Recent submissions

Comment · 10 years ago
i like cooking my friends and my family.

syntax is important! ;)

Comment · 10 years ago
Just Say No (to mass media fearmongers). give your tv set to somebody you really dislike.
Comment · 10 years ago
rxvt-unicode, "urxvtd -f -o -q" in my ~/.xinitrc.
Comment · 10 years ago
you ignored the silver bullet criticism

i don't think so, i simply refuse to have my arguments framed that way since i'm very well aware of the shortcomings present in what has so far passed for a "RDBMS". i consider velocitypsycho's argument ("Thinking RDBMS is a silver bullet is just as bad as thinking a document database is a silver bullet.") a non-sequitur: the former is a proper superset of the latter, that sentence simply "does not compute".

doubled down on SQL as the silver bullet

where does the post you replied to mention SQL? are you confusing SQL for the relational model?

Comment · 10 years ago
Pimply-Faced Youth :)
Comment · 10 years ago
but we're not talking about silver bullets: we're talking about models which let you derive most information from your data. mathematics says you will get the most bang for your buck from the relational model.

if you like hierarchical databases (data trees), consider that relational database gives you a forest: you can treat any datum as your tree root and bloom from there. with hierarchical, you're tied to a single pre-designated root.

both relational and hierarchical databases let you go from department to employee, only one lets you go from employee to their department without enumeration. what purpose does precluding the latter serve?

Comment · 10 years ago
like the yesterday's submission of "Why you should never use MongoDB (2013)" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12290739), this is all just plain sad because totally unnecessary: the failure of hierarchical databases was obvious in 1960s and was the background of Edgar F. Codd's work on the relational model.

unfortunately, this industry is dominated by cocky PFYs (of any age) convinced they don't need to study history of their field and, as a result, don't even recognize they're repeating 50 years old mistakes. sure, SQL has fallen so short of the promise of the relational model it's not even funny, but don't conflate the model with the query language, folks!

Comment · 10 years ago
the manpage is very explicit about that:

       Use the file name "-" (a single dash) to use stdin instead of a given file.
       Alternately, the file name "." (a single period) may be specified instead of
       "-" to use stdin in non-blocking mode to allow reading server output while
       stdin is being uploaded.
Comment · 10 years ago
explain the presence of homosexuality in a population when the theory of evolution predicts that any such trait (which leads to much lower genetic fitness) would have disappeared a long time ago

one's homosexuality may improve fitness of one's family: if we're brothers and i'm homosexual, we won't be splitting resources between your and my children, and i'll be an extra "parent" looking after your kids. genetically speaking, that is still a (qualified) success for me.

also, genes don't give a damn about individual's reproduction, and local optima are rampant.

edit: what siblings have said.

Comment · 10 years ago
do not use -X without having read the manual, it can break redirects and other things.

from the curl(1) manpage:

       -X, --request <command>

              (...)

              Normally you don't need this option. All sorts of GET, HEAD, POST and PUT requests  are  rather
              invoked by using dedicated command line options.

              This  option  only  changes the actual word used in the HTTP request, it does not alter the way
              curl behaves. So for example if you want to make a proper HEAD request, using -X HEAD will  not
              suffice. You need to use the -I, --head option.

              The  method  string you set with -X will be used for all requests, which if you for example use
              -L, --location may cause unintended  side-effects  when  curl  doesn't  change  request  method
              according to the HTTP 30x response codes - and similar.
PUT is indicated by using -T / --upload-file, POST by -d / --data or any --data-foo option (eg. --data-raw). DELETE is the only HTTP method in the parent list that needs -X to be used.
Comment · 10 years ago
> normal conditionals are common in everyday life: "If they don't have a dark roast coffee, get me a medium roast."

"They had dark roast so I got you nothing as requested."

IOW, this program is either incomplete or wrong. Cf. "Get me the darkest roast they have." - ifless, concise, robust.

Comment · 10 years ago
this post says "remote" but the recruiterbox page says "Work from our amazing office at Kerkstraat 61 in the center of Amsterdam.
Comment · 10 years ago
it's its
Comment · 10 years ago
today. the various BSD systems all come without bash in their default configurations (and it's never in /bin).

this should not be construed as an argument in support of /bin/sh.

Comment · 10 years ago

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