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'"Affect" as a noun. Forget it; you're in journalism, not psychiatry (though you might wind up in therapy). "Affect" as a noun means an emotional state as contrasted to a cognition. "Affect" is a dimension of behavior rather than a separate segment of it. "Affect" is thus experienced at the same time that perception, performance and thought are going on. (See, I told you to forget it!)'

baha_manon Ask HN: If you didn't have to worry about healthcare, would you start a company?

"...healthcare isn't a necessity. Many people can go for years with no health issues..."

If you mean that most young people in the developed world (who've been delivered by trained midwives, checked over by a doctor at birth, had all their vaccinations, regular eye tests and dental checkups, and managed not to break a bone during childhood or adolescence) generally haven't needed to see a doctor or go to hospital for urgent medical attention, then you've got a point.

Of course, as they get older, they'll almost certainly need some sort of medical treatment.

baha_manon Scientist announces that she is call girl and blogger Belle de Jour

No, but look on Jobserve and you'll see that £300 per hour is a fairly realistic rate.

baha_manon Scientist announces that she is call girl and blogger Belle de Jour

She was hardly 'fresh out of school', she was in the middle of doing a PhD. And yes, I do think it's sad that anyone has to make a living working as a prostitute, if that makes me some sort of Victorian prude then so be it.

baha_manon Scientist announces that she is call girl and blogger Belle de Jour

"Magnanti... has spoken of the time six years ago she worked as a £300 an hour prostitute working through a London escort agency."

The sad thing is, an IT contractor could easily expect to earn £300 an hour, especially in London.

baha_manon Analysis of a startup by "the office according to the office" author

It's Ramsay, not Ramsey.

baha_manon Signs of a Programmer Created UI

"I think he is a programmer, but the author is probably writing this from first hand experience."

Yes, he is a programmer:

http://www.voyce.com/index.php/about-2/

Yes, he is speaking from experience:

"I’ve been responsible for doing at least one of these things myself over the years. Consider this post repentance for my user interface sins."

Anyway, the whole post misses the point. Choosing the exact wording of dialog boxes and creating icons are not the responsibilities of programmers working on large projects. If programmers have to take on these tasks, the either the company doesn't have a clue, or they can't afford to hire UI experts, graphic desginers, etc.

I can imagine that there would be some UI mistakes a programmer would make which a non-technical person wouldn't, but I don't think this applies to any of the items in his list.

baha_manon [dead]

"One solution is for the upper class to wear clothing so expensive the lower class could not possibly afford it."

Another would be to make it illegal to wear clothes of a higher class than your own:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law

baha_manon The List of N Things

How can you call a restaurant good if they can't even serve a decent cheeseburger?

baha_manon [dead]

...for me at least. GMail and Google Reader are still working though.

baha_manon Knuth's opinion on Knuth's opinion was reverted from Wikipedia as uncited

I would care and yes, it would hurt wikipedia if people were allowed to add information about themselves which was not 'notable'.

baha_manon Ask HN: Where do you live?

Norwich, UK.

baha_manon [dead]

That should be Ramsay, not Ramsey.

baha_manon It’s Time We Stopped Rewarding Projects with Crappy Documentation

Writing good code is both difficult and all about communication. If you can write good code, you're probably capable of writing good documentation (low level technical documentation in your native language, at any rate) if you really want to.

baha_manon Jerks actually reduce the risk of traffic jams

"However, there is one rule you shouldn't break... the 'three-second rule' for following distances; after the car ahead of you passes a point on the road, count to three."

Three seconds? I've heard of the two-second rule, which has an entry on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-second_rule

When did the extra second get added?

baha_manon How hard was Felipe Massa hit, exactly?

"...Massa also hit a wall of tires at 200+ kph. I know they were there to absorb the shock, still, try doing that in a regular car..."

Is a Formula 1 car any better in an impact than a modern car with, say, 5 Euro NCAP stars[1]? I had a quick Google and it seems that the most important safety feature in this situation is the head and neck support system:

"The leading causes of death in auto racing accidents are skull and neck fractures resulting from rapid deceleration during accidents. The Head and Neck Support system (HANS) was designed to reduce these whiplash effects. The system consists of a collar that is attached to the safety belt and strapped to the helmet to hold the helmet in place during an accident. HANS usage became mandatory in Formula One racing in 2003." [2]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_NCAP

[2] http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_three_main_safety_fea...

baha_manon Just Enough MBA to Be a Programmer

"Ethics seems easy to understand: Do to others as you would have them do to you."

"Do not do unto others as you would expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same." - George Bernard Shaw.

baha_manon Seth's Blog: How to make graphs that work

"Godin didn't mean "programmers", he did mean "corporate drones"."

Well, I think you're giving him too much credit, I took his words at face value and I think that he meant exactly what he said.

If you're right, though, what exactly is his point? That you should draw your graphs by hand? Use an unpopular spreadsheet? That you should change the font etc. from the default, which is a deliberately safe choice? What makes him think that a 'marketer' can produce a more appealing graph than a 'corporate drone' graphic designer?

baha_manon Seth's Blog: How to make graphs that work

"First, programmers don't often have a lot of taste. The fonts [in Excel and Powerpoint] are flaccid, the defaults are wan and uninspiring. There's no sophistication."

The programmers working on the latest version of Excel are about as likely to choose the fonts as they are to design the advertising campaign for it.

baha_manon Paradise lost: SatNav "destroys" local knowledge

Interesting article, but I didn't follow the 'destroying local knowledge' part.

"Since before even the arrival of the car, people have worried that maps sever us from real places, render the world untouchable, reduce it to a bare outline of Cartesian lines and intersections."

I've never heard this before.

baha_manon Top Indian CEO: Most American Grads Are 'Unemployable'

"Many American grads... [are] far less inclined than students from developing countries like India, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Ireland..."

Ireland? A developing country? I don't think so.

baha_manon Inside the World's Greatest Keyboard

"...it's even available in a key-less design"

Surely the model with blank keys is the one every Hacker News reader should be going for? I was quite disappointed when they started making one with inscriptions.

baha_manon Ruling on NightJack author Richard Horton kills blogger anonymity

This is the same Justice Eady who ruled against Simon Singh [1] and in favour of Max Mosley [2].

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jun/04/simon-singh-li...

[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7523034.stm

baha_manon Coding Horror: Death to the Space Infidels

If you mean it's not important which particular style you choose, well yes, that's exactly what the article is saying.

baha_manon Tell HN: I didn't get a job due to a failed startup on my resume

"...we would never hire people with a failed startup on their resume"

"In my experience within the UK graduate market..."

So was this job in the UK? If so, was the recruiter American?

baha_manon The Word "Hacker" (2004)

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/...

"The original sense of news was 'new things'; this is long obsolete. Since the 15th century it has been used to mean 'tidings, the report of recent events, new occurrences as a subject or report or talk.'"