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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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Clickables: http://wickedwx.com http://wickedwx.com/warnings/
15y ago·view thread
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Clickable: http://www.cloudfrag.com
15y ago·view thread
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I submitted this yesterday: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2576144 No comments, no upvotes.
15y ago·view thread
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Clickable: http://shouldibeproud.com/ First thing you do is ask for a login. First thing I do is leave.
15y ago·view thread
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I look forward to your announcement of a replacement.
15y ago·view thread
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He's just talking about the double slip granny knot versus the double slip reef (square) knot. Much more interesting is "Ian's Knot" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uONg5voLxo Explained more here: …
15y ago·view thread
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Previous discussions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=667689 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=899913 …
15y ago·view thread
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Not again ... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2458572 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2445963 ... just to name two. There are more, but I can't be bothered going to find them. http://se…
15y ago·view thread
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Some questions: * Who submitted this to scribd? * Do they own the copyright? * Do they have the right to submit it to scribd? * Have they acted ethically? * Have they acted legally? Added in edit: The…
15y ago·view thread
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Can't say in details. Broadly: * checking specific configuration items, * performing deployment in a specific order (even when it doesn't matter), * testing deployment step-wise (so you know certain …
15y ago·view thread
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If you put it on Scribd don't you have to declare that you have the right to do that? Don't you have to declare that you are the copyright holder, or that the work is free to copy?
15y ago·view thread
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Every phone I've used (except the first) has been modal - you have to look at the screen to see what it's done. Is it asleep? Is it in screen-saver? Has an alarm gone off? The first phone I ad I co…
15y ago·view thread
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For many years I' been struggling to introduce more rigorous use of checklists at work, but everyone always balked at them, saying that it was too trivial, too time-consuming, and too brain-dead. I m…
15y ago·view thread
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An old friend: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=252615 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=304039 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=637491 <- This one has the most comments http://news…
15y ago·view thread
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Sorry, I should've read the source more closely. Good catch - thanks. And for reference, here are 43 two word anagrams: Phonetics Ropy Phonetic Prosy Choppier Stony Prophet…
15y ago·view thread
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You're human - it'll happen. Be diligent. Try to work when you're supposed to be working. If you honestly can't work when you're supposed to be working, or if you can't get enough done because of p…
15y ago·view thread
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How can "chest" and "chin" be anagrams of the same thing? An anagram is a rearrangement of the original letters, not just a list of the possible words that can be made. Based on your "output" it appe…
15y ago·view thread
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For reference, here's the initial submission to HN with the discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1601930 Much good feedback there, it would be interesting to see a report of how much of t…
15y ago·view thread
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It's the interviewer's job to decide what they're testing for. Some developers need an IDE - that does not make them bad developers. An interviewer should ask How can we help you show us why …
15y ago·view thread
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False dichotomy. I've known coders who would be lost without using a sophisticated IDE and who get stuff done, producing code that is clean, clear, easy to maintain, is well documented, passes all tes…
15y ago·view thread