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dgallagher

1,583 karma · joined December 29, 2008

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dgallagher··on The interspecies internet? An idea in progress [video]
I've always found it difficult to communicate IPv6 addresses over the telephone, or type them in manually, when compared to IPv4. IPv6 does have abbreviation built in, but "2001:db8::ff00:42:8329" ("2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329") is still much more difficult to use than, say, 69.135.54.4.

Has anyone created an easier way to communicate IPv6 addresses, or is this something we'll have to learn to live with?

dgallagher··on Reveal App
I don't think there is -recursiveDescription in NSView or NSObject. I've seen -description and -debugDescription. Correct me if I'm wrong as it sounds useful. :)
dgallagher··on Trends that will create demand for an Unconditional Basic Income
Every single adult member receives a weekly payment from the state, which is enough to live comfortably on. The only condition is citizenship and/or residency.

Sweet! None of us have to work anymore! Party at my place every night for life!

You get the basic income whether or not you’re employed, any wages you earn are additional.

Few, that's a relief. It'll be nice to close all of the school's down and tell kids they can go home, play video games indefinitely, and never have to worry about their future again.

The welfare bureaucracy is largely dismantled. No means testing, no signing on, no bullying young people into stacking shelves for free, no separate state pension.

Down with welfare, up with communism!

Employment law is liberalised, as workers no longer need to fear dismissal.

Hey boss, fuck you! Why? Because fuck you, that's why! What are you going to do about it? Fire me? Ha!

People work for jobs that are available in order to increase their disposable income.

That's cool. Make sure to tax them high enough to pay for all of my house parties.

Large swathes of the economy are replaced by volunteerism, a continuation of the current trend.

Who wants to volunteer to clean my toilet and mow my lawn? Anyone? Even if I say thank you when you're done?

The system would be harder to cheat when there’s only a single category of claimant, with no extraordinary allowances.

I can't figure a way to game it either; it's mathematically and economically perfect!

dgallagher··on Zynga Confirms Xbox Head Don Mattrick As New CEO
Part of Zynga's core problem is that their games are frequently more psycological tweakery than legitimately rewarding or fun.

Gamasutra has an interesting article up about that very subject: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20130626/1949...

dgallagher··on Glasshole
It's common to walk around naked in locker rooms at gyms and what-not. I make it a point to remove my sunglasses before entering just so others can see my eyes, otherwise you'll come off as creepy. I've never seen anyone try to snap a photo with their phone either (never a good idea near people in-shape).

Now with glass-like tech, it's more subtle. You'll not only have to remove them, carrying an "always-on" camera in your hand might not resonate well either; you'll have to encase them away from light entirely.

Essentially, I think people would want some sort of indication that it's truly disabled in scenarios where they would be uncomfortable with it around. A whole new world of etiquette is about to open.

The last major change we had was with cell phones. That continues to evolve, decades after availability. I wonder what paths glass-tech etiquette will take?

dgallagher··on Tor and HTTPS
What would be the highest level of anonymity one could achieve on the modern internet? How could you accomplish it?
dgallagher··on I Wasn’t Prepared to Work
How would you avoid the free rider problem (freeloader effect)?
dgallagher··on Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick
Combine them with 30dB or better earplugs. If you can still hear things that are bothersome, play some music or pink noise.

Note that earplug use can cause earwax buildup. There are a bunch of home remedy's that can help. Talk to your doctor about options.

dgallagher··on LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network
Speculating: Perhaps people who have lesser skills make up for it by networking, asking others to endorse them to fluff up their profile? Those with valuable skill sets might have little need for that, and can promote themselves more optimally.

Example: "So-and-So endorses me for Programming" vs. "github.com/myrepo/"

dgallagher··on Etckeeper lets you store changes in /etc to git
Does anyone recommend a good GUI for viewing Linux log files on Windows or Mac? I'd pay for an OSX-Console-like app that'll connect to a remote Linux distro and allow easy browsing/searching of /var/log/, or any paths you add to it.
dgallagher··on Kendall Square: Still the place to be for start-ups
I'd frequent the Kendall area when I lived in Boston 3.5 years ago. The thing that bugged me most about it was the lack of street-level places to sit down and work. There was one Starbucks and nothing else, besides semi-fast food restaurants which aren't good laptop environments.

Beautiful new high-rises were going up everywhere. There's a neat "secret" park on top of one of the buildings (Cambridge Center Roof Garden). Extremely easy to cycle around, and by far the best pedestrian-friendly traffic controls in the entire state.

However, unless you worked in one of the office buildings, or could enter MIT legally, there were few places for "outsiders" to wonder in, hang out, and hack. Is this still the case, or has it since become more welcoming to laptop nomads?

dgallagher··on Ask PG: Did the "apply to YC without an idea" experiment work?
Also, there may be a need for a large sample size before patterns can be recognized.
dgallagher··on Richard Stallman on the Ogg Vorbis license (2001)
The most popular portable media players in the 2000's didn't support OGG. No iPod, Creative Labs MP3 players, iTunes, Windows Media Player, portable CD player w/MP3 support, car stereo's, etc...

Around the mid-2000's, iRiver sold an OGG player, though it was $300 alongside a $300 iPod. Their interface wasn't as good, and it was clunky to use (I bought and returned one). It fell through the cracks like a zillion other iPod competitors.

Also recall DRM was a big part of digital music for a while. iTunes was dominant, and made ACC popular. I'm not even sure you can add DRM to OGG, outside of wrapping the file or watermarking. Watermarking works, but wrapping an OGG file doesn't make it OGG anymore.

So in a nutshell, OGG failed to catch on because there wasn't enough hardware or software support. On top of that, few people knew what OGG was, and didn't demand it from companies. Content owners had no reason to support it as they were focused on DRM. Apple dominated the market and standardized on MP3/ACC.

dgallagher··on Analytics used to predict who will leave a job
I think the flaw in "MBA driven bull-crap" is an incomplete algorithm. You can only track what's being measured, and only if you understand what's being measured fully. Humans are extremely complicated creatures, so currently they're impossible to measure accurately, and to fully understand. The refined technology simply doesn't exist yet.

Smart MBA's will recognize this and adjust things accordingly, but this has to be embraced throughout the organization. One minnow is easily overlooked in a sea of fish.

--------------------

Personally, I like to measure companies based on how well they implement idioms from other complex professions, like programming. DRY, KISS, etc... The more repetition, the more unneeded complexity, the poorer the company is to work for (IMHO).

dgallagher··on Python.org Redesign Preview
A navigable list of objects, functions, and methods would be really nice, something like this (preferably complete): http://api.rubyonrails.org

Another suggestion would be to split tutorials/examples apart from object references. For example, take a peek at the Python Decimal module docs: http://docs.python.org/2/library/decimal.html#module-decimal

All the information is there, but it isn't organized very well. There's a tutorial, overview of Decimal and its methods (with tutorials mixed within), and various "notes" sections. It's all mixed together, and confusing for a new user.

Personally, I'm more of a fan of this type of structure:

    1. API documentation. No how-to's.
    2. "Guides" and How-To's
API documentation is like a dictionary. Succinct, to the point, not littered with "Here's how you write a sentence with this word" examples.

Guides/How-To's including examples, introductions to use an object, spell out caveats, etc... This should get wordy when needed.

Both could have links to one another. For experienced coders, you'll mostly just use #1 (which fits great in a navigable list). For newbies, #2 will teach you how to do things.

$0.02

dgallagher··on Where The Puck Is Going
Imagine a future where you play a video game in the first person, using virtual reality, controlling your avatar with your own movements. The most natural way for someone to walk, run, aim, and jump, is to actually do so. Angling control sticks, pressing buttons, and waving gestures in-air does not map one-to-one in the same way your brain maps to your muscles and limbs. Flow with the wiring of your brain rather than against it.

This system would require direct connection to signals from your brain, intercepting and consuming them, never reaching your muscles. Resting comfortably with REM-like paralysis, you control your game character naturally and intuitively, moving it and not yourself, all from the comfort of your couch.

Technology like this already exists in its infancy, such as providing moveable arms and hands to those who have lost them:

    "Move Arm" ---> Engage Robotics ---> "See Arm Move"
    
    "Move Arm" ---> Animate Game ---> "Feel Arm Move"
The current feedback loop in robotics is limited; we can't make Luke Skywalker's robotic hand flinch with needles yet. For things to work well in a video game, you'll need to feel your actions, just as a runner feels their foot-strike flick off the ground.

When will this technology be available? What bottlenecks need to be overcome for it to exist? How much will it cost? What other applications could it have? Will it be released before Episode 3? ;)

dgallagher··on Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
"Learn cocos2d 2 - Game Development for iOS" by Steffen Itterheim and Andreas Low

http://www.apress.com/9781430244165

Still reading it (up to Chap 11 of 15).

Covers creating 2D games for iOS using the cocos2d 2.x framework, and Kobold2d 2.x framework. All code is in Objective-C, and it's expected you know Obj-C to understand the content. If you've done any OS X or iOS development already you'll have no problems following along. The frameworks are really simple to learn and use.

It does promote some inexpensive pay-for tools to aid in development, but always offers a free alternative if available. TexturePacker, Tiled (qt) (free), GlyphDesigner, and ParticleDesigner.

dgallagher··on What does randomness look like?
Python script I wrote a while back that outputs random images. PIL must be installed to work. Change |file_name| accordingly. JPEG images can be up to 65535 x 65535 in size, which are the max values for |width| and |height|. It's not optimized, so keep the resolution small unless you want to wait a while.

It'll output images that look like this: http://dave-gallagher.net/pics/666x666.png

    from PIL import Image, ImageDraw
    from random import randint
    
    def random_image():
        
        width       = 666
        height      = 666
        file_name   = '/Users/Dave/%dx%d' % (width, height)
        path_png    = file_name + '.png'
        path_jpg    = file_name + '.jpg'
        path_bmp    = file_name + '.bmp'
        path_tif    = file_name + '.tif'
        
        img  = Image.new("RGB", (width, height), "#FFFFFF")
        draw = ImageDraw.Draw(img)
        
        for height_pixel in range(height):
            if height_pixel % 100 is 0:
                print height_pixel
            
            for width_pixel in range(width):
                r  = randint(0, 255)
                g  = randint(0, 255)
                b  = randint(0, 255)
                
                dr = (randint(0, 255) - r) / 300.0
                dg = (randint(0, 255) - g) / 300.0
                db = (randint(0, 255) - b) / 300.0
                
                r  = r + dr
                g  = g + dg
                b  = b + db
                
                draw.line((width_pixel, height_pixel, width_pixel, height_pixel), fill=(int(r), int(g), int(b)))
            
        img.save(fp=path_png, format="PNG")
        img.save(fp=path_jpg, format="JPEG", quality=95, subsampling=0)     # 100 quality is 2x to 3x file size, but you won't see a difference visually.
        img.save(fp=path_bmp, format="BMP")
        img.save(fp=path_tif, format="TIFF")
    
    
    if __name__ == "__main__":
        random_image()
dgallagher··on [dead]
"Why you should probably stop taking nutritional advice from articles on the Internet"

The article falls into bad science: http://blog.tedx.com/post/37405280671/a-letter-to-the-tedx-c...

dgallagher··on Ask HN: Linux Adminstration Course for non-sysadmins?
The Ubuntu Server Guide is an easy to read, succinct manual: https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/

That'll cover basic Ubuntu sysadmin tasks, which is Debian-based. It's a good place to start.

dgallagher··on We’re creating a culture of distraction
Books are a distraction-proof UI. Their simplicity focuses you only to read. Magazines and newspapers are books plus distractions. Ads divert your attention. Thoughts in newspapers must be hunted like a wild animal, scattered all over pages. Books only compete with external distractions, such as noise, or you're own thoughts.

You can build a distraction-proof UI on a computer, but all parts must cooperate. If a single one annoys, the UI has failed. This is difficult to do if the UI's foundation, its OS, doesn't play along nicely. That's probably the way to do it, build a new OS, or train an existing one into submission.

"I see there are wireless networks available. Would you like to connect to one?" (...currently connected to a wired network, concentration lost...)

dgallagher··on We’re creating a culture of distraction
I felt that full-screen mode in OS X was in part a response to avoiding distraction.

Also, in social settings, I've noticed I'll check my phone if I'm alone, or near people where conversation has ended. Part of that is a mini-escape, and another part is caused by insecurity/peer pressure. If you're all alone doing nothing, you have less perceived worth than if you're all alone doing something.

dgallagher··on How do you live your life?
You only regret what you choose to regret, that is if you decide to regret anything at all.
dgallagher··on Why Waiting Is Torture
I don't mind waiting in line so far as things in front are progressing efficiently.

In my current culture (MA, USA), there's little punishment available for inefficiency, such as taking a long time to pay, or deciding on an order for food. You can give someone a dirty stare, but that's about it.

Some cultures do punish explicitly. For example, if you hold up a line in NYC mid-day ordering lunch, staff yells at you to hurry up, and may even kick you out. A harsh but effective message. Their other queued customers are being inconvenienced by your inefficiency. They'll walk out and go get lunch next door. Fire one and keep many.

Other cultures are different. In Costa Rica, an extremely laid back environment, customer service takes 2-3 times as long. It might take you 60-90 minutes to pickup a rental car at the airport even if you're the only person in line. People don't mind waiting. Slow is the norm.

Waiting is torture, welcome, whatever, if you let it. Your environment influences your decision, but it still remains your decision to choose.

dgallagher··on Sleepbox
How do they hedge against bed bugs?

That's a solvable problem. I still love the idea.

dgallagher··on Zero-day Exploit Price List
When there's demand for a product or service, supply will follow if it's profitable(1) to sell. Banning something, or shaming people away from doing it, doesn't eliminate demand. Supply reduces, cost increases. If costs gets too high, demand vanishes, and so does supply. It functions like any other market would.

To squash a market entirely requires extremely strict laws, punishment, and enforcement. Even then, it's impossible to destroy some markets if enforcement cost is too high, or is incompatible with the rules of a society (e.g. it's un-Constitutional).

For example, the U.S. spends billions each year on the war on drugs, and yet there's someone sitting right next to me in a coffee shop I could probably buy some off of right now. If $500 billion was spent yearly on enforcement, and police could do random searches of persons and property at any time without warrant, drugs would dry up. But at what cost? The loss of many of our rights, plus extremely high taxes, followed by an inefficient society spending so many resources on, well, "You can't stick that pill in your mouth." We'd become a military state with little else to offer, stagnating while the rest of the world surpasses us.

Black markets can be risky to engage in. If the risk of getting caught buying or selling an exploit was, say, 24/7/365 physical torture for 10 years, most people probably wouldn't do it. But a few would remain if it is worth the risk to them, or if they fail to assess risk (e.g. they don't comprehend it, or they ignore it; "It won't happen to me!"). The black market would "harden".

Mexican drug cartels hardened with guns, violence, secrecy, corruption, torture and death. You can theoretically calculate how many humans died in Mexican drug wars, per-joint you smoked, in 2011. That cost was built into the price you paid for the drugs. This "death cost" goes away if you legalize it.

So you're absolutely right; markets for software exploits will not go away unless it becomes unprofitable, or not worthwhile. Right now there are few, if any laws, banning it (asides from extortion, treason laws, etc...). Since many are vocally against it, they only have a few options to "prevent" it. Shame those who do it, buy them out ($$$), race them (white hats), or propose legislation to ban it (good luck). This market is likely here to stay for some time. If it remains legalized and becomes accepted by the general community, more people would do it, prices would come down, and so would earnings.

(1) Profitability can be defined as anything the supplier receives in return for their product/service which they deem "worth" something. It doesn't have to be money, but could be good feelings, increased social capital, learned knowledge, etc...

dgallagher··on Show HN: I love Essential Mixes. So I made this.
Knife Party (formed by two Pendulum guys) released an amazing mix two weeks ago: http://knifeparty.com/news/ukf-live-stream

You'll like if you're into Skrillex, Kill the Noise, Nero, Zedd, Swedish House Mafia, etc...

dgallagher··on Using Non-Newtonian Fluids to Fill Potholes
Maybe it would work better on an interstate, particularly flat sections, where there are no cyclists, and vehicles are constantly moving forward at high rates of speeds? Warnings could be posted to warn motorcycles not to swerve (e.g. like uneven surface warnings).

And to deter slow-pokes, entire sections of highway can be filled 100 feet deep with the stuff. If anyone slows down too much, the highway sarlacc acquires a tasty meal.

dgallagher··on PG on finding cofounders and being a strong team
Not in the same boat, but in the initial beginning, I'd make sure you give them as many opportunities to quit as possible. It'll weed out those who aren't truly dedicated, and may jump ship anyway 3-24 months from now.

I'm not sure how common dropouts are among YC founders, but it's a pattern I've noticed in real life. If something is going to take a long time to accomplish, requiring lots of dedication and persistence, you've got to be 100% certain all parties involved are all-in or they have a high probability of flaking out.

dgallagher··on Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore, dies at age 83
Yeah. The wiki article has a list of what they released: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Corporation

One neat thing they were developing, but never came to light, was Jaguar VR. It was a virtual reality headset, using IR-tracking, which let you play VR games. Only a few working prototypes exists:

VR headset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFZCgNBxkcM

Game shown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJmnmRzWipo

Another of VR headset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NCQJrd-4rk

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