tsally

31 ms·

241.
by tsally 17y ago
...as almost nobody cares about absolutist interpretations. I apologize for what must be a failure in my writing, but that's exactly what I'm trying to convey. In my comment I tried to show how silly the logical conclusions of absolute i
242.
by tsally 17y ago
You're right. I am not trying to argue that McCain-Feingold is constitutional. Rather, I'm trying to point out that a literal interpretation of the constitution in this case is invalid. It's a simplistic argument that sounds good at firs
243.
by tsally 17y ago
For your claim to be true money must in some way be related to the ability to exercise free speech. Consequently, an absolute interpretation of the 1st amendment means taxation is a violation of free speech. Time to abolish taxes, then? In
244.
by tsally 17y ago
I'll forgo a mathematical argument in favor of a practical one. If you have a choice between offloading complexity to your users or your developers, you should choose your developers every time. Rather that requiring complex password sche
245.
by tsally 17y ago
A poorly-written web app whose SQL database is compromised has bigger problems than protecting the integrity of poorly chosen passwords (especially if they store financial information). Are you suggesting that because a comprise is bad, n
246.
by tsally 17y ago
An author published by Macmillan did a write up about this on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's blog: http://www.sfwa.org/2010/01/why-my-books-are-no-longer-avail... You can probably skip the commentary on free markets,
247.
by tsally 17y ago
It is also perfectly reasonable to believe that the problem is that we already have too much government control, so turning it all over to the government is hardly the solution. I am not aware of any health care reform legislation in the
248.
by tsally 17y ago
I think if everyone who upvoted this comment also flagged the article, it would be dead by now.* Everyone please remember that flagging is just as important as up/down votes for the health of a community. * PG, please feel free to correct
249.
by tsally 17y ago
Why is it surprising? It's a multi-billion dollar industry that depends on technology (physical and digital) for distribution.
250.
by tsally 17y ago
I prefer not to think of it as "calling out" someone because I think that phrase has confrontational connotations. Rather, I just highlighted a problem in an otherwise valid point. maxwin edited is comment and now I'm in full agreement wi
251.
by tsally 17y ago
I see that. I'm totally on board with what you are saying now. Cheers :)
252.
by tsally 17y ago
By decreasing the amount of wealth that is necessary for a human person to remain alive - for example by introducing a new vaccine that allows a large (5+) family in unsanitary conditions to have all of their children reach adulthood - the
253.
by tsally 17y ago
No technical people that I'm aware of worship Steve Jobs because of his humanitarian qualities. In fact, if you were to do a broad survey using humanitarian work as a criteria, Bill Gates would be the overwhelming preference. Admiring the
254.
by tsally 17y ago
Currently a poor CS student but I still donated 25 dollars. Wikileaks is one of only a handful of media organizations actually making a difference in the world; it needs to be supported.
255.
by tsally 17y ago
It's interesting though, there is a very large population of extremely bright and creative people who tend to score poorly on standardized tests as well. That was the point I was trying to make. At 18 years old Steve Jobs was only just b
256.
by tsally 17y ago
This is essentially how China is run: you take a standardized test when you're eighteen or so, and that test determines your life. If you do well, you have power, and if you do poorly, you don't. I wonder how China's Steve Jobs did on the
257.
by tsally 17y ago
I use the Firefox extension Update Scanner to much the same effect: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3362 . No complaints so far, although my use has been mild. Note that you'll need to install via the beta channel if you'v
258.
by tsally 17y ago
Not software patents, but SCO v. Novell is certainly relevant as an example of commercial/legal forces hampering process.
259.
by tsally 17y ago
If you want an example of math education that does a lot right, take a look at what's been done in Chicago [1,2]. Unfortunately, substandard K-12 curriculum is all too common. I don't even want to think about the billions of dollars socie
260.
by tsally 17y ago
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the data are skewed. A programmer in the bottom 25 percentile probably has a negative effect on your business. There's no way programmer pay should be a normal distribution because bad programmers have su
261.
by tsally 17y ago
Hardly any open source hackers (one of the largest and most intellectually stimulating technical communities in existence) refer to what they do as "software development". Software development has many more mind numbing connotations (to yo
262.
by tsally 17y ago
The average offer for CS at UIUC is $72,286 [1], so the statement "only the most skewed [figures] come up with starting salaries approaching $60,000 annually" is definitely false. This article is factually incorrect and has a link bait tit
263.
by tsally 17y ago
In case you didn't make the connection, this material is by the professor who wrote the recently posted article: "Getting into a PhD program with a low GPA". His undergraduate GPA was a 2.4/4.0, according to his website. http://news.ycomb
264.
by tsally 17y ago
I used to invest a lot of time in HN precisely because it wasn't at all like the rest of the internet. I'm not sure using the internet as a measure of quality is a wise choice. (Although one could argue that targeted spam is inevitable whe
265.
by tsally 17y ago
Can't believe OMeta hasn't been mentioned yet: http://tinlizzie.org/ometa/ . It's definitely the wrong choice for performance, but if you are experimenting with language implementation I don't think you can do much better. OMeta's genera
266.
by tsally 17y ago
I'd say there's far more potential market for a sleek mini Macbook air, than there is for a tablet. Not if Apple's tablet can do to the tablet market what the iPhone did to the smart phone market. There are huge strides in UI waiting to
267.
by tsally 17y ago
It's important to differentiate between the technical ability to build web applications and the craft of programming. It seems you are interested in the former, in which case I would recommend learning a popular framework (Ruby on Rails or
268.
by tsally 17y ago
I think what's scary is that this doesn't get me nearly as angry as it used to. EDIT: Actually the incidents in the article are fairly tame. There are much more egregious examples.
269.
by tsally 17y ago
I'm not longer a member of the ACM because of their position on this issue. If you currently pay dues, take a moment to reflect on your reasons for doing so.
270.
by tsally 17y ago
Well I was assuming the user was using a TV, but yeah, obviously you need a PCI receiver card if you want to interface with a computer. But thank you for the much needed technical details. I haven't played with it in a year or two and was

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