sgentle

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331.
by sgentle 13y ago
Hands down there is nothing more exciting about this OS X update than being able to use multiple monitors again. They can keep their fancy power management and their new apps, because nothing will compare to that feeling when I boot into my
332.
by sgentle 13y ago
I'm surprised that Wikipedia hasn't found a way to integrate and regulate paid PR people. It's naive to think they're going to go away just because it'd be better if they did. Why not work with them instead? PR peop
333.
by sgentle 13y ago
I don't think that's at all too far into conspiracy territory. Keep in mind that him being forced to do something and obeying badly (because he couldn't talk publicly about it) is a pretty precise description of the events le
334.
by sgentle 13y ago
I agree, that is a tragedy. There are a lot of bad things in the world, although thankfully less each year because of the efforts of good people who want things to improve. The Italian government has volunteered to hold a state funeral for
335.
by sgentle 13y ago
I'm glad this is out there. It's a tragedy that it happened at all, but it would be an even bigger tragedy if nobody else knew the consequences. I think everyone experiences that moment sometimes where you think "is this okay
336.
by sgentle 13y ago
I agree. It seems like positive articles get less attention on HN, and in general for that matter. I guess the internet flocks to angry more easily than happy. Even accounting for that, though, it seems like there's less positive mater
337.
by sgentle 13y ago
I think you're looking at a false dilemma here. Your choices aren't limited to "don't encourage women and take flak for it" versus "encourage women in a ham-fisted way and take flak for it". I believe that
338.
by sgentle 13y ago
There's actually a campaign on the same subject running in Sydney at the moment. Although the difference in execution is pretty amusing. Ours is called "get your hand off it": http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/m
339.
by sgentle 13y ago
Hah, that is awesome. I wish there had been opportunities like this when I was a kid. I was programming with my dad at about that age, but the internet was only really available at universities back then - there was no chance anything I wro
340.
by sgentle 13y ago
This is completely misleading. The article actually says this: Plaintiffs in the case contend that Google's automated scanning of e-mail represents an illegal interception of their electronic communications without their consen
341.
by sgentle 13y ago
I've noticed this too. I blame a combination of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and not knowing what the word actually means. From my observation, it appears people assume "reductionist" means "simplistic"
342.
by sgentle 13y ago
Absolutely. I like to think of it terms of a guiding principle of non-universality. A lot of errors seem to spring from incorrectly assuming that everyone's definition of acceptable conduct is (or even should be) the same, or assuming that
343.
by sgentle 14y ago
I agree and I wish I'd written this article myself. One of the great things about git compared to the version control systems of yesteryear is that it's lightweight enough and (with Github) discoverable enough to make many small repos a via
344.
by sgentle 14y ago
While I don't have anything against sexy language learning in theory, I feel like the execution here isn't great. The best language lessons I've had were highly participatory; you remember the sounds much better by making them rather than h
345.
by sgentle 14y ago
One advantage of this not really covered in the comments so far is that something like CoffeeKup makes it very easy to mix custom code with html generation. As an example, I'm currently using CoffeeKup as part of a build system for single-p
346.
by sgentle 14y ago
It's strange to watch the debates around gun control unfold in USA time and again. Here in Australia we did the same thing after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, one of the deadliest spree shootings in world history. After that, the govern
347.
by sgentle 14y ago
I think you're being unnecessarily confrontational. The question is a valid one. If you're hoping to apply to a fund led by someone, and that someone says "we pay the most attention to how you can hack stuff", then it'd be pretty silly not
348.
by sgentle 14y ago
Oxygen-Powered Jet Might Someday Travel The World In 4 Hours If Technology Proves Viable And Meets Actual Market Demand At Acceptable Cost Near as I can tell, the article is mixing up two different things. SABRE is being tested as a rocket
349.
by sgentle 14y ago
Although let's not forget that investing in a public company doesn't necessarily mean you think the company will do well, just that you'll be able to sell your shares for more than they cost. The people who predicted this effect and got in
350.
by sgentle 14y ago
Except in mobile, where webkit is the only game in town. In fact, I think we're already seeing web developers write mobile sites that only work in webkit.
351.
by sgentle 14y ago
Has anyone here actually been on The Well? I've heard about it a few times, but never enough to decide if it's actually an interesting place.
352.
by sgentle 14y ago
Whether or not this particular experiment goes well, I think the super-cool thing is that it's being tried. I think there are probably a number of models that could lead to a stable and useful society, but existing governments are so entren
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by sgentle 14y ago
Ha! Oops, my mistake. For some reason when I hear "Oxford comma" I always think comma-inside-the-quote rather than comma-before-the-and. I wonder if there's an equivalent hacker preference and explanation for the comma. Most of the people I
354.
by sgentle 14y ago
For what it's worth, I don't think you should see being 17 as a negative. There are a lot of people out there with CS degrees but without that sense of passion or autonomy that leads them to write mods and report exploits in their free time
355.
by sgentle 14y ago
Apparently quite common among hackers. I remember reading a section about it in ESR's Jargon File ages back that had a great explanation: Consider, for example, a sentence in a vi tutorial that looks like this: Then delete a line fro
356.
by sgentle 14y ago
I dunno, I'm sure for some people there's a great crime against women hidden in there somewhere, but all I see is a great crime against good taste. I think something has to pass a certain muster of sophistication before it can be genuinely
357.
by sgentle 14y ago
Can I just say this is super exciting. In Australia, where I live, there was a very brief period where university education was free. It was before my time, but I remember the feeling I had as a child when I first heard about it - not amaze
358.
by sgentle 15y ago
Yes. I am generally supportive of Unity but this is one thing I just can't understand. I get the rationale for avoiding a bottom dock on a widescreen monitor, but the left-hand side doesn't even make sense (browser back button is on the lef
359.
by sgentle 15y ago
I can never forget that chapter and how well Feynman expressed his burnout. It's hard to imagine that even charming roguish nobel prizewinning physicists who play the bongos can feel useless sometimes. I think most likely everyone has, but
360.
by sgentle 15y ago
To me, what would be interesting about a world without cars (or even with cars, but vastly more attractive public transport) is that it would partly reverse a sad isolationist trend that's come along with the power and control given to us b

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