testbro

Aren't all 2a,2b,2c all applicable to other machines though?

> HN is definitely the latter since comments in this community are largely reserved for criticism while the appreciation is (usually) limited to upvotes.

I think this reasoning is fairly sound and possibly hints that HN may be less unfriendly than the comments alone make out.

Anonymity tends to make criticism easier to lob around. I'm in academia and even super-critical reviews tend to be prefaced by apologetic "good points" before the submission gets eviscerated; even then a good reviewer will give constructive feedback. I wonder if we could borrow this approach to commenting to improve the atmosphere?

Matt Might's illustrated guide to the PhD sort of shows this quite succinctly [1]. I don't think there are any memorable PhD theses that significantly changed anything, save for Shannon's. World-changing researchers do exist, but I think they are created after they obtain their PhD, rather than before; it's unreasonable in my eyes to expect anyone to make such significant contributions in the infancy of their research careers.

[1] : http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/

As an alternative RStudio [1] offers a decent GUI on top of R, which can load data via SQL. It doesn't give you WYSIWYG editing of data, but you can manipulate data frames as if they were SQL with the sqldf package [2]. The learning curve is very steep though so it's not a perfect alternative.

[1] : http://www.rstudio.com/

[2] : https://code.google.com/p/sqldf/

I think Xbox compatibility was achieved using an emulator; Wikipedia seems to suggest this is the case [1].

It seems like this would be an ideal opportunity for the QuickTransit [2] stuff Apple used in Rosetta to see some more use, assuming IBM would be willing to license it (and MS sees it as a worthwhile endeavour).

[1] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_w... [2] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickTransit

I suppose neither are ideal, really. With an invite only model you run the risk of biasing your feedback. The advantage of a random rollout would be the marketing sleight of hand: "gradual rollout" might be more defensible than "by invitation".

Gmail and Google Groups have both had random rollouts for changes, with optional rollbacks. That seems more fitting (to me at least).

Google has been using A/B testing for quite some time I think; they even do it with Chrome nowadays. Wouldn't that work to manage load?

Given that all a 3D printer will produce is plastic (ignoring SLS as it's much further away on the radar), the number of shots is limited before it fails. That's in addition to the requirement to buy ammunition first. Something from Home Depot probably poses a greater threat and would be equally undetectable.

I can't imagine anyone opting to buy a printer, calibrate it and print a terrible gun when they could just buy a hammer (or improvise a firearm out of a piece of pipe).

A similar tool exists for Java, although it doesn't rely on symbolic execution (but IIRC it is able to use it for integer constraints) but evolutionary test data generation [1]. There's a plugin for Eclipse too.

[1] : http://www.evosuite.org

This behaviour was common in the last Facebook Hacker Cup too. Most of the announcements of rounds starting included discussion of (and in some cases links to) solutions.

I guess it's part and parcel - I think Facebook did take action against obvious plagiarisers. If not, the later rounds will weed out the cheaters in any case.

Kurzweil is awkwardly reminiscent of the connectionists of yore. I'm surprised nobody's taken a similarly hostile attitude towards his (as yet unsubstantiable) predictions.

Are you sure it's not because the default branch is empty? It's a design choice [1] for all the other Android kernel images.

[1] : https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/android-bu...

The problem, as with any DRM scheme is that the plaintext is available somewhere. Figure out where the buffer is, read it via the JS console (or Pin if the browser won't cooperate) and you're done. Asm.js probably offers as much protection as a normal binary, although the niceties of the JS runtime might make developing patches to dump streams easier than in native code.

I'd definitely say it's feasible, although I'm not sure it would add much beyond what Flash/Silverlight already provide.

Certainly - the comments on the original article are eye-opening to say the least. Having never been to a tech conference I haven't experienced the type of atmosphere.

To restate my comment with that in mind; I don't think banning innuendo will solve any problems. Perhaps it might improve the atmosphere, but it won't fix the underlying attitude problems placed in the spotlight for the last week.

As a normal male I find it perplexing how anyone could find the majority of these things appropriate.

I can't speak for women, but it seems a little extreme to assert that women should be shielded from innuendo in case it reduces the males into a pack of sexually charged morons.

I wouldn't be supplied if they used MISRA [1]. It can be enforced just using static analysis too, and IIRC it's good enough for avionics used elsewhere.

[1] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MISRA_C

The documentation is beautifully written and perfect for learning, but it doesn't support the quick-fire referencing I, and I presume the other detractors, have grown to expect.

Contrast the first Google result for "python dictionary" [1] and "java hashmap" [2]. The Python result tells you about every data structure and does so in a story, the Java one gives you what you want and little more.

[1] : http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/datastructures.html

[2] : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/HashMap.h...

This sucky design is further-reaching - it's part of all Blogger sites. There's no way to drop to a sensible version either IIRC.

If you allow the candidate to do what they'd do at their desk you can ask more than trivial questions. Certainly, if they have to ping google to figure out how to write fizzbuzz, that's a red flag, but it depends what the person spec is.

How many positions would you estimate (I'm an academic so have no experience) where encyclopedic and gap-less knowledge is required to accomplish a task? I envision a technical interview as an opportunity to make sure the candidate can actually do the task you need them to - the screening of non-programmers should be done beforehand.

>I favor open devices without those hastles.

Surely an Android device would have been a better choice? Jailbreaking is a kludge, it doesn't make the iPhone less encumbered from the average user's perspective.