News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

cbailey

Re:Try Python, Ruby, Lua, Scheme, QBasic, Forth ... on Friday September 30, 2011 @10:56AM (#3057230)
Love it. This site is hella-fast and responsive compared to the other "Try [x]" web apps I've used before. Love the addition of LOLCODE. Personally, it took me a second to figure out the lambda and eg buttons, but I didn't find it frustrating or difficult. Pretty smart if you ask me.
I like the idea. I'd like San Antonio or Austin to be added to the list of cities available. Keep up the good work!
Re:How To Manage Geeks on Friday July 22, 2011 @10:55AM (#2793765)
Even though I agree with most of this list, I still can't help but feel a little put-off by all the geek-this and geek-that speak. There seemed to be a basic point that "geeks" usually have a low tolerance for the stereotypical business world and speak. Cheap awards, cheap prizes, pointless meetings, the word "synergy"? No thanks.
Re:How To Manage Geeks on Friday July 22, 2011 @10:52AM (#2793748)
Exactly. And my bet is that the people that need to read this the most won't read past the headline or first paragraph.
If you were trying to discourage your girlfriend from purchasing shoes, this method would probably only discourage your girlfriend from checking in to shoe stores.
Re:Bank of Canada: The New $100 Note on Saturday June 25, 2011 @12:40AM (#2694940)
I'm American, and I have to agree with you. I travelled to Ireland last month and having 1 and 2 € coins was great. The different sized bills took a little getting used to, but even that was great because I could quickly tell them apart (along with the different colors). I'd like to see wider adoption of 1 and maybe 2 $ coins here sometime in the bear future.
Re:Darpa: US Geek Shortage Is National Security Risk on Saturday June 25, 2011 @12:28AM (#2694918)
If these people really thought about it, they would see that the market is flooded with lawyers and screaming for quality engineers of all kinds. I know this because my wife is in law school and the law schools are admitting and churning out more lawyers than ever despite many law jobs dissolving into thin air.
Re:NFC Starter Kits for Android Developers on Saturday June 25, 2011 @12:16AM (#2694905)
What a great move to get NFC accepted into the mainstream.
I agree. While most of the items on that list are web based, they are easy enough things that can be worked on while taking classes. Working on projects like these get you into the hacking/diy mindset that really differentiate the top and low level CS students. Will every CS student need to build a web app or use MapReduce? No, but learning new technologies and getting your hands dirty teaches you to ask questions, start something, and learn as opposed to being complacent with your current level of knowledge.
Re:Stop Apple's iPhone Kill Switch on Wednesday June 22, 2011 @04:40PM (#2685142)
^ This. If Apple ever decides to use this technology in a way that is deemed censorship, I'll join the "No Apple Kill Switch" initiative, but until then, I agree that there are reasonable uses for this tech.
Re:BankSimple: A Bank That Doesn't Suck on Wednesday June 22, 2011 @02:24PM (#2684419)
I was really impressed with the concept back in January when I tried to get a beta account. Being a 20-something and born into the tech generation, I would be comfortable with a bank that didn't have a brick and mortar presence and used the strategies that BankSimple uses (will use) to get great rates, etc. I can see how older generations would be very wary of truly online bank. I know people who were baffled when I told them I would be switching to ING or another online only bank.
While it's common practice for a city government to give tax breaks for large corporations in exchange for bringing a large number of jobs (almost like a "thank you" for bolstering the local economy), the sales-tax exemption is new to me. I had to reread the beginning of the article before it really hit me.
Re:Inspiration on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @11:26AM (#2679121)
I'm impressed. A quickdraw holster for cameras, gunslinger => filmslinger.
Re:What the French 'Civilised Internet' Looks Like on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @10:49AM (#2678948)
Similar to how the DoHS is seizing domains, and their screwup that resulted in 84,000 wrongly seized domains.
This could be done using geolocation too (e.g., if you're inside the GPS coordinates of the Pentagon, camera is deactivated). Of course, all you would have to do is turn of location services on your phone.

Or, depending on how the tech works, point your camera at an angle such that the infrared light doesn't hit the sensor in your phone's camera.

The article hints at this possibility.
Re:Living life in 25min increments on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @09:15AM (#2678598)
I tried a similar technique a year ago, and I had similar results. I found myself straying from the 25/5 by 5, 10 or more minutes.

Ultimately, it was beneficial because it forced me to focus on the tasks and how much time I was allotting to breaks.

Once you get the habits down, I would suspect the timer would be needed less and less. Similar to how people who count calories get used to it and know caloric values of what they're eating, so they eventually stop counting calories (or get sick and tired of trying to keep up with it).

Re:Uber drops fares for SF Taxi strike on Monday June 20, 2011 @05:44PM (#2676234)
I hope their advertising doesn't attract more negative attention from the local government.
Re:Foursquare has over 10,000,000 users on Monday June 20, 2011 @05:43PM (#2676231)
As long as you have Twitter and Facebook hooked up to your Foursquare account... None of my close friends use Foursquare, a couple of them have Twitters, and all of them have Facebook. Communicating location solely through Foursquare would fall under "Maybe not good" for me.
Re:DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble on Monday June 20, 2011 @03:51PM (#2675693)
I agree. I think people will surround themselves with a filter bubble with or without personalized search results. Ever tried to convince an avid Fox or CNN reader to read the opposing view's site?

From my personal experience, people rarely search for something as simple as "Egypt," and instead, search for "Egypt travelling tips" like your example.

If your Google-fu is strong, you'll write a query that targets your desired results much better than a generic shot-in-the-dark query.

Re:So, That’s the End of Bitcoin Then? on Monday June 20, 2011 @03:08PM (#2675508)
In the past 6 months, I have been issued 3 new credit cards due to security breaches. The stock market has crashed a couple times. Despite these breaches or crashes, I'm not going to cancel my cards and transfer everything to cash.

Markets are about risk, and higher risk equals higher return (or loss). Trading in a market like stocks, commodities, forex, bitcoin, etc. carries inherently high risks.