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katamoleon [dead]

When you have that many books it's a pain to find one if they aren't organised in some fashion.

katamoleon What the Internet knows about you

Site's down. Is it this exploit?:

http://thecoffeedesk.com/news/index.php/2009/08/02/view-remo...

katamoleon The programmer's wife

To clarify, 'vacuous' was describing the way these people are portrayed, rather than how I think about them.

Additionally, there are so many similar replies, I can't be bothered replying to them all.

katamoleon Bill Hicks's Principles of Comedy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc6yCinSlZk

Great interview for those who haven't seen it.

katamoleon The programmer's wife

[from the comments]

whenever I tried to explain anything technical to her, her eyes would cross and the she’d get impatient, flustered, and frustrated.

I keep hearing this bullshit, both on HN and on other news sites. Do you really choose to spend your time such vacuous people? Or is it just that most explanations given are needlessly complex, so that programming and computers appear magical?

If you can't explain something properly, you probably don't fully understand it yourself.

But anyway, computers are hard. Let's go shopping!

katamoleon Infiltrating a Botnet - A Conversation With a Botmaster

Interesting article, but the lack of subtlety in some parts made me cringe, e.g: "wanta be partners?".

katamoleon Is Taleb a crank?

You can tell he's read Taleb's work with a chip on his shoulder (as many have).

Did it occur to you that Taleb's frequently inflammatory tone might have something to do with this?

katamoleon Nassim Taleb (Black Swan) open letter to David Cameron

Good ideas, it seems, need to be repeated.

Absolutely not. Ideas that are diffuse and unoriginal, on the other hand, are often repeated because they are uncompelling.

I've read The Black Swan, and although it was entertaining, I didn't feel like I learned anything of value.

katamoleon Nassim Taleb (Black Swan) open letter to David Cameron

Not when it keeps being rehashed ad nauseum.

katamoleon Hilarious iPhone app, joke or no?

Just out of interest, how would you justify the $4.99 price tag? It seems unusually high.

katamoleon Download A Copy of The Pirate Bay Before It's Gone

Even without that, DHT would help.

katamoleon How I grew to hate every computer language

Hubris.

Programming is partly a creative pursuit. Thus, it helps if one enjoys using the tool you need for the job.

katamoleon Does the iPhone 3GS constantly pre-cache photographs?

I say this not only because of the new focus and exposure controls that can elevate my pictures from snapshots to photographs

Yeah, who needs a good lense?

katamoleon The Nine Eyes of Google Street View

Google employess used Comic Sans. Burn that banner!

katamoleon How I explained REST to my wife

Poor you.

katamoleon [dead]

This is completely untrue and it's rather surprising that Wired perpetuates this nonsense (whether tongue in cheek or not).

katamoleon The 500 Millisecond Advantage

All else being equal. All things being equal would defeat your argument.

katamoleon World's first 256GB USB Flash Drive

There's no way I'd keep that much data on something that easy to lose / have stolen.

katamoleon Did you mean recursion?

Pure coincidence. I often look for definitions as a way of remembering certain keywords in text (sort of like taking mental notes).

The submission on reddit now has over 1200 upvotes which is crazy: it isn't that funny. Not to flog a dead horse, but the quality of that site really has gone down over the last two years or so.

katamoleon Did you mean recursion?

They might throw you the odd CAPTCHA but apart from that I doubt they'd do anything.

katamoleon Did you mean recursion?

I submitted this to reddit as opposed to HN thinking it was too low-brow / off-topic for here. I suppose I was wrong!

katamoleon Ask HN: What is the best university in Europe for MS in Computer Science?

Imperial College or Cambridge University. Both have excellent CS departments and lots of interesting research going on.

And if you end up going to Imperial, I'll see you in October!

katamoleon Bypass the internet for large transfers: AWS Import/Export

Not really "AWS" then!

katamoleon The Great Spotify Mystery

They are having lots of trouble selling ad space in various territories. Though I agree that the article should have mentioned it.

katamoleon Why your tiered password scheme is flawed, and what to do about it.

If it was a simple algorithm, yes. I believe you have missed the humour, so let me make this clear: I have absolutely no interest in your passwords.

katamoleon Why your tiered password scheme is flawed, and what to do about it.

I would never try and second guess somebody who describes himself as "Devil's Advocate Extraordinaire."

katamoleon Why your tiered password scheme is flawed, and what to do about it.

Yes, I'm sure he does that in his head.

katamoleon Why your tiered password scheme is flawed, and what to do about it.

This will be considered off-topic, but I'll say it anyway: I really like the design of that site.

katamoleon Why your tiered password scheme is flawed, and what to do about it.

Sounds like if I were targeting your accounts specifically, I'd have a pretty easy time of it. As soon as I get hold of one or two of your passwords I can work out the algorithm and then start calculating your passwords myself.

While it might be a better approach than just using the same insecure password on every site, based on the attack suggested in this article, there isn't much benefit from your approach.

katamoleon Run IE8/7/6, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera from the web

I've found http://browsershots.org/ to be useful for that. Of course, you can't actually use the site through it.