alextgordon

Literally the definition of the integers is that (x + 1) != x. Wrapping is bad enough, but at least tends to makes failures noticeable. Saturating arithmetic makes it really hard to see that a failure has occurred.

Depending on the performance penalty you're willing to take, there's good alternatives to wrapping, such as: A) 64-bit integers, B) bigints, C) crashing on overflow.

Sure, saturation might be useful in certain circumstances, like manipulating audio samples, but it's generally something you want to make explicit. Using it everywhere? It's madness!

It also lacks what you might call 'forward secrecy'. If someone gets access to my master password and an old 1password backup, then they get all the passwords in the backup.

But with this, if someone gets access to my master password, they get access to recent passwords, and when I create new passwords they get access to those too. If I'm not aware that my master password has been compromised (why should I be?) then I'd be merrily creating new passwords that are compromised at the moment of their creation.

Don't roll your own crypto, kids.

The use of != there is very confusing but what they mean is stores a precision along each number, not that -0 != -0.0

e.g. in Python:

    >>> from decimal import Decimal as D
    >>> 2 * D("1.0")
    Decimal('2.0')

    >>> 2 * D("1.000")
    Decimal('2.000')

    >>> D("1.0") == D("1.000")
    True

Maybe it is a failure of imagination, but I don't get how nest can be more efficient than manual control. Cold? Switch the heating on. Hot? Switching the heating off. Why'd you need a learning algorithm for that?

The website says stuff like

> The babysitter calls to say she picked up the kids from soccer and they’re heading home. You adjust the temperature from your phone so they’ll be cozy.

..which is a first-world problem if I've ever heard one. Just wear an extra layer for 10 minutes while the heating warms up. Jeez.

You're right, but I guess you're being downvoted because nobody wants to hear it. JavaScript will never get anything like numpy, because it doesn't have integers. Doing mathematics without integers is like driving a car without wheels.

It's interesting that you give the example of Breivik. Don't you think that a far-right nutcase like him would relish the reinstatement of the death penalty?

I don't bother reversing decks. It's more efficient to do more repetitions of Native->Foreign than it is to do equal repetitions of N->F and F->N.

i.e. if you can respond that the French for cat is "chat", then you will very likely remember that the English for "chat" is "cat".

The average person isn't even aware that VLC is an illegal circumvention tool in the United States under the DMCA. I fail to see how restrictions on encryption software would have a different outcome. Encryption is built into so many products, it's part of daily life and most people don't even know they're using it.

The comment system on HN discourages discussion of the article, because threads cannot be collapsed and so there is only space for 2 or 3 top-level comments to get much attention.

The top comment is often a poor quality one, expressing some controversial view that gets replies, starving the lower top-level comments of upvotes, and cementing its place at the top.

It would be better to collapse replies to all top-level comments, and allow people to expand the replies to the comments they find interesting.

kik = a messaging app

kike = a jewish person

The curse of oil.

This has the same problem as hyperloop, then. Sure the main part of the journey is quicker, but if you have to take a connecting flight from New York to Boston, and a train from Luton to London, it's overall slower than a subsonic plane.

If he wants to control where people get his software, he should have published it under a proprietary license. Not saying he does, though.

People are only trying to help. Better now than when the press hears about it and starts taking the piss out of them.