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electronslaveon How to take down an F-117

Yes, I really like that thing. Performance at cruise on the Туманскиы Р35-500 is 40.21 kN, which puts it at just about Mach speeds. For $45k.

That. That is entertainment.

electronslaveon How to take down an F-117

On a related note, I have a special place in my heart for this beast:

http://www.controller.com/listings/detail.aspx?OHID=1084742

electronslaveon Japan building 1GW, $21bn solar power station in space

I'd like to chip in my own "this is silly" perspective. You see, Japan has a history with futuristic flops:

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

electronslaveon How to take down an F-117

This article provides no information about shooting stealth aircraft out of the sky with surplus Soviet weapons.

I claim false advertising and would like my 30 seconds back.

electronslaveon Get Ready for HTML 5

Okay, that's fine. And yes, he might be. My take on it was the following narrative:

"hey, ALA reader #21223, there's no Drupal modules that use HTML5 features."

(hand on cheek) "oh crap, I overcommitted!"

"you certainly did. that'll teach you to read oreilly's blog. wait until that module gets written, or write your own."

(reinserting finger into nose) "phew, now I can return to complacency."

electronslaveon Get Ready for HTML 5

Er, I'm seeing that phrase the way I described it, and as it was described to me.

"If you are like most designers, you probably don’t write all your markup by hand. But until the tools you use catch up to the new elements in (X)HTML 5, you will be doing some markup by hand while you learn."

Mind you, that speaks to templates like WordPress layouts, Django plugins, Rails gems that generate their own markup, Drupal modules. The list goes on.

What did you have in mind?

electronslaveon Get Ready for HTML 5

FONT tags in advertiser injection, I understand. We do some mangling to avoid that, but you're right. It doesn't kill everything.

I'm wondering what kind of stupid web tricks you're talking about that go against XHTML validation, though. Care to share a horror story?

electronslaveon Con Kolivas releases BFS, alternative to mainline scheduler

OMG! He came back!

Edit: Explanation is due. Years ago, Con split from dev:

http://apcmag.com/why_i_quit_kernel_developer_con_kolivas.ht...

electronslaveon Get Ready for HTML 5

a single typo [is] the total destruction of your web app

Really? I mean, I know why my company's pages don't validate. I'm more than ready to execute a putsch to take care of that problem.

So why doesn't Yahoo, in its vastness of being, have the ability to clear pages through (automatable, standardized and fairly simplistic) validation? Is it a 5-bytes-on-the-wire savings problem like at Google? Or just PEBCAK as is par for the course?

electronslaveon Get Ready for HTML 5

Years ago, I called BS on that too, but the ALA convention of "by hand" means "we're not writing flat files full of markup anymore." And we aren't. We use templates now.

electronslaveon [dead]

Think about that for a second...fans are tattooing themselves

I did think about it. And now that the trauma is over, I'm glad that online radio people aren't forcibly tattooing their listeners.

electronslaveon In tough times, cocaine dealers have to turn to cold-calling

I think you meant to respond to my downvoted comment.

Note that the editors are, in fact, fiscal conservatives for the most part. I had meant to illuminate the coincidence of the downvoted comment's parent mentioning banking.

And sure, "those who read the Economist" can be divided yet again into "those who ONLY read the Economist for current events" and "other." It's the new flag lapel pin for the under 40 crowd. Excuse my while I cough politely.

electronslaveon Snow Leopard Adds Closures to C (and its derivatives)

You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that this syntax actually makes sense to seasoned C programmers.

What?

electronslaveon Insider's Guide to Tech-Job Hunting

Apparently they need gorilla suits.

electronslaveon In tough times, cocaine dealers have to turn to cold-calling

Ahh, realpolitik. The one startup arena where slashing the top of someone's neck so that their tongue hangs out is considered innovative.

electronslaveon In tough times, cocaine dealers have to turn to cold-calling

Well, it's a Tory magazine for the under-40 crowd. I don't know if that makes it banking-only, but given that banking is the big traditional industry in the UK, sure, I'll bite.

(Incidentally, I don't seem to mind as much when they have a pot-directed story.)

electronslaveon In tough times, cocaine dealers have to turn to cold-calling

Unhappy middle managers, kids in their early 20s and doctors?

electronslaveon In tough times, cocaine dealers have to turn to cold-calling

Given the number of Economist articles that involve this particular stimulant, I'm starting to wonder what their writing pool is up to on Friday nights.

electronslaveon The programmer's wife

After reading [insert technical field]'s [insert age-appropriate medium], I found that there was a constant among them. You see, the representation of females in [technical field] is limited, and anecdotes related to females in [technical field] are largely the same.

They start with: "My [diminutive significant other] once asked me", "Jane Doe isn't just hot, she's also [common rank in technical field]" or "The best [common rank in technical field] I ever met was Jane Doe."

Replace [technical field] with cars, planes, motorcycles, programming and cinematography. Adventure travel, graphic design, marine biology and non-profit work tended to have more equal representation, and I saw less of this patrician attitude being slung around there.

electronslaveon The programmer's wife

So there's this idea that Asperger's is hereditary...

electronslaveon What are you reading?

Oops. I just thought it was an amusing anecdote, but this isn't a constructive direction.

electronslaveon Dutch teen develops pedal-powered plane

Long long history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremer_prizes

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

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

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

electronslaveon What are you reading?

The Brothers Karamazov. Awesome, if only for the casually violent Russian realism that I loved in Преступление и Наказание.

As far as learning goes, I'm chugging through the FARs and the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. I'm about to solo.

As far as computer tech stuff goes, I haven't picked up a book with hype (plus requisite clipart/bad drawings/abuse of color space) on the cover in years.

Edit: What's up with all the Ayn Rand? Misogyny, xenophobia and unvarnished greed aren't exactly admirable characteristics, and her books read like an apologist's how-to manual. My favorite example of a Rand fanboy now works (when last I checked) at a bowling alley in Santa Barbara, after loudly and memorably insisting that he didn't need liberal pansy friends like me, because he'd be the wealthiest tycoon alive.

Yeah.

I guess he has a stovepipe hat and a monocle now.

electronslaveon 'Reading Rainbow' Reaches Its Final Chapter

In other news, 'Gravity's Rainbow' is no more; Pynchon no longer assumed erudite.

(I grew up with Reading Rainbow and look what it got me: bouts of graphomania, a lifelong addiction to reading and a sinking feeling when I'm exposed to contemporary long-form writing.)

electronslaveon [dead]

Irritating jerks on both sides. Plus, I like the Gruber post from yesterday, wherein Zuckerberg's described as a toejam-picking awkward 20something who is in no way the second coming of Bill Gates.

Which seems just about right.

(Also, as far as the local exploits go, San Francisco has a ton of "ambitious" women who are known to party hard. ahem I am Jack's total lack of surprise.)

electronslaveon LOLPython

It's someone making an alternate grammar for the Python VM. There's no waste in a learning exercise, even though the (juvenile, topical) humor may have dated itself.

Note to self: in order to not piss off HN readers, make a tutorial/postmortem at the end of the project.

electronslaveon LOLPython

But isn't all nonsense vanity in itself?

electronslaveon LOLPython

I remember porting my MapReduce clone to LOLPython. Three conditions had to exist in order for this to happen: 1) I was in a former cattle weighing town-turned-gambling nexus in northern New South Wales, 2) I was going to be there for 2 months, and 3) I was very, very drunk.

I think there exists a whole set of sub-explanations for each, but it shall suffice that severance pay, boredom and intoxication produce strange things.

electronslaveon Buy somebody lunch

I like the fact that the guy's obviously overweight. I'm still giggling, in fact.

electronslaveon OpenCL "Hello World"

Hello boilerplate.