WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]

ehsanul's comments

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: Node.js Guide

I must be missing something, but how is EventEmitter helping you get rid of the nested code in your examples? It looks like changing all the anonymous callbacks to named functions, and then using the function names as the callbacks is what made the code more readable. EventEmitter wasn't necessary to do that, right?

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

It would seem that exchanges like these indicate the opposite. These chat bots have no understanding and anything that seems like it is just some cheap trick or other. It can't be called intelligence, in the same way we speak of human intelligence. Neither would pass the turing test.

However, I am aware that the meaning of AI is always pushed to "whatever we can't yet do". Yet, in this case it's hardly justified to think that these chatbots even slightly challenge Penrose's thesis.

I read the book too BTW, loved it. I'm not sure if he's right, but it's nevertheless a wonderful book and heartily recommend it to all.

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: Sequoia gives photo-sharing startup more money than they gave Google

It would seem pretty short-sighted for the developers to not have realized this though (though I wouldn't say the same for venture capitalists and media). I'm guessing they must have figured this out, but just don't have a solution for it yet.

For my own startup-wannabe, I had to pivot because of the same problem: the app would only be useful if millions of people were using it, the way it was originally conceived.

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: Tempo: a tiny JSON rendering engine

From the link: Degrades gracefully if JavaScript is not enabled

Graceful degradation is less common for JavaScript now than it used to be though. So if you want a smooth web experience, these days you just can't go without JavaScript. I personally don't think that's a horrible thing, but I guess most people who've disabled JavaScript (or use Lynx or something) would disagree.

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: Redis: under the hood

Deleted comments don't go dead, as far as I know. I think it was killed by someone by mistake (there are a few overzealous moderators here, or it may just have been a mis-click, or maybe even some algorithmic spam-killing, though I doubt that last one). Here's the comment from antirez:

    What changed since this article was written:
    1) The Server structure in the unstable branch is finally divided into sections using comments.
    2) The command table is now loaded into an hash table, so the lookup is now O(1) and it is possible to alter the hash table at runtime. This is how we implement ed the command renaming and shadowing in redis.conf.
    3) The shared integers are not used when diskstore is enabled, since we need tha t every object is independent with a different LRU timestamp and so forth. But o therwise using the default mode of operations (in memory) shared integers are us ed.
    4) Databases are now watched for the implementation of "WATCH" using a better AP I, that is signalModifiedKey().
    5) Now we listen to the TCP socket and to Unix socket if configured. The Redis C luster branch (not public) will also listen to an additional TCP port using for cluster message passing.
    7) Loading data from disk to memory is now non blocking, we do this re-entering the event loop while loading data.
    8) Response reading is now faster and cleaner code, thanks to Pieter's work.
    This is a very nice overview. Of course only the surface is covered, there are a lot more things going on in the specific commands, in VM / diskstore command (by far the most complex part of Redis), in specially encoded data types, and in rdb/AOF loading/saving, incrementally expanding hash tables, ...
    In just 30k lines of code there is already a lot to take in mind!
    Basically I and Pieter already reached the point where we are experts in different areas. We both understand the whole Redis codebase, but for instance he is more expert in the sorted sets and special encoding code, I'm more expert in the diskstore things, and so forth.

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: Multitasking

Full-screen application switching has a far far greater mental-cost than having two windows open at the same time.

As an XMonad user with a 15.4" screen, I disagree. For example, when programming, I find it quite easy/fast to alt+1 to my browser for documentation, and alt+8 to go to my 8th workspace, where I usually have a couple terminals open with vim. Or sometimes I'm switching between those two and Gimp on workspace 6.

This doesn't really require XMonad, just having workspaces and quick shortcuts for moving through them is good enough. Most applications are easier to use when you give them the whole screen (at least smaller screens). But yeah, if you're using some sort of taskbar/dock to switch between applications with your mouse, it's probably easier to just have both open together.

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: Google Forecloses on Content Farms with "Farmer" Algorithm Update

This could be very painful for the likes of Mahalo. I remember Jason Calcanis mentioning, perhaps when he first noted a change of direction for Mahalo to high-quality content, that he'll make sure Mahalo is the number one Google result for "how to cook a turkey" and similar queries, where they've spent hundreds of dollars (maybe more) on quality content, notably videos. I just Googled "how to cook a turkey", without quotes, and Mahalo is nowhere to be seen! Not sure if tha t's a good thing or a bad thing, but the guys at Mahalo might just be freaking out right now.

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: Chrome Developer Tools: Back to Basics

Yeah, it's overlooked by many that the Chrome isn't all that extensible compared to what you can do in Firefox with addons. Chrome's developer tools are built in because they must be, whereas Firebug should be able to do anything that Firefox does natively (though I think it may be mostly Javascript now).

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: Changes to my life as a result of just four weeks of daily meditation

I've been listening to those talks.

They're only about an hour to 1.5 hours long, and there's only 6 of them. They are supposed to be spread over a 6 week period. So every week for six weeks, you need to find an hour to spend listening to the talk for that week.

You will be meditating during part of the talk. Other days, you will meditate 20-30 minutes. This is not a large time commitment, and since you're on HN, I'm guessing you'd be able to manage.

Good luck! The first two talks have been pretty nice so far.

ehsanul | 15 years ago | on: Formula for love: X^2+(y-sqrt(x^2))^2=1

With bezier curves (it's prettier) in Canvas/Coffeescript (assuming an existing global canvas context 'ctx'):

    heart = (scale,x,y)->
      ctx.beginPath()
      ctx.moveTo(x,y)
      p1 = [x-75*scale,y+20*scale]
      ctx.bezierCurveTo(x-20*scale,y-55*scale,p1[0]-50*scale,p1[1]-55*scale,p1...)
      p2 = [x,p1[1]+60*scale]
      ctx.bezierCurveTo(p1[0]+25*scale,p1[1]+22.5*scale,p2[0]-35*scale,p2[1]-40*scale,p2...)

      ctx.moveTo(x,y)
      p1 = [x+75*scale,y+20*scale]
      ctx.bezierCurveTo(x+20*scale,y-55*scale,p1[0]+50*scale,p1[1]-55*scale,p1...)
      p2 = [x,p1[1]+60*scale]
      ctx.bezierCurveTo(p1[0]-25*scale,p1[1]+22.5*scale,p2[0]+35*scale,p2[1]-40*scale,p2...)

      ctx.strokeStyle = 'rgba(255,40,20,0.7)'
      ctx.stroke()
    
    heart(1.0, 450, 250)
page 1
more