robertskmiles

20 ms·

121.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
I think any place wheelchair-accessible is robot-accessible, and that's a standard we should be working towards. As for navigation, it needn't be too tricky. Something as simple as putting up navigational QR codes would help a lot.
122.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
Many supermarkets offer this functionality, but the products are collected by humans. It would be tricky to implement a robotic system that you could maintain and operate for less than minimum wage. There's also the additional problem of wh
123.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
The part that really interested me was the process by which a robot orders a sandwich and pays for it. Unfortunately, the video fast-forwards through that bit. The way the cashier looks at the cameraman suggests that there was some human as
124.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
It seems to me that this article is pretty clueless The part about the relationship between price and sales shows a total obliviousness to basic economics > A 99 cent book may bring authors a lot more money than $9.99 one. > ...
125.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
There's a great deal of power in '.', which repeats the last command. So if you have to do something 12 times, your steps could look something like this; - Run the command once - Think "Hmm, looks like I have to do this about ten more times
126.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
No employee should ever ask for a password. The way is see it is that it's not a matter of corruption, or people eavesdropping on the connection (what a targeted attack that would be, targeting a specific, short, rarely occurring chat ses
127.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
I was the same (well it wasn't BASIC, I was 8 in 1998). Programming is fun, and I never considered it work, but I don't think you and I were typical 8 year olds. Not sure if general problem solving is more fun, but you're implying 'progra
128.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
I've experimented with different types of music while working/coding, and noted the following; 1. I am quite a verbal thinker. Anything with lyrics seriously damages my ability to think verbally about a problem. 2. Music that is too slow or
129.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
But I.T. isn't a real subject, at least not how I was taught it. The mandatory course I took at school was essentially a certificate that says "This person can work the basics of the Microsoft Office software suite". No-one in the class d
130.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
> What we don't need is to teach a specific language. Any language will do. Except BASIC. Anything but BASIC. If I had to pick a language to teach 9-10 year olds, I'd probably go with Python. Of the 'real languages' (by which I mean lan
131.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
The idea of 'rental' of a digital file is very strange to me. Generally rental is cheaper than purchase because at the end of the rental period, you return the thing and it can be lent again. Thus the marginal cost of sale is the cost of pr
132.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
Your argument against rudely asking for citations is perfectly reasonable. Personally, I don't find "[citation needed]" to be particularly rude, but of course tone is difficult to convey in text, especially with a neologism developed in wri
133.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
> Your default assumption about an unknown person seems to be that he or she is not intelligent and doesn't have anything worthwhile to say. My default assumption is that the person is of average intelligence. Jobs is of substantially
134.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
If Steve Jobs made some claim about the history of Apple Computer, I wouldn't ask for a source because he is a source. If he were making a claim about the correlation between attractiveness and success, then yes I'd ask for a source, beca
135.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
That's true, I think that one is particularly impressive because for that reason. Nonetheless if you look at the majority of entries, the main techniques used are things like heavy wizardry with pointers, broken macros, and other preprocess
136.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
> In any conversation, people will wildly touch their pads to get the sources to show off to their discussion partners? Well, in a 1-on-1 conversation, the value of n is 1 , so, consistent with what I said, that would be dumb. In fact
137.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
> we can make sure it's actually a transparent society, instead of just a glass-walled prison. I'm not being flippant, but what do you see as the difference?
138.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
Are you serious? > by saying "citation needed" what you actually say is "I don't really care for your opinion". You're saying "I don't care for your random opinion you could have pulled out of your ass with no correspondence to the real
139.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
I'll repost something I commented a few months ago about the comparison of anonymous and real-name or 'transparent' systems: Ultimately the question is one of freedom vs enforced rules. If you have a system of anonymity or pseudonymity, it'
140.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
It's fun how these are a matter of perspective. Many view the very fact that it's possible to write obfuscated Perl as a weakness in Perl itself, while others see it as a strength. Similarly, the fact that a piece of code can look perfectly
141.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
I've done that, and it's not what you might call seamless. I tried to make the community its own entity, with its own look and feel. The problem is that the pages are full of links that take you back to reddit.com rather than their equivale
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by robertskmiles 15y ago
I hope you encrypt the hell out of that thing.
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by robertskmiles 15y ago
It's good to know that it's not deliberate, I can totally understand that. The thing is, the site's very polished, and it looks finished. There's no real indication on the site that the information provided is less that the amount intende
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by robertskmiles 15y ago
I followed the link at the bottom, and it made me pretty angry. Hashbo is a very neat example of the kind of bullshit I hate in upcoming software products and services. The only information available before asking for signup is this; >
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by robertskmiles 15y ago
It uses a DHT-based distributed system as DNS, so there are no root DNS servers that can be got at by attackers. The DNS database is contained in the nodes themselves.
146.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
Ultimately the question is one of freedom vs enforced rules. If you have a system of anonymity or pseudonymity, it's always possible to identify yourself by a real identity if you want to. Whether this takes the form of 4chan's "photo with
147.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
I'm pretty new to HN; I don't know if there's a PM feature but I don't see one. If you have a reddit account you can PM me there, same username.
148.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
I have an account on joindiaspora.com, but last time I checked (perhaps a month ago, before what you would probably call finals) their login page was broken. The only way I could log in was through the password reset feature, which got old
149.
by robertskmiles 15y ago
What level of pen smoothness does a keyboard correspond to?