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ColinWright
136,194karma·18,658submissions·December 14, 2009
about
If you want to contact me, find me on the web. I am
especially interested in math, juggling, programming,
and education, and since there are other people with
my name you'll probably need to include at least one
of those terms in any search.
I was once a prolific contributor and commenter, but no more. I go through bouts of submitting stuff, but then go and disappear for lengths of time. If there is something you'd like me to see or comment on, you can email me. Don't ask me to upvote things. If it is interesting (to me) then I will.
Submissions do not imply endorsement.
My spam filtering is pretty severe, but I've put the word "Dysprosium" on the allow-list - quote that and your email will get through.
I used to have an email here but it got harvested by spammers - I'm looking at you, mbientlab.com - so it has been removed. This is a temporary one:
HN_a7dab8S4@solipsys.co.uk
Email sent there and quoting the element name will pass my spam filters. After that we can use "proper" email addresses.
recent activity (18,658 total)
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Bad link - you've linked to the blog, not to the article: Good link: http://mathbabe.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/whats-it-take-to-be... Suggest you delete and resubmit.…
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You never said anything about said programmer being told not to do it. Don't mess about - ask what you really want.
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But that's just a question of due diligence. Anyone who pulls random code from unknown sources with no evidence of testing or competence gets what they deserve. Yes, there are people who seem never t…
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Do you want the work to get done? What's the fastest way? If I want a robust, reliable, thoroughly tested library routine, it's better to pull it from somewhere else, provided I know it's been hammer…
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You submitted this four weeks ago ... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2549609
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I have no idea what you mean by that, because the obvious and naive reading of what you've written is manifestly false. You might try expanding on it to help me (and others) understand what you're tr…
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Too slow, very seldom well done, too slow, can't link through to other things and come back, too slow, usually don't have want I actually want, too slow, can't skim, too slow, purely linear, and too s…
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Personal opinion, offered in a drive-by. I hate videos.
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Obligatory XKCD reference: http://xkcd.com/552/ The problem is that causation does result in correlation, and sometimes we need/ought to take action before things can be proven conclusively.…
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Maybe it's just me, but sites like this really annoy me. I feel that I've been duped into clicking on a link that's just asking for my email. It doesn't tell me what it does, what benefits it offe…
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In some circumstances the usual formula that you know and love is unstable, and if you need to solve quadratics, you need to use a more numerically stable form.
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More details in yesterdays submission, with much discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2640972
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s/hustle/hassle/
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I started in 1988 and only finally gave up in 2006. Maybe the new social media would help, but in truth, I doubt it. The IRC channels, wiki, email lists and occasional Skype call have existed for ages…
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I did notice a specific change in the complexity of my usage of tenses. My ability to reason didn't seem to change much, but I am a mathematician.
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Esperanto is so similar to any other romance language it's almost trivial to pick up. I can decode a page of it fairly easily. Klingon had a huge body of enthusiasts. Lojban has no entry level materia…
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For several years I tried all those things. I couldn't get anyone interested in learning with me, there wasn't enough material at the right sort of level to get really fluent without years of rewardle…