jfischer

8 ms·

31.
by jfischer 17y ago
They say "Texas nonprofit corporation". Does that imply 501c3? They certainly could do a better job at organizing the information on their site.
32.
by jfischer 17y ago
I find this interesting not so much because of the budgeting features but because you don't have to give your personal info to the charities. I don't like giving to a charity and then finding myself on their mailing lists for the next 5 yea
33.
by jfischer 17y ago
Good discussion on the business models for newspapers and books. He explains why novelists will get squeezed by the ebook distributors (e.g. Amazon). Charles doesn't have a solution. Perhaps novelists should sell their stuff to the distribu
34.
The monetization paradox (or why Google is not my friend) (Charles Stross)(antipope.org)
92 points by jfischer 17y ago|31 comments
35.
by jfischer 17y ago
I'm not convinced. Google is talking about shutting down google.cn, not blocking google.com from the Chinese internet. I've used google services from China without any issues. Also, the local market in China is much more Windows-focused tha
36.
by jfischer 17y ago
I'm all for taking the high ground, but I highly doubt this will change the Chinese government's behavior. Google doesn't have such a huge market share in China and leaving will only help local competition (e.g. Baidu) that can be more easi
37.
by jfischer 17y ago
Beyond training in programming , scientists creating production code need training in software engineering . The folks over at Software Carpentry ( http://software-carpentry.org/ ) seem to have the right idea. Just as important, like othe
38.
by jfischer 17y ago
The Economist recently had a article about the scientific basis of the "only white wine with seafood rule": http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?... . Apparently, the key factor is the level of iron in the wine -- to
39.
by jfischer 17y ago
I think you are taking these quotes out of context. Charles Stross ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stross ) is a writer and the books he is linking to are written by him. He uses the affiliate fees (maybe $250 a year) to help defray
40.
by jfischer 17y ago
My experience was in the University of California system. I certainly would have preferred that they either declined it immediately or paid for the full application. It may be that they don't have much experience in software. Also, software
41.
by jfischer 17y ago
A few years back, my advisor and I went through the process of applying for a patent for some of our reseach, via our university's IP office. They would only pay for the provisional patent -- we would have to come up with any funding for a
42.
by jfischer 17y ago
They tend to do that in a more subtle way: Bombardier Transportation announced today that its Chinese joint venture , Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd., has been selected by the Chinese Ministry of Railways ... I imagine that
43.
by jfischer 17y ago
Anyone have experience using this? Certainly the pricing is attractive, but I'm also concerned about quality and stability. I've used Adobe ConnectNow for several meetings, but found it to be very flaky. At this point, I would not trust Con
44.
by jfischer 17y ago
Best quote: Last week Control Data ... announced the 6600 system. I understand that in the laboratory developing the system there are only 34 people including the janitor. Of these, 14 are engineers and 4 are programmers ... Contrasting th
45.
by jfischer 17y ago
Thanks -- I really enjoyed that article. I could relate to the line "I felt like I'd stepped off a cliff and I didn't know if the parachute was going to open. Nobody wants to waste their life..." The discussion about the importance of a sup
46.
by jfischer 17y ago
You are welcome. Actually, the inclusion of your processing module in 2.6/3.0 is an excellent example of a non-core developer getting code into the Python distribution. Your blog postings on the process (especially http://jessenoller.com/2
47.
by jfischer 17y ago
Does Zed realize that Guido's response was a joke? http://blip.tv/file/1931026 On a more serious note, I think that high bar to getting things into python is a good thing. What if Zed's changes were accepted, as is, into the Python codeba
48.
by jfischer 18y ago
> A good boss gives you fair warning so you don't have to implement/sign the PIP. Having been a manager before, I agree with that 100%. As a manager, you have a big impact on people's lives. This is particularly true in a recession, whe
49.
by jfischer 18y ago
This and the two linked articles really changed my perceptions about airline disasters. People tend to think that the safety lecture at the beginning of a flight is pointless, as you can't survive anyway. However, the article states that 80
50.
by jfischer 18y ago
I don't get what the difference is between "machine learning" and plain-old constraint solving. From looking at the abstract of his paper, he's solving an NP-Complete problem using a new approximation algorithm. So, the real contributions o
51.
by jfischer 18y ago
I agree that the ROI of the investment is more important than the idea that someone should be punished for passing on a cheaper acquisition - that doesn't take into account the higher risk of the $20m purchase. That being said, I'm not so s
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by jfischer 18y ago
I agree with your assessment of their website, but the paper itself looks really interesting. The author also mentions a paper that he liked from the same conference: "PS: I would also like to mention another deserving paper from PLDI 19
53.
by jfischer 18y ago
There is a clone for X-windows called "Wily" ( http://www.cse.yorku.ca/~oz/wily/ ). I'm not sure if it is still actively developed -- the website hasn't changed much since the 90's. I used it for a while as my editor in the mid-90's. I like
54.
by jfischer 18y ago
You might help out with a project like OpenMRS ( http://openmrs.org/wiki/OpenMRS ). This is an open source medical records application used in several African countries, primarily for HIV/AIDS care.