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qxcv

248 karma · joined February 26, 2012

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qxcv··on Elon Musk and the Hyperloop
He also said that there aren't any rails and it runs on the ground. At the moment, we have a Concorde without wings[0] (a lifting body Concorde, perhaps?) crossed with a railgun without rails. Sounds like vaporware.

[0]: It could still have wings but operate under ground effect, though it seems that it would be difficult to keep your leading edge intact travelling just above a hard surface "twice as fast as an airliner". "Twice as fast as an airliner" is Mach 0.85 * 2 = Mach 1.7 at FL360, which translates into Mach 1.5 at sea level. One useful thing we learn from this is that this system will basically have to be propelled by compressed air or electromagnetic force, since props don't work over Mach 1 and we don't have electric turbines.

qxcv··on Internet Explorer becomes Korean election issue
> Has there ever been attempt to implement it in openssl, gnutls, etc, so as to not depend on this ActiveX plugin?

SEED is implemented in NSS (Firefox's network security backend)[0] as of 2010. I'm not sure whether or not that removes the dependency on IE, though.

Edit: looks like it's implemented in OpenSSL as well[1].

[0]: https://bugzil.la/453234 [1]: https://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/ciphers.html#SEED_ciphersu...

qxcv··on Sergey Brin Calls On Politicians To Abandon Political Parties
> Why do I need to pick someone who poorly represents my views and will probably vote against my interests, when I could easily vote on actual issues.

That's a great idea! In fact, I can see a business opportunity for an enterprising individual (or group of individuals, as it may be) under such a system: one could assemble a team of advisors who would analyse and debate legislation in order to decide on an optimal outcome for the country. Their advice could then be given to paying subscribers, who would vote in accordance with it, and thus pass legislation which benefits the country. If the subscribers disagree with the advisors, then they could subscribe to a different team of advisors after a period of time, and use that team's advice. This way, the subscribers get the benefit of deciding the country's future without the hassle of having to deeply analyse issues each-and-every time a new piece of law comes up. This is especially beneficial if they are not knowledgeable in or care little about a given field, but do not wish to leave legislation of that field to a small, entirely self-selected group of individuals (democracy is about representing the interests of the whole, after all).

Yes, I've got the basics all sorted out. To paraphrase Phil Karlton, the hard part is thinking up a name for the damn thing! I was thinking something edgy and retro like "The Parliament" or perhaps "Congress", but I'm open to other suggestions as well.

qxcv··on Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
> why would a 14 year old want to make sure his age is on the post title?

Because they know that they'll be praised for it and probably manage to sell a couple of copies. It also makes sense as something to put on a higher-ed application or CV ("I can already write commercially successful pieces of software, I got X comment from Y developer and sold N units").

That said, you're probably right in suspecting that this is partially driven by someone other than OP. The landing page of MakeGamesWith.Us has Cheese Miners on the front page along with the text: "It's so easy we got high school students to do it".

However, regardless of OP's motivation, it is well worthwhile applauding them on a job well done at such a young age. There are nowhere near enough teenagers taking up programming[0], and I hope that success stories like this will encourage more young people to at least get their feet wet with this financially and mentally rewarding craft.

[0]: This is especially troubling given the ubiquity of free development environments and online instructional material.

qxcv··on Yahoo to ignore IE10's "Do Not Track"
Two problems with UA strings:

1) They can often be used to identify you, especially when combined with other HTTP headers or information scraped from the client via JS[0].

2) They are abused by web developers who wish to lock out web browsers that they do not support. This is generally considered to be against the spirit of the web, though is sometimes useful for optimising page load times (for example, not sending IE conditional comments to all browsers).

[0]: https://panopticlick.eff.org/

qxcv··on Google Homepage Size Over Time
Looks good. I was using cURL, so that explains the ~100k vs. ~28k discrepancy.
qxcv··on Google Homepage Size Over Time
This looks incorrect. http://web.archive.org/web/20110713000446id_/http://www.goog... is only 28K according to ls -lh.

Perhaps OP forgot to put id_ after the capture timestamp in the archive URLs? The id_ makes sure that the Wayback Machine only returns the page as it was when it was indexed.

qxcv··on Vim, LaTeX and High School
I can't speak for everyone, but it is most likely the former. The handful of maths teachers I know absolutely loathe word-processed assignments since the majority of students don't bother using proper mathematical notation when they type things up (let alone use a proper type-setting program like LaTeX), so you end up with a bunch of students handing in stuff like:

∫e^x dx = e^x + c

Unfortunately, this sometimes results in teachers abandoning word processing altogether and making pen and paper mandatory.

qxcv··on Microsoft's HTML5 Games Resource
http://buildnewgames.com/physics-engines-comparison/ uses WebGL via three.js

It's pretty hard to fault this site in terms of neutrality. There's even an article about SVG where the author uses Ubuntu and Inkscape.

qxcv··on Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?
Not necessarily. The rock may only be a few centimetres underneath the sand dune, in which case it would not appear to protrude out from the dune significantly. There is also the possibility that the "spiders" are black sand[0][1] or silt, as they look suspiciously like some formations on Earth (albeit on a much larger scale):

[2]: This is a sand dune on a sand island, but has some black discolouration from rock just below the surface. I'm not sure how far down this rock extends, but its visibility varies depending on the time of year and number of visitors to the island. Note that there is also some grass (brown) and other vegetation (green) around the edge of the clearing (particularly on the southern edge), which is difficult to distinguish from the black rock.

[3]: Same island, different clearing. There is still some vegetation in the picture, but it's easier to see the black sand and rock underneath the top layer of white sand.

Try playing with the time slider at the top of the page to see how the exposure of the rock changes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_sand [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_mineral_sands_ore_deposi... [2] http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-27.194111,153.379091&z=21... [3] http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-27.280641,153.410605&z=20...

qxcv··on This white powder will kill me one day
> Newegg.com does not currently ship internationally; we only deliver to locations within the United States and to Puerto Rico.

Granted, Newegg are retailers rather than manufacturers, but country-based product restrictions are surprisingly common[0].

[0]: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22we+only+ship+to+locations...

qxcv··on Android can be beautiful
No, but scrolling across is difficult. And they hijack all the scrollbars so that they can show you a light grey box instead of the slightly lighter grey box which your browser normally shows. If they just displayed everything vertically and didn't mess with the scrollbars it would be an infinitely better site.

Oh, and their theme locks up Firefox, however I'm willing to blame that on FF rather than the designer(s).

qxcv··on An experiment in static compilation of Ruby: FastRuby
Interestingly, Facebook sponsored a project to build a prototype PHP interpreter using the PyPy[0] toolchain for JIT compilation, which turned out to be even faster than HipHop[1]. I have to wonder whether statically compiled Ruby would actually be any faster than a JIT interpreter like Rubinius, cold start JIT penalty aside.

Edit: looks like JRuby can/does do JIT compilation, but it is also capable of doing AOT compilation[2]. If JRuby can do AOT, then what is the point of FastRuby?

[0]: http://pypy.org/

[1]: http://morepypy.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/hello-everyone.html

[2]: https://github.com/jruby/jruby/wiki/JRubyCompiler

qxcv··on Programmers Must Take Vitamin D
But for the love of $DEITY, please wear adequate sun protection. At the very least that means a hat and sunscreen, but you probably want to be using long sleeved clothing and sunglasses if you're outside for an extended period of time.

Vitamin D deficiency is bad, but skin cancer is worse.

qxcv··on Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript
I only noticed it in FF15, but it may have been there for longer. Change pdfjs.disabled to false in about:config (followed by a browser restart) if you want to turn it on. Here's a test file[0] should you wish to test it out.

I've been using pdf.js for a while on my Windows box (where it is enabled by default on the FF beta channel) and it has performed remarkably well. Sometimes it's a bit slower than Adobe Reader or messes up colour or formatting, but on the whole I've quite enjoyed using it.

[0]: https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/design-paper/tor-des...

Note that the text in [0] doesn't scale properly, and the page previews in the navigation pane just show garbled text. Usable, but only just.

qxcv··on Why I think Node.JS is a terrible platform
It's not that async is hard, it's that callback-based frameworks like node.js force the programmer to structure their code in an entirely different (and more verbose!) way to what they would writing synchronous code. It doesn't help that the shortest way of declaring a function in Javascript is function(){...};

Look at coroutine-based frameworks like gevent if you want to see what easy async looks like. You'll still have to remember you're writing async code, but instead of do_lots_of_io(function(){wrap_up_afterwards();}); you can just do_lots_of_io();wrap_up_afterwards();. It makes code infinitely more readable.

qxcv··on [dead]
Lodsys were "just protecting an idea" too - does that mean that Lodsys are no longer patent trolls?
qxcv··on Another go at the Next Big Language
You should really read Steve Yegge's original blog post[0] before reading this submission.

[0]: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com.au/2007/02/next-big-language...

qxcv··on Tacocopter Basics
> real estate

Aren't there already unmanned blimps built to solve exactly this problem?

> surveillance

Except they're insanely loud when they get in close to you.

> art, video productions

There are a lot of good videos and pictures taken with multicopters, but you've got to remember a couple of things:

- They're loud. Probably loud enough to annoy whatever you're filming.

- Their engines vibrate a lot.

- They can only fly for a few minutes at a time (meaning LOTS of recharging and LOTS of batteries).

- If they fall out of the sky then it is very likely that you will lose your expensive recording equipment.

qxcv··on The Worst Argument In The World
Murder (n) - The unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.

Nobody is debating the definition of murder, the debate is over the definition of "human". When does an unborn child get the rights of a human? Is it at conception? At 3 months? At birth?

qxcv··on Doodle Jump Recreated in HTML5 ...with source
It's one thing to make a Pacman-like game. But this is being called the trademarked name Pacman, and you've copied the artwork straight from Pacman.

Seems certain this isn't an official licensed version. In which case, you should change all those items immediately. It's illegal and it's just not cool.

Here are the guys you are ripping off. Tōru Iwatani and his friends at Namco. Tōru is a very nice guy:

http://pacmanmuseum.com/history/Toru-Iwatani.php

qxcv··on Why Ratings Systems Don't Work
The point is that scatter plots are harder to read than histograms. It's not two histograms vs. one scatter plot, it's replacing the current single histogram system with a single scatter plot.

Also, side-by-side histograms aren't the only way to display two parameters in a single histogram. What about stacked histograms? They scale up to an arbitrary number of parameters and everybody who can read a histogram can read a stacked histogram. Scatter plots seem like thermonuclear overkill for a problem which most movie sites seem to consider to be "solved".

qxcv··on Rejection
I imagine it as more of an attempt to engage with the bystanders, maybe to try and tell them that he can do better. "Ugh! I failed", he says, trying to smile in the direction of the onlooking girls. A quick attempt at a chuckle to make light of the situation and he swims away.

OTOH it does sound like the kid in question was a lot younger than 16, especially considering his reaction and the fact that he was at the pool with his mother.

qxcv··on Google’s Self-Driving Cars Are Going to Change Everything
> so when the cats lays in front of it -- it will just run over it, not being able to see it?

LIDAR stands for Light Detection And Ranging. Much like sonar (which is also used on an autonomous car) it is used to map 3D environments, producing models which can then be analysed by the computer. A plastic bag lying perfectly flat on a road would look like sensor noise, whereas a cat would be a noticeable obstacle (much like a fallen garbage bin or a basketball). This clip[0] from Udacity's CS373 class is great if you want to find out what an autonomous car "sees". In short, if you're a two dimensional cat, you're in trouble. Otherwise you should be fine :)

> Usually after 10 years of deep investigation,

What? I said "I'd imagine..." because that part of my post was pure speculation since AFAIK nobody has ever been in a serious autonomous car accident.

> I guess what I was trying to say is that I think getting killed by a car driven by machine feels easier on your conscious than being killed by a car who is driven by a human.

Touché, fair point.

[0]: http://youtu.be/XZL934YQ-FQ - you can skip to 0:55 if you just want to see the LIDAR-generated model

qxcv··on Google’s Self-Driving Cars Are Going to Change Everything
> 100 more cameras at each corner??

There are cameras on the autonomous cars, I'm sure they'd do the trick just fine.

> Second, I still have no idea how on Earth would AC riding on a highway know that it is a black cat, not a black bag laying on the street.

LIDAR. A black bag laying on the street is virtually invisible to it.

> The bottom line: sooner or later AC will make a mistake.

True, but they'll have to make a lot of mistakes to be worse than humans.

> Last, who is liable when the system makes a mistake?

That's a good question, and not one that can be answered categorically for all classes of motor vehicle accident. I'd imagine that the driver of an autonomous car would be liable for their actions in the same sense that a pilot is when they place their plane on autopilot (or a skipper when the use an autotiller to steer their ship). If it can be proven to be poor engineering on the manufacturer's part, then likely the manufacturer will be held responsible. Otherwise it will probably be the driver getting sent to jail. Or maybe a mixture of both if both parties can be proven to have acted negligently.

> ...but I can throw myself under riding AC.

Yet you're incapable of throwing yourself under a normal car? Doesn't this contradict your previous point about sabotage?

Though admittedly sabotage is a very common concern with automatic cars - what if somebody papers over a street sign or throws rocks at the car whilst it is on a sharp corner? In reality, malicious third parties are of concern, but not any more than if the vehicle was not autonomous. Human drivers can still be distracted by noisy passengers, intoxicated by alcohol and blinded by lasers; all you're doing by putting a robot in control is swapping the weaknesses of one system for the weaknesses of another. Ideally, there would be a mechanical backup system which could be controlled by the driver in the case of an emergency, which would effectively make autonomous cars more reliable than normal ones.

qxcv··on Rootbeer GPU Compiler Lets Almost Any Java Code Run On the GPU
When you're using somebody else's computer.
qxcv··on Space isn't ours.
> Nobody is saying space is America's

Really? [0] rings a bell from a few years back, but I'm not sure if it's still current. If denying access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests" isn't "ownership" (or maybe "guardianship", if you prefer that term), I'm not sure what is.

[0]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10...

qxcv··on Mars Curiosity Operating System: VxWorks
$ vimdiff <(curl http://www.fastcompany.com/node/28121/print?donttaseme) <(curl http://www.fastcompany.com/node/28121/print)

Aesthetics, perhaps?

qxcv··on Lessons in website security anti-patterns by Tesco
All realestate.com.au are trying to do is give the user a persistent session registered to their email address. Think of it as kind of like a cookie which you can easily transfer between browsers to get a slightly more personalised experience.

> This is especially true with the high amount of password reuse that goes on.

I do agree that it is a bit off (read: probably illegal) that they allow users to change the password and then store the user's password in plaintext. The system would be considerably better if users could only use a system-generated password.

qxcv··on Sir Tim Berners-Lee Stars in Olympic Opening Ceremony
> I am being downvoted, because my assertions (admittedly in unpolished form)

You're being downvoted because you keep reposting (word-for-word) the same nonsensical rant on HN[0] and various other places around the web. Perhaps you could tidy it up between now and the next time you repost it so that we can understand your argument.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3842382

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