ProblemFactory

8 ms·

391.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
I've always thought that the "naming things" refers to the more subtle problem of giving things unique identifiers in distributed systems, rather than coming up with variable names. "Naming things" includes systems
392.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
The validity of transactions is checked by the individual bitcoin clients. After all, something , somewhere must check if they are valid according to the protocol rules! And this client code can be changed to anything at all, as long as
393.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
But the protocol can be changed. If the most common bitcoin clients are updated to allow this "bonus", and at least 51% of the network installs this update, their blockchain will become the authoritative one. Older or other client
394.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
I don't think anyone but the traditional publishers wants to keep traditional publishers. Every scientist I've ever met wants as many people as possible to read (and cite) their work. But the main issue is that the main metric for
395.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
400 USD/hour is a great rate anywhere in the world, even the most expensive cities. But abcd_f's comment is right about one-off 4-hour projects vs. long-term contracting. Non-billable time overhead spent on finding clients, negoti
396.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
I agree with chetanahuja that there are more "single developer's technical problems" in established software companies rather than startups. During my time at Google, there was an engineer next to me working full-time on GC
397.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
The recommended upgrade path seems to be: * Apply all South migrations to all database servers, * Delete South migrations, * Create new initial (create table) migrations for the current schema. This makes sense, as migration code is suppose
398.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
"App Store standards" don't really work for valuable niche software. They can work for games that end up selling 10 million copies, but there's a reason why professional software with few users is usually priced between
399.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Regardless of any competitive or status-based desires, income relative to your neighbours (everyone in your city) is a big part of actual purchasing power. In most cities, housing prices are based on land value, not construction costs. And
400.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
I would expect that Watson is used as a discovery, not a decision tool - something to point out the symptoms as matching an uncommon disease that the doctor had not otherwise considered. There are around 500 000 biology and medical research
401.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
I don't think people think that it's objectively too expensive, considering the time it saves for developers. But without any pricing guidelines published on http://www.viva64.com/en/order/ , it could be
402.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
> with the only reason that it has value being a state power or arbitrary group of people (as in the case of cryptocurrency) has assigned it one... also known as fiat. While that's true, a state has much more power in "assignin
403.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
> We never discovered demand in the way that VC-backed startups need to. (We now no longer believe the market exists in the US, but of course, perhaps we just couldn’t find it.) Could you please tell us more about your opinions on the ri
404.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Most amusingly, it was Linus Torvalds who published the same solution in a mailing list 4 years before the patent was filed: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/comp.os.minix/lon...
405.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Drone deliveries are cool and futuristic idea, and I'm sure they will happen at some point. But there is a big difference between "Bezos thinks drone deliveries would be cool in 5 years time", and "Amazon starts drone de
406.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
There are also practical downsides: information on the internet is often scraped, archived and cached. For example at https://www.hnsearch.com/ and http://hackerslide.com/ If deletion is allowed, it would b
407.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Developing resistance is not individual bacteria "going to the gym" and training to be stronger. To develop resistance, all that is needed is a random genetic mutation that makes a few of the bacteria cells less susceptible to the
408.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
I disagree that limiting a website for discussion on a small set of topics - an "information bubble" - is necessarily a bad thing. A web site can be designed to become a platform for a wide variety of topics (like Reddit) - or it
409.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
I have used MATLAB a little bit - it was indeed more concise for matrix math than Python + Numpy. But pure matrix math is a small part of my analyses and workflow. Most of the code is in data preprocessing from SQL servers, CSV files, JSON
410.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Most things in the world eventually self-correct. But before that happens, many people will be hurt and die in the process. For example, we could do away with CDC, FDA and building codes, and rely on Yelp customer reviews of drugs, restau
411.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
It's certainly a fun experiment, and could be a great way to introduce yourself to 91 potential long-term clients. However, it's still too early to call it "hourly rate hacking" as the original blog post does. There&#x27
412.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
The best freelance clients I have worked with have been from personal recommendations. Tell every friend who works in software that you are free for work - many of them will be approached by people looking for developers, and can refer you.
413.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Teams are not formed randomly - competent people like working with other competent people, and underperformers find safety among other underperformers. Even an impersonal evaluation of entire teams as a whole would be more accurate than a 1
414.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Some potential scenarios are: * A security or encryption issue discovered in the protocol that leads to compromise of most wallets. The bug could be fixed, but existing balances and trust may be wiped out. * Government regulation that makes
415.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Effect size is important, because all events in the real world except for true random numbers have some correlation. Eating an apple might help a broken leg heal faster or slower. There is certainly an extremely small correlation, and w
416.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Billing for idle travel time, but not double-billing travel+work makes sense. The premise is that travel is wasted time by the lawyer - that he could have used for another client or family if he did not have to travel. If they can bill an
417.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
I occasionally do freelance mobile app & data analysis work, and also subcontract some of the work to other freelancers. The ability to write great specs and milestones (micro-managing) is the biggest cost differentiator in commission
418.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
Perhaps a marine engineer could answer the question I have with the floating data center idea: is it really cheaper to have a barge as a data center, rather than putting it in an empty lot next to a river, lake or sea? Light can travel 300k
419.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
I don't think FizzBuzz leads into interesting interview questions. That would be too dependent on the hope that the candidate does implement an overkill solution for fizzbuzz. Much more interesting questions can be derived from the pro
420.
by ProblemFactory 13y ago
RSS feeds make it easier be only a reader. If you use the Twitter user interface to read the stream, reply and post buttons are right there. If you use an RSS reader, going to twitter to post something on your own takes an extra step. Also,

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