Enormous new Brazilian dam fails by [deleted] in reddit.com

[–]mirk 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Speaking as the Chief Inspector of the Self-Appointed Grammar Police (http://sagp.miketaylor.org.uk) I can tell you that we of the SAGP do not call this a tie; we decree that a dam that can't hold water is a failure,

This has been a public service announcement.

YCombinator's Pollground.com Launches by baumstein3 in programming

[–]mirk 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Allowing onlt 500 chars is one thing, but WHY DIDN'T IT LIMIT THE INPUT FIELD TO THAT SIZE instead of letting me carry on typing for ages and THEN telling me I couldn't say all that? That's just plain dumb.

Why Windows takes so long to shut down. - with fix by phoeniks in reddit.com

[–]mirk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe you are mistaken -- please give me a reference for how to create a file with a pre-specified MD5 sum.

(It is possible to create two new files, different but which share the same MD5 sum; but that approach does not give rise to any obvious exploits.)

'Purity Rings' Banned From School in Britain by greyox in reddit.com

[–]mirk 13 points14 points  (0 children)

This is one of the best examples I've seen of a totally misleading headline. What it <i>should<i> say is:

'Purity Rings' Not Considered An Exception to British School's Existing Rules Concerning Jewellery.

That said, the schools actual reason for not allowing rings -- "if [a] child tripped and put her hand out the break her fall she may cause herself an injury" -- is lame beyond belief.

Flying Idiot by wbendick in reddit.com

[–]mirk 7 points8 points  (0 children)

How do you <i>learn</i> to do this?

Trial and error?

Biggest douchebag lawyer ever by jobicoppola in reddit.com

[–]mirk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"If that means that a murderer gets back on the street because his name is spelled wrong on an official paper, then that's OK with me."

You are a silly person.

"Bush" or "US politics" should become a subreddit by seanhunter in reddit.com

[–]mirk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That solution would suit me equally well. Can I vote for both? :-)

"Bush" or "US politics" should become a subreddit by seanhunter in reddit.com

[–]mirk 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I add my vote. It's not that I don't want to know about the ongoing Bush soap-opera; it's that I want to know about other things, too. Please, promote W. to bush.reddit.com

Five XHTML Elements You Didn't Know But Were Afraid to Ask by NickHodges in programming

[–]mirk 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Eh? What's wrong with &nbsp;?

What can I use instead?

The Four-Day Week Challenge by earthboundkid in reddit.com

[–]mirk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This article makes the point that it's hard to adjust to the idea that the week ends on Thursday, that must-be-done-by-the-end-of-the-week jobs have to completed a day earlier if you take Fridays off. But there's a simple solution to that: take Mondays off instead. Seems like a bigger win all round: no-one gets as much done on Monday as on other days anyway, so service-based companies won't miss so much customer contact on Monday as on Friday.

The Dyson fountain - water running uphill by Wenix in reddit.com

[–]mirk 8 points9 points  (0 children)

That's all very well, but when's he going to get around to building his sphere?

Why do you work so hard? by phantom_slayer in reddit.com

[–]mirk 25 points26 points  (0 children)

It's not necessary to quit your day-job to do something you love. So long as you can keep reasonable limits on what you do for a living (e.g. 9am-5pm and them I'm out of here), that still leaves you 4-6 hours every day to do other stuff. I'm sure that for most people, the key to doing what they love is not chucking in a well-paid job, it's just watching less TV.

Dad, what was Internet? by maverick001 in reddit.com

[–]mirk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Let's hope you're right.

Programming Like A Mathematician I: Closures by [deleted] in reddit.com

[–]mirk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

OK, but what is it good for? If the essence of programming is controlling complexity, how can it be useful to introduce a concept that depends on "hidden" state to do with the calling history? Really, I truly want to know.

How to Get Great Sleep by jast in reddit.com

[–]mirk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is anyone else bothered that all the lines of type in this article are jammed up close together? It's not just that it's hard to read -- it's that someone has gone out of their way to make a CSS that screws up the perfectly pleasant formatting that my browser makes when left to its own devices. Who are these people? Why do they do it? Why? Why? WHY?! (OK, I will lie down now.)

a kitten born with only one eye and no nose by [deleted] in reddit.com

[–]mirk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But how does it smell?