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"Touch beats pens, keyboards, and mice in the respect that you don't have to carry around a bunch of peripherals."

That's the only way in which it beats those things, in particular keyboards. In most other aspects (e.g., usability) it falls far, far short.

ShirtlessRodon The End of x86? An Update

All that data needs to be stored somewhere...

ShirtlessRodon The Worst

That's a false dichotomy, though. There's no reason I can't have a minimal aesthetic about what I need to own while also getting some things that are "good enough" (maybe even "crappy"), and getting other things that may be considered the "best".

The parent seemed to be saying that this state (i.e., between the two extremes) was "not very satisfying", and that without strictly adhering to "The Best" philosophy you'd end up with all crap. That's primarily what I'm objecting to.

ShirtlessRodon Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias

Thank you for stating this more eloquently than I could. I don't think it can be emphasized enough that not everyone is obsessed with playing "the game".

ShirtlessRodon The Worst

"if repeated often enough, this process leads to a house full of crap"

So unless you buy the absolute "best" of a given product, it's just crap and couldn't possibly be satisfying? There's no middle ground there at all?

ShirtlessRodon Google connects Play Store with Google+, reviews will feature name and picture

My point is that a good review (not necessarily a "positive" review) is a good review whether I know who gave it or not. Is a detailed review from an anonymous user giving something 2 stars somehow worth less than a one-liner review from a "known" user giving it 5 stars?

That aside, as greyboy already points out, what is going to stop a competitor from creating a fake Google+ account to give that negative review? This move doesn't prevent that hypothetical from happening in any way.

ShirtlessRodon Google connects Play Store with Google+, reviews will feature name and picture

Writing a quality review should be all that is needed to add weight to your opinion. Why does it matter if I know it came from Tom Jones in Skokie, IL?

ShirtlessRodon Simplicity

If you want to point to general manufacturing processes and advancements as one of "civilization's greatest accomplishments", that's one thing, but you appear to be specifically talking about the iPhone as if that product itself is anywhere near a greatest accomplishment of civilization.

ShirtlessRodon Why Responsive Design Is Not Worth It

Why do so many responses seem to be "well, that's just a bad example of it"? It reminds me of the similar "well, they're just not a true conservative/liberal".

ShirtlessRodon Rick Falkvinge: Why free speech is harmed by the ban on child porn

If you "witnessed" it while browsing, you also downloaded it onto your computer.

ShirtlessRodon The Tim Cook memo: line by line

Is that actually the entirety of the patent? If so, that is a major-league joke.

You mean a client communicates with a server with information, then returns some information? How delightfully ingenious!

ShirtlessRodon Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

"HN has a very anti-Apple slant."

How so?

ShirtlessRodon Office 2013: Microsoft's bid to win the future

Are we still doing the "M$" thing? Honestly.

ShirtlessRodon Steve Jobs on Average vs Best Software Developers

Hire the best programmers? Why didn't I think of that?

ShirtlessRodon Life after the personal computer

"Though I had no inkling of it back in 1992, what’s rapidly replacing the PC in our culture is the smart phone."

The desktop as a form factor will never go away. I know for me personally the day I need to turn in my machine (including keyboard/mouse/large monitors) for a smart phone or tablet is the day you can go ahead and just shoot me to put me out of my misery.

ShirtlessRodon Microsoft’s developer problem

Can someone explain this part to me:

"And during that decade, almost every such developer I knew switched to the Mac if they weren't already there, partly because it was better for developing web apps."

This is the first time I've ever heard anyone make this claim, which seems dubious at best. How in the world is the Mac better for developing web apps?

ShirtlessRodon Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

Yes, I've heard that reasoning over and over again and it just doesn't hold water at all for me. "Time-saving" just doesn't work at that level of minutiae.

Again, it's simply optimization where none is needed.

ShirtlessRodon Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

To me, this seems like a great example of unnecessary optimization. Yes, the number of "visual fixations" is slightly less but in the grand scheme of a person's day, we're talking about a difference of milliseconds, if that. Aren't there far more egregious examples of UI design to spend time agonizing over?

ShirtlessRodon Doom 3 Source code review

FYI, some people use NoScript to pick and choose which JavaScript they allow to run.

ShirtlessRodon GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

Seems like a more extensible/future-proof approach would be to have some sort of built-in storage that was accessible via USB. I'm not sure precisely what part of the iPhone is required to make this work, but it seems far easier to not tie it so directly (i.e., the physical enclosure).

Plus then you have the benefit of not limiting the product to only those people who have an iPhone. :)

ShirtlessRodon Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."

In the same post you manage to call people who don't like Facebook "weird" and "behavioral outliers" while simultaneously saying it's all their fault because they endlessly go on about how they don't like Facebook.

What about those who say nothing about it, yet still need to tolerate people like you calling them a "behavioral outlier"?

ShirtlessRodon Splash screens == sloth

Certainly scale needs to factor in here. What can you get done in a normal hour? Now what can you get done in one second?

ShirtlessRodon Splash screens == sloth

Is waiting 5-10 seconds honestly "cutting into their productivity"? Even so, there's nothing else that could be done with their time while they wait beyond impotently staring and swearing at their computer?

If that's how they operate then quite frankly they deserve to have "lost" that time.

ShirtlessRodon I am a great programmer, but horrible algorithmist

That's fair. I suppose I just wanted to point out that they are by no means required. There are plenty of people who go above and beyond and yet eschew the more "social" aspects of coding.

ShirtlessRodon I am a great programmer, but horrible algorithmist

You seem to be implying that a publicly-viewable github repo or active stackoverflow account are necessary conditions for coding outside of class.

ShirtlessRodon Trolls (2008)

I think the implicit assumption is that he was referring to the more social aspects of the internet (forums, blogs, etc.).

ShirtlessRodon Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

If you don't like his comedy that's fine, but he's a nationally recognized performer with his own show. I think that elevates his status just slightly above "just some guy", don't you?

ShirtlessRodon Portrait of a N00b

I didn't say the comment had to be describing the code in terms of what it was doing, but it absolutely should describe why something was done. If that "why" changes, then the comments should be updated.

This isn't double documentation -- it's complementary documentation. Code is the what, comments are the why. If one does not match the other, then again, that's on the programmer.

ShirtlessRodon Portrait of a N00b

"And then, the code changes but the comment doesn't. Now its downright misleading."

Sorry, that's just a failure of the programmer, same as any other coding mistake they may make. It is by no means a reason to not have comments.

ShirtlessRodon Portrait of a N00b

I don't think this point can be emphasized enough. When you comment code, your primary focus should be on the "why".

In all but very specific circumstances, the "what" should be fairly obvious by reading the code, with small clues being sufficient to guide the reader.

However, without any comments then there is no way for the reader to understand why a particular approach was chosen. Worse, they may think it needs to be refactored, and then waste time pursuing that only to arrive at the all-too-familiar "oh, that's why they did it that way".