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ucho

203 karma · joined March 29, 2012

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ucho··on This is how Netflix's top-secret recommendation system works
Just to power users? I keep getting suggestions to finish viewing last 1-2 minutes of each episode - the end credits that I previously skipped using big "start next episode" button.
ucho··on Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)
They are called adrenaline junkies for a reason. That makes me wonder - can we put thrill-seeker in "rehab"? And should we?
ucho··on Headphone startup Kanoa shuts down
Some monitors just have bad backlight. I had old one where maximizing terminal(which is mostly black) window caused taskbar and window handle also to turn almost black.
ucho··on Practicing Elixir or any programming language
Last time I tried hackerrank i wasn't impressed - the problem specification was lacking, input/output wasn't defined well enough. Quality varied wildly between problems.
ucho··on Video is Coming to Reddit
> Imgur had DEFINITELY gotten WAY worse than even a year or so ago

There is vicious cycle with all image hosting services and Imgur(and Photobucket) has reached the last step:

1. Notice all other services are filled with ads and full of bloat

2. Create new, free and very simple image uploading site

3. Site gains popularity

4. Operating costs go through the roof

5. Try to monetize by adding ads or move to paid accounts

6. goto 1

ucho··on Reasonable Scala Compiler
It worked out for Facebook and PHP so maybe that is why they want to give it a try.
ucho··on HTTP Error Code 418 I'm a Teapot is about to be removed from Node
> Did you read the github issues? There were hundreds of people against it.

Every time github issue goes viral it ends with hundreds of useless comments full of animated gifs. That is not an argument for anything.

ucho··on EasyList: Ad-serving domain removed due to DMCA takedown request
Storing hashes in source repo would make it very hard to manage and I am not sure if processing raw names into hashes as part of build would be any help against such DMCA request.
ucho··on Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo
> My job is not to balance an arbitrary math equation that x% of engineers are supposed to be women

It really sound like Goodhart's law. It no longer matters that corporations wanted to remove bias from hiring process and access mostly untapped pool of talents. Now it is important how well they are doing it, measured by single % value.

ucho··on Mozilla’s Send makes it easy to send a file from one person to another
Makes me wonder when Firefox will be able to resume interrupted file downloads without addons.
ucho··on Google’s native ad blocker for Chrome shows up in Android developer build
Even more interesting will be the effect on sites that can't get "good" ads due to adult content or sketchy legality like file sharing sites.
ucho··on REST in Peace. Long Live GraphQL

  What is GraphQL?
  GraphQL is all about data communication
Somehow it reminds me of good old "The S stands for Simple": http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/xml/soap/simple
ucho··on Used GPUs flood the market as Ethereum's price drops below $150
Buying ASICs is high risk and (probably) high reward - in event of crash you are left with worthless machines. GPUs will still have some value, even after all crypto currencies drop.
ucho··on Jefferies gives IBM Watson a Wall Street reality check
Now it is wrapped in "SmartCloud" instead. I am not sure if that is an improvement.
ucho··on Audi claims the A8 is the first production car to reach Level 3 autonomy
> perfectly clean sensors

I saw thin layer of ice appear on parking sensors after few minutes of driving in snowy conditions, triggering "close object" warnings. And cars get dirty all the time, I wonder if cars will end up with separate wiper for each sensor.

ucho··on The Old Are Eating the Young
As a counter counter anecdote, scientists where estimating that perfecting automatic text translation will take another 10-15 years... in ~1960. I guess hoping that future technology will solve all out problems is similar to expecting next generation to pay our debts.
ucho··on WebAssembly: Mozilla Won
Yeas, what about it? Oh right, it might stop working after Firefox 57: https://github.com/piroor/treestyletab/issues/1224 . There are people working on it but that isn't true for many other extensions that are no longer under active development.
ucho··on Wrapping up Java 9 new Features
Yeah, worst example ever. They should make it harder to make inner anonymous classes, not easier. When such code is used inside JEE/CDI/Spring Beans it leads to some annoying leaks or issues with serialization.
ucho··on Google plans ad-blocking feature in Chrome browser
Lucky for us (in this case) certificate pinning is considered to risky to actually deploy in production, it is to easy to make the page completely unacceptable with single mistake.

Also it looks like Chrome actually ignores pinning for proxies as a feature: http://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/security-faq#...

ucho··on Https hurts users far away from the server
Maybe it is even worse when it is just few - people won't know that website creator isn't responsible for all of its content. And sometimes is hard to know who is the culprit like in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12091900 .

Is there any solution other than totally killing HTTP that protects from HTTPS stripping attacks? HSTS won't protect first visit and STS preload lists can only be so large.

ucho··on Data on the uselessness of LinkedIn endorsements
> know for sure

I am not sure about anything on LI page - it so full of dark patterns that spamming random people with invites is always at most 2 clicks away. It might be similar with endorsements.

ucho··on How I Write Tests
There is an even better way to test your tests - the mutation testing, for example http://pitest.org/. It also helps to find dead code, that doesn't have any impact on result any more.
ucho··on Vlany – Linux LD_PRELOAD rootkit
Similar stuff is used for good for ages, for example in Valgrind or in `fakeroot` used to build packages in Debian.
ucho··on PHP 7 deployment at Dailymotion
PHP array is equivalent to LinkedHashMap and yes, it has 40 bytes overhead per entry in Java.
ucho··on PHP 7 deployment at Dailymotion
Java has also alternative approach:

    final a;
    if (predicate) {
     a = 3;
    } else {
     a = 5;
    }
`final` makes it possible for variable to be assigned exactly once. Verbose but useful when "?:" is not a good fit.
ucho··on What Is Déjà Vu and Why Does it Happen? (2013)
I am sure this is exactly what is happening. It is just hard to find out and believe that something is wrong with your own memory. It is about the same as using infected OS to run AntiVirus scan. Maybe it is a coping mechanism? I would prefer to hope it was a prophetic dream than that I can't trust my memory as Déjà Vu/random brain hiccup can rewrite it without leaving any trace.
ucho··on Facebook rolls out code to nullify Adblock Plus’ workaround
Readiblity bookmarklet does just that but it is very simple heuristic and is good enough for articles/layouts with single main column.
ucho··on IPv6 Support for Amazon S3
> It's embarrassing, frankly.

It is the same company that has different character encoding for different language versions of its site (.de, .jp) and none of them is Unicode.

ucho··on “CPUs are optimized for video games”
> It would be like an individual trying to keep their password secret from another part of their body.

Trying to recall a password that I commited only to muscle memory is damn near impossible without some kind of keyboard in front of me.

ucho··on American truck drivers could lose their jobs to robots
Well, if we talk about trains ... the future is already here. Humans where deemed unworthy to drive high speed trains so ETCS[1] takes over almost everything. The drivers are in cabin for the same reasons we still have pilots in airplanes - just in case.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Train_Control_System

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