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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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Well. I am.
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Well... I am quite unlike the community you mentioned. As much as I like Linux, I despise the PC architecture (the clunky x86 is remarkably elegant when compared to the rest of a common PC - I imagine…
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Java, OpenOffice and MySQL are deffensive strategies. If corporations didn't see a viable option (and Linux was no such thing 7 years ago), even more of them would have gone the Windows route and Sun …
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The on-line nature would only make sense if it were for a highly dynamic behavior-based ad-serving thingie. So, are you serving ads based on where people go?
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The article fails to acknowledge that MIT and Olin have 2% drop-out rates because they are f*ng hard to get in in the first place. The drop-out rate is directly proportional on how easy it is to enrol…
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# how to start a religious war in two easy steps sudo rm `which vim` sudo ln -s `which emacs` /usr/local/bin/vim
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I used it, but I used it with Actor 3 (a Smalltalk-ish environment) under Windows. Having done stuff with Actor and later studying Smalltalk made me resist nearly a decade before learning C++. It simp…
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Well... By 2003 the Alpha has been more or less abandoned in terms of R&D expenditures. It's impossible to estimate how much of its perceived lack of relative performance was due to progresses in …
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I would say Bush snatched the opportunity presented by 9-11. Before 9-11 he would not been able to do a tiny part of the damage he did. Come on... Iraq was not caused by 9-11: 911 only made an invasio…
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I remember the day the Compaq takeover was announced. Oh boy. I knew that day the Alpha was doomed. Pitty... Such a promising achitecture. Well... Back to my x86... I have work to do.
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C is next to ideal for low-level programming. Its many traps and pitfalls are actually advantages in this scenario.
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Testosterone could be an explanation, but Emacs users tended to be more hairy than vi users in all exposed areas. Testosterone would explain baldness in vi users but would not explain all the extra ha…
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Once, during a FISL (International Free Software Forum) here in Brazil, I ran into an engineer from Sun. He warned me I should switch from vi to emacs because prolonged vi usage causes hair loss. I th…
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I use a lot of computers but I don't have that strong feelings about them. What's your point? That you know people who hate Macs? Good for you. I do prefer Linux for work, but I know many people who l…
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Can you be more specific on why you hated every minute of it?
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I seriously doubt it. They advertising budget is humongous.
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I am sure not a full-time Mac evangelist (I use Linux myself), but have you tried to use a Mac for a month or so? I was perfectly happy with Windows (XP then) when I decided to check the greener grass…
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You obviously never used a Mac. ;-)
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As someone being forced to use a Dell D630 notebook for work, I can tell you there is a world of difference between any Mac and any Dell...
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It has no APT (well... it has but it's kind of a bolt-on solution). And no, ports is not an adequate substitute. No APT is a deal-breaker for me. At least as my main work computer. But looks insanely …
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Well... The Apple I had a nice wooden case.
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That's cruel...
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Well... I have been using VPNs for years. It's sweet to connect to insecure, possibly malware-intensive, password-grabbing "free" wireless spots that abound around hotels and airports and grab all the…
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If your product pipeline is empty - you have your product ready and you have no clear plans to upgrade it, you can reduce your engineering headcount. You will feel the pain of hiring back as soon as y…
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I tend to chose PostgreSQL because of the query language. It is more comfortable to program in. As ORMs become more prevalent, things like query language start to become less relevant, but so do relat…
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Flamewar in 3... 2... 1... Oh... This is not Slashdot. Sorry.
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To put it less shortly, I will have to write my own article. But I always wanted to do one. "Solving the web problem" means nothing unless we can define what the problem is. If the problem is to quick…
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To put it shortly, no. It's not.
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If the project is relevant, it will be forked. He will retain the copyright to his contributions or sell them to the company that's hiring him, but it doesn't change the fact the code has already been…
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To put it shortly, Castro is a Communist and Chavez is an opportunistic populist proto-dictator. Anyway, Venezuela is screwed.