Hacker News Reader

s-phi-nlon Write your passwords down

http://www.baekdal.com/tips/password-security-usability says that it would take 2,537 years to crack a password with three common words, at a rate of 100 guesses per second, and flange isn't common. That's long enough for me.

s-phi-nlon The insecurity of OpenBSD (Jan 2010)

cperciva: any comments as the security officer of another BSD?

s-phi-nlon There is no talent

By Retric at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1647291

"The following men won gold in a solo swimming even in 2008.

  "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Phelps
  "6 ft 4 in
  "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Bernard
  "6 ft 5 in
  "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Cielo_Filho
  "6 ft 5 in
  "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Tae_Hwan
  "6 ft in
  "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oussama_Mellouli
  "6 ft 3 in http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/TUN/Oussama+Mellouli/217537
  "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Peirsol
  "6 ft 4 in 
  "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Lochte
  "6 ft 2 in   
  "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosuke_Kitajima
  "5 ft 10 in 
  "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maarten_van_der_Weijden (10 km marathon)
  "6 ft 7 1⁄2 in

"Height is not the most important factor in swimming, but out of 10 people, only one was under 6' and he is still taller than average. Now look at something like size of hands and they are going to stand out even more. Practice may be able to get an average person to the 90th percentile in most things but once you start talking about 99.99% DNA becomes extremely important."

(If you upvote me, please upvote the original comment as well: I'm sure Retric would appreciate it)

s-phi-nlon Can you name the Programming Language if You Know The Creators?

One they did not ask: Alan Kay

s-phi-nlon What a Hundred Million Calls to 311 Reveal About New York

I think Tufte comments on this type of graph (or a similar type), but I don't have a copy of the book handy. Would anyone who does like to share what he says?

s-phi-nlon "More Sex is Safer Sex" Paradox (Python)

Or the study chose to study only heterosexual relationships. (Though the sibling comments seems to imply they didn't)

s-phi-nlon Why is there not a Square Root button in calc.exe?

I disagree. One can use square roots to find the roots of quadratic equations (for example the equation for the velocity of a projectile) without needing to know that sqrt(x)=x^1/2.

s-phi-nlon Cobol on cogs

Maybe I'm just too young, but I don't get the joke (other than that writing a web framework in COBOL is somewhat funny). Anyone care to explain?

s-phi-nlon Micro languages in Clojure via macros and let

See http://paulgraham.com/progbot.html

s-phi-nlon Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech

I could not read before kindergarten and, given that they later home-schooled me, I would not say my parents were "fucking up".

s-phi-nlon Ask HN: What annoys you?

Sorry for the accidental downvote. I meant to upvote because I have been thinking about (more formal) music notation on and off for years, too, trying to come up with a better format than Lilypond.

s-phi-nlon Ask HN: Best options for wearable computing? How can I type and walk?

This reminds me of edw519's comments on how he codes fast http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1544453:

"Very fast. Let me explain.

"I work in 2 modes: (A) At the computer and (B) Away from the computer.

"When I'm in Mode A at the computer, I'm cranking out lines of code, testing, revising, testing, revising, etc. This process must be very fast. Several hundred lines of code (or whatever) in less than an hour. A complete cycle in less than a couple of hours. My guideline is that if I'm not working that fast, then I must not be prepared to work that fast, so I don't deserve to be at the computer. I should be in mode (B).

"Mode B is generally much slower. Reviewing code, specs, or notes. Refactoring code. Laying things out with pen and paper. When I have enough work clearly laid out, I know it's time to get back to the computer and return to Mode A."

s-phi-nlon I need a software that ....

I would presume that someone's 'third language' is the third language that he learned. However, according to Wikipedia, you are right that someone's second language is any language they learned after their first, not just the second language they learned.

s-phi-nlon US Immigration System Sucks, if you are a Founder

Couldn't one just ask them to incorporate a company? I know this is generally better done later rather than sooner, but it is enough of a hassle that I think it would be a reasonable indicator of commitment.

s-phi-nlon A cure for Hacker News overload

There is also a best comments page at http://news.ycombinator.com/bestcomments.

s-phi-nlon Poll: Are you a Programmer?

Why not? What do you find advantageous to call yourself instead.

s-phi-nlon [dead]

Not sure how many languages can do that! :P

At least 21, listed at http://www.paulgraham.com/accgen.html solving a problem that contains this one.

s-phi-nlon My interviews at Google

See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1520431.

s-phi-nlon Ytterby: The Tiny Swedish Island That Gave the Periodic Table 4 Elements

Just out of curiosity would "Ytterboe" mean "from Ytterby"? I'm wondering because my college has a dorm named "Ytterboe".

s-phi-nlon In what language do deaf people think?

A similar thing happened in the al-Sayyid Bedouin tribe in southern Israel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Sayyid_Bedouin_Sign_Language.

s-phi-nlon Duck Duck Go written in Perl

On a similar topic, A God's Lament http://xkcd.com/312/

s-phi-nlon Request HN: Please all update contact info in your profile

It already has messaging capability, but it's only enabled for YC and founders. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=112732.

s-phi-nlon Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

While your advice seems researched and correct, the general advice passed down by Boy Scouts is reach, throw, row, go.

First, try and reach something out to the victim for him to grab hold of. If that won't work, try to throw something for him to hang on to. If that fails, go to them in some kind of boat (though a surfboard may work too). If, and only if, all those things do not work, swim out to rescue them.

[Edit: after having read the article, I realize that this is advice in what to do for someone experiencing aquatic distress, not someone who is drowning. My apologies.

s-phi-nlon UK Government asks: "Which laws would you like to see repealed?"

If you meant the question seriously, I think the Twenty-First Amendment to the US Constitution is a prior example.

s-phi-nlon Dr. Richard Hipp calls them "Postmodern Databases"

Seems to be an example of semantic diffusion. http://martinfowler.com/bliki/SemanticDiffusion.html

s-phi-nlon Feel free to type anywhere

Are they using Etherpad technology?

s-phi-nlon Anyone Interested in Articles on Using PyPy to Create New Languages?

Smalltalk doesn't have the library breadth for people to be attracted to its virtual machine.

s-phi-nlon BSD for Linux Users (2005)

In response to your comment, I added the date to the title.

s-phi-nlon Inspired by HN: ReadMyCode.org - Idea to reality in 24 hours

Could you put up a link to an explanation of what the website is all about? You already have that in the comment you linked to. I wish RefactorMyCode would do this, too.

s-phi-nlon Visualize the Deepwater oil spil over your hometown

Does anyone know what causes the big clear spots in the middle?