qF's comments

qF | 14 years ago | on: Nodejs and MongoDB, A Beginner's Approach

This guide really shows what I think is a big problem with a lot of Node guides, they don't go beyond the first 5 minutes.

There are a ton of guides on how to set up a webserver in 20 lines, but hardly any on how to (properly) handle a lot of async callbacks and requests etc.

qF | 14 years ago | on: Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

I'm currently a student (in Holland), and I've been to a few recruitment fairs and if I were to get an email or see a flyer about another one I would probably not even read it. Most recruitment fairs are just terrible. Companies will send the prettiest girls they can find in their HR and PR departments with the sole goal of getting your contact info plus some buzzwords so they can add those to their database. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against pretty girls, but they're not actually interested in me as a person nor do they have a lot of knowledge about the company which usually makes recruitment fairs a big waste of time.

On campus presentations on the other hand are a fantastic way of putting yourself on the radar. I don't mean the recruitment fairs that some Uni's will have on campus, but rather smaller events. I recently went to the final presentation of a phd project and there were 4-5 companies giving a short talk what they did in that field and afterwards they had stands with demos and the actual people who get their hands dirty were there to talk to you (extensively). To me the latter (where it's directly related to a topic I might be interested in) is much more interesting and inspiring than some impersonal recruitment fair.

qF | 14 years ago | on: Carnegie Mellon face recognition study has unsettling results

Remember that this is done using clear full-frontal pictures, FRT drop significantly in accuracy with even the smallest change in angle. Not to mention sunglasses, (facial) hair obscuring parts of the face and different lighting conditions.

Current techniques that try to deal with such variation need several (clear) pictures from different angles to build a model of a face to be able to recognize a face.

I'd go with decades rather than years before the limitations mentioned are resolved.

qF | 14 years ago | on: Carnegie Mellon face recognition study has unsettling results

"Unsettling" might be a overstating it a bit. The first slideshow[1] explains (on slide 38, Limitations) that face recognition techniques still have a long way to go. More clearly stated on slide 39:

"Face recognition of everyone/everywhere/all the time is not yet feasible. However: Current technological trends suggest that most current limitations will keep fading over time"

[1] http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~acquisti/face-recognition-study-FA...

qF | 14 years ago | on: YC Office Hours at TC Disrupt [Live]

I would've loved to hear some more from Harj, he got some good questions in but it seemed to me he had a hard time actually hearing the interviewees (and vica versa). Plus Paul's enthusiasm probably didn't make it easier to get a question in (not meant as critique towards Paul). -- It's really interesting and it has to potential to transfer a lot of startup/business related knowledge in a short amount of time. But it could definitely be optimized (better seating arrangement/better sound). Perhaps it takes away some of the spontaneity, but picking more suitable startups beforehand and perhaps a 5min briefing for the interviewers so you can get to the point more quickly would go a long way.

I've done a bit of research on how to transfer expertise and I feel that this (public office hours) really is an effective way to do just that, you can learn a lot from this, even if you're not the interviewee.

qF | 14 years ago | on: British Discuss Limiting Social Media to Fight Crime

In this paper they make a pretty compelling case as to why limiting/censoring media would actually be counter-productive and make the riots worse. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1909467

I have yet to find any research that shows that censoring would have the desired effect, which to me shows how dangerous politicians can be. Proposing such extreme measures based on gut feelings rather than sound research could seriously blow up in their face.

qF | 14 years ago | on: Data Without Borders logo contest

Seeing that the project in question is mostly aiming at NGO's and non-profits I'm assuming that 'data without borders' is not a commercial enterprise. In which case it's not uncommon to have these sorts of contests where the 'reward' is meant as a 'thank you' rather than a full compensation.

From a purely economical/business perspective you're (kinda) right, but from a human/charity perspective it seems rather harsh to consider this an 'insult'..

qF | 14 years ago | on: Ask HN: Why is it so easy for Anonymous to hack websites like that of Sony?

Neither, making a 100% sure that every security hole is plugged takes time, and as such money. Corporations simply do not want to pay extra for this (in most cases).

The Anonymous guys on the other hand do it in their free time and as such have a far greater amount of time available to find bugs than the developers had to find&fix them.

On top of that most "hacks" by Anonymous are done using automated tools that find and exploit SQL Injection vulnerabilities. Combine that with that Anon doesn't publicize about the times they don't get in, it's easy to make it look like you know what you're doing. But if they find a SQLi vulnerability in 1 in every 10.000 websites they 'test' it's suddenly not that impressive any more.

qF | 14 years ago | on: A note to Google recruiters (and on Google hiring practices)

The key element that you're missing is 'and brushed up on the fundamentals.', nobody is saying that Skiena is the only source you should be learning and that you only need to know what is in that book.

How I read recommendations like that is that it is probably a book that gives a good overview of the different topics that might be relevant. Of course for every separate subject there is probably a better resource, but that's not the point.

Preparing isn't the same as going about and learning complete new things, preparing is making sure that all the stuff you've learned in the past is fresh in your memory and ready to be used. In which case a book that gives you a quick overview does the job perfectly.

qF | 14 years ago | on: Nearly Half of All College Grades Are A's

I have no data to back this up but anecdotally I once had a professor explain how some, if not most, professors would adjust their grading to get to a specific average for exams and essays.

However we use numbers (1 till 10, 10 being best) here and from my understanding they would try to average it around 7.5. Having all your grades an 8 (or higher) translates to graduating cum laude, basically turning cum laude into 'just above average'.

I assume this is due to management tactics that involve investigating classes that deviate from grade averages rather than trying to judge based on course quality.

qF | 14 years ago | on: Spotify launches in the US

Interesting that the price is 4,99 USD, while in Eurozone it's 4,99 EUR. So it's actually cheaper for Americans.

I know it's common for products originating in the USA (games, electronics, etc.) to make the USD -> EUR conversion 1:1 but it's interesting to see it's also done the other way around.

I am not complaining though, Spotify is an awesome service and well worth the money!

edit: Seems there's more people who noticed the same, it's even the same with GBP, which has an even bigger difference than the Euro.

qF | 14 years ago | on: A git implementation in pure JavaScript

Because you can. I've made far more useless stuff simply because I felt it would be interesting or a challenge to make. Which in turn are usually the projects I learn the most from.

qF | 14 years ago | on: Interview with key LulzSec hacker

Personally I feel that you're being a bit too optimistic. LulzSec was much louder about the fact they did it for the 'lulz' rather than for any noble agenda. Encouraging people to log in to random people's FB account and ruin their relationships serves no purpose. Interestingly enough @Anon_central recently tweeted a qualification about their supporters (which has a great overlap with LulzSec), which to me shows that you're being too optimistic [1]. Especially considering that Anon is supposed to be more ethical compared to LulzSec..

[1] https://twitter.com/#!/Anon_Central/status/87402917006557184

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