Disqus - Latest Comments for benzado

Re: Scripting News: 10/30/07

Benjamin R. — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 14:37:53 -0000

1994-1999 overlaps with the time I was in high school and a college freshman. I felt the same way (re: Blue Sky), but I wondered if it was just naïve youthful optimism. You're a little older than me, but I guess you could say the same. :-)

Re: Scripting News: 10/30/07

Benjamin R. — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 14:32:21 -0000

This wasn't a problem for Bush and Cheney, who were both living in Texas. Cheney changed his voter registration to Wyoming a few days before formally becoming Bush's running mate. It went to court, where the judges were happy to declare that Cheney was a Wyoming resident despite owning a home and living in Dallas since 1993.

Re: Bingeworthy howto

Benjamin R. — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 14:43:15 -0000

Assuming you mean *visual* style, how about as a mouseover tooltip (title attribute)? If your mouse is indecisively hovering over one of the icons, it would appear. Personally, I stress over whether I am using the "correct" rating so something like that would put me at ease, even if other people were ignoring it.

Re: Bingeworthy howto

Benjamin R. — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 14:39:50 -0000

Another request: Shows that have zero votes should not appear on the sorted-by-rating list. They have a rating of NULL, not zero. :-)

Re: Bingeworthy howto

Benjamin R. — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 14:33:15 -0000

Nice! Enhancement request: Show titles should be sorted so that "The " at the beginning of a title is ignored ("The Blacklist" should appear right after "Black Mirror"). Also, I noticed "iZombie" is all the way at the bottom (case-sensitive sort?).

Re: OKCupid Pulls Article About “Why You Should Never Pay For Online Dating” in Wake of Match.com Sale

Benjamin R. — Fri, 19 May 2017 11:48:12 -0000

The Google Cache copy is long gone, but the blog post is preserved on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

http://wayback.archive.org/...

Re: Halt And Catch Fire: “New Coke”

Benjamin R. — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 13:24:58 -0000

"A lot of people want to start something, and then lose their appetite when they see how hard it really is." The thing is, when you have a baby, you can't give up on that (without doing something that will land you in prison), so you learn to power through. People who are married with children have demonstrated an ability to stick with a plan. On the other end of the spectrum are young single people, who have no demonstrable ability to commit. They are, however, able to work later hours, which many dumb managers mistake for being more productive.

But we're talking about a VC in 1985, of course he wouldn't be enlightened as we are now! :-)

Re: Halt And Catch Fire: “New Coke”

Benjamin R. — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 03:34:12 -0000

"Nerd culture" may be mainstream, but being an actual nerd is not.

Re: Halt And Catch Fire: “New Coke”

Benjamin R. — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 03:26:25 -0000

The money guy was not a "bank manager" but a venture capitalist. So the smugness and sexism were pretty much on point.

Re: Personal Time != Company Time

Benjamin R. — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 19:25:01 -0000

Something I haven't seen other commenters mention is that it is sometimes easier to solve these kinds of problems on the weekend, because it is easier to shut out distractions. Even if your company allows you to work from home, on a weekday there is still some expectation that you will be available to respond to email or messages at least some of the time.

On the weekend, that little part of you that is usually tensed up, waiting to be interrupted, can finally relax. And that makes it easier to solve a thorny problem.

This actually points to a more deeper issue: a typical workplace environment is actually a terrible environment for getting work done. Engineers who *want* to solve problems end up doing it on their own time because they can be more productive that way.

Doing work on your own time hides this reality from management.

Re: MTA Refuses to Test Simple Bus Design Fix That Could Save Lives

Benjamin R. — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 12:46:01 -0000

I wonder if personal injury attorneys would be a useful information resource.

Re: MTA Refuses to Test Simple Bus Design Fix That Could Save Lives

Benjamin R. — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 23:40:53 -0000

The article says the S-1 Gard costs $1,100 per bus and the MTA is operating 5,600 buses... so we're talking about $6 million. That's a lot of money that could be spent on other, possibly more effective safety initiatives.

Also the Los Angeles metro is phasing them out after nearly 10 years of experience with them... I wish the author had done a little more digging to figure out why.

Re: Experience Points: EXP Podcast #318: In Control

Benjamin R. — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 09:35:44 -0000

Your link to "semiotics of controllers" is incorrect; I think you want http://killscreendaily.com/...

Re: Halt And Catch Fire: “Up Helly Aa”

Benjamin R. — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 01:16:48 -0000

Jordan knows what he's talking about. Honestly, "clone" is an inaccurate word for an IBM PC compatible. Building your own machine to mimic another machine isn't really that easy --- you still have to design a machine. I don't even think the show itself appreciates this, so I guess you could be forgiven for not getting it either, Dennis.

It's like you see there's a market for magazines, so you start your own company and print your own magazine; you use the same size paper and you put the title in the top quarter of the front cover, because that's what's expected of magazines and how racks are designed to display them. But you're managing your own staff and sourcing your own stories (you borrowed the idea of putting a table of contents near the front) and you had to figure out how to set up a printing press yourself. What do you say to someone who claims you haven't done anything original?

Re: Halt And Catch Fire: “The 214s”

Benjamin R. — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 01:10:33 -0000

I agree. This episode was about taking Joe down a peg, and I didn't think Joe Sr. was supposed to sound like anything but reasonable. To assume the writers meant to write something different than what was presented, then to fault them for failing to meet your assumed criteria, is a little unfair.

Re: WordPress to OPML, working! :-)

Benjamin R. — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:42:54 -0000

Re: "As far as I know it's the only way to download a whole WordPress site in a single file."

WordPress has an export-as-a-single-file feature, it generates an XML file that is basically RSS with some extensions (so it can include comments and tags and other WP-specific stuff).

Re: Public libraries and recent computers

Benjamin R. — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 01:25:51 -0000

Dude! You and Jason Scott need to hang out together some time. If anyone is trying to do something systematic, it's him. http://ascii.textfiles.com/...

Re: Why you should use MongoDB. Not always though

Benjamin R. — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 23:04:58 -0000

The MongoDB documentation is probably better today than when the Diaspora team started work, but even so it still contains a tutorial which recommends storing data in a denormalized way. So I think it's reasonable to argue that there is a lot of information there encouraging people to use MongoDB in counter productive ways.

Re: - Thisisgoingtobebig.com - Personal Brand is Company Brand

Benjamin R. — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 16:01:16 -0000

I agree with your sentiments, but I don't think that's really going overboard as much as it is a phoney person demonstrating how phoney they are, on the Internet. :-)

The word "brand" tends to make people think of slick, smooth marketing messages, so maybe it's easier to ignore the word and just consider the question: If I punch your name into Google, does what comes up accurate reflect you?

In that case, "developing your brand" is basically just putting yourself out there, so you can define yourself, rather than letting others define you. This hopefully doesn't sound nearly as pretentious. :-)

Re: Huffin and puffin over a duffin - the doughnut-muffin hybrid raising heat between Starbucks and small pastry chain

Benjamin R. — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 16:58:52 -0000

Patents, copyrights, and trademarks are different things. You can't patent a name.

Re: - Thisisgoingtobebig.com - Your Startup Already Started

Benjamin R. — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 23:58:51 -0000

I would add that, if you're not coming up with any problems you feel best suited to solve, the best thing you can do is break out of your routine and get involved in something very different than whatever you do now. And I don't mean hanging out with a different crowd of entrepreneurs. The only reason I'm involved in my current venture (having to do with building maintenance) is because I decided to sign up for an improv class seven years ago.

Re: Is HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER The Geekiest Show On TV?

Benjamin R. — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 11:16:46 -0000

Star Wars and Batman references? That's nothing! The real reason HIMYM is a geeky show is its obsession with continuity and universe-building. The show is like a sitcom version of Lost, where flashbacks and flashforwards always include some irrelevant detail that raises questions like "Why is Barney wearing the ducky tie again?" The show introduces conventions, such as "sandwiches are a stand-in for marijuana", which aren't even explained in later episodes. Despite being a sitcom, the writers clearly pay at least as much attention to chronology as an Star Trek series ever did. HIMYM is a smart show that rewards you for paying attention.

Re: J.J Abrams Thinks Star Trek Into Darkness Suffered Because of The Awful Tie-In Video Game

Benjamin R. — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 00:08:03 -0000

He said the video game "didn’t help the movie and arguably hurt it." That's not the same as saying the video game is THE ONE THING that hurt the movie. I can go on for hours about all the problems with Into Darkness but you are clearly misinterpreting his words for the sake of linkbait.

Re: I'm sorry but Walter White isn't that stupid

Benjamin R. — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 00:57:14 -0000

This seems to be the same phenomenon as when you watch a very smart person on a game show and they make a mistake. The correct answer is obvious, but you are an observer, which is an enormous advantage over the person who is in the thick of it.

Re: The Atlantic on diffs betw genders

Benjamin R. — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 12:45:19 -0000

Nepotism isn't a form of cooperation. Hiring someone because of their relation to you instead of their merit is a way to demonstrate your power. It doesn't help get anything done. In fact, it usually makes things worse.

Disqus - Latest Comments for benzado

Re: Scripting News: 10/30/07

Re: Scripting News: 10/30/07

Re: Bingeworthy howto

Re: Bingeworthy howto

Re: Bingeworthy howto

Re: OKCupid Pulls Article About “Why You Should Never Pay For Online Dating” in Wake of Match.com Sale

Re: <i>Halt And Catch Fire</i>: “New Coke”

Re: <i>Halt And Catch Fire</i>: “New Coke”

Re: <i>Halt And Catch Fire</i>: “New Coke”

Re: Personal Time != Company Time

Re: MTA Refuses to Test Simple Bus Design Fix That Could Save Lives

Re: MTA Refuses to Test Simple Bus Design Fix That Could Save Lives

Re: Experience Points: EXP Podcast #318: In Control

Re: <i>Halt And Catch Fire:</i> “Up Helly Aa”

Re: <i>Halt And Catch Fire</i>: “The 214s”

Re: WordPress to OPML, working! :-)

Re: Public libraries and recent computers

Re: Why you should use MongoDB. Not always though

Re: - Thisisgoingtobebig.com - Personal Brand is Company Brand

Re: Huffin and puffin over a duffin - the doughnut-muffin hybrid raising heat between Starbucks and small pastry chain

Re: - Thisisgoingtobebig.com - Your Startup Already Started

Re: Is HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER The Geekiest Show On TV?

Re: J.J Abrams Thinks Star Trek Into Darkness Suffered Because of The Awful Tie-In Video Game

Re: I'm sorry but Walter White isn't that stupid

Re: The Atlantic on diffs betw genders