paulajohnson

8 ms·

31.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
I don't believe that you can do justice to Snow Crash in just an hour. Its going to be visually great, but with all the complexity and depth stripped out.
32.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
Ramez Naam, for the Nexus trilogy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nexus_Trilogy
33.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
My ghast is totally flabbered!
34.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
On the GUI toolkit issue, I'd recommend combining gtk2hs (which is a thin wrapper around GTK) with Reactive Banana. GTK signals are isomorphic with Banana events and GTK attributes are isomorphic with Banana behaviors. So you can conne
35.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
For those who don't speak Haskell, its worth noting that "<>" is the monoid concatenation operator. The "~>" operator returns a function type "a -> Maybe String". A function type is a monoid if
36.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
The essay describes a 2x2 grid with axes of generality and surprise. Things that are suprising and general are valuable. Things that are general but unsurprising are platitudes, and things that are specific but surprising are gossip. The es
37.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
Its not just about the release of an unfinished novel with lots of rough edges, its our understanding of how the Diskworld evolved in Pterry's mind over the years. TCOM was a simple spoof of swords-and-sorcery epics, but by Going Posta
38.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand this was his wish, but on the other hand I am sure that future generations of pratchettologists will mourn the loss.
39.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
A similar paper: http://alistair.cockburn.us/Characterizing+people+as+non-lin... The book "Peopleware" is also worth reading. Unfortunately it seems that nobody has done any serious anthropology on software produc
40.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
concept of блат Can you explain that?
41.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
To answer that you need a way of equating money with "utility" (i.e. the use and/or pleasure that people get from their money). I believe that utility is logarithmic with rate of expenditure. Hence doubling your spending rate
42.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
One of Terry Pratchett's characters, an old shepherdess, summed it up well. From memory: "We are as gods to the beasts of the field: we order the hour of their birth and their death. In between times, we has a duty."
43.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
I'm not a doctor, but it sounds to me like you may be suffering from clinical depression. You should talk to your doctor about this urgently.
44.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
I can imagine an app for managing small amateur sports teams, Little Leagues etc. Club secretaries take a lot of time on this work and its pretty thankless, plus they have a modest budget, so something that charges a $50 a year to host your
45.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
They might consider it a lie if you represented it as a password, and arrest you for it.
46.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
Lying to them is a serious criminal offense carrying (IIRC) up to 5 years in prison. Even a harmless fib counts.
47.
by paulajohnson 9y ago
The Rats of NIMH? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Frisby_and_the_Rats_of_NI...
48.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
I doubt they learned anything in prison; this is stuff they knew when they came in. Don't assume that everyone in prison is some kind of illiterate moron.
49.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
Right. You can learn a lot of Javascript by breaking up old computers. This isn't an "education", its just slave labour.
50.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
Also Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", which has a similar theme.
51.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
The article makes it pretty clear that this was "hack" in the criminal sense. The nature of the forum is a question of fact, and it sounds like the prosecution will have no difficulty in showing that lawbreaking was a major topic
52.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
I don't think you would need an actual criminal case. "Chilling effects" (i.e. people can't find out the law, and hence might refrain from lawful behavior) would seem to be sufficient.
53.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
I would have thought that this could be challenged under the 14th Amendment ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_Process_Clause ). "Due process" must surely include being able to find out what laws might apply t
54.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
The Nordic states are about 5M people each, and they routinely top the score cards for general wellbeing. Some people (who?) have suggested that 5M might be an optimal number.
55.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
Much of the work of the EU is done by the European Commission, which consists of one senior appointee from each member state. On one hand this is clearly not particularly democratic, but on the other hand it gives the member governments an
56.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
The drain in brains goes mainly west in planes.
57.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
There is a reason why the things we read in magazines and newspapers are called "stories".
58.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
Yes, provided you are prepared to pay for one, know why you should want one in the first place, can put up with the increased latency, and are competent enough to set up your computer to use it. Most people are some combination of aren&#x2
59.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
I was under the impression that filing baseless lawsuits was a tort. Furthermore attorneys are required to make a good-faith investigation of their client's case and refuse to take part in frivolous lawsuits. This may be a pretty low b
60.
by paulajohnson 10y ago
> The more we realize we are responsible for our own well being, take responsibility [...] How, exactly, am I supposed to "take responsibility" for spotting someone with a hidden bomb when I get on an airplane?

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