autodidakto's comments

Do you recommend installing just ghc[1] and cabal[2] and using sandboxes?

[1] http://www.haskell.org/ghc/download [2] http://www.haskell.org/cabal/download.html

Thanks. I've been wondering for a while: How much do we know about human psychology is based on studies performed only on 20-year-olds?

Related: Posing as neutral Red Cross health workers to infiltrate a hostage camp. The Colombian government did this to rescue a high profile hostage. Most didn't seem to mind, some thought it was clever and honorable to do so. Now it's even more dangerous for all those, present and future, who work for the Red Cross or are wounded/taken hostage in battle. But so what? The Red Cross and the wounded don't get you reelected.

Please authenticate with something that's not a phone number! I guess that's the simplest for most people (look at WhatsApp), but the reason why I use things like Signal is because I despise cell carriers. I'd like to use this on a (cheaper) non-cellular device (for myself and family members).

The Holy Grail of Secure Communications: Group Encrypted Text, Voice, and Video. Right now, Skype gives you the unholy grail, but you get all three (+group). I wish Open Whisper Systems luck.

You are never on the tracks. That would change the experiment, right? It would be self-defense and not much of a moral dilemma (that many people would struggle with or hold against you, I assume).

BitMessage uses private/public keys, but it isn't built on top of email like PGP. It's meant to replace email. It is its own network and protocol, intended to be private at every level.

No. They're working on a firefox port, but it will take some time (you can checkout the github issue). It's the only extension I really envy.

Firefox does have Adblock Edge (open source adblock without the silliness).

Can I suggest a transcribers peddle?

Managing your podcasts can be a complicated thing.

Shows and episodes can exist in different states and use cases. Do I listen to every episode of this show? Most episodes? Just dip in and out every once in a while? How can a UI accommodate this?

Do I download? Stream? Per episode? Per show? Sometimes one, sometimes the other? What about tools to manage my download queue? Maybe I have lots of bandwidth at the office, but I have 1mpbs at home. I've yet use a podcast app (I think I've used them all) that has a playlist setting to exclude certain shows. I've been unable to to create a playlist that has the "All Shows" feed from popular networks, doesn't make other playlists (based on episode state) unmaintainable.

Settings at the global level. Settings at the playlist level. Settings at the show level. Settings at the current playing episode level...

Downcast, with it's Windows-like feature set and UI, has given me the most power. I have complaints with it (Bloated UI; I want PocketCasts's playback speed slider and "skip first X seconds" feature), but every other app seems to go in the "less is more... until it's not enough and I go back to downcast" direction.

Overcast has some smart features. (What about an "alert me of any appearance of my favorite guest, whatever the show" feature)? I hope it convinces people that there is still room to grow.

Hmm. Normalization means you don't have the change the volume between podcasts, but better than that would be dynamic range compression. A podcast with both loud music/effects/screaming and quiet/normal dialogue would be "evened out". You wouldn't have to adjust volume even within a podcast. I don't know of any audio player (desktop or mobile) that has this feature. It would be perfect for podcasts/audiobooks.

Grammar Nazi Time. An excerpt from Oxford's American:

1 (of a person) surprised and confused so much that they are unsure how to react: he would be completely nonplussed and embarrassed at the idea. 2 informal (of a person) not disconcerted; unperturbed.

usage: In standard use, nonplussed means ‘surprised and confused’: the hostility of the new neighbor's refusal left Mrs. Walker nonplussed. In North American English, a new use has developed in recent years, meaning ‘unperturbed’—more or less the opposite of its traditional meaning: hoping to disguise his confusion, he tried to appear nonplussed. This new use probably arose on the assumption that non- was the normal negative prefix and must therefore have a negative meaning. It is not considered part of standard English.

Even though it's a good example, I think extra care should be taken to avoid the stereotype that Haskell is elegant for math and academic stuff but not for the real word.

Does nobody love darcs?! crickets

How about downcase all instances of FREE?

Instead of addressing the linked article, your post is insightful self-parody, with much sarcasm -- a style more suited to reddit than hn. Please remove it at once, preferably falling on your sword afterwards.

People use the word "complex" in different ways. Do you mean number of features? Do you mean the size of the compiler? By some measures, operator overloading adds complexity; By another measure, it add simplicity.

Possible error:

>If you want to modify a data structure, you have to create an entirely new data structure with the correct changes. This is still pretty fast because Haskell uses lazy evaluation.

I believe the issue is persistent data structures -- the new data structure "remembers" the old one (instead of recreating it) and records changes. (Clojure works like this as well) -- and not lazy evaluation.

What about after you give them money and they look down at their hand like "WTF? That's it?" and walk away disgusted (or just stare at you)? Do you judge then?

I'm not making this up to be combative. I use to carry a bunch of coins in a quickly accessible pocket just to give to anyone who asks because I hate having to internally debate it every time. The passive beggars are always fine, but I've had frustrating experiences with the active ones (especially the drunk and mentally disturbed).

You have an insight (bankers are self-selected to be more greedy than average), but the author's point still stands: people underestimate their tendency to do bad things when offered enough money. He phrased it in a way that might seem to morally protect the bankers ("he who is not guilty of greed may throw the first stone..!"), but I don't think that he is trying to argue that the guilty shouldn't be punished.

Please don't be alarmed by the fallout of war. The President (past, present, and future) wants you to go back to shopping and sportsball.