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rbanffy

194,608karma·63,760submissions·March 12, 2008
about
Seasoned software developer, proficient in Python, Java. Less proficient in Ruby and Lisp. A bit rusty in C and C++. Learning Erlang very slowly. Also a computer collector and restorer, lover of 8-bit computers, mainframes and interesting Unix workstations.

email: username at that google mail thing

http://about.me/rbanffy

https://linkedin.com/in/ricardobanffy

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/rbanffy; my proof: https://keybase.io/rbanffy/sigs/HtF1uAf_RNpwIkNP1-YGWP_-3doWV6S5Cc1KywXeLYo ]

recent activity (63,760 total)
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They didn't say that. They said it was mostly GUI with a few detrimental changes under the hood. While UAC and integrity levels may be a step forward, it's only so because Windows XP is so horrible wh…
17y ago·view thread
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That's odd. I find Gnome apps mostly consistent and the occasional differences are there mainly when it makes good sense to be different. Not to say there is no occasional weird app that is less than …
17y ago·view thread
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Maybe a "Theocracy of Hackers" is what you call a meritocracy you can't really understand. Not to say Walker is not... quirky. But a tech company loses a lot when it's not driven by hackers.
17y ago·view thread
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I knew it! There had to be a way to spin #8 into something positive.
17y ago·view thread
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I'm in too
17y ago·view thread
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Unless you have hooks for deeper functionality inside the JavaScript interpreter used to run the application logic. And I somewhat doubt Palm will refrain to release a full SDK for the native OS.
17y ago·view thread
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Apple is swimming in money. You really can't count them off. On the bright side (for Palm), Microsoft is swimming in money too and they accomplished little more than licensing a sub-par Windows CE thi…
17y ago·view thread
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"And if webOS is basically web-based, that means that all of Palm's apps will be available on the iPhone, but none of the iPhone's apps will be available on the Palm Pre" You are counting on webOS bei…
17y ago·view thread
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Just Wow. I don't even care that much if it will run traditional PalmOS software...
17y ago·view thread
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I would love to have parallel list comprehensions, for instance.
17y ago·view thread
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I bet she is. It's kind of sad when people have to resort to disinformation to sell their stuff.
17y ago·view thread
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No. The person quoted has to sell very expensive software. These people are not dumb.
17y ago·view thread
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Yes, but this is not compsci.
17y ago·view thread
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How come books like "Quick Start to Windows XP", "Quick Start to Word 2002", "Quick Start to Work 1997" and "Quick Start to Excel" are filed under "Computer Science"? "Windows Black Magic" or "Compute…
17y ago·view thread
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Actually, Linux distros can be the key to a successful non-x86 workstation. RISC workstations more or less failed when Windows did not properly support them - most people didn't care how fast their Al…
17y ago·view thread
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Maybe, but there are good-enough test plans. This one wasn't.
17y ago·view thread
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A thread full of Zune users? So that's why there are so few messages ;-) Now, seriously, that's a sign of pretty bad QA to let the device almost brick itself (there is the hard reset fix) because of a…
17y ago·view thread
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Well... I can tell I wouldn't pay more for one. Even if I used something Microsoft ;-)
17y ago·view thread
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I used to start my courses with the following: "This course has as much chances of turning any of any given person into a programmer as a swimming class can turn you into a fish. Some of you have it, …
17y ago·view thread
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A good explanation on why it is harder to outsource Django or RoR development is because it's so close to outsourcing the conception of the application. There are things you want to do in-house.
17y ago·view thread
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The very day Apple demos its first 3D environment, Microsoft will announce that Windows n+1 will sport a 3D user environment. Of course, it will never, ever, ship, but will prevent some 'softies from …
17y ago·view thread
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Now there isn't ;-)
17y ago·view thread
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"Then again, hackers usually need more machine than the low-end crap." Microsoft did that. Look how well their OS runs on low-end hardware. I don't do client side programming anymore and I am _very_ h…
17y ago·view thread
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Oh God. The Diggbots found us.
17y ago·view thread
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Wow... This one is quite pretty. Really. A very nice side effect of the "everything is an object" concept.
17y ago·view thread
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Because, by definition, when an AI breakthrough is achieved, it's no longer AI...
17y ago·view thread
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It's objetive, but, after all, it's also C... I find the Smalltalk-ishness of it a little weird when it intersperses with more traditional C code.
17y ago·view thread
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I would think a more natural approach of making join a method of any sequence would result in cleaner programs. (a, b, c).join(',') instead of: ','.join((a, b, c))
17y ago·view thread
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I understand I was less than clear on my concern about the cost of starting a process versus starting a thread, but that was not all of my point. Besides the convenient shared memory space, threads al…
17y ago·view thread