Hacker News: bgruber

New comment by bgruber in "Java 17 / JDK 17: General Availability"

bgruber — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 22:57:56 +0000

Slated to be previewed in java 18 https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/405

New comment by bgruber in "The Unicorn Tapestries"

bgruber — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:40:08 +0000

The tapestry in that image is from a different set (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_and_the_Unicorn). The set at the Cloisters is this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_of_the_Unicorn

New comment by bgruber in "Bletchley Park Trust to undergo organisational restructure"

bgruber — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 19:44:56 +0000

While you do have to know what you are looking for, and walk the long way around from the larger Bletchley Park site, the National Museum of Computing is still (as of last year) there with volunteers showing off the workings of a bunch of rebuilt computers including the Colossus. I can't recommend a visit, with a guided tour, enough. And you might as well visit Bletchley itself while you are there, which is a different experience, but still worth while.

New comment by bgruber in "Siri, What Time Is It in London?"

bgruber — Fri, 22 May 2020 19:21:18 +0000

I had an issue with my own address on google maps (not as severe as this, it just had the wrong zipcode). After trying to correct it using the tools built in to maps 3 times and having my correction rejected every time, I tweeted my complaint @googlemaps, did a quick DM back and forth and it was fixed shortly thereafter.

(please do not take this as an endorsement of google maps support, merely an anecdote of what did work for me that I hope might help you)

New comment by bgruber in "The Rise of Microsoft Visual Studio Code"

bgruber — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 02:10:14 +0000

this is precisely the case: http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au/archives/git/0504/0873.html

New comment by bgruber in "Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown"

bgruber — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 22:25:44 +0000

When going from JFK to somewhere else in queens, yellow cabs are supposed to get a voucher from the dispatcher that allows them to skip to the front of the line when they get back to the airport. The fact that he was surprised when you said Queens implies that the dispatcher failed to do this, which explains both his going back to the dispatcher and his annoyance.

New comment by bgruber in "Lisp Quickstart"

bgruber — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 15:50:29 +0000

walmart (http://blog.cognitect.com/blog/2015/6/30/walmart-runs-clojur...)

New comment by bgruber in "Why I'm not a big fan of Scrum"

bgruber — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 14:05:25 +0000

Re: daily standups. A lot of what the OP criticizes standups for is what I like about them. The content is only half of it. In my experience, it can be very easy for a team to cease feeling like one and instead become a loosely-coupled collection of independent contractors. 15-20 minutes a day of forced synchronous communication goes a long way to making you feel like you're actually on a team and therefore act like it, and is well worth the minimal time. This is especially true if the team isn't all in the same physical space. It can be disruptive, so scheduling it at the right time is important.

Of course, if you already have meeting overload, standup is going to feel like the worst.

New comment by bgruber in "Google has started a video series on machine learning and I can understand it"

bgruber — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 17:45:34 +0000

it may not be possible to conceptualize all parts of a system simultaneously but that doesn't mean nobody can fully understand the system. A layer of abstraction isn't about not having to understand what's beneath it; it's a tool to aid in understanding.

New comment by bgruber in "Docker for Mac and Windows Beta"

bgruber — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 16:41:53 +0000

try again, and try doing a hard refresh (i needed to)

New comment by bgruber in "Day of the Tentacle Remastered"

bgruber — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 12:43:19 +0000

i love DoTT, and this looks nice, but I'm disappointed that they don't seem to have given the same attention to the music they did to the visuals.

New comment by bgruber in "The Synthesizer Academy"

bgruber — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 02:40:49 +0000

Another (much more expensive) "standard" reference for synthesis algorithms is Curtis Roads' "The Computer Music Tutorial" http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Music-Tutorial-Technology/dp/...

Amazon.com: Handmade Products

bgruber — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 14:30:46 +0000

Article URL: http://www.amazon.com/handmade

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10352975

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

One Tweet Shows What Silicon Valley Really Thinks of the People It's Crushing

bgruber — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 02:43:22 +0000

Article URL: http://mic.com/articles/123311/silicon-valley-white-male-privilege-class-war

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10294436

Points: 7

# Comments: 0

New comment by bgruber in "Uber’s Manhattan Invasion Is Killing the Loan Market for Taxis"

bgruber — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 13:58:11 +0000

we had hailo. they pulled out of nyc.

Facebook and the media: united, they attack the web

bgruber — Tue, 26 May 2015 14:42:41 +0000

Article URL: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/notes/media-websites-vs-facebook/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9605166

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by bgruber in "Netflix begins audio description for visually impaired"

bgruber — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 05:48:09 +0000

> Few people actually do this.

Is it everything? No. But according to WGBH's media access group, "All major studios now caption and describe all wide released features and nearly all independent studios caption all releases."[1] In 2014, that description was available on at least 88 films released on DVD or Blu-ray[2]. As for television, in the US, the networks and the 5 largest cable stations are required to air about 4 hours of programming a week with description[3].

My point is: The biggest problem is no longer a lack of described content, it's a lack of access, particularly through internet streaming services which have the potential to provide the most accessible experience of all.

[1] http://www.acb.org/adp/movies.html [2] http://www.acb.org/adp/dvds2014.html [3] http://www.fcc.gov/guides/video-description

New comment by bgruber in "Netflix begins audio description for visually impaired"

bgruber — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 05:28:09 +0000

When I say that it seems no harder than adding more language tracks, what I'm talking about is adding pre-existing description tracks to Netflix. Of course producing new description is harder than adding existing language tracks.

New comment by bgruber in "Netflix begins audio description for visually impaired"

bgruber — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 18:07:44 +0000

Agreed that starting with their own content makes sense. As for the difficulty of adding existing AD assets, I'm unclear as to why this is any more difficult than adding more language tracks, something Netflix has been doing for years. As for procedural and contractual issues, advocates in the past have gone so far as to get the owners of the assets to agree to license to Netflix free of charge, to no avail.

It's sad that in the UK, VOD services are even further behind on accessibility. I do hope that Netflix is actively seeking out AD, but given their track record so far, I'll believe it when I see it.

Most of all though, I wanted to respond to one particular thing you said: "And for all the stick they get, Netflix actually leads the way in accessible content"

The lesson I've taken from this is that they don't get nearly enough, or perhaps the right kind of, stick. Advocates (and legislators in some countries) have been after Netflix on this issue for years, but what finally seems to have gotten Netflix to take action was when the mainstream media started picking up on the story. That action was swift and completely addressed the story that the media told. I therefore think it important to keep the story going in an attempt to ensure that Netflix keeps working on this problem.

New comment by bgruber in "Netflix begins audio description for visually impaired"

bgruber — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 16:47:26 +0000

a non-press-release version of this story, from the washington post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/04/14/ne...

this is the result of a multi-year fight by disability advocates, most notably Robert Kingett from the accessible Netflix project (https://netflixproject.wordpress.com/). What finally put them over the edge was the release of Daredevil, which made for a story the popular press finally bit: blind people can't enjoy a show about a blind superhero.

honestly, the fact that netflix remedied the situation so quickly once the PR situation got bad enough does not improve their reputation on this issue in my eyes. For a long time, I thought that maybe there was some great technical complication I just didn't understand that made this much harder than it seemed from the outside. Apparently that wasn't the case.

Also, as Kingett has said, "now comes the easy part." Adding description tracks on Netflix for all of the movies and TV shows for which they have been available all along.