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bendemott

36 karma · joined September 17, 2008

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bendemott··on Pyjnius: Accessing Java classes from Python
Very promising, thanks for the great work!
bendemott··on Company withdrawing from Facebook as analytics show 80% of ad clicks from bots
Access logs that write continually from different processes or threads (like PHP) can cause System IO to reach critical proportions. In any non-trivial enterprise application it's completely reasonable to have a stat-logic-layer for recording events... The access log can still do it's own sorta thing - this is more true if you have more than 1 server.
bendemott··on $50K Birthday balloon at Amazon
The licensing for the font on that balloon was rather expensive, and the balloons internal blatter consists of panda skin.
bendemott··on Jam - The JavaScript package manager
Does seem potentially problematic if you don't want to be exposing server-logic. Especially when the developer may not know what software will be ultimately serving the static files over http.
bendemott··on Titan: A Highly Scalable, Distributed Graph Database
Agreed, this is why our solution was to use Node.JS and achieve parallelism through eventually consistent independent data-stores separated on each physical web-server application instance, I'll gladly switch to a distributed centrally managed system when it becomes available.
bendemott··on Every Business Needs the Cloud, Period.
I don't think the cloud will ever fix poorly organized, poorly ran organizations - just saying.
bendemott··on CSS Variables land in WebKit
Honestly, it seems the server-side solutions for css meta-syntax that supports variables are still more suited for this type of thing (such as SASS).
bendemott··on Cloud Deployment of Hadoop and HBase (Part 1-2)
Child: "Don't try to be in the cloud, only remember the Truth." Neo: "The Truth?" Child: "There is no Cloud"
bendemott··on Tim Berners-Lee: If I can't give power to web apps, they can't compete
+1 Agreed! Javascript has been in the bath too long, and it's looking pruny.
bendemott··on Learn C The Hard Way by Zed Shaw
I guess I wasn't feeling an optimist on the day I posted that... Good Point!
bendemott··on Learn C The Hard Way by Zed Shaw
I'm really glad to see that C can get in the spotlight even on HN.
bendemott··on Ruby is faster than Python, PHP, and Perl
Not another one of these...
bendemott··on Tim Berners-Lee: If I can't give power to web apps, they can't compete
This all seems to assume that Javascript,css,html and the web 'stack' in general are reasonable and efficient ways to write robust applications. I fundamentally disagree.
bendemott··on 700 Billion bailout? Ebay it
More signs of the greater problem --> A fake, service economy.<br>

Stephen Colbert: "Our children are very generous, they just don't know it yet"

Aflac Salesman: "Aflac depends on continual unsubstantiated growth"

Let's do the math on continual growth. (average us citizen has 1.9 children) A generation is approx 32 years.

Our economy depends, and comes down to 1 thing, and 1 thing only - your and my ability to buy shit, lots of it!

But what is ironic is our economy is at odds with itself, because a service based industry is at odds with a commodity consumer industry.

Just ask yourself (if you are older than 21) What did my dad do when he was 21? (good chance it involved actual labor in which there was a physical product, or outcome) What did I do when I was 21 for a job? (Most like it didn't involve anything physical)

All early signs of an economy that is based on nothing, not backed by anything, currency is relative, and the consumer doesn't have faith in - what doesn't exist.

bendemott··on Android phone: all specs and apps revealed
"Gmail account required to sign in and use, no corporate access email available."

I'm sure this is Microsoft's fault - it's not like they are going to offer up a portable mobile outlook or owa integrator.

But I wonder who this hurts in the end, device sales, or Exchange use by SMB's ? - I'm guessing a little bit of both, mostly the latter.

bendemott··on I don't use my iPhone as a computer
It seems to me like with any mobile device, once the "Oh this thing is cool, and I'm going to play with it" phase wears off. Most people are just content using any mobile device in a way that benefits them, easily, and conveniently.

Music is an obvious avenue for mobile success - there's still lots of tedium to our everyday lives, and there are many places where music can fill in those gaps (car, gym, park, DMV, etc) I work as a Systems Engineer, and I don't carry a blackberry or Treo - I refuse to, I don't WANT the temptation to write and respond to emails while I'm eating my breakfast before work. That's a different topic, but the device needs to substantially make my life better in a way bringing my laptop with me can't - and I just don't see the benefit yet.

bendemott··on PHP vs. Lisp?
I see the complaint as this: Does Lisp Feature a PECL Installer? - What if you need a clustered server environment - how are you going to role out a large application to 20, 30, 500 servers? PECL and PHP Offers libraries (functions really) to accomplish much more off the shelf through it's Standard Library than many other languages. -Compiled-In DB Drivers (MSSQL,MYSQL,PGSQL,ODBC,SQLITE) -LDAP -KADM5 -Mcrypt -PDO -Sockets -XML -SOAP -(an excellent set of string and array functions)

Actually can someone who knows more about .Net, Ruby, or Java tell me of the features I listed what languages have these features that come with, or are optional?

I don't find the language to be ugly, dirty, or unpleasant. Java is the most popular programming language in the world, and I cannot stand it, if I have to create one more NEW object simply to format CSS text I am going to explode.

I have no problem properly naming and using 1,000 functions. I would rather know each function than have 10 objects with 100 methods each. Objects have their place for Webapps (which ultimately output text last time I checked) Web Applications do not need to be abstracted to the point of Object Inheritance Oblivion!

Can someone please tell me of all the better ways to write this in other languages that are so far superior to PHP?

<?php $br = "<br />"; if(!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERRER'] && !stripos($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERRER'],$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'])) { print "Remote Login Denied!" . $br; } else { print "Success!" . $br; } ?>

bendemott··on Rumor: Google to buy Valve (videogame developer/publisher)
Consoles are ALWAYS going to have a market, and possibly a growing market.

Games are getting harder and more expensive to make, but projects like Irrlicht and Ogre 3d are becoming more complex. As the years go on the paradigm will change from a content centric design in PC games, to a complexity and community centric design philosophy. I can see a time when the community builds the environment within the bounds of the rules of the game engine - and I'm not talking about second life.

And where do you suggest all the millions of Modders will go?

Consoles are becoming computers, and I can guarantee the operating systems will look more and more like a simplified version of windows, or OSX as the years go on.... OpenGL, DirectX will continue to be developed. The simple fact alone that Console games must be developed on a PC is going to keep the PC kicking - it has to run emulated versions of the software that the console (lesser hardware) runs - PC Gaming isn't dead at all ... All you need to realize that is an internet connection and a POGO account. I realize this isn't the market segment you are talking about but the largest private website in the world is an online PC games site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniclip) As long as there is a pc - AND THERE always will be a device that allows for open development, and deployment of software - there will be games (irregardless of how complex) for that platform.

Bottom Line: as long as people have computers they, and their kids are going to want to put games on them.

bendemott··on Rumor: Google to buy Valve (videogame developer/publisher)
It really all does fit together now ...

The Explanation: Goobuntu: the Google desktop operating system. -- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/31/google_goes_desktop_... Glacbook: The first Google laptop (thats a joke)

(what do you need for an os) Web Browser - Check! (Chrome) Value Proposition - Check! (Android) 3d Rendering - Check! (OpenGL ES) Windows application support - Check! (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080219-google-intoxic...) Gaming Engine (valve) Application Suite (Google Pack)

bendemott··on Be A Man, Run As The Root Account
This is great humor - I ran as root while I was learning how to use slackware waaay back. Now I use Fedora because I'm lazy but don't worry behind the PECL and LIVNA libraries I still do a make && make install from time to time.

I think for a noob, running as root is probably wise, understanding chmod, and chown right off the bat is a tough one - and often people get so frustrated from the inability to change settings they give up.

Either way - Batman runs as root... thats good enough for me.

bendemott··on The Seed of Apple's Innovation
A great article. I have seen a lot about what Steve is talking about at corporations I've worked at. Plainly stated it is true that marketing makes money! - But incentive reveals motive. There are a lot of words we use instead of 'greed' like 'good business sense' - but if a companies primary motivation is greed it will fail, and if its secondary motivation is survival, it will just resemble the stages of grief. I have worked in technology a lot - and people in management will always say to me "I don't care how you get it done ... just get it done." That is ok for other industries, for the automotive, and carpentry industries a manager can get by with that attitude, but what if your 8th grade math teacher told you the same thing? - Would you really learn anything about math? And that's what we need to take from this story, it takes SOMEONE with intellectual fortitude to 'bring it all together' like Steve so pointedly stated.
bendemott··on Twitter is Growing Like Crazy: Up 422% in 12 Months
I love it!