Erf's comments | WingNews

Erf | 16 years ago | on: Ask HN: Review my application (2nd try).

From the perspective of someone encountering the site: how does it help? Why should I use your site instead of just emailing them? Or using Scribd? Or putting it on my network shared drive?

Erf | 16 years ago | on: Starcraft AI competition

Was it via this product?

http://www.ailive.net/liveAI.html

Erf | 16 years ago | on: Starcraft AI competition

In programming AI players for various games, I've found that stupid algorithms with excellently-tuned parameters beat smart algorithms with decently-tuned parameters.

Erf | 16 years ago | on: Tell HN: Can we stop commenting on troll comments?

Similar: Perhaps make downvoting power -- as opposed to upvoting power -- proportional to age/karma? That would empower experienced (indoctrinated?) members to discourage the undesired content, without too heavily influencing the discussion.

Erf | 16 years ago | on: How Bing could kill Google

But the next question is: Who has the deeper pockets with which to throw more money to the content providers?

Erf | 16 years ago | on: WW2 "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" declassified [pdf]

Dupe of: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=833443

Erf | 16 years ago | on: Ask HN: do you feel Google search result quality has gone down?

Yes.

One thing I noticed is that searches no longer require that all words in the query be present in the search results. Adding a + before a word is now required to ensure that it's present in results. That frequently results in me having to do 2-3 searches to find something that could previously be found with one.

Erf | 16 years ago | on: Ask HN Computer Scientists: could my app make the world a better place?

Despite all the downmodding, jpwagner's suggestion is on the money. What would most benefit the development of a tool like this is extensive understanding of how the target audience reacts to and applies it.

Lest we forget that COBOL and SQL were originally designed to be accessible to non-developer business-y types. One wonders how much UX testing they underwent.

Erf | 16 years ago | on: A Really Nasty Ad Slips Past Google

They seem to have mostly avoided that, actually. There's no Firefox logo on their site, for example.

Erf | 16 years ago | on: OSS (pre-CIA) Simple Sabotage Field Manual

This, incidentally, reads like a business how-not-to.

Erf | 16 years ago | on: The Next Generation Bends Over

Why is it counter-intuitive? If your goal is to make a lot of money, sometimes your exit strategy will be acquisition.

Erf | 16 years ago | on: Ask HN: Help me find a source?

This is a very commonly expressed idea. One of the most-cited sources is "Mythical Man Month" by Fred Brooks.

For more: http://www.google.com/search?q=10x+programmer

Erf | 16 years ago | on: Some “Developers” Just Can’t Develop

The setup I've found works best is to have two computers with browsers pointed to an Etherpad document, to allow pseudocode, and use problem domains that don't require the use of references.

That allows face-to-face communication, and avoids the uncomfortable violation of personal space induced by over-the-shoulder glancing.

Incidentally, this technique scales very effectively for phone interviews.

Erf | 16 years ago | on: Every line of code is a user interface

The article makes an eloquent case for the following:

Code is liability.

Erf | 17 years ago | on: Customers given too many choices are 10x less likely to buy

I imagine that the confusion arose because the two dimensions which varied across the button grid had no relationship to one another.

Erf | 17 years ago | on: The Better You Program, The Worse You Communicate

Dupe. This was posted last week.

Erf | 17 years ago | on: Why Things Become Unpopular

There are also a lot more humans in the northern hemisphere.

Erf | 17 years ago | on: How do I help a treasured friend chat with me?

Your company's IT department likely hasn't blocked Etherpad, which has a chat feature.

Erf | 17 years ago | on: Curing Python's Neglect

That constitutes an appropriate use of the word "orthogonal".

Erf | 17 years ago | on: How to Land a Six-Figure Software Developer Job

Your best bet is to go after companies where developers do the hiring.

To a recruiter who isn't a developer, your resume doesn't conform to the parameters they know to look for. They're not in a position to judge whether your non-academic experience qualifies you for the positions they're responsible for fulling.

To a developer who's tired of putting up with halfhearted graduates, and/or those who need a lot of hand-holding, your resume will likely jump off the page.

Where are you most likely to find companies where developers do the hiring? The smaller the company, generally, the better the odds.