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I can't help but feel we have the media we deserve, if this is the scale of reaction to Monbiot's registry... sigh

Monbiot is a shining beacon of integrity, in very sharp contrast to most of his peers. Exceptionally detailed in citations, the ability to change his mind and fight furiously for a cause he was previously against (Nuclear power), and now this.

Here's to hoping a few more follow in his footsteps...

getoniton Ask HN: Does anybody code during their commute?

Ditto, but it comes with disadvantages. Apparently my concentration-face is the same as my I'm-really-bored-please-talk-to-me-even-if-you-have-nothing-to-say-face. I only listening to music around half the time, but if I'm not doing something that's obviously requiring my attention, the headphones are always in anyway. Sometimes I just stare blankly at an open book while my mind is elsewhere :)

getoniton [dead]

http://jnorthrop.tumblr.com/post/10802288463/silk-fire-and-a...

getoniton Is Quantum Computing real?

My lay-understanding of the state of quantum computing is that it works, but only up until the point where you try to look at the answer. None of the advances we see month after month have got any closer to being able to read the answer without destroying it, and that it's useless in practice without this last step, and we don't have the first clue how to solve it.

Can someone who knows what they're talking about tell me how accurate that summation is?

getoniton UK government response to my letter about programming in schools

Dear John, Whoosh! Not my problem. Love, the Government.

getoniton User's Are Not Happy with New Facebook Changes

Every change Facebook has ever made has been met with wailing and gnashing of teeth, which blows over so quickly that it's usually a source of amusement for those who like the change.

getoniton Ask HN: What's the point with so many stupid people in the world?

It's a public place - you probably should be somewhat less surprised and/or begrudging when it fills up with members of the public (and that's regardless of whether or not they are your kind of people, too).

getoniton ORM is an anti-pattern

Beautifully explained.

getoniton Dawkins' Stupid People

Having never questioned an indoctrination, religious or otherwise, is naive at best - stupid is a perfectly reasonable description, IMHO.

getoniton Don't write your own framework?

Rolling your own framework to the standard and complexity of, say, Zend, would take an impractical amount of time. If that's the kind of thing you need, use Zend.

If, however, you feel that anything more than a front controller, a registry and some common sense is just ego-stroking, roll your own and enjoy ;)

getoniton [dead]

perhaps you could compel us with some detail?

getoniton Religious Believers Are Nicer Say Researchers

It's easy to be nice when the world you live in is warm and fluffy.

getoniton A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom

As long as it's illegal to shoot people who place money over other things, the disease will never be cured.

getoniton Show HN: HN clone for science

http://www.heurekalab.com

getoniton Apparently Techcrunch Staff doesn't read Hacker News

No, your confusion shows that - unlike the boy and half the media - you do understand the physics behind it just fine.

getoniton Google +1 is failing, miserably

+1 is failing miserably, as opposed to author's sense of perspective?

getoniton Why Van Halen had brown M&Ms contractually removed

Are all venues as professional as you appear to be?

getoniton Ask HN: Is it rude/inappropriate to address a programmer as 'RESOURCE'?

IMHO no, but I dare say that'll be the minority opinion. People don't like being reminded that they're replaceable.

getoniton Why why why why why are you a developer?

No-one else is stupid enough to waste their time building the things I come up with... and that's only half in jest.

getoniton Top Programming Fonts

I don't wish to troll, but I see this a lot and I can't for the life of me figure out how anyone needs to give this any more thought than 'monospace, next question?', despite many explanations each time.

Can someone shed some light on any advantages they feel are of a reasonably significant importance, and why? I mean, I can see plenty of advantages, but they're all so negligible they're not worth even the time it takes to change font, IMHO.

...and do please note the IMHO - I'm asking, not telling :)

getoniton Ask HN: target="_blank" thoughts?

> People who want each link to open in a new tab/window know about Ctrl-Click or Right-Click+Open-in-new-window.

Source? That's almost entirely untrue in my own experience (my audiences are quite large, quite varied, and not particularly ludite).

getoniton I take illegal drugs for inspiration

> I don't think I would ever want to put myself in the sort of situation that trivializes the death of a child by making it equivalent to downing a pill.

I would have thought he meant it the other way around.

getoniton Programming is not a craft

Because the Emperor is not naked, dammit, and people like me shouldn't be encouraged to spread rumors that he is :)

Fear not though - as someone with an entire menagerie of unpopular opinions about programming, business and life in general, karma as a measure of agreement with the opinion is more useful to me than as a measure of people's opinion on the constructiveness of the comment. It's also feeding a spectacular persecution complex, which comes in handy when I discover I've been talking rubbish on a subject :)

getoniton Programming is not a craft

Context - In a 5 star hotel, that would be appalling. In a house you've just bought, that would be crap, but at least it works until you get to the part of the list where you remedy it. In a toolshed/garage/stable/whatever, that would be prioritising effort - a good thing.

getoniton Programming is not a craft

> A solution that requires the minimum amount of effort/energy/material and delivers the expected result

As good a definition of code beauty as I've ever seen... even if not as popular.

getoniton Programming is not a craft

I think of this as avoiding 'premature polishing', much as I try to avoid premature optimisation. The evils are of a comparable nature, IMHO, even though I don't seem to be in the majority on that one.

'Clean lines' is my mantra. Whether it be done through a remote API, a database queue or a multitude of classes, loose coupling and sensible, strict and adaptable communication between clearly separated units is my number one priority. Everything else has, at the very least, the danger of encouraging the traces of the architecture astronaut within me... and he's enemies number one, two and three :)

The units themselves can be as good or as thrown-together as circumstances demand, but the separation/communication being of a professional standard is set in stone.

getoniton The Quackwatch guy is exposed as a fraud

He may well be, but I will investigate elsewhere, I think. The tone of this article gives me very little confidence in the substance of it.

getoniton Could a marathon ever be run in under two hours?

"I'm 60. If I've got my figures right, I'll live at least 20 years, so I believe in the next 20 years we will see the first sub two-hour marathon," London Marathon race director Dave Bedford says.

Wishful thinking? How does his lifespan affect the probability of the 2-hour mark being broken?

getoniton The unpalatable truth is that the anti-nuclear lobby has misled us all

Indeed, but by far the bigger tragedy was in choosing the way we currently 'do nuclear' over thorium... we chose the more difficult and less safe route, in order to use the leftovers to kill more efficiently. I have little sympathy for us, to be frank.