rawr's comments | WingNews

rawr | 16 years ago | on: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

Oooh, look out! A bunch of companies with no established user bases are going to boycott you!

This will get the grannies to upgrade their computer machines for sure.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: YC/HN: Name a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve.

I want a solution to a^3 + b^3 = c^3 where a,b,c are positive integers.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Make your own diamond-based thermal grease

Oh man, your wife is going to be pissed when she finds out you disintegrated her engagement ring for your little computer machine.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: World War II All Over Again (Google vs. Apple)

Thank you for trivializing a war my grandfather fought in and died. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Just kidding. I'm still trying to figure out who Japan would be..

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Student Arrested for Modding Consoles

Pirated games come largely from China.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Why 9-5 Must Die

Most companies do endorse fluid working hours.

It's just a balancing act between wanting everyone to be accessible when you need then and wanting employees to have flexibility in their schedules.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Steal This Professionally Reported Content

The end of the article was amazing. Nothing better than bitching about your work being stolen and then finding out that your communications director endorses the process by tipping off Gawker. Oh the irony..

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Nobody cares - a fundamental principle for startup socialites

I mean, technically it has meaning even without a restricted time frame. Some nonzero percentage of all businesses ever started have never failed.

That being said, it's nothing like 20% so clearly there is an implicit time frame.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Network Neutrality Back In Congress For 3rd Time

Did Slashdot actually beat HN to a story for once?

My head just exploded.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Will android take over iphone?

I'm sorry, how is that the story of Mac vs. PC?

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Top 100 Web Sites of 2009

Let's play a game. It's called "don't link to sites which have popup balloons when you hover over links". Here's how you play..

rawr | 16 years ago | on: It’s hard for a programmer to give good advice on what language to learn...

While Python is always a safe choice, another strategy would be to investigate what the new programmer is trying to accomplish. Most people aren't like "I'm going to learn a programming language as an academic exercise!", they want to actually do something.

If they are interested in writing web apps you might suggest Flash. If they are interested in writing a 2D video game you might suggest Python. If they are interested in performing numerical analysis of math functions you might suggest getting a girlfriend.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Reduce Complexity, Prevent Bugs

Best technique for reducing complexity: don't use Perl.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Google Quietly Quadruples Its Newspaper Archives

TechCrunch: summarizing corporate press releases since 2005

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Super Mario AI Competition

I like how a hefty fraction of the algorithms use neural networks so that they get better as they watch humans play.

The reason for this, of course, is that the developers just want a reason to play Mario :-)

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Are You The Best Developer In The World?

My favorite Slashdot comment on this subject matter was:

"Every developer wants to think of themselves like House, M.D. where if they left the company it would fall apart. In reality, everyone is replaceable and if you got hit by a bus today in three months the company will have completely recovered."

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Why Don't We Document Our Software? Part 1: False Excuses

>> "When programmers develop 'for fun' we write documentation."

That's because they get something out of it. Namely, people won't use undocumented software and the authors want their software to be used.

In a corporate situation we don't document our software if we don't have to because we don't care (usually) whether or not people use it. If the company cares, it will force engineers to write documentation and we will do it because we don't want to get fired.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: How to Sign Your Emails

I was expecting this to be about digital signatures and was slightly disappointed when I found out it wasn't the case.

Silly me for assuming a technical issue would be addressed on Hacker News.

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Free Kevin Mitnick

What have we learned?

Activism is pointless!

rawr | 16 years ago | on: Harvard attempts to trademark phrases like "Lessons learned"

"Since we’re spending so much time and money to promote this phrase, we just want to make sure someone doesn’t say we can’t use it."

That seems like a reasonable argument. Also, IANAL but if I'm not mistaken just because somebody has a trademark for something doesn't mean that it's necessary enforceable.