Hacker News: qwerta

New comment by qwerta in "Beware of Transparent Pixels"

qwerta — Thu, 11 May 2017 08:50:24 +0000

There is also performance overhead.

New comment by qwerta in "Benjamin Button Reviews the New MacBook Pro"

qwerta — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 08:46:44 +0000

Dell XPS are very nice.

New comment by qwerta in "Benjamin Button Reviews the New MacBook Pro"

qwerta — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 08:45:38 +0000

But world does revolve around developers. We are reason why companies like Apple are successful.

And if even cheap Chromebook provides better experience, than it is time to move on. MacBook Pro today actually has some competition, Dell XPS is very nice machine.

New comment by qwerta in "Why Russia’s Alternate History of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Matters"

qwerta — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 12:43:09 +0000

Why Russians should not believe it?

- Ukraine army shoot down civil airliner with 90 people on board just a few years ago [1]

- It was regular war zone with dozens other planes shoot down [2].

- It happened on Ukraine territory, most likely by Ukraine citizens.

- Buk 9M38 is not Russian missile, but Soviet (that includes Ukraine).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia_Airlines_Flight_1812

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ukrainian_aircraft_los...

New comment by qwerta in "Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code [pdf]"

qwerta — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 12:27:00 +0000

This paper also explains each rule. They use code analysis tools a lot, and do not like stuff which makes analysis harder (recursion, unbounded loops..)

New comment by qwerta in "Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace"

qwerta — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 17:00:29 +0000

Anyone who masters deep concentration will become good :-)

New comment by qwerta in "The Life and Times of the Father of Linear Programming (2005)"

qwerta — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 08:22:12 +0000

There is no mention of Antonin Svoboda. He developed linear computer which would target moving airplanes in pre-nazi Czechoslovakia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton%C3%ADn_Svoboda

His book from 1948 is probably first book about applied programming: https://archive.org/details/ComputingMechanismsLinkages

New comment by qwerta in "A Generation Lost in the Bazaar (2012)"

qwerta — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 07:38:43 +0000

Many people in western countries eat their Lord and Savior every Sunday... And Redhat is definitely more stable than any sort of BSD (including OSX)

New comment by qwerta in "Copy protection scheme that was used for Dungeon Master on Atari ST and Amiga"

qwerta — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 19:31:43 +0000

I blow up 14 inch VGA display in Linux by setting wrong horizontal and vertical frequencies.

New comment by qwerta in "German-designed ‘smart’ guns rerouted after cultural backlash in U.S"

qwerta — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 09:12:04 +0000

I would say Germany would be safer country with guns. Czech rep has some issues. Germany should be comparable to Switzerland, not CR.

New comment by qwerta in "German-designed ‘smart’ guns rerouted after cultural backlash in U.S"

qwerta — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 08:58:57 +0000

What would prevent people from disassembling this, replacing a few parts and making new gun? Making hand gun is very simple once you have basic components, such as barrel and bullets.

I am worried that this will become yet another obstruction for gun holders. Germany (and EU) is crazy, pepper sprays or even pocket knives are banned. Neighbouring Czech rep. is more liberal and has comparable crime rate.

New comment by qwerta in "Copy protection scheme that was used for Dungeon Master on Atari ST and Amiga"

qwerta — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 07:46:58 +0000

Some programs had embedded graphic subroutines executed when under debugger. It would set CRT frequencies too high and blow up the display.

New comment by qwerta in "Look, no hands"

qwerta — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 14:38:42 +0000

My cousin was born without hands. He is using his feets for most things. Today he is 22, he drives a car, handles computer and tablets... His typing is ok, so he could be programmer if he chooses to. And he wants (and probably will) to move to his own place.

He does not use special devices, just big mouse and large AT/IBM keyboard.

New comment by qwerta in "Adblock Plus is probably the reason Firefox and Chrome are such memory hogs"

qwerta — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:28:25 +0000

It also works on android phones

New comment by qwerta in "Bill and Melinda Gates Are Spending Their Money the Wrong Way, Critics Say"

qwerta — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 08:59:04 +0000

Czech Army had mobile hospital in Afganistan for locals. There was a huge queue of people, some family would carry their relative for a week, just to get to hospital. We simply have no idea what is it there like.

Money could be probably spend more efficient way (exterminate mosquitoes rather than fight malaria). But running hospital in country without basic infrastructure is always very expensive.

New comment by qwerta in "New paper claims that the neutrino is likely a faster-than-light particle"

qwerta — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 19:53:55 +0000

Neutrino is faster than light in the water. To decide about vacuum we have to wait for another nearby supernova.

New comment by qwerta in "The Bug Nobody Is Allowed to Understand"

qwerta — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 19:46:50 +0000

I upvote, but disagree.

Studying source code is first step. There is difference between "full understanding", and fixing a bug when software crashes under very specific conditions. Modern IDEs (and hopefully unit tests with VCS history) are great, 1+ MLOC is not really a problem.

Good luck with contacting original author, I usually give up after a few weeks.

And even proprietary software can expose enough "source" without compromising its monopoly. Microsoft bundles debugging symbols, so you can debug their software and roughly understand whats going on.

New comment by qwerta in "Let the Other 95% of Great Programmers In"

qwerta — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 19:29:22 +0000

I am from EU and moving to US would not bring me much improvements. Especially with a family it is very expensive there.

Perhaps US could first tap resources within its borders. There are 50 million people in 'fly-over' states which are sort of ignored.

And 1% of all men are in prison, perhaps allow them to learn (and graduate) while in prison. Right now they are not even allowed tv, not mentioning internet.

New comment by qwerta in "“Not invented here” syndrome is not unique to the IT world (2013)"

qwerta — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 17:27:23 +0000

I am talking about software project, not health insurance.

New comment by qwerta in "“Not invented here” syndrome is not unique to the IT world (2013)"

qwerta — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 17:15:50 +0000

European wheelbarrow has lower center of gravity, it is easier to balance and handles rougher terrain, it is mainly used on construction sites. To transport cargo we use 2 or 4 wheels :-)

And I think HealthCare.gov was very successful. Its purpose is not to build website, but employ large number of people and make a few people rich.