News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

Tim_M

Re:Ask HN: Why does this site use center and table tags? on Tuesday August 14, 2012 @02:17AM (#4379651)
This compatibility of HN is far superior than both of reddit's mobile versions. Please don't fix what isn't broke
Re:Apollo program source code on Wednesday April 25, 2012 @11:26PM (#3892235)
I didn't see an opening bracket for sarcasm so I assume it's before 'Great win'. Were they really surprised by this? Also are they same people that didn't know putting hard drives in space would fail because of the lack of air and had to replace them with SSDs?
Re:Cleaner Hacker News on Monday March 12, 2012 @04:13AM (#3692702)
I once tried reddit's default look, its old mobile look and its new beta mobile look on my psp. All 3 looked terrible so I was very surprised that HN looked perfect on both. It doesn't need any fixing.
Re:Young & Stupid: How I Made 2.5 Million on Thursday October 21, 2010 @07:57AM (#1815062)
Indeed it is not perfect use of the English language but why complain about it or brag that you noticed the mistake? Most people who understand English can read 'txt' as 'text' and 'wrk' as 'work' and if the theory that intelligence is defined by how well you can predict, then you are only bragging the way about the ways you lack intelligence. I have never considered myself as smarter than average but my brain parsed that whole text without error.
Re:The angry emo D rant on Wednesday October 13, 2010 @12:29AM (#1786089)
In the early days D seemed like a real good idea as a cleanup replacement for C++ with potential to innovate in some areas such as the multi core revolution.

The developers started off with something that was compatible with C in the same way C++ was but couldn't make up there mind whether they would like to depart or maintain that relationship. Then they kept adding increasingly more features/complexity and a lot of the decisions were pressured and rushed out the door by Andrei Alexandrescu so he could meet the deadlines for the book everyone had preordered. Eventually D was left as a language that had no idea what it was trying to be.

What does "1/10 of 1%" actually mean? How is it different from 0.1%?
Re:Stephen Wolfram Uses This on Tuesday August 17, 2010 @12:01AM (#1610206)
He once said that he records all of his own keystrokes(Sorry don't have the link). You need to remember he is a very unusual person.
Re:Ask HN: Career opportunities with Haskell? on Monday August 16, 2010 @09:10AM (#1607660)
Haskell is such a great language and it's a real shame that not many companies see it's advantages. There was recently a discussion on haskell-cafe[1] about it's lack of adoption in industries other than finance.

Haskell is perfectly suited for critical systems: I've seen job postings for C++ programmers for air traffic control systems which I think could really do with haskell's type safety.

In recent years however haskell performance and library availability has made it suitable for general high level programming like web development for example[2][3].

[1]http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.cafe/78651

[2]http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Web

[3]http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Applications_and_libraries/We...

Re:A Real Web Design Application on Tuesday July 27, 2010 @08:55AM (#1551022)
The author suggests a design app based on web kit and then clarigies in the comments that he meant any layout engine:

"Why Webkit? Do we really want a design application that is specific to a single rendering engine?

WebKit is just one option. Gecko could work too. I guess with the advent of Safari for Windows and Chrome, WebKit just seemed like the go-to. I don’t actually know that it’s important which browser gets used, just so long as it’s on a healthy development track and is consistent enough to be predictable. Whatever the option, it wouldn’t replace testing in the browser, just merely provide a consistent window to it."

Well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KompoZer is exactly that. A web design app that uses a real web layout engine.

Re:Software Calculus - The Missing Abstraction on Monday July 05, 2010 @10:58PM (#1489809)
Isn't that what these are for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_calculus
Re:Going from zero-install to instant-install on Monday June 21, 2010 @09:54AM (#1448779)
The arguments for install seem a bit weak and/or incorrect.

> Web apps can't open popup windows

Popupblocker allow

> Web browsers cannot offer permanent storage

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/Storage

> Web apps can't put things on the clipboard

Go to any github repo and there is a nice copy to clipboard button.

> Web apps can't know when the system is idle (eg to turn the chat icon from green to yellow)

Google chat has being do this for a long time already.

Re:The Bitter Truth About Sugar on Saturday June 19, 2010 @11:40PM (#1445818)
Re:An interview by a 7th grader on Sunday June 13, 2010 @12:22AM (#1426960)
What's the date on this essay? Most of the other essays say the month/year at the top.
Re:Caffeine Pills vs Coffee on Monday March 01, 2010 @07:10AM (#1158548)
Also incase it gets overlooked and assuming that those caffeine pills have no sugar/protein:

If your coffee has sugar you may notice the drop in sugar. If it has protein then this can greatly change the effect of the caffeine (the amino acids tyrosine+phenyalanine are required for adrenaline synthesis for example)

Re:Mathematical functions in our environment on Monday March 01, 2010 @06:58AM (#1158539)
It's nice to think that every plant has some mathematical formula encoded within it's genes:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=polar+r+%3D+%28sin%28th...

but given a shape, what's the easiest way to find the formula. Is there automated tools to do this from picture files?

And this is what people forgot when they say html5 is superior. 'The future' - maybe but is anyone creating tools to speed up the generation of html5+js?
Re:Subscriptions are the New Black on Monday February 01, 2010 @09:20PM (#1094089)
> In 2015 the default login & payment method(s) on the web will be facebook Connect, Google Gmail, or Apple iTunes.

Why not openid?

Re:Top 6 Web Browsers You Probably Haven’t Heard Of on Tuesday January 19, 2010 @09:51PM (#1063913)
A browser that is not mentioned but I highly recommend over anything else: http://www.twotoasts.de/index.php?/pages/midori_summary.html
I have not tried his videos yet but I would highly recommend http://www.youtube.com/user/patrickJMT#g/u also.
Re:How Not To Promote Your New Startup on Saturday January 02, 2010 @01:18AM (#1026870)
Was any patents involved?
Re:How to Decline Job Applicants? on Friday December 18, 2009 @09:28AM (#1003133)
Sometimes it's not rejection that's the issue but the employers laziness to explain why the applicant failed. It is fair to let all applicants know so they can stop making the same mistakes or just know in general what to improve on.
Re:Rethinking artificial intelligence on Sunday December 13, 2009 @04:06PM (#993110)
intelligence is how great our ability to predict is according to this talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jeff_hawkins_on_how_brain_...
Re:Poll: Have you ever "borrowed" other people's code/layout etc? on Thursday December 10, 2009 @10:54PM (#989158)
By 'borrow' does that mean to use the code etc to get something working then eventually re write those particular pieces yourself in a similar way that freebsd did or can they be kept for eternity.