aperture's comments

aperture | 11 years ago | on: Four days of Go

I enjoyed that the author readily admits to his own faults concerning Go too:

In this telling, the story of Go is really a tale of revenge, not just against slow builds, but against all kinds of sloppy programming. Which in my opinion is too bad, because I myself am a sloppy programmer.

This really does seem to be the approach I see with the Go digest mailing list. What I don't understand though is the ease of importing a library, say from Github. Interesting that the language from the author is all about how rigid and unforgiving Go is, yet "some guys" libraries can just be thrown into the mix in your program, and Go has no issues with this.

aperture | 11 years ago | on: 8 Considerations on Choosing a Programming Language

This article really didn't get an objective analysis. The Scala language looks interesting, but the biggest "push" towards it was a graph of the job outlook, with the y axis at the scale of... .04? 4%? Is that supposed to convince me to use this in the industry, and apply my time?

I understand the article comes from scala-academy, but I think by offering a more objective viewpoint of different languages and the standards they impose, scala can show what niche they provide. I don't believe it is the niche of "Everyone is hiring a Scala programmer", but it should be (quoted from the article) "...implicits, underscore notation, flexible imports, multiple classes per file, multi-line strings, pattern matching, traits with variables, etc." If this article was about these points, with relations to other languages, that could be some quality content!

For everything else, either the article misrepresented other languages, or simply remained apathetic to their application.

aperture | 11 years ago | on: The MS-DOS Showcase

Looks like cool material, and the Internet Archive has a lot of interesting data besides games worth checking out.

On an unrelated note, that notebook picture in the article is very nice! Anybody know of where to get such a unique book?

EDIT: Found it, from http://www.geekware.ca/floppy-notebook-c-61/floppy-disk-note... Which apparently specializes in recycling electronic waste into products. Good to see the reuse of old software and hardware in this article. :)

aperture | 11 years ago | on: PCB rework

Thanks for the wiki link, very informational. I'm curious how to do Kintsugi, or if you can buy pottery with that resin.

aperture | 11 years ago | on: Hack.summit()

Very cool, I registered with the HN code with no problems.

Will these hangout videos be recorded for viewing later? I did not see that listed in the FAQ.

aperture | 11 years ago | on: FreeBSD turns 21

Wow! I just realized FreeBSD is about as old as I am! FreeBSD is a great system, and going from Windows to Ubuntu to FreeBSD was a fun transition, one I recommend for anybody willing to learn more about computers.

Recently a new book came out too for FreeBSD, I'll see if I can post it here without some sort of referral link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321968972/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl...

I managed to get one of my professors to purchase the book as well, and it was a nice piece of material for Intro to Operating Systems.

aperture | 11 years ago | on: YogaGlo Patent Dropped

Why not link this article without #disqus_thread ? As soon as it opened I instantly went to the bottom of the page.

aperture | 11 years ago | on: Programming is terrible; so learn to enjoy it

Love the article. I'm a university student, bored with the lab and into coding SSRS reports as a job. Luckily, I enjoy my work, constantly fighting the SQL queries and arranging the datasets in ever complex fashions the client needs, or decide they want to change drastically.

I found though that my enjoyment in code is I like the challenges I face, not how I got there. I have tools in front of me, that may be good or may be bad, but it doesn't matter. Using these tools, learning some tricks, or asking (even helping) others is what I find enjoyable. I enjoy the code because I challenge myself. A client will give me a new task, but ultimately it's me who has accepted it. Make the best of it.

aperture | 11 years ago | on: The optional “else” in Python loops

How about a keyword such as "after"? I feel like that could have extensible potential in other areas of the language, and the name makes a little sense logically speaking.

aperture | 12 years ago | on: A Motion-Sensing Keyboard

I find this functionality is very cool, but does it have to be motion sensing? I find physically moving your hand off the keyboard and back on to be somewhat tiring, especially since it's doing apparently the same thing as "scroll down". But since the hand stays on the left side, how about adding a button underneath the left palm, where by moving the palm slightly the command is performed? This I think takes away any inconsistencies of "motion sensing" while still keeping your efficiency at a high (not to mention keeping your hands comfortable!).

aperture | 12 years ago | on: HP Chromebook 11

That's precisely it: for developing 32 bit applications.

As it stands, I have many computers that could benefit from me programming a 32 bit application, but only my rpi could benefit (and my cell phone, I suppose) with the ARM builds.

32 bit is also helpful for me because I have some 32-bit IDE (like the naobot from Aldebaran IDE). It is simply easier for me to develop and configure.

aperture | 12 years ago | on: HP Chromebook 11

Woah, this is the kind of developing book I'd like: 6 hrs battery life IPS viewing display (without 1080p!) Mirousb universal charging cable 11 inch portability, weighing only 2lbs.

I have the acer c7 chromebook, and am really fustrated I can't simply trade it in for this chromebook. It really is one of the most appealing deals.

HN has also recently been talking about crouton, which I found very usable.

The biggest issues I see in this is 2.0 usb and that non-celeron processor.

For anybody considering developing on a chromebook, this looks like one of the most efficient chromebooks for you. A shame it doens't have a celeron though...

(Side note. I await installation for that IPS onto the acer. I may not be able to turn in the acer c7 for the hp, but if I can get ahold of that 11 inch IPS, I'm game for that :)

aperture | 12 years ago | on: VLC 2.1.0

I am sorry, got back from work and noticed I wasn't very specific.

What I mean to say is imagine a deck of cards, to be "shuffled".

Most players will shuffle by rearranging the cards, and you'll get the occasional adjacent cards next to each other, or you may not, it is just random all around.

In vlc, you get more of a beginner's shuffle (say, from a child). Cards are mixed, but not shuffled fully. This results in play which prefers groupings of cards (Ace of spades, 2 of spades, 3 of spades), but at a common rate. Therefore, we can say it is "sort of" shuffled.

I preformed about five tests, and found as little as ten songs will show the effect. My test was install the newest vlc (windows 7 64-bit build), add 10 songs to playlist once it opens, then hit shuffle and record how the 9 songs are shuffled (assuming you are on song 1 in the playlist).

To have comparable random data, I did "import random" in python and then random.shuffle with an array with values in the range of ten.

From this, I gathered vlc was not random "enough", which for a music library of around 10,000 (11,000 now, but 10 at the time), this became irritating enough that I view vlc more as a starter multimedia platform. Were this issue to be fixed (or even seen as an issue!), I would be quite surprised.

aperture | 12 years ago | on: VLC 2.1.0

I can attest to this.

I tested on python a music playlist and randomly arranged the numbers, and also tried the same on vlc. I found in python, numbers were really random (done maybe a month or two ago, so they implemented the new algo). However, in vlc, this was the issue:

Songs would come in as [6, 7, 8, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5]

So the "random" or "shuffle" was kind of half-done. You would have the same artist's songs being played because if you sorted by album they were right next to each other.

I went on #vlc once and I tried submitting a bug report. I seem to recall one or two was submitted online, but many claim it is simply not a bug. Random or shuffle, either way the definition is skewed as there is some linearity.

Luckily, I have cmus, and I connected that with cmus-remote to my android. ;) Trust me, once you have a nice linux ncurses player for terminal, it is very hard to seriously consider any competitors. Vlc is still nice though to tell my friends to install on windows machines for anime. And because they have a music library of ~30 songs, they will probably not notice the shuffle issue.

aperture | 12 years ago | on: The Real Reason The Poor Go Without Bank Accounts

Currently, I'm interning at a well known banking wealth management company, and I find the rich like to have the same environment.

Birthday cards, get well soon cards, calling the client and asking how they are, helping them with last minute account stuff (like making their visa have a higher cap so that cruise trip can be insured).

I think a lot of banking should be like this. I doubt it ever could be, as most banks have very few people, but specialized areas, like this rite-aid, or some wealth banking, have the time to dedicate to these people.

Treating people like people, whether it is restaurants, or banking, or anything, makes a business less like a service and more like an experience. It should be something a lot of startup companies on hn should look into.

aperture | 12 years ago | on: Girl’s Suicide Points to Rise in Apps Used by Cyberbullies

I don't want to knock down the issues of cyber bullying, but I don't feel this article does anything to fix the situation. All this article tells me is this girl was a victim, her mom stopped it, then her mom relaxed and suicide resulted after further bullying.

The article hints that there was some drama with a boyfriend, but doesn't flesh any of that out. I want to address the bullies. Did they realize the impact that they were having? Were they angry at her perhaps spreading rumors, acting superior in school, what was the bully's perspective of this girl? As hinted by other comments here, why do teenagers choose to go more and more into the negative feedback loop they create in social media.

It is also worth considering what social applications can do about this. All a social app needs to say is "Hey, here's a person from your old school who bullied you. You should be his friend." and all the ads marketing towards advil after her google search?

Cyberbullying is a field I have so many questions about. This article serves to show that we know so little about cyberbullying, but it is a serious concern.

aperture | 12 years ago | on: What is Microsoft smoking?

You make some interesting points, but I don't think it really addresses the heart of the issue.

In terms of marketing, the Xbox One isn't as pleasing to many people as one would come to expect (but then again, Wii U isn't doing much better). I think the naming should have been given a little more consideration, but I don't think that's really anything more than a sub-issue with the platform.

The pricing, however, is. As a marketing team, what needed to be done was addressing the newer generation of consoles and "outdoing" the other competing consoles. The ps4, to be frank, is more superior. I think Microsoft did a splendid job on design and pricing given the time they had to compete with the ps4, so they'll be given credit here. But certainly no real "wins". All of these are foothold attempts, that didn't catch on as much as they expected.

THEN the real issues start. DRM is always considered poorly received. Region locking as well, especially given the prices that are adjusted for European countries. I think the move they made wasn't rash, but it did affect a minority. I'd like to highlight this wasn't the real issue.

Your real issue is "It has always been Microsoft's strategy to encourage outside development of games."

This is the problem. They reason Xbox 360 has SO MANY fantastic games is the Xbox indie development groups. This has helped Google's Android, this has helped iOS. Creativity is what really fosters a community of gamers. But now that indie developers must get publishers for Xbox One, the market will not be as strong.

All in all, I could nitpick over calling windows 8 an "experiment" or the use of apps in the store, or any of that, but I don't think that's the key issue.

The key issue is that Microsoft is getting competition, and we just witnessed them losing quite a significant chunk of the gaming market. The businesses went from 5+ years of XP, and only about 2 years of Vista, 7, 8, and now 8.1 .

I don't think Microsoft should be punished for moving forward, but instead they should be punished for moving in the direction that people haven't liked.

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