Hacker News Reader

astoon Twitter clients distribution in real-time

I'm amazed that twitter for blackberry has as many users as twitter for android and iphone!

HN is a (largely) community moderated content aggregation site. What if you don't have the benefit of a community to moderate? If you're an email service and want to stop bots from signing up and spamming the world at large, how would you do that?

astoon [dead]

Loads of apps that do this. Except they're all called "timers", not alarm apps.

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=timer&c=apps&...

astoon Apple Is Said to Discuss an Investment in Twitter

I think I wasn't clear enough there. Google+ is not more widely used than twitter NOW. There are a lot of people on Facebook who were formerly on Orkut, Myspace etc who've never had a twitter account and just don't GET twitter. If I had to pick the next facebook sized network, it would be Google+ and not twitter for that reason.

PS: I don't even believe the current growth/engagement numbers coming out of twitter entirely. There's a lot more spammy accounts there than used to be that put out hundreds of tweets a day and I wonder if that's heavily padding twitter's user growth currently. Most of my current followers are "fake". Same with my friends who aren't particularly famous. The statistics don't reflect this properly.

astoon Apple Is Said to Discuss an Investment in Twitter

Between twitter and google+, I'd say google+ is the one with mass appeal. It's simply better for what people call "social" - sharing updates, sharing photos/albums, chat/conversations etc all within their own private social group.

astoon FB nearly cut in half since IPO (22.28 current low)

I believe google's equity is also structured similarly. The founders hold most of the voting rights even though they've liquidated a lot of stock.

astoon Google Handwrite

Yes, this exactly. I desperately want to move from my Blackberry to an android phone but all the best phones seem keyboard-less. Typing on a touch screen is a major annoyance for anything more than typing a search string or sms.

astoon Isometric text with CSS3

This is correct. More on MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/CSS/transform#skewX

astoon FoundationDB: A new generation of NoSQL database

Unless it locks when backing up or copying?

astoon The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

Muslimy named guy at Fort Hood? He is a Muslim!

According to eyewitnesses, Hasan had taken a seat at an empty table and bowed his head for several seconds when he suddenly stood up, shouted "Allahu Akbar!"

astoon The real reason Marissa Mayer left Google: She had to

I'm laying this one on the babies. Mommy handles them, they're all happy. Daddy tries something, suddenly they aren't as happy. Asshole babies!

</joke>

If the parents are worth so much, in my opinion they could both take time out for the kid. Is there a reason why women should take care of newborns full time? Yes, that's what is natural (meaning occurs in nature). Is there any reason her husband shouldn't help her? I don't really see one.

astoon 17 Year Old Builds a Better Search Engine

Blew it? What's the point of interviewing a smart kid if you want him to be dumb during the interview?

astoon Women in Tech: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

I agree. You would also see resentment towards women founders from the guys who are pitching if startups are being picked based on the gender of the founders rather than quality.

astoon [dead]

I saw this in the morning on my phone with a tiny screen. I couldn't read it properly but figured that since it already had so many votes up, it must be legit, therefore important. So I hit the upvote button too. I know, I'm an idiot! :-D My apologies for playing a part in pushing this up.

astoon Some things I've learnt about programming

There is usually an upfront cost of time and/or effort. The choice comes down to copy-pasting what you need everywhere or put effort into making a generic function that you can put in one place. If you are working against an impossible deadline, option 1 seems very enticing. In the long run, you are right, the effort is much less to maintain a well thought out codebase.

astoon Some things I've learnt about programming

A large part of the post can be rewritten as "don't be lazy".

1. Don't be lazy and just do something that works without taking the time to learn why it works.

2. Don't be lazy and just stop when you have something that works. Go through the code again and see if you can make it better.

4. If you find yourself writing the same thing twice, don't be lazy and carry on, put the code in a single place and call it from where you need it.

Or at least that's how I see it. I do all of the things I shouldn't do, largely because doing things the wrong way is so much easier!

Edit: Rather than rewritten, I meant "falls under the general category of". The article was great!

astoon Why does parseInt(1/0, 19) return 18?

The difference between library and framework is quite subtle sometimes and in this case many use it interchangeably. You are correct though, jQuery themselves call it a library.

I don't agree to "does nothing to alter the language" though. It changes the way you manipulate DOM across your codebase. When one says 'library', I assume it's something you make calls to to achieve certain functionality. Like an image library or oauth library.

Also, that jquery is implemented in javascript is not relevant in my opinion. Rails is implemented in ruby. Does that make it not-a-framework?

astoon Why does parseInt(1/0, 19) return 18?

The reason javascript won't get nearly as much ridicule as PHP is because there's no other choice with javascript. Most arguments against PHP are in the form - I'm using <super awesome language> because PHP has .... faults.

Also, the fact that very few people code pure javascript, instead choosing frameworks like jquery, goes to show how much people like it!

astoon Are Watches Obsolete?

Yup, exactly. My blackberry is synced via GPS. I doubt a watch could do better than that, so I don't wear a watch now. When I can afford a super expensive watch that signals my transformation from a douchebag to an obscenely rich douchebag, that is when I will wear a watch!

astoon What We Should Have Said To PG

I think it's like what I used wave for soon after it launched. Let's say you're coming up with a business plan with your friends to pitch for VC money and you're putting your thoughts together. You add in your stuff the wave. Others add their stuff. If somebody has an epiphany later, they can add it then. A week or two later you'd have a document with everybody's thoughts in one place that you can run through and compile a slideshow.

I wonder if I got that right.

Anyway, great blogpost!

astoon Common CSRF vulnerability in OAuth2 implementations

It takes 3-4 extra lines of code to implement CSRF protection for oauth2 login in python. The same kind of idiots who set themselves up for stupid sql injection attacks omit CSRF protection. How is this interesting?

astoon The Curse of Bullshit

I like talking to one other person esp. if they are 1. intelligent 2. not a web programmer (as long as they're talking about something I am not very aware of, I'm good) . I was talking about small talk in groups.

Conversation always tends to the most boring topics. I could talk about very interesting things about computers. Somebody at the table may be into finance. Someone else into fashion. No matter how interesting these people may be as individuals, conversation in a group tends towards things everyone at the table is comfortable conversing about. Mr/Ms 'look at these awesome shoes I bought last weekend' is not going to be terribly impressed by the Mr/Ms 'latest advances in computing' and vice versa. So you will soon be in a content devoid conversation full of how are yous and how are things at work and how are the kids and parents and... AAAAAAAAAA!!!

astoon Isla, a programming language for young children

I don't understand the purpose of this. Stories are best read, written and told. Using a computer to do it would be rather restricting. I wonder if kids would get the point either.

The best way to interest kids seems to be to show them ways to do things better. Like draw perfect circles and rectangles with very little effort using a program like logo. Or show them how to write python programs to solve their math homework at top speed.

astoon The Curse of Bullshit

I've noticed it's mostly the geeky sort who think it's bullshit. I prefer sitting at home and playing computer games or learning something new when compared to lunches or dinners or other social gatherings because it bores me to death to make idle conversation.

Most normal people though need to make small talk, it's an important part of their lives. Also, most people dislike (or worse) those who are terse in day to day conversation.

astoon A Dust Over India

Because India is close to the equator, the environment has a greater carrying capacity than the kinds of first-world, northern nations that the author is used to.

Citation?

The same applies to shelter. In India, a hut made of newspaper is adequate shelter year round. Try that in the Northern US and you'll freeze.

If a newspaper is enough in India, why are so many people dying of being cold year after year? https://www.google.co.in/search?q=cold+wave+india+dead

The years that aren't very cold, there are heat waves that kill. https://www.google.co.in/search?q=heat+wave+india+dead

Yes India's government is corrupt, but not all that much more corrupt than the US government.

In India, if you walk into a govt office for anything, you will end up paying a bribe. Want a driving license? Bribe. Want a building plan approved? Bribe. Want to incorporate a company? Bribe. Maybe we can have HN'ers from different developed countries tell us if the situation is anything like this in their countries. From what I can see, corruption in developed countries is mostly big ticket, not every tom, dick and harry in the country trying to part you from your money every chance they get.

Contrast this to the genocide the US conducted against native Americans who were in the way.

Back when American natives were being killed, widows in India were being burnt alive by their own families in the name of tradition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)

Sure the garbage smells bad, but it's mostly just a matter of learning not to keep inhaling after you catch a whiff of something rank on the breeze.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN SAYING?

astoon A Dust Over India

It's easy to see why corruption in China would reduce. People are executed for it in China.[1] Hard to get scammers even behind bars in India.

[1] https://www.google.co.in/search?q=china+executed+corruption

astoon Nginx design details

Can you give concrete examples of what you couldn't do?

Here's the wiki on how to set headers: http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpHeadersModule

Here's the wiki on returning a particular http code: http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpRewriteModule#return

astoon Facebook to Launch Job Postings Board

The last thing people would want to do is apply for a job using a personal profile. This would be worse than applying with a foxydude84@hotmail.com address.

Edit: Also, I think they've really lost the plot now and seem to be desperate for the "next big thing".

astoon Editor in chief, The Next Web, France shares xkcd without attribution

We probably won't witness a spectacle like the one with The Oatmeal again in our lifetime! Yes, the title is needlessly sensationalist but it astounds me how we can't even get media professionals to get these things right. Would TNW be very accommodating to people who share their content this way?

astoon Editor in chief, The Next Web, France shares xkcd without attribution

Are you his friend? Am I his friend? Clearly, this isn't "sharing things to friends".

I don't attribute either. I don't need to because I only post a link to the original. XKCD is best delivered with the title and hover text which is impossible to do correctly on G+