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InTheSwiss

305 karma · joined September 11, 2013

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InTheSwiss··on The Egg (2009)
Replying with a non-mobile link for those who are as lazy as I am when I see a .m Wikipedia link :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe

InTheSwiss··on UK Gov Security Assessment puts Ubuntu in First Place [pdf]
Yes and Darryl Weaver is a Cloud Sales Engineer at Canonical. [0]

This is the same as Microsoft doing a report for the government saying Windows is the best desktop OS.

In regards to the quality of the document; the tables are horrendously formatted and the note numbers are highlighted as if clickable links (blue underlined) like the links at the bottom of the document but are not actually clickable. Overall the wording in the document is basic and lacks any real information.

[0] http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Darryl/Weaver

InTheSwiss··on UK Gov Security Assessment puts Ubuntu in First Place [pdf]
God was this put together by some kind of secondary school student on work placement? It 6 pages with close to zero actual content that isn't just copy/pasted from the links they cite.

Awful.

InTheSwiss··on Study: Believing You’ve Slept Well, Even if You Haven’t, Improves Performance
I have been on Ambien (Zolpidem here in the UK) for 5 years now after being diagnosed with insomnia due to PTSD (actually diagnosed by three doctors at a psychiatric hospital where I had to spend 4 months in 2009 not some self-diagnosis) and I am not too sure on this evidence. I know a lot of people who suffer true insomnia (as in doing several days with perhaps 15 minutes sleep) and thinking you got good sleep does not make up for the fact that you are actually going several days with awful sleep. I am sure there is some kind of psychosomatic side that makes you perform better because you think you will but suffering real lack of sleep cannot be "tricked" better with positive thinking just like how depression cannot be fixed by just "thinking happy".
InTheSwiss··on Connecting to the Internet – Finding My 15-Year-Old Website I Built at 16
Have a read of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Standard_Identification_...

That is how Amazon can maintain such good link backwards compatibility although for books this is even easier as it just has to parse the ISBN and job done. ASIN allows them to tag everything ever on Amazon and keep it linkable. Good future planning from back in the 90s though I guess.

InTheSwiss··on Microsoft's Must-Have List for Windows 9
1. Yeah WinFS would be nice but it seems to be out of reach still from a development point of view. Perhaps if it were a totally new file system and not having to maintain some kind of backwards compatibility with NTFS? Who knows I am not a file system developer but I do know Microsoft put some serious development work into WinFS back in the pre-Vista days and it was just too difficult.

2. God yes! Why the hell did they get rid of the connection center they had in Vista and 7 and turn it into a god damn side bar thing!?! Networking is painful on 8.

3. I miss the games too. It is bullshit that Microsoft made them ad-based Modern apps.

4. It is depressing to see how far things went backwards with these shitty fullscreen apps in Windows 8. They are nice on a tablet yes but on a desktop or laptop?! Horrible.

5. My biggest issue with the start screen is that they removed features that were present in the start menu. If the start screen were a full replacement to the start menu it wouldn't be such of an issue but how it is at the moment isn't nice for anything other than just launching an application. I don't agree with the ribbon comments. I find the ribbon to be fantastic and always have. I love Office with the ribbon and hate having to use LibreOffice with all the options lost in menus and sub-menus. The ribbon makes so much more sense and is far more user friendly and is one of the best UI features to come from Microsoft in years.

InTheSwiss··on 'Fastest ever' broadband passes speed test
This confused me too. Ipswich to Victoria is about 85 miles by road. Anyone got any more details on the connection route?
InTheSwiss··on Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15
Good job! Have you look into Android apps? You will have a bigger audience. I am assuming you are using C# as they are Windows Store apps if so Java will be very similar for you to switch too.
InTheSwiss··on ARIN allocated free IPv4 addresses almost exhausted
I worked at Xerox for 8 years as a Solution Architect and it annoyed me so damn much that they are sitting on 13.* yet hardly using it and I can't imagine that has changed in the few years since I left. From what I can remember they were using less than 20% of the address space they have.

Then again running out of v4 addresses is the best thing to happen really. Still it annoys me a big company can sit on so many addresses for no reason.

InTheSwiss··on Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
I have used Robocopy to move over 300TB of data round recently and not a single error. Robocopy is at UNIX level stability. Really a kick ass tool.
InTheSwiss··on Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
Agreed Notepad2 is pretty much perfect. I have been meaning to try out Notepad2-mod for a while as I would quite like the code folding.

One thing I would like (and might change myself if I ever get around to setting up my own build of it) is for it to remember its last position. At the moment you can save the location but it is annoying and should be automatic (IMHO).

InTheSwiss··on Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
Using ST3b3059 on Windows 8.1 pro x64, 2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 7200RPM Platter and the ST console logs "startup time: 0.0931221", it loaded as fast as vanilla Notepad.
InTheSwiss··on Apple will require all new apps to be optimized for iOS 7 from February 1
Running iOS 7 on my partners iPad 2 is fine. The biggest performance issues with it are websites that are more and more complex than just a few years ago when she got the iPad. They lag like hell.

I understand why Apple makes downgrading so difficult but I agree it is a real pain in the ass and wish it was simple to do.

InTheSwiss··on Apple will require all new apps to be optimized for iOS 7 from February 1
You are not being cynical, that is exactly what Apple is doing and always has done. They set a limit on how far back they support older products regardless of if they are technically able to do whatever is needed.

Whether doing so is right or wrong is up to the individual to decide. Apple do not keep it a secret or advertise that whatever you buy today will be supported by their newer software in a couple of years. You buy the product as is today.

InTheSwiss··on Yotaphone
Yeah I only gave the page a quick glance and didn't notice it had two screens until I checked the specs page! Fail from a design point of view IMHO.
InTheSwiss··on How do I avoid hiring assholes at my company?
That doesn't mean you are an asshole. I could be the smartest (I don't think calling people stupid is a good way of putting it) person in the company/department and you could be in a position that requires you to do pointless stuff that your skill level is much higher than.

I would suggest that if you feel this way for more than a couple of months then perhaps you should look at finding another place to work. Being smart doesn't make you an asshole. Just don't bad mouth your previous colleagues.

If someone I interview is to say that they "grew beyond the technical capabilities of the role and the company was unable to support further growth of my skill set due to the direction the business was going" then I am cool with that. It happens. Hell it SHOULD happen. You should out grow your old position if you want to move up. It is all in the way you not only say it but how you BELIEVE it too. If you just say something like the sentence I wrote above but really believe that you are some "rock star" and everyone else is an idiot then I am probably gonna pick up on it even if you phrase it in a nicer way.

InTheSwiss··on Time to abandon Gmail?
I really like the Outlook.com interface however the setting pages are god awful. They need to make them more dynamic so I don't have to load a whole new page for one little option.
InTheSwiss··on Is Kindle Paperwhite really worth it?
I can't recall ever noticing a big difference in weight between the two. I can easily go 2-3 hours reading the Paperwhite with one hand although the lack of physical buttons is annoying as it means you need to stretch your thumb over the bezel to touch the screen. Unless you need the lit screen I would stick with your current Kindle.
InTheSwiss··on Is Kindle Paperwhite really worth it?
I have found that Amazon tend to be a little over the top with the "usually dispatched within N days" line. It is clever as it makes it look like they are selling loads and so if you don't order NOW you might have to wait even longer than 13 to 14 days if you order it next week (OH NO!!!!). However when I have ordered all my previous Kindles they came in a few days (not next day but always within 5) even with the two week notice. They are not actually flat out lying as they use the word "usually" but it is a little misleading. Then again it is all part of the marketing.
InTheSwiss··on What Happens When a Freelancer Does Work for a Client Without a Contract
In short you can, and will, get fucked by your client. Never do work without a contract. I would have thought it were common sense but I have seen far too many people owed thousands from clients they did work for who then gave them the finger. Most people/small companies don't have the money or don't want to spend the money on getting the money as it will end up costing them more so they just put it down to "that is the price you pay". Well that is a fucking stupid attitude and you are a fool for doing the work without a contract. Watch http://vimeo.com/22053820.
InTheSwiss··on Is Kindle Paperwhite really worth it?
I was pretty shocked they removed the page turn buttons. They are the most used buttons by an order of magnitude and tapping the screen is a crappy interface as it is too sensitive and I often jump forward or backward a page when I reposition myself in a plane seat or similar.
InTheSwiss··on Is Kindle Paperwhite really worth it?
I enjoy the iPad (4th gen) as a tablet but it isn't that great for reading outdoors when it is sunny and it isn't as comfortable on my eyes when in very low light. However it is great for reading technical documents (i.e. PDFs) while the Kindle's small screen is horrible for.
InTheSwiss··on Is Kindle Paperwhite really worth it?
I have owned every Kindle e-reader and currently use a Paperwhite (2012 model) which I find to have the best screen (which is really the most important part of an e-reader) however I much prefer the physical buttons on the regular Kindle. I find the touch screen annoying. The only time the touch screen was a nice to have was the initial setup when I connected it to my wifi.

I still jump back and forth between the Paperwhite and my older model with the physical page turn buttons. What I would really like is a non-touch screen Paperwhite. I would also like to be able to totally disable the backlight rather than just put it to the lowest setting (which is still actually on and more than good enough to read in a pitch black room).

InTheSwiss··on Visual Studio 2013 Launches With New Online Tools, Browser-Based Code Editor
For anyone who downloaded (but has not installed) a VS2013 ISO from MSDN before November 8th might want to download again as they were updated on the 8th. Details on the update is available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2890846/en-us
InTheSwiss··on The second operating system hiding in every mobile phone
I am assuming that the RTOS has direct and full unrestricted access to the hardware such as the camera and microphone? If so then I would also assume that an over the air attack to silently suck data from the camera and microphone would be pretty easy for those with access to the RTOS (such as governments)?

I know there has been software to do just this in the past on some Nokia devices but I would assume (I am doing that a lot in this post!) it is just as possible in pretty much every mobile phone?

Anyone with knowledge of this care to comment on my assumptions?

InTheSwiss··on Ask HN: Is C++ still worth learning?
I agree C and Haskell are both worth learning as they will teach you a lot of should make you a better programmer due to the different point of view they give you towards development however this question was if learning C++ was worth learning.

The answer to that question, IMHO, is yes which is what the OP wanted to know. Had they asked what languages they should learn I would put other languages above C++ but that wasn't their question :)

InTheSwiss··on Ask HN: Is C++ still worth learning?
To directly answer your question then: Yes. C++ is certainly something you should learn.

Now only you will truly know if C++ is suitable for the tasks you do but unless you work at a university then chances are C++ will be good to great for whatever you need.

InTheSwiss··on Ask HN: Is C++ still worth learning?
Python yes as it is helpful in many different places but Haskell and OCaml?! I know this is HN but these languages are pretty niche and only really used to any serious degree within academia. C++ is still one of the most flexible languages for application development on every major platform and with C++11 it has had a massive resurgence. Compare how things were a few years ago to the massive amounts of work places like Microsoft are putting into their C++ technology offerings. Visual Studio 6 all the way to Visual Studio 2010 had god awful C++ support outside of what Microsoft wanted to offer. With 2012 and now 2013 things are a hell of a lot better. Check out Microsoft's GoingNative 2013 stuff.

As for C it is a great language but it is pretty much only for either old stuff or system level stuff. In the real world I see people pick C++ over C if possible.

InTheSwiss··on MI5, MI6, and GCHQ chiefs public hearing live on the BBC
I agree with your point buy disagree regarding Iraq and Syria. Syria was about getting involved in an internal conflict whereas Iraq was about WMDs (albeit lies). Quite different IMHO.
InTheSwiss··on MI5, MI6, and GCHQ chiefs public hearing live on the BBC
What is the point of this? Does anybody honestly think they will be honest? They will admit to a few little "bad" things but justify it all for the Greater Good™. They will talk about "internal policy review" and "more transparency with the public/government". They will apologise for "over stepping". They, obviously, won't admit to anything that really matters. They will be given a stern telling off then everybody will go home and nothing will have changed.

Sigh.

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