lostmypw

Just wanted to thank everybody for the discussion here. I was stuck on a project for a while now and avoided working on it, because I had a good excuse (learning math).

I've had been cleaning up a mess of code that I've ported from a book whilst changing parts to fit my needs. I've got stuck on the process of cleaning up and now I'm going to reread the book and try to understand the concepts fully to then write my own code based on my understandings.

Even though I already considered doing that I still felt completely demotivated. The discussion here and the quote from the zen-book made me reconsider my options and think about what the correct next step would be.

I'm feeling relieved.

Please define "properly", at least regarding Linux. There is a performance hit under Linux, sure, but beyond that?

I'm using Linux myself full-time, but for flash games I might even consider Linux irrelevant if there is no way of getting good performance. The by far biggest part of the audience still uses windows and that probably won't change for quite a while.

How do you use your touchpad?

I'm wondering this because I might be using the keyboard and touchpad in a different way than others, but naturally for me, as in: the path of least resistance.

For scrolling, my right forearm points at the touchpad in a 45 degree angle, my middle finger touches the pad and I move my whole hand at the wrist to scroll. So all the middle finger does is touch the pad and raise again.

I use my right index finger for pointing. To move the cursor up & down I do the same as for scrolling, only with my index finger. For left & right I do what would look like pushing a marble to move the cursor left and the reverse to move it to the right. So my index finger really points (mostly) to the left side (depending on forearm position) and expands in it's natural path.

Regarding heavy keyboard use you often hear about the emacs pinky when somebody over years strenuously used their pinky to hold the control key down. Well, I've noticed that I press control with the finger nail of my pinky and alt with the nail of my thumb. I'm sure it's unusual and it looks a bit funny, but it's completely natural to me and not strenuous at all.

I wonder how you do those things differently.

Indeed, although I'd be sighing as in this case, not be shocked.

I wonder if it's just an illusion or if there really also is an influx in me-too submissions. Not that I'm judging any submission in particular, but there is clearly a difference in usefulness and novelty when you compare them.

I suppose it's people being tired by the whole "hacker" hoopla, especially when people use the term to compare their e-peen, but also when the media confuses hackers with crackers.

To me, the hacker/cracker thing is just a lost battle and thus a big waste of time.

That being said, I'd only use "hacker" in the original sense, i.e. the hacker philosophy about exploring, learning and teaching. To me, a person with no clue about cars that learns to fix it themselves is by definition a hacker.

You all too often see people pulling the e-peen thing on the net, which I find sad, as it's also just another waste of time. The "correct" use of the term hacker is just a pretense imho.

In the same vein of whining and bitching: has there been another influx from reddit lately or is the cooling effect (or what it's called) only gradually noticeable? I've noticed that I'm more disappointed with the content and comments on HN lately, even more so on reddit obviously.

Interesting; thank you for providing your perspective. Both books indeed share most of the topics, although from glancing at both TOCs HR seems to add Polynomials and Corecursion. I'll gladly keep this in mind should I get stuck with HR.

Ah, I was bitten by not being a native-speaker. I've interpreted "hibernate" as the same thing my laptop does, when it hibernates. And cats do that all the time, right? ;-)

feline