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jdludlowon First 26 pages of Neal Stephenson's new novel Seveneves

The first time I read Anathem it was certainly slow to get through the first 200 pages, because I kept referencing the glossary to learn the vocabulary. The 2nd and 3rd times I read it the entire book flowed much more smoothly, and even the beginning was quite enjoyable.

jdludlowon The tree was the oldest living thing on Earth, and they cut it down

Can we please knock it off with the linkbait titles?

jdludlowon [dead]

I get a completely blank page when js is disabled.

jdludlowon FizzBuzz Enterprise Edition

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5395215

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8046186

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6712425

jdludlowon Have I been pwned? Check if you have an account that has been compromised

True. I was more referring to it being a confirmation that this is an email address that anyone cares about.

If I wanted to be truly malicious I'd have my online checker return a "Nope, you're all good" and then add that email address to the short list of accounts to go after.

jdludlowon Have I been pwned? Check if you have an account that has been compromised

I'm not sure how that would help. They would have to generate a matching hash on their end, giving them a lookup table to work backwards from hash to email address.

Now if they wanted to supply a list of hashes to the public, then you could check your own without knowing any of the other addresses used to generate the remaining hashes.

jdludlowon Introducing Swift

Presumably 0, since there are already people who can legitimately claim multiple years of experience with Swift.

jdludlowon Doctors Inject HIV Into Dying Girl. The Reason Why Will Amaze You

This linkbait style of headline writing really needs to die.

jdludlowon [dead]

Keywords humor

This isn't news.

jdludlowon OpenBSD will shut down if we do not have the funding to keep the lights on

  > The OpenBSD project uses a lot of electricity for running the
  > development and build machines.  A number of logistical reasons
  > prevents us from moving the machines to another location which might
  > offer space/power for free, so let's not allow the conversation to go
  > that way.

I don't understand this comment. If the choice came down to moving versus shutting down entirely, why is moving an unacceptable answer?

jdludlowon Cloud IDEs: The importance of being open

The chart that is included is ridiculous. There's no label on the Y-axis at all, and zero indication of what it is we're supposed to take away from it.

Professor Tufte is weeping somewhere.

jdludlowon A Clojure Crash Course

I can't speak to the Clojure introduction, because I was already semi-familiar with the language. However, I found your site via Google a few weeks ago when I was looking for an introduction to Emacs + Clojure. Having gone down this road several times in the past, I have to say that this is the best tutorial I've ever found on that topic.

The repl and window examples were just what I needed as a complete Emacs newbie. The Emacs chapter was similarly good. It seemed to be aimed at someone who wanted to start writing code quickly. This is the first time in years that I've worked through an Emacs tutorial without firing up vim to edit a config file (at which point I usually realize that I won't be switching to Emacs that day).

Thank you for taking the time to write all of this.

jdludlowon Why I no longer contribute to Stack Overflow

It looks like user Tobu already fixed it, but that is quite ridiculous.

jdludlowon Has StackOverflow saved billions of dollars in programmer productivity?

On multiple occasions I've searched for an answer, found it on S.O., thought "this seems vaguely familiar," and then realized that it was my own answer from a couple years prior.

Saved me time the second time around I guess.

jdludlowon Electric Car owner charged for stealing electricity from school

Already covered on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6844702

jdludlowon Billionaire develops mass water-heating system to warm the ocean in his backyard

Yes. No one uses the word "egress" unless they're installing basement windows, and I would hope that when I crack the billion mark I don't need two assistants to towel me off when I'm done swimming.

jdludlowon Rejecting Billions, Snapchat Expects a Better Offer

Oh. They're selling emoticons for $10M per month. Excuse me while my brain implodes.

Thank you for clearing that up though. I had no idea that such things existed.

jdludlowon Rejecting Billions, Snapchat Expects a Better Offer

how much money can be made selling stickers in messaging apps

I'm not trying to be difficult; I really don't understand this statement. Are you talking about paper-and-adhesive stickers, like my kids use to plaster Strawberry Shortcake everywhere? What do those have to do with messaging apps?

jdludlowon We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

Get a job from the 37 Signals site building a competitor to the 37 Signals site.

https://weworkremotely.com/jobs/8

jdludlowon PayPal Redesign

I'd settle for not having to click through three screens of "yes I'm sure" and opt-in doublespeak every time I want to "really, really, I promise you" use my credit card.

jdludlowon Beer

There’s no reason to have beer. On tap. In your business.

Reasons #1 through #999: I'd like to have a beer.

Why do freedom of choice and personal responsibility never factor into these types of blog posts? This entire thing reads "I don't want beer, so you can't have beer."

I was fixing some bugs last night. And I was drinking a pint of Wall's End[1] at the same time. I felt zero effects from the alcohol (it's a 4.8% session brown ale), the bugs got fixed, and the sun rose in the east this morning.

[1] http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30076/89553 If you're in Minneapolis / St. Paul, and you like brown ales, get some of this.

jdludlowon 1Password 4 for Mac is here

I've been using 1Password for years, and until I saw the picture of everyone in their t-shirts, I had no idea that CMD-\ was the hotkey for the password menu.

Still waiting for seamless Linux integration though. It's one of my killer apps that keeps me on OS X, connecting via ssh to headless Linux machines or VMs, as opposed to using the Linux desktop. And yes, I realize that there are other password managers out there for Linux. The point is that I already have my passwords and many notes in 1Password, and anything I switch to would have to sync with OS X and iOS.

jdludlowon Obamacare security breach leaks 2,400 Americans’ info

Which part of a properly designed system involves storing lists of social security numbers in an Excel spreadsheet in the first place?

Yes, the government employee screwed up by sending this file (in plain text no-less), but why does this file even exist?

jdludlowon Robot Turtles Kickstarter midmortem at $250k

Hi OP.

What programming concepts does this game cover that aren't already handled by the 1994 game RoboRally? Or is this "RoboRally for little kids"?

jdludlowon Girl’s Suicide Points to Rise in Apps Used by Cyberbullies

That and don't give kids unmonitored access to the internet and text-capable cell phones. There's really no reason at all for them to have those things, aside from "everyone else does."

jdludlowon Show HN: FitDishes - nutrition-oriented local search

I like where this could go, but basing it on calories isn't particularly useful. 300 calories of garbage (or corn syrup if you will) is still eating garbage.

jdludlowon Why I Still Use a Dumb Phone

I still use a dumb phone. The front screen doesn't work, and I just added a piece of duct tape to keep the battery cover on. One of the biggest reasons that I haven't switched is that when I'm walking across campus at work 95% of the people have their face buried in a screen. There is zero eye contact.

A desperate plea to phone manufacturers, even though I realize I'm in the extreme minority. I would snap-purchase a dumb phone that had the following feature list and a $200 price tag:

1. Crystal clear voice quality.

2. There is no 2.

I don't want a camera. I don't want a voice recorder. I don't want an mp3 player. I don't want a web browser. I don't want a flashlight. I don't want text messaging or email. This might sound insane, but I actually just want a phone.

jdludlowon Java software analyze "The Cuckoo’s Calling" and found author as J.K. Rowling

The headline sounds like the guy was analyzing texts in general and came up with this match; a needle in the haystack thing.

The story is less interesting. An anonymous Twitter tip said, "Hey I think that J.K. Rowling wrote The Cuckoo's Calling." The result of running it through the software was: yeah, she probably did.

jdludlowon Git Cheet Sheet

"Test Code Before You Push" seems to be what they're trying to say.

jdludlowon Yahoo resetting usernames that have been inactive for over 12 months

"doesn't recognize my device"

Same here. In this case the device is the same browser I've been logging in with daily. The back-up email is one that hasn't existed for a decade, and the "secret questions" for which I generated random number answers and carefully saved don't match.

That's on a mostly throw-away account, so I don't care too much. On a more regularly used account I just checked I was able to log in fine. My email inbox is page upon page of spam that should be easily filtered on their end, but at least I can get in.