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alistair77

94 karma · joined October 12, 2011

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alistair77··on Bose Hearphones
Could also be related to HSP http://blogs.psychcentral.com/adhd-zoe/2011/06/10-signs-that...
alistair77··on Dyson opens Britain’s first degree where students get paid
That's really confusing cause and effect. For some sectors we rely on 'Europe' but the cause is that talented individuals are often discouraged from training or staying in the UK. Nurses are a prime example of this issue
alistair77··on Thoughts on the sociology of Brexit
I understand your intent but please don't find this satisfying. Many who voted 'out' did so simply because they felt they had no other method of getting their voice heard. They used the referendum as a way to express their loss of faith in UK politics, answering a different question to the one asked. It's a complete failure of the democratic process. Regrettably, those same people will likely be by far the worst effected by the result.
alistair77··on Telegram gains 1M users after Whatsapp ban
+1 for Signal (used to be TextSecure). They now have a desktop app in beta which synchronises perfectly with my mobile
alistair77··on 'Sending a message': what the US and UK are attempting to do
I listened to an interview with the Home Secretary, Theresa May, yesterday. She explicitly stated several times that she had no say in the Miranda's detention as it was a police matter. Odd, then, that she is responsible for the secret services and it is MI5, not the police, who are the primary in all anti-terrorism investigations.
alistair77··on 'Sending a message': what the US and UK are attempting to do
The Press Regulation Scheme is in no way similar to the use of MI5 and police resources to interrogate an individual who ,for all in intents and purposes, seems innocent of any terrorism related crime. I see no conflict here with the Guardian's stance on these issues.
alistair77··on Bolivian president’s plane redirected due to fear Snowden was aboard
As a European I feel very sad that many national governments are so much under the thumb of US. To divert the plane of another nation's leader without due legal justification is a big statement about the lengths our governments will go to satisfy US government policy. I know a great number of US citizens also disagree with these policies. Another sad day for democracy.
alistair77··on Keith Alexander's Statement to the NSA Workforce
That's only true if the voters have visibility of what they're voting for. That's wht is so bad about this situation, the secracy negates the foundation of democracy
alistair77··on U.S. bugged EU offices, computer networks
Being in receipt of tax revenue is no measure of being a useful department. And how does it work when other countries are found spying on the US or UK? presumably this is also perfectly acceptable.
alistair77··on U.S. Government Surveillance: Bad for Silicon Valley, Bad for World Democracy
Obama, "you can't have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy." OK, I agree. So how about you and your "security" agencies are a lot less private about what you're doing. Be completely open about your intentions and let your voters decide if they want to spend billions on it and citizens of other countries decide if they want to use US-based services.
alistair77··on On Disrespect, not Snowden: Analogy to why the US are acting the way they are
The US government's attitude is akin to an angry parent shouting, "how dare you!" at an impertinent teenager. General Alexander's statement that, "What Snowden has revealed has caused irreversible and significant damage to our country and to our allies" seems like a bland justification for revenge.
alistair77··on UK National police unit monitors 9,000 'domestic extremists'
There is a key difference between this story and the Snowden case. It is unlikely that the UK government will actively pursue and convict any of the sources of the story. The UK, for now at least, appears less desperate to demonize its citizens.
alistair77··on The Strange Case of Barrett Brown
I am very reluctant to draw parallels between real-life and fiction, but the steady stream of stories from the US from Bradely Manning to Snowden to Barrett Brown is making the possibility of a 1984 style state a real possibility. I have never been under any illusion that my data was safe from prying eyes but the extent of the lies, undemocratic procedures and brutality has shocked me. The commercialisation of intelligence, the penal system and war is adding to the issue.

I don't fear for the privacy of my data; I do feel very anxious about the world that my children will inhabit as adults.

EDIT: I'm not making out this a US-only problem.

alistair77··on Opera breached, has code cert stolen, possibly spreads malware
I guess you're completely ignorant of how widely used their software is. I really need to get enough points to downvote :<
alistair77··on Edward Snowden has not entered Russia - Sergei Lavrov
I agree. But the second part of the statement is still true, "the US look like a self righteous sabre rattling bully"
alistair77··on Jonathan Mayer Threatens To End “Do Not Track” Talks
hmm, construction and medical practice require legislation because dodgy practices may well result in harm to individuals. I don't see that's relevant here. BTW, I support the move by Mozilla.
alistair77··on An Open Letter To Mozilla Corporation
some of the faqs are ridiculous; apparently blocking some 3rd party cookies by default goes against users freedom of choice yet enabling them by default is great for user choice!
alistair77··on URLs are for People, not Computers
Yes, I can't argue with that, though I am meeting an increasing number of non-techies who are interested in different (better) ways of using the web and IT in general.
alistair77··on URLs are for People, not Computers
That's confusing two different concepts. URLs are the equivalent of a full postal address whereas searching is the equivalent of asking a stranger how to get somewhere. Why would you want to always ask and trust a search engine when you already know how to get somewhere? DNS spoofing aside, I know I can trust anything under, for example, bbc.co.uk and I know where /radio, /news etc takes me. Guess what, so do my seventy year old parents!
alistair77··on Mozilla and Epic Announce Unreal Engine for the Web
Given who he is, I imagine pcwalton is far more familiar with it than you are. Either way, you're wrong. Bytecode is not human readable which, as even your definition states, asm.js clearly is.
alistair77··on Announcing Backbone.js 1.0
Angular and Backbone are very different. Angular is a full framework; it's brilliant but also gets in my way on a regular basis. It may take me longer to write the same app in Backbone but it's a library and happily co-exists with other libraries. With Backbone I feel like I'm using JavaScript, with Angular I'm learning Angular.
alistair77··on Firefox Operating System: Finally Launched at Mobile Congress 2013
Given Mozilla's goals for Firefox OS can you explain how these web technologies are anything but the best option? If you think that Java, C# or Objective C would have been better choices you've misunderstood what they're trying to achieve [hint: it's about creating a mobile OS by extending the world's most widely used technology stack].
alistair77··on Firefox Operating System: Finally Launched at Mobile Congress 2013
"when good developers are driven away by a lousy technology stack".

This fear of JavaScript and a web stack says a lot more about you than the technologies. There are a huge number of good developers creating great software with these languages. Coming from a Java and C# background, learning JavaScript has been a real joy and made me a much better developer.

In my experience, the best developers become productive in new languages very quickly.

alistair77··on Why was my email leaked?
You just need to add an additional line such as, "I've used product x and it's a brilliant alternative" or "I develop product x and would love your feedback" or "I'm the CTO of..."
alistair77··on Why was my email leaked?
You've made the mistake of finding a rule that works in a particular environment and trying to apply it in all situations. The HN community is nothing like the financial industry. Applying that level of cynicism to all aspects of life is likely to have a damaging effect to both you and the communities we live in.
alistair77··on Ember.js 1.0 RC1 released
LOCs aren't a great metric. I'm far more productive with Backbone than with JQuery alone and Angular offers a fundamentally different approach (stuff auto-magically just works) which is brilliant but isn't always easy to customize.

I agree about YUI though ;-)

alistair77··on Why Mozilla Matters
I use Firefox Nightly and the latest Chrome stable. You're just plain incorrect. The Firefox user experience is very different to Chrome. Sure there are similarities but it's ridiculous to claim it's just a copy. They've taken a completely different approach to their built-in PDF viewer and as a developer I can tell you there's a huge number of differences in the way that FF and Chrome handle networking and interface standards. And, yes, these are noticeable to my non-developer friends and family.

The reason so many non-techies are using Chrome is that Google has a much stronger brand presence than Mozilla and has, at least in the UK, spent a fortune on advertising.

I love both of these browsers for different reasons. Please don't claim they're the same just for the sake of making a point.

alistair77··on Github SSL replaced by self-signed certificate in China
OWASP has lots of useful security info, https://www.owasp.org
alistair77··on Haters Gonna HATEOAS
Good news is that this will be fixed in Chrome v25 (http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=94369). Recent versions of Firefox and IE already provide good support.
alistair77··on Haters Gonna HATEOAS
Web browsers aren't HATEOS clients, the web sites/applications they make accessible are.

I work with a team on a complex web service and agree with all of Steve K's points. A REST-like approach using appropriate HTTP verbs and a good resource design are (given the right use-case) a big win. The problem for me with HATEOS evangelists is that they seem to think it solves more problems than it actually does. Sure, we now have a layer of abstraction between logical and http link but for anything other than trivial changes you always have to have human readable documentation. HATEOS works brilliantly for the web because there is a human at other other end who understands what "new comment" is and how it's different from "new private message". My customers' API clients don't have this semantic understanding. Now I know that it helps dev's if they can navigate around my API but it's no substitute for well written documentation; HATEOS API's are something to strive for but not self-describing as some claim.

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