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Shakescode

198 karma · joined June 27, 2009

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Shakescode··on Kindle zealots trash bestseller to spite publisher's lack of e version
Yes, the news is what it says about customer loyalty to a propriety ereader. I can see why Amazon does not make any attempt to stop the nonsense.

The next chapter will be interesting: Will the publisher cave in and permit a Kindle edition?

Shakescode··on PHP 5.3.0/Lighttpd On Debian (Lenny) (+Imap, MySQL, Sqlite3 And ImageMagick)
This takes you through just about everything you need, all packages, etc. (but assumes you already have Debian set up)

For folks on Mac, etc., you may want to just Google about pre-packaged MAMP - Mac/Apache/Mysql/PHP. (I'm not sure whether there is anything set up for PHP 5.3 and latest MySQL yet.)

For a local testing server you shouldn't need to worry about performance.

Shakescode··on Tech Investor News Delivers Exactly What You Assume It Would
Yes, but not leads to the best discussions on HN - even the business-related ones.

But, I agree, it may be a nice supplement to my several-times-a-day visiting to HN.

Shakescode··on Tech Jobs That the Cloud Will Eliminate - hands-on technical work
However, some of us entrepreneur-wannabees still rely on "hands-on technical work" while working nights to plan a start-up. This may call for extra resourcefulness for future start-uppers.
Shakescode··on Facebook Video: Now Serving 1 Billion Views A Month
Of course there's no evidence/data cited that it is yet a profitable profit center for Facebook.
Shakescode··on Ask HN: Readability loves readers, but at what cost to authors?
Readability is a (somewhat experimental?) service offering from Arc90, which self-describes as:

"Founded in 2004 in Brooklyn, arc90 was created with the goal of designing and building captivating and forward-thinking experiences on the Web. Our strategists partner with you to identify opportunities and help execute on them at all stages including design, architecture and development."

They've got a bunch of interesting projects underway so they may sort of have "a full plate" - but it looks to me like they use Readability as a way to gain visibility and positive press, so hopefully they'll be resourceful enough to take this beyond v .4

Shakescode··on When you're not hacking: Nine Cause-Based Job and Volunteer Resources
There's a real need for people with IT skills to serve the nonprofit community. These look like some good starting points to finding a place you'd appreciate serving... and that would appreciate you.
Shakescode··on JSON: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Use It
Thanks. The link is a good answer. I'm gathering, then that the concern is just that the need for sanitizing the input code was not dealt with in the OP?
Shakescode··on The Longevity Experiment
Re: all the deficiencies of this article: It's journalism(-ish). Not even science journalism. The NG heading says it all: "Adventure Travel - National Geographic Adventure Magazine" ...not even the main NG site, but the "adventure" subdomain.

More suitable for pondering than analyzing, IMHO.

Shakescode··on SQL Databases Don't Scale
In the final paragraph he compares himself with Capt Kirk, facing the Kobayashi Maru: "we can only solve this problem by redefining the question."

Well, perhaps that's as difficult as solving the "SQL scalability that 20 years of brilliant programmers haven't solved"?

...because he declines to attempt to reframe the question.

[ or maybe he's leaving us wanting more: like his next post? ]

Anybody up for reformulating the question?

Shakescode··on JSON: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Use It
Hmmm: 28 up-mods at this point, but no comments. I'm novice at JS, and wondering if the author (Lengstorf)'s take on JSON usage agrees with the more experienced developers here.

In particular: any expansion on his minimal discussion about security issues? Thanks in advance.

Shakescode··on Quantcast Shakes Up Online Ad-Targeting Model
Unfortunately, I have trouble finding details about their approach except through paid subscription to wsj.com

If anybody knows more about Quantcast or their approach (or has read full article), maybe you could let us know if what they're doing can teach us anything?

[ see also: http://www.quantcast.com/target.com ]

Shakescode··on Use the same password on multiple sites safely
I understand the attractiveness of the convenience, but (perhaps it's just my paranoia) should one approach to security and how users handle it be codified into a standard at this point: shouldn't we be concerned about what currently unknown weaknesses may fall to cracking approaches that develop within a few short years?
Shakescode··on Use the same password on multiple sites safely
Aren't you really arguing for a variety of "security by obscurity"? Yes, it may work for the immediate present, but it's hardly planning for the future, is it?
Shakescode··on The Rhetoric of the Hyperlink
A thoughtful analysis of how we choose to form hyperlinks, the impact on information flow, and special complexities for non-native English speakers/readers. ...with a nod back to Marshall McLuhan.

Got me thinking actively about linking choices that I encounter online but not elsewhere seen debated.

Shakescode··on User Management in Drupal 6
Actually the posted title is just the title of one chapter (#10) of a book entitled:

Flash with Drupal: Build dynamic content-rich Flash CS3 and CS4 applications for Drupal 6

Hopefully that'll help someone figure if they really want to go through the Scribd

Shakescode··on Ask HN: Is there a hacker news search function?
Plus... there's a graphic at bottom of news.ycombinator.com to a FireFox extension: http://www.webmynd.com/html/hackernews.html
Shakescode··on The Hydrogen Myth
A 38 page powerpoint presentation. Very illuminating. Who knew such things as:

Liquid hydrogen leaks can be ignited by the static spark set off by the leak itself?

Hydrogen flames are not visible (see slide 16: hydrogen refinery would look same when on fire as when not.

Compressed H2 gas or Liq H2 have only about 15% or 30% of the energy-per-gallon as gasoline.

And on and on... Sure casts doubt on feasibility of H2 as a medium for energy storage.

Shakescode··on Rating attractiveness: study finds consensus among men, not women
The press contacts at WFU are at bottom of summary. If you can't find the email of Dustin Wood at WFU, ask the press contact to forward your request for a snail-mail reprint of the article.

Better ask soon, the popular press will probably whip up this story and deplete his reprint copies soon.

Shakescode··on PHP Team Responds to Google's PHP Tips
Some of those benchmark results were surprising.

And some of the interpretive comments were more so: saying "little difference" when there was a 2:1 difference.

The fellow does say he continues the work and is open to feedback, so perhaps some of you with more sophistication about benchmarking can check it out?