mdkess

15 ms·

91.
by mdkess 14y ago
The heart of the problem is that outside of the US, the software industry just doesn't pay very well. So the people who are interested in tech leave to go to the US, then start companies there, and when these companies are successful, they
92.
by mdkess 14y ago
Nothing hurts more than regret. If you are serious about this, go for it. to test yourself, grab a Calculus book - I recommend Stewart's Calculus - and challenge yourself to work though it at a reasonable, but predetermined pace (say 1 chap
93.
by mdkess 14y ago
Lenovo is awesome, except they seem to pride themselves in having the worst displays on the market. It's downright bizarre.
94.
by mdkess 14y ago
How do you do that objectively though? I mean, consider Apple's bouncing lists patent. When you use it, it's very intuitive, and any moderately skilled software developer could implement it in an afternoon. So it seems obvious, but the ques
95.
by mdkess 14y ago
I really like the idea of "forced benefits" - free meals, paid vacations, devices as "bonuses", etc, since they force you to raise your standard of living. I wouldn't eat out for lunch every day because there are other things that I'd rathe
96.
by mdkess 14y ago
I don't think that's true. They certainly knew about the iPhone before the public did, and so they had a ton of time and money to position themselves for it. Certainly the iPhone was a game changer, but there is absolutely no reason that a
97.
by mdkess 14y ago
I hate RIM because they represent everything that is wrong with the Canadian software scene in my mind. At the same time, they've put Canada on the map for technology, and done a ton of good for the community (the Accelerator Centre, donati
98.
by mdkess 14y ago
When I was in early university, I went through Introduction to Algorithms and chapter by chapter, I implemented nearly every algorithm presented in the book. At the time, I had no idea why I was doing it (fun? ACM practice?), but in hindsig
99.
by mdkess 14y ago
I'm talking about more formalized than that. For example, suppose that we had a model that would typically return double what a drug would (modelling for inflation and opportunity cost), but that the pharmaceutical company was obligated to
100.
by mdkess 14y ago
Another thought would be to give the government the option to purchase drug patents from industry at some fixed multiplier of research costs and profits during the lifespan of the patent. That way if the public thought that it was truly in
101.
by mdkess 14y ago
What will the immediate consequences be, if the injunction actually goes into effect? I have a ton of questions about this, but basically: - Will Samsung/Google just tweak the software to get around the patent, and continue shipping? - Coul
102.
by mdkess 14y ago
It's a question of the trade-offs to achieve that week of battery life. I have an extended battery for my phone which makes the phone bulky, but the battery lasts for nearly two days on a charge. If I were to significantly underclock the CP
103.
by mdkess 14y ago
I feel shame over bugs. Of course, it depends on the nature of the bug, but there are definite moments of deep self reflection, which I think that I internalize as shame. While I reflect and move on, as a professional, I should be making as
104.
by mdkess 14y ago
What is the effect of this ruling, if it is upheld? Will Samsung have to disable this functionality? I imagine that they are not doing that immediately because that seems like an admission of guilt. Will they be able to ship their devices w
105.
by mdkess 14y ago
P/E ratio is a terrible, meaningless way to evaluate the price of a share. It sounds remotely technical, and hey, there are numbers there so I guess people talk about it like it's important. P/E ratio is the ratio between profits to price p
106.
by mdkess 14y ago
I like it. One thought - one of the first things I do is search for GitHub on these pages. I see that your 'programmer' link points to your GitHub account, but you might want to add the keyword there too.
107.
by mdkess 14y ago
What happens to the person at the end of this? Assuming the individual isn't from a wealthy family, that is not a debt that they will be able to pay off over any timeframe. Since this is a fine, I imagine that they will be unable to declare
108.
by mdkess 14y ago
That looks excellent, I really like it. Could you talk a bit about how you did the text rendering? Basically my question is, how do you render nice text?
109.
by mdkess 14y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_Interstellar_Trad...
110.
by mdkess 15y ago
"If you require probable cause for every technique, then you are making it very, very hard for law enforcement" That is a terrifying sentence.
111.
by mdkess 15y ago
On a federal level yes, but many states (including New York and California) have protection against sexual orientation. I'm surprised to learn that political affiliation is not protected.
112.
by mdkess 15y ago
If I ever had someone demand this, I would update my account to show my sexual orientation as homosexual, my religion to Islam, and my political views to whatever the opposite of my boss's were. Then if they ever tried to lay me off, or not
113.
by mdkess 15y ago
Bubble, bubble, trouble, trouble! I love Apple, but is a company that makes cell phones and fancy laptops going to really have a market cap of 10% of the (current value) of the DOW? I don't think so. At this point, investing in a hot stock
114.
by mdkess 15y ago
Has anyone had any success with off shoring development jobs? At a large software company that I worked at, we worked with an Indian team, and I found that they were nothing but trouble. They would miss deadlines (with nothing but reassuran
115.
by mdkess 15y ago
This is decidedly not true. While I wouldn't be so vain as to call myself the top 1% of developers, I've gotten job offers from most major software companies, but one of my criteria for where I accept a job is "do you have fewer than 50 peo
116.
by mdkess 15y ago
In many ways, NYC is an even harder market to compete in, due to the financial industry. If you are a good hacker, hedge funds will offer $150k+/year to start - and if you're able to deal the intensity of it, that'll quickly go up. I know g
117.
by mdkess 15y ago
Wages have gone up a lot since then, I would be very surprised if Fog Creek offered less $90,000 these days - that's about what most software companies offers start at. Heck, I hear that Facebook is offering $100,000 base salary for kids ri
118.
by mdkess 15y ago
?
119.
by mdkess 15y ago
There seems to be a serious fear of change. Should we converge on some adequate solution and stop moving? Regardless of whether Windows 8 has a good user interface or not, it should be judged against the effectiveness of the change, not jus
120.
by mdkess 15y ago
For a long time I've wanted to cut myself off and figure out a natural sleep cycle. Normally (for better or for worse), I sleep 5-6 hours a night during the week, then get 8-9 on the weekends, but that's definitely shaped to the work week.

More ›