. The array of live tiles, the emphasis on a narrow array of primary colors and the lack of UI customization always characterized Windows Phones. Also,
166.
by hexagonc 14y ago
There are no "Android home screens". An Android home screen can look however way you want. People trying to prove that Android copies Apple like to arrange the icons on Android to look like iOS simply because Android allows you to do this
167.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I bought a Livescribe Echo smartpen two years ago and only used it one or two times, including going through the tutorials. It is definitely a very neat technology demo, but my interest was as a developer. I wanted to be able to use the p
168.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I agree that demonstrated competence is what ultimately matters. The problem that I had with your example is that you said "all things being equal. . . ." That implied that the candidates were both technically competent, only one had a de
169.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I agree completely. The truth is that there are simply techniques that have been finely crafted over decades that you are simply unlikely to discover from your own hacking. There are algorithms that are subtle and the product of pure acad
170.
by hexagonc 14y ago
But the average person applying for a particular job who can get in is about equivalent to other people doing the same. But people prefer people with degrees. Therefore, if all else is equal, the average person you hire with a degree is wo
171.
by hexagonc 14y ago
...every few months an exec would trot out and talk about how GOOG/APPL's entire revenue fit inside some small MSFT division's numbers. When was that?
172.
by hexagonc 14y ago
The question isn't whether it's useful to a lot of people or not but rather how can FB make money from all these people? The infrastructure to support almost a billion users costs a lot of money. If FB was a subscription service with such
173.
by hexagonc 14y ago
No, what the article seems to be talking about is almost exactly the opposite of what you are saying. Yes, getting organized and focusing on a problem is a good start but the article is talking about a way to get creative ideas when facing
174.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I think this hack is supported by a recent study ( http://www.nature.com/news/why-great-ideas-come-when-you-are... ) that working on a problem, then doing an unrelated activity that allows your mind to 'wander' can have measurable improveme
175.
by hexagonc 14y ago
This is unlikely, since Microsoft has put a lot of money and marketing behind their own cloud offering, Azure. It also is inconsistent with everything that they are trying to do with Office360.
176.
by hexagonc 14y ago
Um, sir, I have more than a layman's understanding of randomness, thank you very much. This is Hacker News; all kinds of people post here. I'm not even sure what you mean by "random" in this case; we're talking about one event. I didn't s
177.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I don't see how you are drawing this cynical conclusion. I didn't read much self-promotion at all in the article. It doesn't even explain what the device corrects with his vision. The focus of this story was his experience. I know I'd s
178.
by hexagonc 14y ago
But it wasn't a random violent asshole. It was three violent assholes which doesn't seem random to me.
179.
by hexagonc 14y ago
I'm assuming here, as it could be something like one of those pens that you take a note with and records the sound (I forget the name), and it has the ability to share the actual notes. I think you're referring to a Livescribe Smartpen (
180.
by hexagonc 14y ago
It mitigates a little. It should make you a little suspicious if the site suddenly starts complaining that you're accessing it from an unrecognized computer if you really haven't. I'd close the tab in that case.

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