jgw

15 ms·

91.
by jgw 15y ago
This has been bugging me for a while, too. Jobs is given (and quite frankly, claimed) credit for far more than he deserves. The sad part about that is that it actually detracts from the many tremendously significant contributions things h
92.
by jgw 15y ago
Indeed. I liked the bit where my browser did a lookup on "track.lifehacker.com".
93.
by jgw 15y ago
Quantum computing is here! No, wait, it's over there! One thing is for sure - we're uncertain where quantum computing is right now. (yes, bad joke. It seems to work on a couple of different levels, though)
94.
by jgw 15y ago
I've never been asked that in an interview - and I've been through a few in my time - but I'd probably say something like, "I'm not the kind of person who could be bothered to come up with pat answers to goofy questions".
95.
by jgw 15y ago
I meant my laptop is physically about to fall apart - the screen doesn't stand up on its own any more, and needs to be propped up with some hefty tomes from my undergraduate days. I'm not able to upgrade it, really, either. I stuck an ext
96.
by jgw 15y ago
I see what you're saying - in fact, I just switched my usual hardware store from a big Home Depot to a local Home Hardware (a somewhat smaller, Canadian chain), partly because of that personal relationship you're alluding to. I think, thoug
97.
by jgw 15y ago
Yes, you're right - I concede your point. "They effectively disclosed to her father that she was pregnant"
98.
by jgw 15y ago
I don't see how buying something is "publishing data". I'm sure most people realize that their purchasing habits are being "collected", but I don't think people expect that that information is going to be casually leaked to people around yo
99.
by jgw 15y ago
They effectively did, because step 2 was really: "2. Based on girl's purchases, company sends flyers - not private mail - addressed to girl by name, advertising specific types of products directly to her." That her father didn't immediately
100.
by jgw 15y ago
Surprising that they mine data? No. Surprising that they mine data, and act on potentially sensitive information? Somewhat. Worrisome that they effectively took it upon themselves to disclose to her father that she was pregnant? I find it
101.
by jgw 15y ago
As a Canadian, I was very surprised when I did a coop term in 1997 in Mississippi, at how grocery stores had discount cards. We didn't have them up here at the time. Because it was only a 5% discount, and I didn't buy much as a starving st
102.
by jgw 15y ago
Indeed - I've heard it argued that the real reason that VHS won out over the technically superior Betamax format, was that Sony refused to license the Betamax technology to adult video vendors. Never dug into it, but it seems plausible.
103.
by jgw 15y ago
Cool analogy. Makes a great reference point. As an ASIC guy, I like to occasionally casually mention to software guys that at 3GHz, light travels about four inches in one clock cycle, and it frequently really blows their minds.
104.
by jgw 15y ago
So that one may build and seed Shakespearean insult servers. http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/
105.
by jgw 15y ago
I think this is the natural result of "programming" or "IT" being perceived as a comparatively lucrative career. I believe it happened in North America, too, just not quite to the same degree. I first had access to a computer (an Osborne 1)
106.
by jgw 15y ago
I'm rather off-topic, but your monitor resolution comment made me smile. I'm currently trying to squeeze the last dying days out of my 15.4" Dell Latitude D810 with its expansive 1920x1200 native res. It's a 7 year old machine, but I can't
107.
by jgw 15y ago
Interesting, but we have 2 variables here. How do older men with only sons, and older childless men stack up? To what do you attribute the difference - maturity, or having a daughter?
108.
by jgw 15y ago
"There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things." -- Phil Karlton Out of curiosity, where does this come from? And why, having never read this quote before, have I seen it three times in as many da
109.
by jgw 15y ago
Seems like a timely opportunity to watch "Startup.com" again. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who has not seen it before - it is an up-close documentary of a "dot-com 1.0" hopeful, from the night the CEO-to-be walks out of his job at Gol
110.
by jgw 15y ago
I'm a dodgy mathematician at best, but doesn't the simple elegance of Euler's formula suggest that π is beyond merely "relevant" and indeed one of a handful of the most fundamental building blocks of the universe?
111.
by jgw 15y ago
[EDIT] Cont'd: Also, do folks around here actually "+1" and "Like" stuff on the web? It seems to me like the people who actually click on ads are not likely to be the kinds of people that advertisers are actually trying to reach.
112.
by jgw 15y ago
Kind of wish there was a flag in the ID string that basically says, "This user is unlikely to click on your ad, ever. Save your advertising dollars". I have "responded" to one GMail ad, ever. It was for tickets for a Pixies show, and I ha
113.
by jgw 15y ago
True enough, but as I mentioned in my long ramble, what I'm talking about here are simulators, which make up just a small part of a design suite. (And Synopsys is larger than either Cadence or Mentor, actually)
114.
by jgw 15y ago
To be clear, I'm specifically talking about Verilog simulators here. The EDA industry produces a wide range of tools for doing simulation, timing analysis, synthesis (converting a design to a gate-level netlist), DFT (automatic insertion o
115.
by jgw 15y ago
The story really deeply affected me, and I think it was an amazingly effective use of the medium. I can't really think of any other way that it could have been presented in any medium that would have established our concern for Alison (by
116.
by jgw 15y ago
That can't really happen. FPGAs are just programmable ASICs. (Also, I'm not sure if you're suggesting that ARM cores are by their nature field-programmable. They're not, they're just IP cores that can be integrated into larger designs).
117.
by jgw 15y ago
ASIC guy here, too. The thing I find most alarming about hardware design is that functional simulation is reaching the end of its useful life because the majority of simulators are single-threaded. We're trying to keep up with Moore, and y
118.
by jgw 15y ago
As someone who thinks "Photopia" is one of the greatest pieces of fiction I've ever read, I got a kick out of this article. Nicely done.
119.
by jgw 15y ago
Quite so. But "s/world/high tech/g" (and maybe "s/smartest/some of the smartest/g") and the broader point still stands, even without the hyperbole: lots and lots of very smart people are channelling their efforts into getting people to clic
120.
by jgw 15y ago
Not sure about that. What Coca Cola actually ships from Atlanta is the syrup, unsweetened. The bottlers add water and sugar to this, and AFAIK [1], it is up to their discretion what type of sugar to use. This is one of the reasons that Cok

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