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lytol

Re:Brad Cox has died on Friday January 22, 2021 @05:48PM (#25877263)
Interestingly, I feel like this comparison to an IC and input(s) -> output(s) is more akin to functional approaches, and many people complain about OOP being the opposite.

To quote Joe Armstrong:

> I think the lack of reusability comes in object-oriented languages, not functional languages. Because the problem with object-oriented languages is they’ve got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle. If you have referentially transparent code, if you have pure functions — all the data comes in its input arguments and everything goes out and leave no state behind — it’s incredibly reusable.

Well, then it's certainly camera shy.
Re:Interviews with developers who became managers on Monday March 25, 2019 @08:03PM (#19487987)
Individual contributor.
Re:Startup Ideas on Thursday November 16, 2017 @06:46PM (#15717749)
It's not so much parent supervision but just parent buy-in. If you're a game, no problem, you just need to appeal to the kid. If you're trying to be a safe portal to the wider internet, you probably need parents onboard.
Re:Startup Ideas on Thursday November 16, 2017 @03:34PM (#15716349)
I was a senior engineer at a startup that evolved into this space – basically, we started as a browser for kids and slowly started adding more "social" features. I thought I'd add a few notes in case you (or someone else) goes down this road:

- Monetization is hard. As much as parents vocally _desire_ a safe space for their kids online, it doesn't translate to their wallet. If you end up going for more indirect revenue (ads, branded experience, etc), you'll find yourself in ethical gray areas quickly.

- Read up heavily on COPPA. It is by no means insurmountable, but it adds more work and restricts what you can/can't do.

- Social interaction needs to either be severely limited or heavily moderated, both of which have serious problems. You can't just throw a kid into peer-to-peer chat rooms or private chat for obvious reasons. Likewise, a kid gets bored quickly with a pre-determined set of "emotes" or canned text. Finding a balance between the two is very difficult.

- Parents care less than they think they do. Every parent, from casual conversation to focus groups, will light up at the idea of a kid-safe internet/social network. However, we found parent engagement to severely drop after initial sign up, despite how active the kid might be. We did weekly reports on kid activity and interests, ways to share content and engage with your kid, etc – all of which was rarely used.

Granted, it's quite possible (probable) that we missed the mark, and that we just didn't have the right timing/vision/execution, but there was enough friction that I came out the other end with a strong bias against working in the kids' space again.

Re:Pop_OS by System76 on Friday October 20, 2017 @01:28AM (#15513696)
What's the benefit/reasoning here for another distro? I just want rock-solid hardware with strong Linux compatibility. It seems like the man-hours would be better spent contributing to drivers to ensure stability and accessibility across all Linux distributions.
Re:Typing Practice for Programmers on Monday January 30, 2017 @01:16AM (#13519067)
Depends. Do you ever have to look down at the keyboard? If so, then you really should learn to touch type. If you can fluently type without ever looking down, it would probably be a low return on the investment. The only caveat would be RSI-related issues, but I'm really not qualified to opine there.
Re:Dow Hits 20000 for First Time on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @07:01PM (#13487440)
The Dow is more similar to using a barometer and proclaiming it the warmest year ever. However, in this case, the thermometer just happens to agree.
Re:Newegg sues patent troll that dropped its case on Thursday January 28, 2016 @11:34AM (#10989162)
IANAL but my understanding is that patents cover the implementation not the idea. If you aren't capable of practicing (yielding the product), you probably shouldn't be holding/filing a patent.
Re:Ask HN: What are your note-taking techniques? on Thursday July 30, 2015 @03:12PM (#9977257)
I use nvAlt (http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/) and have it write to a "Notes" folder in Google Drive := ubiquitous format + search + syncing
Re:HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF on Wednesday January 28, 2015 @09:08PM (#8963919)
Macallan 12 – that's a fine scotch! Also, it appears empty, which probably means he's on break whether he thinks so or not.
Re:The cost of Linux's page fault handling on Thursday May 01, 2014 @03:44PM (#7682261)
> he might undo the wrong of releasing git into the world

I've never seen a comment with which I more vehemently disagree.

Re:Things I wish I knew before I started making websites on Monday February 24, 2014 @01:53PM (#7292635)
I think he would consider books as "guided learning."
Re:HBO says no, for now, to fans who want a web-only option on Thursday June 07, 2012 @11:56AM (#4079614)
Time Warner Cable is not owned by Time Warner. They are an entirely independent company that continues to license the name. I just found this out recently, so thought I'd share.
Re:Induction: A Polyglot Database Client For Mac OS X on Monday March 05, 2012 @01:36PM (#3667673)
The XCode project compiled and ran straight out of the box for me.
I'm just hoping to edge out "How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Pooping During Childbirth" in Google search results.