smithkl42

19 ms·

181.
by smithkl42 11y ago
Amen. As Thomas Jefferson (correctly) described patents, they're a part of positive law, not natural law. In other words, their only justification is pragmatic, not moral. You can't "own" an idea the way that you can own
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by smithkl42 11y ago
FWIW, I have no objection to the folksy tone. It's more to the opinions that she's expressing, and worse, to their consequence. The fact that Oracle objects to anyone trying to figure out where the holes are in their software says
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by smithkl42 11y ago
I'm a long-time C# developer, and several years ago tried out F# for a project for which it seemed like a reasonable fit. However, after a month or so, I switched back to C#. I missed the very strong type inference of F# and pattern ma
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by smithkl42 11y ago
Impressive, certainly. But I'm not quite comfortable with it. Growing a human brain seems uncommonly close to creating a crippled human being, intentionally. I don't know where the line is, but it doesn't seem good to me for
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by smithkl42 11y ago
There was a point in my life when reading something like this, I would have thought, "Silly Americans." Now I think, "Silly anthropologists."
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by smithkl42 11y ago
Very interesting reading a review that has to make the case that Tolkien should be taken seriously. And of course, he's quite right: not just that Tolkien should be taken seriously, but that (like Hopkins and others) he should be taken
187.
by smithkl42 11y ago
Anytime I read about a "leap" like this, the plausible outcome strikes me as much more likely to resemble "Brave New World", "1984", or "That Hideous Strength". Betting on humanity spontaneously getti
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by smithkl42 11y ago
Interesting to see that Scott Guthrie is now getting talked about in the same breath as the MS senior management. His career is on a tear. Hopefully he can continue to help with the turnaround.
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by smithkl42 11y ago
Meanwhile, Seattle can't figure out how to dig their tunnel more than a couple hundred yards without everything breaking down.
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by smithkl42 12y ago
Of all the things in the world to be concerned about, running non-GPL'd JavaScript in my browser is far enough down my list that writing this comment bumps me well over my lifetime quota for the issue.
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by smithkl42 12y ago
Unfortunately, if lots of people are willing to work almost for free, then that's the market price. Sucks, though.
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by smithkl42 12y ago
It's worth noting that Newsweek is owned by the same folks who got hit with a $2.3MM fine by the EPA for knowingly violating asbestos removal rules. http://blog.wouldbetheologian.com/2014/04/thats-gotta-hurt.h
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by smithkl42 12y ago
Still, given that the missing start menu is most folks' #1 complaint about Windows 8, wouldn't you have to say that (at least in hindsight) it was a mistake to leave it out? Yes, software engineering is always about compromises, b