Hacker News Reader

c00p3ron Code for open-source Facebook riddled with landmines

What you're expecting from a tabloid?

The code of OpenSSH and OpenBSD are available for years, and that is why it is most secure. Just think how many people tried to find a hole in OpenSSH's code!

Opening the code is the most important step. If the idea is worth and code is useful it will be improved by community, just because it is useful for them. nginx is a classic example - people around the globe are improving it because they find it useful.

c00p3ron Ask HN: What are Unit Tests and Why are they important?

The idea behind unit tests is quite simple - you're considering your code as several black-box abstractions divided by abstraction layers with clean interfaces. Unit tests are used to be sure that after any code change each black box is still working as it should (gives the same output for the same input data) and so do each of your interfaces. Think of self-test of an aircraft - thats it.

c00p3ron Tactics, tactics, tactics

Too much blah-blah-blah. There are two completely different cognitive tasks - ability to read a foreign language, and ability to speak. Improving your ability to read doesn't affect your ability to speak. You should train both of them separately.

The ability to read other people's code doesn't help you when you must write your own. You can read, say, tens articles and blog-posts per day, but it doesn't affect your ability to write one. OK, in the long run it does, but only after long practice of writing.

Resume: Reading a book or watching an online-course without doing a home-work or exercises is a waste of a time, because writing (composing) is a completely different cognitive task.

c00p3ron Adobe releases 64-bit Flash preview for Windows, Mac & Linux

cooper@ubuntu:~/Downloads$ file libflashplayer.so libflashplayer.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, stripped cooper@ubuntu:~/Downloads$

wow! they finally managed to build it! I can't believe! ^_^

c00p3ron What should every programmer know about programming?

There is a big difference between a new (so-called must-have) skills and essential skills.

All knowledge that you really must have is already developed long ago (look at things like SICP or Mythical Man Month, or XP Explained) and remains unshaken.

In contrary, this or that new cool tool to make a dynamic web-pages, or a brand new pile of a useless abstractions in the next revision of J2EE or .NET are third-rated knowledge. Google search is enough in this case.

Take a look at Berkeley's CS 61A course (with that honorable old-school lecturer and a nostalgic 80x24 text-mode console on Solaris 2.7) - all the essential knowledge is here.

c00p3ron What should every programmer know about programming?

Writing a test-cases based on business cases (domain knowledge) before any code is a good practice. It is that simple.

c00p3ron What should every programmer know about programming?

The difference between a programmer and a coder.

For example, programmers are talking about ideas, algorithms and abstraction layers, while coders talking about tools - which one is the right tool (Java, of course) which one is the best for so-called web-development (PHP, of course), and about cool features of C# if they're using that system.

The difference is the same as between, say, GM engineer and a taxi driver.

There are also sysadmins, who know that everything sucks, but some things when fine-tuned suck less. ^_^

c00p3ron Erlang/OTP R14B is now out

I don't know about why so many, but my own comments are based on a some sort of a cognitive dissonance between what I read in the related mailing lists and in classic CS books like SCIP or what I've learnt from a Berkeley's courses.

c00p3ron Can you trick your ageing body into feeling younger?

edit: my fault. They were here almost at the same time. ^_^

c00p3ron Erlang/OTP R14B is now out

This is where Node.js and Clojure fanboys should learn from. First ones, about what is real concurrency, second ones - what is a functional programming (as opposed to code imperative stuff in a funny lisp-like systax). ^_^

c00p3ron Can you trick your ageing body into feeling younger?

Life is shaped by our mind. We become what we think. (c) some smart guy around 2500 years ago.

The longer explanation - everything is connected not because it is predestined, but because by a cause and effect. So processes in the mind are affecting bodily processes, and opposite, of course, is true at the exactly same time.

The same guy, btw, taught that the cause of suffering is ignorance - not knowing your own nature.

c00p3ron Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?

Cat-like faces or baby-style faces - big eyes, small nose, triangle-shaped with small chin. Everywhere in the world children love kittens. There is no deep psychological, let alone political influences.

c00p3ron Confirmed: Google Me coming this Fall

Orkut is popular in Asia and Latin America.

c00p3ron Self-Control Matters Far More Than Raw Intelligence

Yet another guy just discovered a Marshmallow study? ^_^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_gratification

c00p3ron Oracle set to merge Java virtual machines

Just a blah-blah-blah.

c00p3ron Announcing node.ocaml (OCaml + Libevent = Fast Fun)

I still think that something like Arc + LLVM's vmkit + fast FFI and async IO is a still good idea. Anyone? ^_^

c00p3ron What problems have you solved using genetic algorithms/genetic programming?

My first job as a professional programmer (1995) was writing a genetic-algorithm based automated trading system for S&P500 futures. The application was written in Visual Basic 3 - thanks! You made my day!

c00p3ron PhD or Not PhD: that is the question

No effort is ever lost. (The saying of an ancient Buddhist teacher).

c00p3ron Ask HN: How do you *use* HN?

site:news.ycombinator.com keyword, keyword, keyword

c00p3ron Google Maps Instant (inspired by Youtube Instant)

any Facebook/Twiter Instant?

btw, there are lots of good ideas about command line - reverse search as in readline, context help as in Cisco IOS or SoftIce debugger and Zsh of course.

c00p3ron Nokia appoints Stephen Elop (President of Microsoft MBD) to President and CEO

Show me a device. I feed up with a paper tigers. ^_^

c00p3ron Nokia appoints Stephen Elop (President of Microsoft MBD) to President and CEO

Yeah, exactly! They will never understand why, say, Clojure and Node.js are such a buzz - because geeks like the ideas.

Adding new themes on top of an S60 crap is still the same crap.

They had a very good attempt with N900, but some stupid management bet on N97 and lost.

Nokia isn't a software development shop and never was, and of course, they should learn from Apple (why experience is important) and from Google (how to create a developer-friendly framework).

Qt might be a good attempt, but someone should write a visually attractive (think Apple's animation library) and highly polished common stuff (Apple's attention to details), like contact list, settings, etc. They think a community will do the work, but that will never happen. No one would like to do a boring task for free.

Btw, Nokia already lost the game (To Apple and Google) the same way as MS did (to Apple). And it is rather funny to see that they hired an exec from another big loser.

c00p3ron Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

http://vmkit.llvm.org/ becoming ready? ^_^

c00p3ron Why Django Sucks, and How we Can Fix it [slides]

Some big Django shop like Discus could create a team and sponsor the development. Something called Django2 Django-ng.

Without hype and stimulation individual developers are passive.

c00p3ron Arguing With Peasants Shows a Lack of Self-Discipline

Some narcissist explaining how smart and special he is in a self-promoting blog post on a personal site (indeed, he is so kind to explain his logic to mere mortals).

That is good for a facebook, but why here?

btw, next time we (ignorant, tribal peasants) probably should ask him to explain the meaning of words 'generalizations' and 'cliche'. ^_^

c00p3ron As Digg Struggles, VP Of Engineering Is Shown The Door

That is it! So the problem seems to be a complex one. Some part of it I think is an ordinary Java issues - what happens when there is not enough memory, and system start use swap, what happens when a connection rate is too fast while system is doing a heavy IO? What happens during recovery of network operation or replication failure and so on. The second part is the complexity of the software itself, but not the complexity of the algorithms or tasks - it isn't a rocket science, but added artificial complexity due to all those CrappyFactoryManager().GetSpecialShitFactory().instantiateANewCrap() and so on - seem like no one can comprehend the whole mess itself. In the other hand, this failure probably will cause some improvements or at least more attention to Cassandra project, and everyone who uses it will benefit.

c00p3ron Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

Stupid fucking down voters, you never have seen a Nepaly mountaineering guide, who are going to claim an above six thousand meters peak twice a week just as a routine, or Tibetan yakmen and horsemen, who just going several thousand meters up and down with their caravan, but you're so fast in pushing a buttons. The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn from the crow. ^_^

c00p3ron As Digg Struggles, VP Of Engineering Is Shown The Door

Google probably use server side Java without a really heavy load, and just add more servers to keep the load low.

System which was designed for being isolated from an OS (leave alone hardware) will have a bottleneck exactly in this level.

Facebook doesn't use it as a primary storage with a high load.

c00p3ron Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

Exercise (physical work) + diet (same organic food each day) + meditation + regime (the same routines each day) = monastery or village life in Asia. Why 174 up-votes for a turning back to the basics?

c00p3ron As Digg Struggles, VP Of Engineering Is Shown The Door

So, why not just pay to Cassandra's authors for a quick fix? Because they can't?