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gacek

228 karma · joined January 10, 2009

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gacek··on Quake 2 ported to HTML5
Please note - it seems this is a q2 client, not the full game - one of the steps is run-dedicated-server on your machine.
gacek··on Nokia N97 Promotional Video vs Real Life
Not really. N900 occasionally chokes, but it works quite smoothly.

N900 is definitely not the same sh*t as N97. The UI feels quite good actually.

gacek··on The truth about student loans
The problem is that the opposite system - publically funded high education has even deeper flaws.

Many students choose completely useless programs (straight to unemployment), students don't fell entitled to criticize anything, and of course the universities don't treat them like paying customers.

gacek··on Slovianski-language that a Slav should be able to learn in 7 days
For me (Polish) it is very understandable, but if I were to say what it seems like - I would say that it is like Slovak/Czech with some Russian (mostly verbs).

However, these are the three slavic languages I had most contact with. I can speak some Russian and I can recognize Slovak and Czech (but I wouldn't be able to tell one from the other). And I guess this might be similar for other slavic HN readers - they might speak one or two extra languages, they might have had contact with two or three more. This means that similarities described here ("sounds like ...") will be greatly influenced by the level of contact between nations.

gacek··on Georgia Tech adapts to increased cheating among CS students
The problem is that if you are not interested in CS and haven't been programming before the course then lets face it - you won't become good at it during a semester.

So later, when you are faced with different environments and sets of instructions (excel, perl) you'll just call your computer guy, or fill the spreadsheet manually.

It might be better to teach programming after 3-4 semesters, to show how some tedious work from previous classes can be replaced by a neat excel macro.

gacek··on Google Faces a Different World in Italy
I really think it is some kind of publicity stunt from the prosecution and won't hold in court.

However if I was in charge of google, and my executives were found guilty I would have my side of the story translated and displayed instead of any google service for all .it users. Avoid further risk.

gacek··on Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain
I always thought HN readers had more important stuff to do then to point out other's misspellings.
gacek··on Word Processors: Stupid and Inefficient
The author admits that "there are some sorts of documents for which a WYSIWYG word processor is indeed the natural tool. I'm thinking of short, ad hoc, documents which have a high ratio of formatting ``business'' to textual content: flyers, posters, party invitations and the like".

I think that those ad-hoc, one-page documents represent a majority of documents created by users - even if you count the pages, not the complete documents.

gacek··on Pastebin which is able to run your code. Accepts 40 languages.
Unfortunatelly for the readers it is closed-source, and part of the security model is obscurity. The core service has been developed for http://spoj.pl - a bit ancient-looking repository of algorithmic problems.
gacek··on Pastebin which is able to run your code. Accepts 40 languages.
Actually if you can do it properly for C using off-the-shelf gcc the rest follows - PHP or Java are on a completely different threat level.
gacek··on Pastebin which is able to run your code. Accepts 40 languages.
It won't compile ;) (no stdlib.h/string.h)

And it won't crash the server (at least... should not). There is a fixed limit on how much memory a process can allocate. This program will crash, but not because of malloc, just because the recursion gets too deep (stack overflow).

gacek··on Validity of software patents goes on trial today at Supreme Court
You miss the point. A specific case design is something completely different than patenting 'ways that stuff can be done'.

I really hope the EU does not introduce software patents. This is just the thing to stiffle innovation.

gacek··on Entire Cities Recreated Using Thousands of Flickr Photos
Its very similar to what you can do with Microsofts Photosynth, just on a greater scale. MS lets you upload a couple hundred pictures, which is enough for a similar 3D dot model for a single building.
gacek··on Man arrested for modifying Xboxes
Its not always that simple to seek employment in a different company, and the process might not so harmless.

The problem is with the gaming market, and your suggestion for the developers to move to a 'safer' company - simply means leaving the gaming industry.

And I'd say that this has a negative influence on the quality of games, and it does harm customers.

gacek··on Why I am Not a Professor, or The Decline and Fall of the British University
You have got to be kidding us. But I don't really get it - what is difficult in & and * operators?

I do teach programming, and most of the time I see both the concept of pointers, and syntax is pretty understandable.

The real trouble begins when you expect students to use them to their advantage - but it really is beyond syntax.

gacek··on How hard was Felipe Massa hit, exactly?
I really like the conclusion, about not waiting for a death to realize what can happen.

The thing is that it is not the open cockpit that can kill, it is the speed. And the speed is why this sport has so many fans.

Also remember that apart from being hit in his head Massa also hit a wall of tires at 200+ kph. I know they were there to absorb the shock, still, try doing that in a regular car...

gacek··on Bone marrow transplant 'cures HIV patient'
I haven't heard that many 'full recovery, no viruses left' HIV stories.

"one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind"

gacek··on Bone marrow transplant 'cures HIV patient'
I guess its just an editors comment, and the source article is "Brief Report: Long-Term Control of HIV by CCR5 Delta32/Delta32 Stem-Cell Transplantation"

Anyway, I can't access it as well. This is the way scientific journals promote knowledge :/

gacek··on Bone marrow transplant 'cures HIV patient'
The New England Journal of Medicine is not a small-time local publication. And this is exactly what the article is about - it should be BIG news.

http://content.nejm.org/content/vol360/issue7/index.dtl

gacek··on Surreal Appeal of the Falkirk Wheel
What they don't say in the article is that the canals allow a really nice bike trip across Scotland (Edinburgh-Glasgow). Just get on a morning train and cycle back. There is no way you'll miss the Falkirk Wheel.
gacek··on Puzzle: Sort Vector
Wow. A site with 4 algorithmic problems. Without any means of testing/comparing solutions.

Just go to http://spoj.pl, http://online-judge.uva.es/, or http://acm.pku.edu.cn to name the three largest online judges.

gacek··on Academic Earth - Thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars.
Depends on the assignment?

Basic programming? I am working on that: http://www.spoj.pl/AKADEMIA/

(note: Polish only)

gacek··on Torrent search engine Mininova earning €1 million a year
When RIAA 'thinks' that people outside US fall under US laws - thats ignorance. But when people think that those outside US do not have copyright laws - well, thats kind of ignorance too.

You're only guessing the 'worst' or 'extreme' scenarios. And as for 'white collar prisons' - just google the stanford experiment.

gacek··on Patent troll to sue Linden Lab, Blizzard
What were those 'patents' for?

innovation protection?

yeah, right.

I really hope software patents are not introduced in Europe.

gacek··on How to stop the drug wars
I would love to read some study that would investigate the connection between one joint a day with heart disease.
gacek··on Microsoft Kills Flight Simulator, Fires Entire Dev Team
I was kind of expecting that.

I think they will move the FS franchise to XBOX. FS was not a casual game, and the player must be a sim fan.

I guess the gamers will have to buy new good (expensive) joysticks, and they will buy extra scenery as DLC. The latter puts much more money in MS' pocket than the retail system, and restricts piracy.

And you get to play on your 50" plasma screen.

gacek··on EtherPad out of private beta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonedit

However, their site is currently down. And yes, that was an offline app, so etherpad is much better.

gacek··on Facebook screws iFart author
Did you even read the article?

Replying to people who contacted you first is not mass messaging.

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