dmsimpkins

I think you're missing the point. Sure, getting "karma" is a fun aspect of SO, but I think what's beautiful about the site is the "give and take" aspect. Every programmer brings a different set of knowledge to the site, and every programmer also brings a different set of needs. And as long as people are not just using SO as tool for consumption, then the system is mutually beneficial for everyone. So, yes, while answering questions on the site does not pay the bills, what does pay the bills is my full time job as a developer. And I have been greatly helped in that job due to people donating their time, effort, and knowledge into SO. And that is why I don't see it as a waste of time to answer others' questions on the site or contribute to this documentation.

I've really enjoyed reading about the technology behind Jet. They are definitely doing some cool stuff with their dynamic pricing engine and advertising (see this post: http://techgroup.jet.com/blog/2015/08-17-realtime-pricing-re...).

However, I've found the site to be a bit strange at times regarding pricing due to their inventory model. For example, a month ago I bought a large pack of diapers for around $30. A very good deal. Then, a few weeks later when I chose the the option to purchase the same item as before, the same pack of diapers appeared as $80. Very strange.

I've found similar pricing irregularities throughout the site. It's still very possible to find good deals, but I feel that people will be wary to use the site regularly if they cannot count on the item they want always being in stock at a competitive price. Perhaps I'm using Jet the wrong way. It's very possible that they don't care about being a one-stop shop like Amazon, and instead want to rely on traffic from very specific hits through Google Shopping. Regardless, it seems like they need focus, as right now the site seems to be in limbo.

I don't know about just copying the executable, but I just copied the entire folder that contains MineSweeper.dll, Minesweeper.exe, and an XML license file over to a VM and was able to run the game from there. The folder is located under C:\Windows\winsxs\ - Just search for the exe and you'll find it.

I agree. I recently converted some large files that were previously stored using XmlSerializer to use protobuf-net, and I found an 8x increase in space efficiency, and 6-7x increase in (de)serialization efficiency. It really is a fantastic library, and if your classes are already marked up for serialization, there is very minimal work required to make the switch. For files that need not be human-readable, protobuf is definitely the way to go.

This map is certainly very interesting, but it suffers as a visualization. The topographical map is nice, due to its simplicity and well-chosen color scale, but the main geological map certainly has some problems.

The biggest problem is that they are choosing two represent two different dimensions of data(age/time period and terrain type), but are using seemingly random variations of hue to show these variations. Additionally, with so many distinct hues, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between some areas on the map (for example, Hesperian basin unit and Hesperian polar look very similar).

A more effective way to visualize this data would be to apply a separate hue to the 8 categories of terrain unit, since these are categorical data points. Then, visualize the geological age on a brightness scale, since this is more of a quantitative measurement (obviously the current map also show the particular time period, we'll just ignore that for now). I think this would provide a much clearer view of the data, though you would lose a small bit of granularity.

I love the look of this, but I have one suggestion to make. If the probability for a particular round is < 1%, I would at least leave one decimal place or show "< 1%" instead of having 0%, since obviously there is still some chance of the team making it to that round, even if it's a fraction of a percent.

Can you play full songs from Spotify on the app with a standard Spotify account? Since the Spotify app only allows full catalog access on mobile devices with a premium subscription, it seems strange that they would allow the Twitter Music app to do this.