fshaun

I have never understood the argument that taxes on e.g. gasoline are regressive and this should not be raised. When we find an externality that is not accounted for in costs, are we to throw up our hands and say we cannot do anything because some of the increased costs will be passed on to consumers? The right amswer is not to avoid the tax but to compensate the mpst affected via redistributive policies like a negative income tax.

Yes, agreed. It is a step backward to manipulate and recombine bytes. "Extracting an integer from a packet, then changing it's internal format" is exactly what is being done, and thinking at that abstraction level is beter than playing with individual bytes. And suppose you hoist those operations into a separate function instead of doing it for every field? Well, congratulations on reimplementing ntohX. If the boundary between internal and external data is not clear, that's a bigger issue that could cause incorrect or unnecessary data transformations, whether we're talking about byte order, string sanitizing, unit conversions, etc.

Every thread about high speed rail seems to have this response to an argument no one is making. NY-LA doesn't make sense, but it is nationally embarrassing not to have the BosWash corridor connected.

My experience in London was much better... sure, a hot market meant you needed to move fast, but no hoops around local guarantors or months of pay stubs. It was easier than most local rentals I've done in Boston.

Skimming the benchmark, I didn't see any negative tests (checking for words not contained), which can be as or more important than the positive case depending on the expected use.

Thinking things through isn't necessarily pessimistic. When I have a contingency plan already in mind, I worry less about the event actually happening.

As a visually impaired user, this is my single biggest gripe with PDFs. Its also annoying that zooming on many websites completely breaks the layout, often overlapping text or pushing important elements off of the screen. I find this particularly sad, since HTML largely supports a separation of content and presentation.

Venmo was one of the few (maybe only) system that allows you to pay users who are not on their system. Say you need to pay Joe and you were a Venmo user but Joe wasn't. You could still "pay" them on venmo and they would get a text back saying if they signed up they would get the payment.

If someone "paid" me this way, there would be issues.

I agree re: favoring Oxford comma, but I don't think this reasoning supports it. Jane && Tom || Bill && Wendy || Susie && Frank is unambiguous in e.g. C++, as the language specifies operator precedence. The inclusion of parentheses is a question of style, not correctness. OTOH, omitting commas can rely on context and subjective reasoning.

Good point about incompatible goals. One way out is to align the value as perceived by users with the value as perceived by engineers. If users aren't willing to pay for reliability/security/etc. then it's rational for management to devalue those properties.

I'm not optimistic that this will happen. Anecdotally, I expound to acquaintances the risks of unprotected PII or questionably-secured home security apps, but convenience seems to outweigh such concerns.

Regulation is one approach to solve asymmetric information transactions. I don't see how that could be applied in general to software quality, but it could target the cases that have severe or widespread effects.

For learning a new language, if I have enough time, I read through the entire book. This helps me learn the terminology and names for concepts. It's much easier to search for more information when you know the right jargon. Reading everything helps to gauge the scope of the language and map it to or from known concepts. This is how I read TC++PL and Ada as a Second Language, which I think worked because their of their breadth.

Sometimes there's not enough time to do that, like when you're thrown into an unfamiliar code base or need to interface with a new API. Then I thoroughly read enough chapters to get the syntax and skim the start of other chapters, plus the index/glossary, again minly to learn terms. The required depth depends on what you're doing. If there's an unfamiliar concept heavily used in the code, of course read those sections more.

I usually avoid exercises because I already have a project or goal, so I work up my own examples that advance those needs but still use the idea or technique of the exercises. I highly recommend trying out a new technique with a small test before applying it at large, or assuming its use as part of the software architecture. You don't want to discover late in the game that the way you planned to use Java generics or C# Pinvoke won't work.

Sometimes the goal is to learn a new technique or dive deeper into the language. I've immensely enjoyed books by Meyers, Alexandrescu, and Sutter, that have more self-contained sections. I still find it useful to read the ToC or skim the chapter introductions, but my mindset is usually more "how can I apply this?", and reading everything straight through doesn't give me enough time to focus on specific things.

discussion websites like reddit/HN are better than Usenet

I strongly disagree with this, as Usenet and even mailing lists offer many advantages over web forums. With web forums, I can't natively...

- Store, read, search content offline

- Read only new messages

- View thread context

- Access information redundantly (no SPOF)

- Killfile senders

- Integrate viewing and composing with local tools

While a particular site mitigates its disadvantages, perhaps via a better UI or via information not available elsewhere, the medium as a whole cannot. A website might be a fine view of information, but it should not be the only interface to that information. Doing so prevents all of the above uses and makes it much harder to reuse content in ways unforeseen by the original site. I suspect this is the root of the problem -- such reuse is not desirable for most sites, as it conflcts with their business model.

This was my thought as well. I recall reading that IQ/"G" and work products were the dominant predicative factors for good hires. Can anyone help with a source that confirms/refutes? Since new grads wouldn't have many past work products, it would make sense if employers use university admissions as a proxy for general aptitude testing, which are legally difficult to use.

I don't undrstand this. You know the seat can recline. I always position my laptop so the screen would be pushed closed instead of being jammed, in case the seat in front of me suddenly reclines. Maybe there isn't a configuration that allows this; then it's a calculated risk to use the computer anyway.

It's not just the space; reclining can be the difference between being stable or not. Often when sleeping in an upright seat, my CoG is such that I'll lean left/right/forward. Reclining at even a small angle prevent this.

Demand is proportional to perceived threat, not actual threat. This "ROI" is one of the reasons terrorism continues. A city can be quite safe even if its residents are not rational.

Another difference I appreciate is that UK traffic lights cycle red -> yellow -> green. So, given a red light I have at least 1-2 seconds that's safe, and usually more since the timing can be inferred from traffic patterns (cars won't get a green light while there is active cross traffic). I always look more at the vehicle lights instead of pedestrian lights -- I don't particularly trust drivers to pay attention to pedestrians or our signals...

The issue is that the slowness is unnecessary. No, I cannot give it a second when it should only take 100ms. There is such a thing as pride in craft that seems sorely lacking today. I could not live with myself if I had build a quarter of the websites I deal with daily. I don't know all of the causes, but I certainly understand the frustration.

I don't think introducing an unbounded liability is the solution to this (or perhaps any) problem. Would this work for 99% of flights? Sure. But it's just asking to be gamed.

Ignoring your age generalization, the amount of free time should not be a hiring consideration. The only question is "can you meet our expectation of working X amount of time." Of course, some workers are more willing to work more hours uncompensated, but ethical companies shouldn't exploit this and pragmatic companies realize that long hours aren't productive anyway.

But inappropriate != illegal. The union of what each person considers socially inappropriate is a rather large set... both undesirable and impossible to legally enforce. As other comments say, there are better things to be upset at here.

C-q (quoted-insert) will insert the next input character ignoring any other bindings. So: C-q C-\ C-q C-] C-q C-^ C-q C-_

Ah, memories. My inspiration to study CS, though probably fortunate that it was mostly dead by sophomore year, or my college GPA would have been much worse.

Netrek's macro system was another feature I wish were more widely adopted in games. Receiver-configurable distresses (RCDs) allowed a sender to publish named kinds of messages ("help at location, intercepting X, ship status, bombing planet, etc.) but receivers control the formatting. So I can set up my client to only show your hull+fuel for general distress calls but more data based on the kind of message.

If everything is wired and functioning correctly I believe you are correct; the article mentions the case of electricians mixing up hot and ground wires. Presumably an appliance manufacturer could also have a mistake, but assembly lines are more consistent than humans -- if UL or CE tests a device it's likely all devices of that model are OK.

I suspect not, but I'd be happy to hear otherwise. Certification is as much about process and traceability as it is about the code itself. Open source naturally tends to give visibility into the development process, but there's usually no business driver to spend the money on certification. Think multiple thousands of dollars per line of code.

A great point. I'm actually the opposite. I can do detail-oriented things best early in the day (8am-noon) but I'm often at my creative after dinner and into the evening (6pm-10pm) when there tend to be fewer distractions.

This can make multitasking harder or easier. If tasks mesh well you can work on whichever you're better suited to at the time.

Is it as objectionable when considered a higher base price, but letting people opt out of content they don't want and be refunded? I don't understand why tiering is bad. You'd have to avoid an awfully lot of businesses to get away from tiered services.

Good point, I was looking at it from the perspective of a client wondering "how much will I pay." As you say the lawyer doing the work won't be taking home nearly that much. I didn't know it would go as low as $20/hour though. My conservative estimate for a new lawyer in the US would be $80K/2400 hours = ~ $34/hr. How do the expected hours compare in the UK?

With a cap of $100/hr does the data really reflect "high-wage" skills? Lawyers start well above that and it's smack in the middle of a poll from a few years ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=553794.

I agree that removing noise and consumption for the sake of distraction is a fine goal, but we cannot pretend there are no consequences from going to one extreme to the other. It's tempting to look at an isolated event like Osama Bin Laden's death and think "who cares? doesn't affect me" but these events form the fabric of the world.

Democracy requires and educated and informed electorate [Jefferson], and if you don't know what the dots are, you can't connect them. Sure, willful ignorance will give you more time to be productive, but when society at large chooses this route, don't be surprised when things go downhill.