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drb311

752 karma · joined July 5, 2013

Managing editor at Packt.

http://twitter.com/drb

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drb311··on Inequality is exacerbated by the assumption that everyone has a mobile phone
In the UK you can sign up for a Gmail account without any other contact info - just an unverified name and date of birth. Is this different elsewhere?
drb311··on Facebook takes down Britain First ads
Britain First is not for or against any religion. It's for traditional white British culture against anything new or brown. They're full of hate.

They should be allowed to speak but they ain't borrowing my megaphone. Good on Facebook for feeling the same (at last).

drb311··on Yeast Probably Originated in China
Yes it originated hundreds of millions of years ago. And this new research indicates it was probably in China. (The land not the civilisation.)
drb311··on Yeast Probably Originated in China
The article is saying that all yeast originated in the area we now call China, long before any civilisation appeared there.

It's not saying the Chinese invented it. The Chinese might have been the first to find a use for it. But that's not what this article is about.

drb311··on I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
Even Worf doesn't go that far https://twitter.com/WorfEmail
drb311··on I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
Nailed it.
drb311··on I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
>>Hey Jane, I need your input on how to prioritize my current work. Can you provide guidance on where I should focus?

>>Bug XYZ was assigned to me and it's taking longer to complete because we have a dependency on Vendor ABC completing a change to their web service. This is impacting the commitment to my team on Feature 123 because we are near the end of our sprint.

>>Lemme know.

Yes

drb311··on I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
The key is:

1. Reply now

2. Do the best you can in the time you can spare

It's email. If people need more they can ask for it.

At least now they know you'll reply.

drb311··on Redesigning the smartphone dial pad
Just get rid of the dialpad and let us use the keyboard to dial numbers. Google Keyboard already has a dialpad-style layout and you can choose to centre it or move it to the left or right thumbzone.

We already use the keyboard to type numbers and it works much better than a full screen dial pad.

drb311··on Teller Reveals His Secrets (2012)
How often are P&T's guessed solutions better than the real ones?
drb311··on “Your program is stupid. It doesn't work,” my wife told me (2010)
> the old Paint

That's not the old Paint, that's the new Paint!

drb311··on ‘Five Second Rule’ for Food on Floor Is Untrue, Study Finds
"I see people put their forks, etc, on tables"

What? If you can't put your forks on the table where can you put them?

I always put my fork on the table, that's what the tables for.

How do you lay your table?!

drb311··on ‘Five Second Rule’ for Food on Floor Is Untrue, Study Finds
If you really wanted to test the five second rule, you'd have to be broader. Who is overall better off?

1. The person who NEVER eats food off the floor 2. The person will ALWAYS eats food off the floor 3. The person who follows the 5-second rule

I wouldn't be surprised if the 5 second rule gives its followers a net benefit. You're slightly more likely to get sick, but you waste less food and live a less paranoid life.

I'm sticking with it, but not for watermelon.

drb311··on Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
Steven I'm managing editor at Packt. Thank you for publishing your book with us.

If you want to publish your next work yourself or with another publisher just mail us and ask. I'm sure we wouldn't enforce that clause against your will.

drb311··on Show HN: “OK Google” – Explore Google Now voice commands
Discovering commands by trial and error isn't much fun because the fall back action -- a Google search for the words you said -- is so boring.

The conversational UI in text adventure games was fun to explore because the fall backs were sometimes funny.

drb311··on Roald Dahl – the storyteller as benevolent sadist (2010)
I remember reading Dahl as a child and now I'm reading them to my kids.

They didn't feel half as dark then as they do now. And compared to the nightmares children invent for themselves, Dahl stories are probably pretty tame.

drb311··on Larry Page’s startups working on flying cars
Funny how many tweeters are explaining Musk's joke back to him.
drb311··on Think with your hands: How to get started with Lego Serious Play (2013)
It's a long time, but isn't this the software they build in the novel Microserfs?

If so the idea's been around a long while, so I guess it just doesn't work in real life.

It's a great geek novel anyway.

drb311··on Why do old statues have such small penises?
That's a relief.
drb311··on The Controlled Natural Language of Randall Munroe's Thing Explainer [pdf]
That's a great idea!

"Now you know what's going on, here are some words that make it easier to talk about."

drb311··on The Controlled Natural Language of Randall Munroe's Thing Explainer [pdf]
That's really hard!
drb311··on The Controlled Natural Language of Randall Munroe's Thing Explainer [pdf]
Rare words can make writing more efficient and enjoyable. But it doesn't always.

To my ears:

"I use language for two reasons:"

Is better than

"To me, language is wielded with dual intention"

But I always enjoy the word "florid", even though it's not in the top 1000 words.

drb311··on The Controlled Natural Language of Randall Munroe's Thing Explainer [pdf]
The text editor is here:

http://xkcd.com/simplewriter/

Try it!

1,000 words is an unrealistic constraint. But I'm amazed how often I use a complex word when the simple alternative is better.

Or...

Sticking to 1,000 words is hard. But doing it often makes my writing better.

drb311··on “Ask 'why' five times about every matter”
I can, in no more than 5 whys, get from ANY problem back to my own personal hobby horse issue.
drb311··on “Ask 'why' five times about every matter”
A very good approach.

Frequently talked about, rarely applied.

drb311··on Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
2 ways to deal with procrastination:

1. Don't worry about it. We all procrastinate and most of the time it works out OK. Our instincts know what they're doing.

2. Break tough tasks down into very, very laughably small tasks. Don't even worry about doing them. Once the first task in the list is small enough you'll think "sod it" and do it right away.

If you try to improve your self control you will fail. Go with the grain -- either stop worrying, or find a chunk of the task so is tiny and easy that it becomes instantly gratifying to do it.

drb311··on Instagram insists littergram app is renamed
Any Ally Mcbeal fans here who can advise us on American law?
drb311··on Instagram insists littergram app is renamed
Here's how the BBC describes the product:

"Littergram invites people to share pictures of rubbish."

It's pretty clear that -gram here is used to signal that this is a picture sharing app.

If Instagram didn't exist it's unlikely Lucas would have called his app Littergram.

drb311··on Instagram insists littergram app is renamed
I've been listening to a lot of Rumpole on Radio Four Extra.

Let me know how I can help.

drb311··on Future Screens Are Mostly Blue
The best bit is the anecdote about LCARS in Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was all due to a budget shortfall:

"Star Trek also may have helped create the entire image-under-glass paradigm that governs our digital world. The interface, known as LCARS, is cool-looking. It’s distinctive. And it’s actually the result of a budget shortfall.

Star Trek: The Next Generation didn’t have as much money for set design as did the original series, which had panels wired with jewels and glowing buttons. Instead, they cut out film and put them over glass panes."

It's usually constraints, not the lack of them, that give birth to true innovation.

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