PieSquared

I say, wrong. That's not how it should be taught. Well, actually, concentration on algorithms is good, but AFAICT, it's only algorithms there.

Part of the reason Computer Science is such a great subject is that it combines theory with practice in such an easy and elegant manner. There's a reason I got into CS before I got into math - because CS (well, at the time, it was more like just Java than CS) gave me an opportunity to make something and see results. This type of response from a subject fosters creativity and interest, and overall makes the subject more motivating and interesting. If you only teach algorithms, all of this is lost.

Also, you've got to admit it, someone who knows all the standard algorithms but can't design one of their own or code/debug it is useless.

I've gotten this only when I was using IE on a school computer.

Linux has no problems with drivers, no, none at all. It's just that all those drivers seem to have a problem with Linux.

(Hmm... Could that be because they were compiled on Windows and use the Windows API? Nah, can't be.) </sarcastic rant>

Actually, the driver situation for Linux has improved drastically since before. I mean, my 3d-accelerated nVidia card still crashes the X server every so often, but at least I have drivers for most of my hardward. (Although I've had some problems with webcams...) Anyway, good luck to this project.

Please, please, PLEASE, look at whether something has been submitted before posting it. This has already been submitted at least once.

We really need to try not to re-submit stories. Other than this, I'm sure that the Microsoft/Yahoo stories have already been submitted at _least_ 6 or 7 times.

What does the botnet actually do, other than hook other computers up to the network? Just send out spam? Or what?

Somehow, I enjoyed his few 'jabs' towards Steve, especially the one about how Yahoo! has been uncooperative in negotiations:

"Moreover, Steve, you personally attended two of these meetings and could have advanced discussions in any way you saw fit. "

Actually, more like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108

Stylish is an extension made specifically for applying external CSS to sites. Not sure, it might even be based on Greasemonkey, actually... Anyway, it's a good starting place, and I've seen a few very impressive things done with it (mostly to Gmail). If you do end up making any themes using either Stylish or Greasemonkey, please let us know.

...oh... Sorry. That looked sort of serious though.

I have also found God. God said, "Let us make Men in our image, in our likeness.".

And that is what he did: http://www.aikenslaughs.com/adult/1484.jpg

And how exactly is the fear of parenthesis 'pretty awesome'?

Maybe it's a feature? Because we all love waiting for large SWF files to load. It's probably not noticeable if you're just looking at plain HTML like HN, but if you're viewing large photo galleries or downloading many large embedded flash files, it probably becomes a problem. So yes, I think this qualifies as a 'nasty bug'.

Heh, it amuses me how they group "computer science" with "language". Interesting.

And they should cut the CS A exam, not the CS AB exam. Maybe that way people will be forced to learn a bit more, and that's never harmful. (As a side note, I was recently looking at the contents of the AP exam on Comp Sci because I wanted to skip said course in my school, and the differences really aren't that big, just a few algorithms and data structures, so it wouldn't be a big stretch to teach those additionally.)

Nope, Microsoft is definitely not resorting to shady tactics and intimidation, definitely not. Sigh, how typical.

Although you may be partially right in this case, I think that people take on this corporate-hating mentality too often (against Google, against Sun, against Microsoft even!). Give credit where it's due - it's a pretty impressive thing for a company to let its employee's spend 20% of their time on their own interests, and then pay them for it.

At least one reason is that it hides too much from you.

I started out in Java. It really got me into programming - I could make all these pretty little windows and graphics and do everything else quickly and easily. But, as I later found out, at the expense of that ease came my knowledge.

Example: The ArrayList class. It's a dynamic array. The LinkedList class. It's a linked list. They're fundamentally different. But in Java, they look and act pretty much the same, and they're already available in the standard library. The learning programmer doesn't need to know how they work or anything.

Same thing with memory. In Java, you get no feel for what memory is being used, or how it's being managed. In C, you're the master (and the slave), and you yourself have to manage and take care of memory and pointers. It tells you much more about how computers actually WORK when you're programming in C.

In summary, Java just gives you too much. It hides you from the raw details. This is great for a production purpose language - but for a teaching language, what could POSSIBLY be worse, when the intent is to reveal and NOT hide all the small details?

Whoa. Striking difference. It's almost like YouTube... I don't think comments can get worse than YouTubian ones.

Other than the diet advice, it all leads to one grand conclusion... start a startup! Actually, though, it IS interesting how much of this is discussed on HN anyway. And the 'talk with smart people' part of it is, AFAIC, the whole point oh HN.

Whoa. Is this a good thing... or a really bad one? Not sure. C++ is complicated enough. Then again, CL is pretty complicated too, yet it's what I would qualify as a beautiful language.

I personally feel that C++ is a language that doesn't truly belong anywhere - it isn't pure, clean, and low-level, like C, and it isn't completely high-level. Somehow, I don't think that you can easily 'mix' these two. I'm mildly surprised that they haven't added an optional GC yet - I seem to remember reading somewhere that even Bjarne Stourstrop advocated one.

Maybe, instead of making "C++0x", they should just make D an ISO standard... From what I've seen, D is basically C++ cleaned up, and every time I look at it, I want to use it instead even more. Check it out if you haven't already. And it deals flawlessly with legacy C++ and C code, too, so there's really not many reasons to avoid it.

Oh, and C++ templates are just ugly. I'm reminded of them whenever I see Java generics too, and let's just say those aren't too nice on the eyes either. Maybe they should add programmatic macros too. And a pinch of Perl's default variables!

Whoa. From the title, I thought it was asking someone to be more original on their blogs or something.

Interesting startup idea they have there... Not something I would've thought of. Although that may be because I don't maintain a blog.

Wait.

"# Nathan Stoll "broke up" with Google in December. Still not clear what he's up to."

So... if it's not clear... why is he on that list at all? Or is this like a list of what notable faces quit their Google jobs lately?

Number four, I would say, is probably pretty common among all personality types, eh?

Hmm. Interestingly enough, I haven't had a single problem with Flash in Ubuntu. Not one.

Mind sharing said way? >:)

You're right. It's not.

The word "hacking" has, in the media, taken on a meaning which is different from the meaning that it had originally - and the meaning that you'll most often find around here. Sadly, though, the use is so common that arguing against it is pretty much hopeless. It seems that outside of the hacker community (proper sense of the word), you probably shouldn't call yourself a hacker, since the first thing that will come to people's minds is this.

This isn't hacking. This is 'cracking' - and a more disgusting form of it than usual, a form meant to physically harm people.

Just so we have some variety on the DH's:

DH1: Hmm... Same author of the article and of the comment... :)

Honestly though, I don't think you should be too insulted. Everyone has moments when perhaps they aren't particularly prime to good comments, although I suppose it would be a bit better had pg said something along the lines of, "Support that instead of just saying it" or asked for an actual discussion instead of what seemed like a loud (from the caps) one-line outburst.

"No, it is not a 'Bit by a Vampire' applet!" Oh, god, that's a relief. Facebook has enough of those. :)

Anyway, that's pretty much what I meant with my Emacs-ish response. It's a powerful platform, but people haven't really figured out what to do with it beyond small games and hundreds of friend invites.

Good luck with your app - I'd love to see it when/if you release it.

Hmm... Doesn't Slashdot sort of do this? Not completely, but to some extent, it does have "Flamebait" or "Interesting" or "Insightful" 'ratings' for comments.

I don't really think that's too useful, because it's usually pretty obvious what category the comment falls in after reading it anyway...

What do you gain by talking to someone on the internet anyway? Why am I even responding to this essay, or to your comment?

It's probably because it's interesting for me to do so, to see others' views. When I disagree, I tend to enjoy it if people come back and argue. I don't really do it because I care whether the other person comes to see my point of view - although it is more fun when they do, of course. Maybe some people enjoy yelling things such as, "u r a fag!!!!", although personally I can't say I understand those people...

It's useless to try and convince them otherwise for the most part - I don't think they'd listen to you in the first place.

As for the essay itself, I just wish more people would consciously THINK about how they talk to others. It would make the internet and the world a nicer place. (Oh, and that first part, DH0, seemed to me as if it was addressed directly towards Jeff's of Coding Horror response to PG's last essay. But I can't say I disagree - I was actually rather shocked to see such a, umm, 'vehement', response. Another instance of what people probably wouldn't say in person.)

I definitely find myself agreeing with that judgment...

That, too, is why I tend to agree with all the 'FACEBOOK IS DOOMED!!!' articles too. Facebook, while being a pretty good web OS and development platform, lacks a decent social networking application. (Facebook itself, after a while, begins to seem very superficial and useless.)

If the music industry as we know it is dying, what's going to replace it?

Music tax - definitely bad idea. Buying CDs/albums - apparently, that is 'dying'.

So, then, how are artists going to get payed in such a way that both artists and consumers are happy? They won't work for free, after all. I've been think about this, but to no avail - nothing really comes to mind.

What about Linux crashes?

No one can do surveys like that for Linux though, since there is no central authority. Oh well, I suppose we'll have to live without useless statistics. :(