sketerpot

11 ms·

91.
by sketerpot 16y ago
> (No, writing Firefly fan fiction doesn't make it any better. That may be "creative" but you're still unhealthily immersed in somebody else's narrow world.) What the hell, man? Writing fiction is inherently creative, and it's a very ch
92.
by sketerpot 16y ago
Keep in mind that if you're posting on Hacker News then you're probably better at math than, say, 90% of the population. It's hard to come up with ideas for teaching math to people who are profoundly different from you.
93.
by sketerpot 16y ago
It's all a single page, so the browser's back button wouldn't come into play.
94.
by sketerpot 16y ago
The "Web 2.0 Logo Creatr" slide is both useful and hilarious.
95.
by sketerpot 16y ago
Interface Builder existed way back in the early 90s, and someone who used it back then will find the modern version fairly familiar. It's been around quite a bit longer than the iPhone.
96.
by sketerpot 16y ago
> Imho, for the same reason that schools shouldn't only teach OOP langs. If you're going for linguistic diversity, why not go all-out and learn something completely unrelated to Latin? Maybe one of the Asian languages, for example. I kn
97.
by sketerpot 16y ago
> Because learning Latin trains the mind in logical thought. How? Is there something magical about Latin? Would other, less dead languages have the same effect? > Because studying Latin helps people learn about the grammatical struc
98.
by sketerpot 16y ago
So, essentially, learning Latin will give you a bunch of cognates that may be very useful if you then go on to learn French, Italian, etc.? I can see how this would be useful if you wanted to follow the linguistic evolution of those languag
99.
by sketerpot 16y ago
Why should Latin be part of the standard curriculum?
100.
by sketerpot 16y ago
Where are barratry laws when you need them? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barratry
101.
by sketerpot 16y ago
India is also making their own nuclear reactors because they have a lot more thorium than uranium, and in order to use it, they need reactors which support thorium fuel. </nitpick>
102.
by sketerpot 16y ago
I'm tickled that their build system, a slicker replacement for Ant, is called Leiningen. http://zef.me/2470/building-clojure-projects-with-leiningen It's a reference to the classic short story "Leiningen versus the Ants", which is a good
103.
by sketerpot 16y ago
If you have a better alternative, do feel free to post your ideas.
104.
by sketerpot 16y ago
I clicked on the form wrong and suddenly the tab was filled with Chrome's "Aw, Snap!" error. I'm impressed at how Flash is enhancing web usability with rich graphics and multimedia experiences. (Error messages are an experience, right?)
105.
by sketerpot 16y ago
Given how much caterwauling there's been about Firefox not supporting H.264 and the problems with Theora, I'd be very surprised if Firefox doesn't support VP8 soon after it's open-sourced. Too many people want it too badly for it not to h
106.
by sketerpot 16y ago
By now I tend to just assume that Internet Explorer is going to always do the bare minimum needed to maintain its dominant position, while holding back support for whatever people want. I hate it when I develop a cool web app and it works p
107.
by sketerpot 16y ago
Now if only they can get Apple and Microsoft to support it....
108.
by sketerpot 16y ago
It might be useful for the article submission page to ask you "Are you sure you're not accidentally linking to the comments section of an article?" when it detects an #anchor in the URL.
109.
by sketerpot 16y ago
As Calvin and Hobbes put it, the disturbing thing is not that everyone can be bought, but that the price is often so low.
110.
by sketerpot 17y ago
He left Rivendell, sure, but maybe he's just moving to Lothlórien.
111.
by sketerpot 17y ago
Compete with them on Android, perhaps? </modest-proposal>
112.
by sketerpot 17y ago
More exciting than this: they've figure out how to use a separate layer of memristors grown on top of conventional silicon logic as a reconfigurable routing layer for FPGAs. This can improve their density, power consumption, and speed. htt
113.
by sketerpot 17y ago
It's not just lines of code; Haskell's BDSM-oriented type system is often infuriating, but it's remarkably good at catching bugs at compile time. Haskell programs tend to have a surprisingly small bug rate once you can actually get the thin
114.
by sketerpot 17y ago
For me, Apple's UI advantage comes from two things: 1. It's way the hell better than Windows. No competition here. Windows is horribly clunky, and if you disagree with me, try using both for a while. 2. It has less of a tendency to plunge y
115.
by sketerpot 17y ago
I had to google for "PubSubHubbub" because it sounded too ridiculous to exist in actual, physical reality. But it looks like a pretty cool project.
116.
by sketerpot 17y ago
I'm a TA for such a class right now, and you're absolutely right. No matter how often I tell them to indent, they never get in the habit. Which is particularly galling considering that the text editor they're using has damn near foolproof a
117.
by sketerpot 17y ago
Honestly, that helps.
118.
by sketerpot 17y ago
If that's what you consider "slightly nontrivial", I never want to see what you would consider a difficult type declaration.
119.
by sketerpot 17y ago
No matter how many times this is posted, I can't upvote it enough.
120.
by sketerpot 17y ago
I think you underestimate the ability of some people to pass classes without learning anything. I met an engineering student who had somehow passed a tough, high-quality technical writing class and yet could not write a coherent sentence,

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