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927 karma · joined March 14, 2017

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/edfine; my proof: https://keybase.io/edfine/sigs/rgBNx308Zssn4xQWDxgQyjw0aROLuRDyXvaAmBLUP0I ]
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defined··on A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place
Ship?
defined··on Anthropic, please make a new Slack
Messaging apps are a lot harder to get right than you might think. I worked for years on messaging using XMPP and the problems were legion. I'd be very interested in seeing how a vibecoded app does at scale, especially with the presence problem.
defined··on Astra: An open-source observatory control software
Well, I believe astra is Latin for "star", so it makes sense to me.
defined··on Yark: Advanced and easy YouTube archiver now stable
My math says 365 days x 10 hours/day = 3650 hours. 8000 hours is just over 2 years, not 20.
defined··on Crimes against transhumanity
> One person with an M-16 could take out an entire massive army of people wielding spears

I have to disagree. All it would take is for this army to surround the person with the M-16 and wait for a magazine change, then hurl 50 spears at the hapless pincushion. And that's not counting the probability of the rifle overheating, jamming, etc. after long enough.

I realize I am taking this probably too literally, but my point stands :)

defined··on Mass and angular momentum, left ambiguous by Einstein, get defined
Did you mean m×n=n×m?
defined··on CP/M is really open-source now
Yeah, I wrote quite a bit of Turbo Pascal code on CP/M on a Radio Shack TRS80 Model II. I loved TP and CP/M, especially TP.
defined··on Ask HN: How do I learn real-world COBOL?
You could learn some mainframe stuff using the Hercules emulator[1], but you'd have to find some z/OS installation media somewhere, and I'm not sure if that might infringe copyright or something. Also, JCL is absolutely horrible IMO.

[1] http://www.hercules-390.org/

defined··on What are the main benefits of Elixir compared to Clojure?
Elixir is not Ruby, it just has a somewhat Ruby-like syntax. The similarities end there. Elixir does not have the performance issues that Ruby has (although it may have different ones!)
defined··on U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days
Source: https://www.newsweek.com/young-unafraid-coronavirus-pandemic...
defined··on U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days
I'm not making these claims. A senior doctor in Western Europe is making these claims[1].

> Fatality is the wrong yardstick. Catching the virus can mess up your life in many, many more ways than just straight-up killing you. "We are all young"—okay. "Even if we get the bug, we will survive"—fantastic. How about needing four months of physical therapy before you even feel human again. Or getting scar tissue in your lungs and having your activity level restricted for the rest of your life.

[1]: https://www.newsweek.com/young-unafraid-coronavirus-pandemic...

defined··on U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days
This is false. Studies done in Wuhan show that people with CVD have well over a 10% mortality rate. In addition, COVID-19 has the potential to cause permanent disability if it does not kill you first.
defined··on U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days
It’s not only over 80s. It’s anyone with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, morbid obesity, and some others, which collectively describes large swaths of the US population.
defined··on U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe for 30 days
Death is not the only thing that coronavirus can do to you.

You can spend weeks or months in therapy before you are recovered, or you can get scarring in your lungs - or worse - that leaves you with a permanent disability. Not to mention damage to other organs.

I think many are discounting, or are unaware of, these other nasty possibilities. We don’t know enough yet of the prevalence of these effects, but we do know they happen.

defined··on Why Learn Awk? (2016)
xsv is awesome!
defined··on U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices
I think this is an ironic reply. I hope.
defined··on A Design for Death
And from the article: "But I know what I don’t want. I don’t want to be stuffed full of tubes with doctors hovering over me, pleased with themselves for keeping my heart beating for another five minutes, eking out every last painful second. That, to me, is dystopia.”

My feelings exactly.

defined··on Using Clojure for Web Apps
> Immutable data structures are great, but when it's the default, it's a huge win in cognitive-overhead. Maybe that feature isn't unique to Clojure but it's certainly not a prerequisite to being called a lips or a functional language.

Yes, indeed.

TBH, I developed in Erlang for 10 years and, as a result, developed a strong preference for "immutable data structures everywhere".

Unlike LISPs that I've seen (admittedly not that many), with Erlang there simply is no global data so no vars to change - it's all done via function parameters and tail recursion (Erlang has TCO baked in, btw).

defined··on Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates
I highly recommend that book!
defined··on We need to adopt a no-commute culture
> Too many people mumbling and/or talking over each other in meetings, so the remote has trouble following or breaking in. Inadequate videoconference and VPN infrastructure making that worse.

This, in spades. Thanks for taking the time to explain in more detail.

defined··on We need to adopt a no-commute culture
I think it depends on one's personality. I worked for some years using that hybrid model and really didn't like it. Now I work 99.9% from home and vastly prefer it.

My only real gripe is that teleconferencing for meetings just doesn't work that well, because I find it hard to hear people that are not very close to the microphone, and background noise from the open-plan office in which the non-remote team works is very disruptive at times.

Well, and that sometimes remote workers are sort-of-not-quite second-class citizens, probably because we aren't in the office for people to see every day.

defined··on We need to adopt a no-commute culture
> travel across the US one week a month

That seems excessive. I work remote and only have to fly in once or twice a year for a few days at a time, maybe a week.

Do you have an idea of why they don't go all the way and let you WFH on the same basis as I do?

defined··on Using Clojure for Web Apps
> I know some folks sneer a little at Lisp

I wonder why.

Some developers I know and hold in high regard have almost venerated Lisp, so I've always thought there must be something to it. I just thought it wasn't something you could actually use IRL, but I was wrong. I found this out when I was recently motivated to learn Clojure, and now I am starting to grok their admiration.

defined··on Using Clojure for Web Apps
Honest answer: I feel like I did.
defined··on Show HN: I made a no-bullshit image host
Now that is the gift economy at its finest!
defined··on Show HN: I made a no-bullshit image host
Hahahahahahaha! That's a commentary on marketing, right?
defined··on 16-inch MacBook Pro
Been developing for 35+ years, they didn’t teach touch typing back then so I never learned. Just some anecdata.
defined··on It took 12 weeks to ship an MVP I thought would take 3
This is great and tallies with my experience.
defined··on Is “Investing in improving structure” better than “Paying off technical debt”?
And somehow other priorities preempt “doing it right” and the debt stays unpaid for much longer than is healthy...
defined··on Is “Investing in improving structure” better than “Paying off technical debt”?
Great point!
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