thinkersilver

The author mentions that he spent a lot of time using English without ever listening to it. A big problem is the way English( or languages) are taught or learnt that causes these problems.

One trick/method that I used while perfecting my German accent was shadowing that I found in a lanaguage forum somewhere. I took a book that I understood in the target language, in this case it was Agatha Christie's Murder on the Links; bought the audio book ( Mord auf dem Links), then repeated after the reader at pace without looking at the text. It was tiring mentally sometimes, but it helped greatly in pronunciation and aural comprehension of the target langauge.

I did the same for movies. I remember getting the Matrix in German. Technical writing is different I guess but I hope this helps someone, at the very least, in acquiring an idiomatic proficiency.

It's a great idea but I think it is a long way from being useful. The one feature I would not expect to see using a tool like this is realistic rendition of the dialogue. I know that is not technologically feasible. What I would expect to do in abscence of that, is be able to set the mood of the scene through lighting and colour, have a wider camera angle and movement vocabulary, and a wider range of interactions between the actors. This would make it a powerful previz tool and it would help tell the story closer to the writers intent in the absence of human reading the script. Just some of my thoughts. It would also be nice to see a linux version of this too. I can't see experienced writers using this, but they may not be the target audience. Who is the target audience by the way?

I've been using this library and I really like it. If only it could do svg, then embedding D3 charts would be a cinch. Keep up the good work, though.

I disagree with Paul Graham's notion that we need to find a better way to entertain ourselves. The narratives of films are powerful and are not always fun and entertaining yet people will go watch them; even if they walk out a bit disturbed. Hollywood creates content. I think to beat Hollywood, would require a platform that enables the film production process to happen outside the Hollywood system. Youtube, Netflix already have the distribution end. Movie stars are not a requirement for a good film, they can be replaced with good upcoming talent, (visit any major drama school). A large budget is not a requirement either, principal photography has never been cheaper. So what does Hollywood have that makes it special? It has the network which connects and coordinates all the key players (actors,writers,cameramen,animators etc). That's the problem that Silicon Valley needs to solve (not entertainment). It(we?) need to provide a platform to streamline the process of making film. Perhaps Paul Graham should have thought of an Incubator for Filmmakers. Demo night could be a short film.

Instant coffee will give you roughly 12mg of caffeine, an espresso will give you ~150mg , a regular size cup of brewed coffee from somewhere like Starbucks is around ~200mg of caffeine.

The strength of your coffee is in the brewing method and beans used. So, I guess, the effect of a cup would vary greatly depending on where you got it.

It would also be interesting to see research on coffee's effect on a wide range of personality types. I've quit and haven't used in ~19months. Back then I'd drink 3-4 espresso's a day. Quitting was one of the most unpleasant and unbalancing experiences of my life. I kept a log of headaches, moods and fatigue before and after going cold turkey; and it was a long while (months) before the fogginess, tiredness, muscle spasms and irritability became manageable.

The rush and withdrawal effects of coffee on individuals seems to me to differ widely. I have friends that only got a slight barely notable buzz from it, but for me, I got the buzz, pleasure and motivation from my morning espresso. It was my on switch.

I think when I began to realise my psychological dependency was a bit unusual, was when I noticed how jittery and restless I was before my morning espresso. The first sip would correct that and bring with it a strange zen-like calm; the hustle and bustle of the day would dim to a dull hum and I would regain my presence of mind and I could function again. I promptly decided to quit.

Each time is different. You really should take this down or wait to change teams after a year and a bit or leave. It sounds like there is serious disconnect between your expectations and the company culture and what you have written does not reflect too well on the Azure team.

I won't talk about grades. Getting a 2:1 or better is a given when applying in the UK. My experience is mainly London, Finance/Tech. The hardest class was my algorithms class in my second year and it turned out to be the most useful. The rest of the degree was too unfocused. The school you go to does matter. It counts a lot. People tend to hire from Universities that they are familiar with. Not out of any elitism but it often boils down to being familiar with that university's curriculum. The biggest piece of advice is that you shouldn't expect your Computer Science degree to teach you how to develop software. You should be advancing this skill alongside your course in popular languages, by yourself in your own time. This will ensure that you can talk intelligently about technical topics. Finally, your extra-curricular activities count for a lot more than you realise.

I'm thinking of moving across from a financial IT consultancy to a hedge fund. What are the hours like? I'm not that interested in working in a large IB (e.g RBS,CS pr ,MS) I've done that before and the work in that space is a lot less interesting now and has stagnated somewhat. I know this is a bit long winded but your skill-set matches exactly what I have but I don't have much opportunity to use it on a daily basis. Any comments or pointers will be really helpful.

The signs aren't always very clear. King's Cross being the worst culprit. Arriving on the Northern Line then changing to the Circle line, will take a few minutes or almost 10 depending on which end of the train you get off. This happened to me a few weeks ago when I blindly followed the signs right in front of me. The directions are different depending on which end of the train you get off.

I agree. It is easy to complain about how boostrappy or wordpress like the theme is, but it is immaterial the source of the design inspiration. The most import thing is, that it works and is functional. Try going to the birmingham.gov.uk or london.gov.uk or any of the boroughs in London and see how much of an improvement this approach actually is.

Thanks for the write up. I've been working for a start-up in the Silicon Roundabout(London) for the last two years. I am not surprised by some of David's observations about the investment culture in Berlin. The German word for Venture Capitalism is Risikokapital - the word in itself already encapsulates German investors' attitudes towards start-ups. The tech scene is picking up dramatically is becoming shinier and a lot more exciting than where I am right now. ...

Small bug - I'm reading in HN in bed right now and I have a mounted screen a few metres away from me. I clicked on Start/Play and wanted to cancel, so I cancelled the first alert box but then found myself in an endless loop of alert boxes stealing focus from all other Chrome windows. I had to kill Chrome in the end.