sago

89 ms·

781.
by sago 12y ago
> Syntax only guides your eyes. Scanning only allows to locate pieces of interest. But to know what a code does, you have to read it and there is no other way around. You could say "paragraphs and punctuation only guide your eyes, b
782.
by sago 12y ago
I'm a big fan of Lisps. I like the simple syntax. Scheme is my go-to tool for some jobs, particularly metaprogramming. And I use the syntax a lot for DSLs because it is so trivial to parse. But there is something to be said for using s
783.
by sago 12y ago
I care about production too, and acting quality, and setting. All things I feel a bit out of touch for caring about. Audio porn is hot, and often quite a lot more intimate than video porn (if you're not a 100% visual person). And gon
784.
by sago 12y ago
Absolutely. I've been known to break out the breadboard to that end. But soldering irons and arduinos are a level of too much... erm... wires, for what I'm thinking. Not to mention that making it control what you want takes time a
785.
by sago 12y ago
A modular control system, featuring 100% plug and play elements (knobs, sliders, mini-displays, buttons) mountable in a range of simple chassis (19"rack, keyboard size, mini desktop box, mixing-console-size control center) that can be
786.
by sago 12y ago
I'd like to think your points are unnecessarily and viciously cynical. I'd like to think that, but actually I suspect you are dead right.
787.
by sago 12y ago
Right. The article talks about this. 'Top' universities are filters for high degrees of talent or money. It is not their value-add then, which makes their graduates employable, it is their pickiness choosing with students to allow
788.
by sago 12y ago
Right, but I think the problem is the entangling of the two issues I mentioned.
789.
by sago 12y ago
Right. I partially agree. Which is why separate certification hasn't succeeded yet. It is, I'd suggest, an area ripe for disruption. Where I disagree is the tacit implication that, therefore university education is somehow better
790.
by sago 12y ago
Aren't you just defining competency in a very narrow way to move the goalposts? If the goal is that students show competency in adapting to changing requirements, and mastering information literacy, then that is the required competency
791.
by sago 12y ago
The same kind of thing happens in other countries, including the US. There are authorities which accredit universities as providing suitable standards of education to award a degree. That wasn't what I was getting at, no. It prevents d
792.
by sago 12y ago
I think the problem is fundamentally that two separate concerns are entangled: education, and certification. The certification is what you need. But to get it, the university can require you to purchase a whole bunch of very expensive educa
793.
by sago 12y ago
I'm not an information scientist, so this maybe a lay understanding, but as I understand it there is a limit to how much you could theoretically compress any piece of content without losing information. So take that 4.7 bits per charac
794.
by sago 12y ago
Wow, tell me more about me, please. I think your post begged the queston. Do you know what I mean by that? I think it assumed the things you wanted it to show. Namely nor is the greatness of a program measured by its number of lines or mem
795.
by sago 12y ago
Except that my original analogy has a lot of upvotes. But it is common enough to assume that the rest of the world agrees with you, when you think someone is wrong. If, instead of trying the pissing contest, you could actually try to figu
796.
by sago 12y ago
I wasn't trying to be. I wasn't saying "yeah, but 'entire point' strictly means... fnar fnar". I was responding to a point above that seemed to imply that code like this can't be considered great (or at
797.
by sago 12y ago
I do want to second the sentiment that a visit to Bletchley Park is a very good use of an afternoon!
798.
by sago 12y ago
please understand how weird it must be for me to watch someone be so dedicated to being wrong I sympathise, I'm having very much the same experience.
799.
by sago 12y ago
Not seeing where you're arguing that the entire-point of computers is to do tedious calculations. That the first computers were used that way, I don't doubt. But not the same thing, I'd say. The first cars were horseless ca
800.
by sago 12y ago
He meant the "movie budget" could be arbitrary chosen to satisfy the "feat under huge constraints". Right, which is exactly why that isn't a good analogy to something where the budget was fixed, and the 'grea
801.
by sago 12y ago
There are 4.7 bits per character for Latin text, which means the comment would have 853 bytes of uncompressed information. Estimates of information density for English are as low as 1.5 bits per character, giving 272 bytes in that comment.
802.
by sago 12y ago
The entire point of computers is to be able to do work that would be too tedious for humans. Really? News to me. Like the entire point of cars is to take you on journeys that would be too tedious to walk?
803.
by sago 12y ago
Nope sorry. Do you see why your explanation is poor?
804.
by sago 12y ago
Which is exactly why it isn't a good analogy. The amount wasn't arbitrary, it was the memory of the computer. There wasn't more to it being the 'greatest program' than the fact that it was created. There's no a
805.
by sago 12y ago
There's a rather ahistoric perspective at work here. I wonder if there's a generational thing. ZX81 chess was so impressive because it was impossible (at least, I'd have bet real money on it). It was the thing programmers nam
806.
by sago 12y ago
Why? Seems like a much poorer analogy to me, since it is trivial to make a movie for much less than that. It falls into the same trap as the commenter above, the 'greatness' is due to the quality of the program, rather than just m
807.
by sago 12y ago
Well, this is the site where, in an article about "the 36 questions it takes to fall in love" someone suggested building a bot so you could go through the questions on your own.
808.
by sago 12y ago
This reply is exactly what I love about HN. I'd like to buy you a drink and talk of vintage hardware :)
809.
by sago 12y ago
The 4 minute mile was amazing because of the four minutes, not because someone managed to run a mile. Amazing feats in the face of incredible constraints are inherently worthy, I'd say.
810.
by sago 12y ago
The End of Life comment was quoting the person who opened the bug. Rob said 'done', the commenter interpreted this as 'end of life', which is both clueless (in that way that corporate-worldview meets actual programmer ca

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