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owenjones

235 karma · joined June 16, 2011

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owenjones··on Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
Hmm, so after reading the article I searched for: dell linux laptop and clicked the first link to dell.com

On the product page for the 13 inch XPS Linux I saw a notification: "Sorry, this item is not available anymore for purchase online. Please see our recommended replacement product." And a quick Ctrl-f for 'recommended' or 'replacement' turned up nothing. When I went to the product browser and clicked Operating System the only choices were Windows 7 and Windows 10.

After this experience I'm not entirely convinced Dell actually sells Linux laptops.

owenjones··on Ephemeral to Eternal – Slack archiver for open source orgs
Interesting, what would you say are the legal / TOS ramifications of a service like this?
owenjones··on Is Model-View-Controller dead on the front end?
For anyone interested in a surprisingly pleasant to use front-end MVC framework I am a huge fan of http://mithril.js.org/.

It espouses a (I believe?) slightly more traditional MVC interpretation where your Controllers are usually extremely light and in most cases completely optional. It encourages a MVVMC (Model View View-Model Controller) approach to encapsulate view-state.

owenjones··on Baltimore Residents Begin Clearing Debris After Night of Riots
Hmm, today I learned America has never had a riot before.

Although I seem to distinctly remember my city of Philadelphia rioting pretty good after the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series...

owenjones··on Ask HN: Should a website work without JavaScript?
I'm not sure; I think it's telling that Instagram, arguably one of the most popular / trafficked and supported (Facebook) websites out there, thinks it's unnecessary to even show an ERROR page if a browser has JS disabled.
owenjones··on 5 Ways to Get Engineers to Actually Do What You Want
Hire better engineers?
owenjones··on Reddit’s crappy ultimatum to remote workers and offices
I don't understand whenever there is a HN article about some injustice being done to Tech Workers somewhere there inevitably be this post

> "I can't find sympathy for people making $x/yr."

Why not? Where do you draw the line of people deserving sympathy vs. those deserving none? If they made $59,999/yr would you "get worked up about their plight"? Can you point out an article on HN (ostensibly a site related to the Tech Industry, hence the posts about Tech Workers) about a factory closing down where there was explicitly no sympathy?

owenjones··on Judge Sentenced to 28 Years for Selling Kids to the Prison System (2013)
I'm not a really vindictive person, but I'm so glad this guy is going to jail; hopefully for the rest of his life.
owenjones··on U.S. Army Techniques Publication 3-39.33: Civil Disturbances
What does how other countries deal with protests have anything to do with the US Army's guide to dealing with protests?
owenjones··on U.S. Army Techniques Publication 3-39.33: Civil Disturbances
I see no blame anywhere in the article, and claiming that:

> army people [...] are normally pretty isolated from social issues and don't have very well informed opinion of their own.

is both untrue and offensive.

EDIT, never mind I see you took the bold stance of commenting from a throwaway.

owenjones··on Show HN: Montage – Photo book maker built in Dart
How is the actual print / ink quality?

I recently took advantage of the Flickr 10 year (feels old man) anniversary to print a bunch of books and was disappointed with the quality of the pictures.

owenjones··on Famo.us open to everyone
It seems like they heavily turned on scroll acceleration. If I scroll 1 "click" of my mousewheel the scroll bar only move a tiny almost imperceptible amount.

If I scroll a lot the bar will fly off the top / bottom of the scrollable area and slowly come back.

Feels like it needs a little work.

owenjones··on Technology Giants Settle Hiring Suit
No one in the US goes to prison except low level drug offenders.

Everyone else is too big to jail.

owenjones··on How Autonomous Cars Will Unravel Society
There was recently another post on HN about Machine Learning that was also presented on Wayfarer, the UI for this website is very confusing and many of the posts in that submission were also:

  * I don't know how to use this / using this is actively painful
  * Is this content sponsored by Wayfarer or just hosted on it?
Not sure what Wayfinder's use case is supposed to be? Also wayfinder.co has no about page or actual content to speak of.
owenjones··on Mozilla's Gay-Marriage Litmus Test Violates Liberal Values
"In other words, no one had any reason to worry that Eich, a longtime executive at the company, would do anything that would negatively affect gay Mozilla employees."

You know, except for contribute to Prop-8?

owenjones··on What I learned about stop and frisk from watching my black son
Typical people, using tired anti-other-people sentiment to make glaring generalizations.

Seriously, please take this nonsense elsewhere, many of us are well aware of the issues regarding law enforcement in this country.

owenjones··on Turkish government takes down YouTube too
What about North Korea?

I think that's still just a slogan.

owenjones··on DirectX 12
True, but still seems like lying by omission, or at least for PR gain...
owenjones··on DirectX 12
I am not a graphics / engine programmer but I know a decent amount of what goes into programming a game, and I have to call "suspect" on the claim that low level graphics API programming was heretofore only available on game consoles like the Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Microsoft Xbox One!
owenjones··on Newsweek's Statement on the Bitcoin Story
I was just struck by the improbability of using "nothing made by an asshole."

Drive a Volkswagen? Or a Daimler, Chrysler, BMW, or Mercedes Benz?

owenjones··on Newsweek's Statement on the Bitcoin Story
Linus Torvalds is generally accepted to be pretty abrasive, at least, do you use anything created by him?

I try not to learn anything about any creator whose work I admire, they will unfortunately generally disappoint.

owenjones··on The Programming Interview Experiment
Whenever a post like this comes up I'm always curious why so much of developer interviews are focused an algorithmic performance. Is it because it can be mathematically proven while so much of what otherwise makes "good code" is subjective?
owenjones··on We Need Young People To Take Risks And Build Inspiring Things
Don't worry about the "real-world consequences [of] fail[ure]" because the author sure doesn't seem to either. For the risk-averse out there, don't you have some family to "fall back on so [you] will be unlikely to starve"?

I think the headline should be: We Need To Lower The Consequences of Failure

owenjones··on First programming job – a 4 month reflection
It's always sunny outside - a 1 minute reflection

Seriously though how can you start generalizing / assuming about working as a professional programmer when you're not even 1 year into your first job?

Try your best to change things, but don't try your best for too long till you burn out and are miserable. Some programming jobs are there just to separate the wheat from the chaff.

owenjones··on PHP or ASP.net: Did I Do The Right Thing?
If I had dedicated more time and energy to learning new things 13 years ago would I know more things now?

Yes?

owenjones··on Very tense atmosphere at a Google Bus stop in San Francisco
Right, your average tech worker in their bus is what you will see everyday, while the executive is hidden from view.

And yes I know that a six-figure income probably places you in the 90%.

However these people aren't the decision makers and can't affect change the way Google's or Apple's executives can. Until the protesters start protesting rational targets it's hard for me to commiserate or take this seriously. (clarification: I absolutely commiserate with people "gentrified" out of their neighborhoods, I just think the protesting has been directed at the wrong things)

So many of the articles include a quote from a protester that the "techies" don't interact or integrate with their neighborhoods. But I've also read many quotes from techies stating that they are unhappy with the situation too, no one wants to displace people from their homes or neighborhoods and high real estate prices hurt everyone.

If I were involved in one of these protest groups I would take the first step, get the employees involved too, and make it about something bigger than these red-herring buses!

owenjones··on Very tense atmosphere at a Google Bus stop in San Francisco
Yes it is! (to me)

Why the buses are the symbols and not the limousines or private planes that executives take to work; and are probably also provided by their respective companies.

It's so strange to me that in this situation the "haves" are such (relative to the aforementioned executives) modestly compensated tech workers.

owenjones··on Very tense atmosphere at a Google Bus stop in San Francisco
Google and Apple are paying for the stops now.
owenjones··on How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
Doesn't the fact that assumptions like these, when made by the police, can land you in jail or much worse prove the point?

What if he also assumed I was lying, drunk or armed?

owenjones··on How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
While I was a student living in a "gentrifying" part of the city, I once went outside to discover my car was full of bullets. Several in the hood, several through the windows, one in the rear tire and most disconcertingly one in the driver side headrest.

When I called the police and the investigator came, I could tell I was instantly suspect #1. He began grilling me lengthily about my whereabouts the night before and who I lived with.

An officer in blue joined as well and they were basically threatening to confiscate my car until I started talking about getting a lawyer.

Of course this situation is nowhere near the authors in terms of harm or even potential harm, but it definitely showed me that ANY interaction with the police has the potential to go VERY badly for you no matter what.

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