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pook | 13 years ago | on: Learn python instead of java

Wiedzmin, you have been hellbanned apparently. Your previous (first) comment must have annoyed someone.

pook | 14 years ago | on: What I hate about “beginner” programming books

Point #2 is the Little Coder's problem _Why spoke of: a beginning programmer is likely to be discouraged by the vast difference between the toy programs displayed in introductory books, and the real code that inspired them.

I think any purported attempt to teach programming which does not end with the student creating a non-trivial, cool app, is a shame. What went wrong between SICP and current (non-Hartl/Shaw) beginning texts?

pook | 15 years ago | on: HN: How can I make my brain/mind sharp again?

Everyone has great advice.

I recommend learning a language or 5. Ocaml, Erlang, Lojban, Japanese, Quenya, etc. Use Mnemosyne and Smart.fm for quick, cumulative study sessions, translate webcomics and such, play golf with old programs in new and differently powerful languages.

Also, read more. You'd be amazed at how many great SF novels you can read in a year, or how quickly you can devour Misner's Gravitation at a few pages a day.

I think the overwhelming point of all this advice is to have fun. Do things that induce flow.

pook | 15 years ago | on: ASK HN: How do you motivate a lazy co-founder?

"I have no recourse because we split the venture 50/50 (no vesting). If I want to continue on the project without him, he can block it. I've tried buying him out and he insists he's committed and will not sell under any circumstance. My only recourse is to quit and block him from taking the idea and running with it. Neither of these are admirable outcomes and I'd rather run the business as far as it can go with a lazy co-founder than end it in such an ugly fashion."

I'm sure someone here would absolutely love to work with your "co-founder". Hell, they may even give him some common human dignity as well as an interesting project.

pook | 15 years ago | on: Quantum Entanglement Holds DNA Together, Say Physicists

I'm reminded every time I hear about QM being "weird", of Eliezer Yudkowsky's Quantum Physics sequence.

"I am not going to tell you that quantum mechanics is weird, bizarre, confusing, or alien. QM is counterintuitive, but that is a problem with your intuitions, not a problem with quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics has been around for billions of years before the Sun coalesced from interstellar hydrogen. Quantum mechanics was here before you were, and if you have a problem with that, you are the one who needs to change. QM sure won't. There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts; and if a model is surprised by the facts, it is no credit to that model."

http://lesswrong.com/lw/r5/the_quantum_physics_sequence/

pook | 15 years ago | on: New service cleans up whiteboard pics with an email

This is a great idea!

It would be interesting to see this combined with a project management system. I imagine being able to snap your whiteboard, have the image cleaned, and placed right onto a project wiki, in one move (similar to Posterous, perhaps).

pook | 15 years ago | on: ASCAP seeking donations to oppose Creative Commons, Public Knowledge, and EFF

There is now no point whatsoever buying music. These people should not be supported.

I propose a reverse boycott: pirate the hell out of the artists you like, and donate directly to them what you think they deserve. Directly, as in skipping all the middlemen eager to take a cut of their pay and your freedom.

pook | 15 years ago | on: California license plates might go digital, show ads

How long before someone hacks this to flip off the other drivers in style?

This is definitely one of the least thought out proposals I've heard in a while. At least when it gets completely subverted, it will only embarrass those responsible rather than introducing catastrophic data loss as with the proposed Internet Kill Switch.

[flick switch] "FUCK... YOU... FUCK... YOU"

pook | 16 years ago | on: How Free Explains Israel’s Flotilla Fail

The asymmetry in money spent and effect achieved between the two sides is staggering. Call it the # sign versus the $ sign. The flotilla organizers spent almost nothing and won the day; Israel spent huge amounts of money and ended up with egg on its face.

If you don't find this incredibly fascinating and inspiring, you're in the wrong business. Hell, the wrong world-line.

Cory Doctorow welcomes you to his capital-F Future.

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