wyw

8 ms·

1.
by wyw 17y ago
Being ruthless with your attention can be a hard act to pull off without appearing rude.
2.
by wyw 17y ago
According to the Wikipedia definition of ORM, it's primarly about the mapping of types: Object-relational mapping (ORM, O/RM, and O/R mapping) in computer software is a programming technique for converting data between incompatible type sy
3.
by wyw 17y ago
Usually the ORM has some notion of "associations" between models so that the data relationships are easier to navigate from the application side.
4.
by wyw 17y ago
Yes, a mismatch exists and can lead to compromises as you try to use the object paradigm to glue the two layers together. But the benefits are also undeniable, primarily that of productivity gained during development by not having to concer
5.
by wyw 17y ago
In what respects is the Vietnam analogy less meaningful than the rather banal battlefield analogy that you just made?
6.
by wyw 17y ago
Maybe they didn't compare tough problems to Vietnam but my point was that good teachers often have a knack for translating difficult-to-grasp abstract concepts into the familiar and the concrete. Some people look down on such teachers and a
7.
by wyw 17y ago
Most client drivers/libs for RDBs have basic type conversions for each language. You don't always need an ORM for this. If you have a ruby or python Time object, the low level db lib generally will convert it to/from the RDB format. Didn'
8.
by wyw 17y ago
You mentioned a "common approach". Is this the approach that you use or have you found a better way? The reason I ask is I don't quite understand how your description above correlates to an ORM type-mapping system. Customer.find() returns a
9.
by wyw 17y ago
If anyone could be accused of linkbaiting it would be Neward since he wrote the original article titled "The Vietnam of Computer Science". But I think it's less useful to think of the war analogy as linkbait than as a didactic tool to bring
10.
by wyw 17y ago
I think the comparison to Vietnam makes sense as an analogy . The basic argument seems to be that each ORM imposes limitations specific to that implementation which may result in the developer's choices being limited later on in the develo
11.
by wyw 17y ago
How do you map the types if the rows are returned as dicts? Doesn't that become an application responsibility? By using an ORM you would not need to build that functionality, i.e. reinvent the wheel. Did you consider using SQLObject or SQLA
12.
Object-Relational Mapping is the Vietnam of Computer Science(codinghorror.com)
15 points by wyw 17y ago|27 comments
13.
by wyw 17y ago
Going there now.
14.
by wyw 17y ago
Excellent points and very well said. Recently I have been starting to feel down about myself and I noticed that it had to do with reading Hacker News and estimating my value through the lens of this startup value system. Despite the obvious
15.
by wyw 17y ago
But _why's contributions are largely irreplaceable. Sadly this is not true for anyone.
16.
by wyw 17y ago
I appreciate that you say that because I do find it troubling that some people here seem to suggest that unless you are willing to take the kinds of risks involved in doing a startup, you are not really living or actualizing your potential.
17.
by wyw 17y ago
Yes. Something exactly like that. Thanks. One thing I disagree with in the article is the premise that people get real jobs because "it's the default thing to do". While that may be true, it's also true that a regular job is simply the most
18.
Ask HN: Has PG written any essays about "people who shouldn't do startups"?
22 points by wyw 17y ago|19 comments
19.
by wyw 17y ago
What kind of storage costs would they be paying for all that binary data? I'm guessing they're using Amazon Simple Storage, which is not expensive, but in that kind of volume I'm sure it adds up. Great idea, though. Thumbs up and best of lu
20.
by wyw 17y ago
Except for a couple of typos ('are' instead of 'our'), this is an extremely articulate and informative statement which will no doubt help them justify this decision to future funders or employers. Very impressive.
21.
by wyw 17y ago
From the "Rules": This competition is open to anyone with a Twitter account who is at least 16 years of age ... You agree to allow InciteBot to share your personal details with affiliated companies. Basically, you agree to let us submit yo
22.
by wyw 17y ago
This is a great idea. I've often wished that pg's original ideas article was updated more regularly but your suggestion would be a nice alternative to giving pg more work to do, especially given how poorly we pay him.
23.
by wyw 17y ago
It seems the assumption is that after you make a comment you are actively checking the thread for some time afterwards. Perhaps this works here because of a correct assumption about how people use HN but a time-constrained lifestyle might p
24.
by wyw 17y ago
Indeed. Given that we are not immortal and have finite time, we have to make sacrifices somewhere. I have a friend who has opted to sacrifice his health, social life and romantic life for his intellectual and career ambitions. It's always a
25.
by wyw 17y ago
You say you have a day job, make regular open source contributions, have a girlfriend, a social life and not much free time. Sounds like you've got things figured out pretty well as it is. I would mostly stick with the current plan if I wer
26.
by wyw 17y ago
I might want to modify it after one hour for the same reason I might want to modify it after one minute. Perhaps I'm not checking HN regularly that day and make an offhand comment. In that case, if I come back a few hours later and recogniz
27.
Ask HN: Why does HN not allow you to modify your comments after 1 hour?
2 points by wyw 17y ago|10 comments
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by wyw 17y ago
Upvoted for the title. The article not so much.
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by wyw 17y ago
Marcotte's study says income increases by 20% after a suicide attempt but his support for this figure is the following: "Once you attempt suicide you suddenly have access to lots of resources: medical care, psychiatric attention, familial
30.
Status Anxiety - documentary by Alain De Botton [video](youtube.com)
5 points by wyw 17y ago|0 comments

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