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huu's comments

huu | 6 years ago | on: Simple Rules ‘Bootstrap’ the Laws of Physics

The existence of a solution to abstract equations that involve gravitons does not imply the existence of gravitons. Designing an experiment to measure and confirm the existence of the particle is a different endeavor.

huu | 9 years ago | on: C++ confessions of a C developer

I'm on a similar boat. The biggest change for me was to recognize that I'm not the one who's supposed to be doing the debugging. The more (modern) C++ I wrote, the more I found myself leveraging the compiler to find bugs for me.

huu | 10 years ago | on: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

This is a valid point. I don't really have a response to it other than, I know people like the one I asked y'all to imagine, but I'm having trouble thinking of anyone I know who might fit your imaginary person's description.

You're probably right that this betrays a bias of mine. And you're also probably right that this isn't a great guiding principle for decision-making in the future.

Still, if I'm interested in increasing the total number of people contributing to open source projects, I would give an issue like the use of the word "retard" a fighter's chance.

Maybe it's not worth bending on free speech in some specific cases, but there is a point where it is worth it, ie, if there are enough people in the offended audience that the chance of losing a potential contributor is nontrivial.

huu | 10 years ago | on: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

Imagine you're a parent who happens upon a repo that uses the word "retard" as a replacement for "stupid person" or "idiot". You also happen to have a mentally disabled child.

Perhaps you would have contributed to that repository and now you won't. That seems materially harmful to me, to reduce the sum total of people contributing to open source.

Compare that to the potential of falling down a slippery slope to "total censorship" and I think there's a reasonable case, in a utilitarian sense, for Github's actions here.

huu | 10 years ago | on: The Curse of the Pixar Universe

"The very notion of what’s appropriate for children looms over any consideration of a movie intended for children."

This is the author's justification for why he's critiquing the film. I disagree, personally, because he himself is not a child. I doubt any child would enjoy "The Tree of Life".

huu | 11 years ago | on: GCC 5.1 released

Excellent point, I just changed the license to MIT to be consistent with curl. Thanks for catching that.

huu | 11 years ago | on: GCC 5.1 released

I use C++11 and it's awesome. It's expressive like python but still maintains strict type safety. I built a (still young) curl wrapper using C++11: https://github.com/whoshuu/cpr

Edit: Misread the parent posts and thought they were referring to C++11. Today I learned C11 is a separate standard.

huu | 11 years ago | on: 'Silicon Valley Is Coming' Warns JP Morgan CEO

I find it curious that pain points is given the inner quotes treatment whenever the JP Morgan CEO uses that term. It's almost like such a concept didn't exist before startups started addressing it.

huu | 11 years ago | on: I Quit: What really goes on at Apple

I think the Tragedy of the Commons is a more apt analogy. There's a finite resource (employees) which optimally benefits each company if they were non-competitive. As soon as they start shortening the supply of that resource (in this case, making it more and more costly to obtain the resource), then it becomes a race to the bottom.

huu | 11 years ago | on: Ellen Pao Owns the Room

I don't think we disagree. If it's valid to point out she shouldn't have been engaging in any kind of relationship with a co-worker, then it's equally valid to point out the same thing for the co-worker.

huu | 11 years ago | on: Ellen Pao Owns the Room

I think the point of the trial is to determine if what happened to Pao is "because she's a woman". If there's enough evidence for that claim, then there's a legal basis for recourse.

If we could sweep any exclusionary behavior under the rug of "just office politics", there'd be no need for anti-discrimination laws in the first place.

huu | 11 years ago | on: Ellen Pao Owns the Room

Interpreting your comment charitably, you are exactly right that it would be simpler had this been the case.

Another fact: it would also be simpler had she not been (allegedly) lied to about the marriage status of the co-worker.

huu | 11 years ago | on: Jon Ronson: How a Tweet Can Ruin Your Life

I don't think your analogy applies here. I'd liken the situation more to stealing a CD from a record store. The CD's are easily replaced, but you were caught and now you're serving life in prison.

Even though we know that stealing is wrong, would you feel bad for the record store?

huu | 11 years ago | on: Abandon your DVCS and return to sanity

I don't think the existence of more books for git as opposed to svn proves that it is more difficult. I think it's more a reflection of how popular/accessible git is, and publishing more books is a way for the market to address a bigger audience.
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