tyn

As an occasional user who lives in just 2 hours driving distance from Amsterdam I will be happy to be convinced by what you say (I mean it). Any references?

By "messenger" I refer to myself (bringing the study to the attention of this thread's readers), it seems that I failed in communicating my point clearly - I'm quite sure you don't imply that I was paid to write this comment:) I admit that it would be better to add 'according to this study' (although there are more, one of them is cited in the article in my link).

I wonder which of the following describes best the downvoter's reasoning:

a) The study is flawed, thus it shouldn't be cited b) You misinterpreted the study c) The study is valid but it's bad news for me, so I decided to shoot the messenger.

Marijuana actually impairs memory and learning http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10607

A new generation brings not only new researchers but also new evidence (new studies, new experiments)

Suggestion: give a max limit of downvotes per user per day/week/month, this way they will think twice before they "spent" their downvotes.

Anagram of .com, i guess. Btw, I find myself so many times struggling to decipher abbreviations mentioned in hacker news, can't you people put a short explanation in parentheses whenever you use a not so well known abbr? (that was on purpose)

Searle expands on consciousness in his chinese room paper but the main point of the thought experment is that you can have a conversation that sounds intelligent without having any understanding at all of what you say and what you are being told (in other words: passing the Turing test does not imply intelligence).

"There was no theory of Chinese, no understanding. Just data. (If anyone ever wanted a disproof of Searle's riddle of the Chinese Room, here it is.)

Shouldn't this be a 'proof' instead of 'disproof'?

I play soccer. Not only good for health (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20893097/), it's also fun. You have a bigger risk of injury, though, than e.g. jogging.

You missed my point completely. Would you do all these things in the LAST day of your life?

I see a flaw in this logic. One certain bad thing that will happen to you if you leave every day as if it is your last is that you'll end up being > 200 kg (would you go to the gym the last day of your life? Would you resist the urge to eat as much as you like?). Another is that you will stop learning anything (would you go to your french course in your last day?) Another is that you might become a drug addict (some people might decide to see how crack feels like in their last day, something they wouldn't do otherwise). Another is ... ok, I believe you get the point.

For me, my notecard is my mind

"The superwoman of code ..... forcing men to write more detailed accounts of their coding issues, and expressing their programming problems before each new block of code is written"

You know much better your programming problems after starting writting code. Prototyping facilitates thinking and designing. The "superwoman" is clueless.

recursion is not as overhyped and widespread as OO is.

I usually select the text with the mouse to alternate the colors. It's terribly annoying for me, too. I wonder if visual perception differs greatly form one person to the other (I can't explain these design choices otherwise, unless the author has sadistic tendencies)

What happened to the other Syracuse geniuses, then? Now it gets more complicated. I think that the article's argument apply more to some fields (e.g. painting, cinema) than others. IT is probably one of these other fields (Guido van Rossum comes to mind here).

"What happened to the Milanese Leonardo?" Just for the sake of argument, I can think of some counterexamples: Archimede living in Syracuse (not exactly the mathematics and engineering capital of the ancient world), Einstein in Bern, Bobby Fischer in NY (and not Moscow). I'm sure you can find many many more.

I think that a web browser offers more chances for eavesdropping than living in Cambridge (or any other city) does.

I was also wondering whether web surfing is really a "waste of time". Would I be better off if I had never come to this site, never read hacker news comments and pg essays and using all this "wasted" time to become better in a programming language, instead? I know, you will probably be more succesful if you stay focused but there is so much interesting information in the internet and what the hell, you only leave once.

It seems to me that you ignore creativity. You don't want to put this in a process.

Joe has a problem with his car, it makes a terribly annoying sound. He goes to Mechanic A who decides to replace his engine. Problem solved, cost 10000$. John has exactly the same problem (with the same cause), he goes to mechanic B who finds out that a small part of the engine needs replacement. Problem fixed, cost 65$.

Btw, software, unlike buildings or chairs, is extensible and the (technical) desing decisions of the programmer are very important in how extensible it is or if it is extensible at all.

I don't know if this has been discussed before, but karma per comment would be interesting, too.

Python : myFile = open(argFilename)

Java : import java.io.*; BufferedReader myFile = new BufferedReader( new FileReader(argFilename));

Verbosity improves readability? Really?

Well, it's certainly inspiring, just a little remark to add: some things are entertaining by nature (e.g. playing soccer) while for other things you need to make an effort (oops, here it is again) to discover the joy in them (e.g. for the procedure of building the right body to play better soccer). Most people will certainly devote more time to the first category of activities (what I've called entertaining by nature).

How fun can it be to make hundrends of sit ups everyday for a long period? Yet, strong abdominals might be a must in order to be top in some fields (let's say to be a soccer player in Chelsea) or to be the actor that plays Leonidas in 300. Building strong abdominals IS painful and boring and it takes a lot of motivation to do it.