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GrandOpener

 Discussion on answer by Dale: How can…

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GrandOpener
May 5, 2023 17:12
There is no single "correct" opinion in this. That's the point. We have some ideas, some of which seem more plausible than others, but we just don't know for sure.
 

 Discussion on question by chasly - su…

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GrandOpener
Oct 29, 2020 14:11
Not directly an answer to your question, but you mention that there is no clear line between opinion and fact when asking questions of a voice assistant. However, it is not difficult to find people who will tell you that whether black lives matter is a fact--separate from the organization--and people who think otherwise are simply mistaken. Thousands of years of philosophy hasn't gotten us to distinguishing between fact and opinion with laser accuracy even for ourselves--considering legislating a distinction for voice assistants is putting the cart far ahead of the horse.
 

 Discussion on answer by Ash: Could 19…

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GrandOpener
Sep 21, 2020 17:50
@Nacht A quick Google search puts the base 2020 Civic trim at 8.2, but the Si trim clocks in at 6.5. The Camry is definitely one of the snappiest "normal" sedans off the line, but the times Ash mentioned put 1970s as strong competitors in the category of "random 2020 commuter sedans." Any 2020 car that actually brags about its performance is going to drive circles around the antiques.
 

 Discussion on question by Seallussus:…

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GrandOpener
Sep 10, 2020 20:03
Frame challenge: With the best current Earth technology it takes half a day just to get to the moon, and just Mars is more than 100x farther even at its closest approach to Earth. If the aliens are prevented from using exotic technology, "a week away" is likely already on top of us from an astronomy perspective. Detecting something that's a bit past the moon is an entirely different kind of task from detecting something out by Pluto. Why not just have them be detected when closer?
 

 Discussion on question by Elling: How…

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GrandOpener
May 2, 2020 11:52
There's a lot of focus on the method in the answers, and not on the cryptographic properties of the hashes, which is what I intended in the original question. If that's what you want, that's what you need to ask. What you actually asked was "how secure is this password scheme?" That's what people answered.
 

 Discussion on answer by Ted Wrigley: …

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GrandOpener
Feb 20, 2020 21:27
@CramerTV The NPR article is fairly recent. I'm pretty sure BobE is remembering back to 2017 when the DoJ (ironic, given what we're talking about here) gave their legal opinion that Trump's tweets are "official statements of the President." See: washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/14/…
 

 Discussion on answer by GEdgar: Was "…

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GrandOpener
Jan 20, 2020 15:17
@Luaan As pointed out in the top answer, many of those terms such as "five man team" are ambiguous. It could be either gender-neutral or masculine in that usage. That's not anyone's change--that's how it's always been. A "five person team" is unambiguously gender-neutral. Social issues aside, I personally have a very strong preference for the word choice that is completely unambiguous.
 

 Discussion on question by Ertai87: Co…

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GrandOpener
Jan 17, 2020 12:44
@Zibbobz It doesn't feel like a duplicate to me because the other question asks "how do I prepare for X" and this question is "how can I personally prepare for X when my direct superiors have told me not to prepare for X". The answer to those two questions is completely different.
 

 Discussion on question by dunno what …

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GrandOpener
Jan 3, 2020 23:17
@WernerCD OP needs to be careful about naming and shaming. A company that's this far into bullying its employees will absolutely send out legal threats against an employee publicly shaming them. And even if everything the employee says is 100% true and the company could not possibly win in court, they can still make the process very painful. If the OP doesn't live in an area with strong anti-SLAPP protections, they could be obligated to pay tens of thousands in lawyer fees out of pocket just for the privilege of giving the company a bad review.
 

 Discussion on answer by apsillers: Is…

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GrandOpener
Nov 27, 2019 11:42
@ikegami Hey man, I told you how the law surrounding GPL actually works. That’s just how it is. If you don’t think it’s fair or logical to work that way, you can take that up with lawyers and lawmakers. There’s nothing else useful I can add.
GrandOpener
Nov 27, 2019 11:42
@ikegami That's not how GPL/copyright law works. Someone who modifies GPL code has a legal responsibility to the author to provide source when requested. If they fail to do so, they have legally wronged the author by violating that agreement. They have not legally wronged the requester, with whom there was never any legally binding agreement. The GPL creates a legal obligation to provide source when requested. it does not directly entitle you, a third party, access to the modified code. That may seem like splitting hairs, but it's a very important difference in how the law works.
GrandOpener
Nov 27, 2019 11:42
@ikegami Aside from the fact that to sue for harm done you would have to show actual concrete harm (not just being mad that you don't have the source code), they do not have a contract with you that promises to deliver the source code, so you really don't have any grounds on which to sue them. Not delivering modified GPL source code upon request is a violation of their legal responsibility to the rights holder(s). It is not a violation of their legal responsibility to you or other purchasers of their product.
 

 Discussion on answer by Kate Gregory:…

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GrandOpener
Sep 2, 2019 14:31
While I like this suggestion, I don't think it answers the question, because you've just moved the problem. If writing the initial boilerplate is the ideal way to leave a task, and it takes you 30 minutes to write the boilerplate, now you have a problem when you finish the big task one hour before. Or when you finish the big task exactly at quitting time. Unless the proposal is "you can stop at any time and it's actually fine," then this doesn't really resolve the underlying problem of how to deal when the work flow doesn't match up with the hours in the work day--it just moves it.
 

 Discussion on question by kingledion:…

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GrandOpener
Jul 16, 2019 15:28
@JMac @JMac Well, we're way out in the weeds now, but if we're using an absolute color space (or a generic RGB color space with an appropriate ICC profile), then the abstract tuple from the color space will correspond to a colorimetric (i.e. physical) measurement. Think about it; there has to be a translation from absolute color space to physical characteristics, otherwise it would not be possible to use color spaces to reliably produce specific colors.
GrandOpener
Jul 16, 2019 14:34
@JMac I agree it's useful to use language to separate the physical property from the qualia. That's awkward in English because we use the same words for both. A specific set of coordinates in a color space is a precise, physical thing that is called a "color." (Or "colour," if you prefer.) The sensation when the retina intercepts photons of a particular wavelength is also called "color." If we want to be very precise we need to add more words, (e.g. "red light causes a red sensation in humans). Just saying "color" by itself is not sufficiently precise for that sort of discussion.
GrandOpener
Jul 16, 2019 14:34
@wizzwizz4 I think you missed the last sentence of my comment. There is a certain wavelength of light that we have defined as "red." There is a certain wavelength of light that we have defined as "green." These definitions are necessary to create devices that emit specific colors of light, like monitors or even traffic lights. The fact that some people experience those wavelengths differently is the whole point of several answers--but that doesn't change that the underlying definitions exist and must exist.
GrandOpener
Jul 16, 2019 14:34
@AlexP I think you're confusing the issue with your last example. Certain measurable wavelengths or combinations of wavelengths are defined to be certain colors. That is a static, measurable, physical property. It has to be, or else building things like monitors wouldn't be possible. The disconnect is that the experience of color is separate from this physical property.
 

 Discussion on answer by Nosajimiki: H…

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GrandOpener
May 31, 2019 06:11
"No sentient race would ever settle on base-10 if it were up to their choice rather than the result an accidental anatomical developmental process." That's probably true, but every sentient race without exception is going to have a number system from accidental developmental process long before they have the mathematics to develop an informed preference. I think this is sort of like the Dvorak keyboard layout. It's provably, quantifiably better, but the amount better it is doesn't justify the tremendous pain of switching for most people.
 

 Discussion on question by Peter Walse…

Imported from a comment discussion on security.stackexchange.c...
GrandOpener
Feb 9, 2019 11:39
"Additionally, the connection should be configured in a way that does not allow multiple statements to be issued in the same query" Unless, of course, your application is intentionally doing that as an optimization to avoid extra round trips on complex inserts. This is actually a lot like the single quotes situation; don't allow it if you don't have a reason to, but also don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
 

 Discussion on answer by Astralbee: Is…

Imported from a comment discussion on ell.stackexchange.com/qu...
GrandOpener
Jan 17, 2019 14:57
Agreed that's the answer the test is looking for, but I hate tests that label these sorts of sentences as "correct" or "incorrect" without additional context. Using "neighborhood" to refer to people is quite normal ("The whole neighborhood came to my housewarming party," etc.) "I'm strange to this neighborhood" is an unusual thing to say, and it could be an incorrect way of expressing an idea, but it's grammatically correct and semantically sensible as written. It is not wrong (again, barring additional context), it's simply not what the test was looking for.
 

 Discussion on question by Alexander: …

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GrandOpener
Sep 2, 2018 06:18
If survivalists don't know how to mine and smelt iron or copper from scratch, then they are effectively still stone age, right? Scavenging or stockpiling metal tools doesn't mean that your society has the ability to produce them. Or does just possessing a reasonable number of metal tools count for your scenario? There's going to be a lot of those lying around unclaimed.
 

 Discussion on question by Carlos Cine…

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GrandOpener
Apr 29, 2018 21:41
I'm not sure this merits a full answer, but with respect to "solve[ing] these conflicting intuitions," the explanation that was key for me personally was considerably "lower tech" than a lot of the wonderful math provided here. (Perhaps stated inexactly): "infinity is not a number, and it does not follow the same rules that numbers follow." After a professor told me that, not just this problem but this whole class of problems suddenly started making sense, as if a veil had been lifted from my eyes. That was what my intuition needed to hear; proofs did not fix my intuition.
 

 Discussion on question by SK19: How l…

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GrandOpener
Mar 16, 2018 16:10
"In my story, there is a legend of some ancient creature that was around when the diamond mountain was still standing and I want to know how long ago that was." Unfortunately the answers here aren't going to lead you to that information because the story is too fanciful and not a sensible/possible situation. As the answers show, not enough time has passed since the beginning of the Universe (let alone the beginning of Earth) to wear the mountain down completely. If the mountain isn't in Pomerania now, then it never was. (edit: or else it was torn down by something faster than the bird...)
 

 Discussion on question by Danny Schoe…

Imported from a comment discussion on retrocomputing.stackexch...
GrandOpener
Feb 7, 2018 20:40
Punch cards are easy enough to read and don't have proprietary encoding issues I don't know about you, but I can't just pick up a punch card and read it. What do the holes mean? Are they bits? Are the bytes in rows or columns? Which side of the card is up? If you choose a specific kind of card, like the aforementioned IBM-style, then you've decided on an encoding. That doesn't mean there isn't a proprietary encoding. The encoding is simple, but that's exactly because of the drawback: the data is very small and simple.
 

 Discussion on answer by HLGEM: How to…

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GrandOpener
Feb 1, 2018 09:48
"Even though missing the deadline might mean losing a customer?" Importantly, keep in mind that's likely not your call to make. As a technologist talking to "higher ups," it is your job to adequately explain to them the risks. It is emphatically not your job to second guess their decisions. When you ask them what they want you to drop, make sure you are actually asking them what they want you to drop, and not just making a passive aggressive complaint about your workload. It's easy to get annoyed and slip into the latter--I know I've certainly done it myself before I knew better.
 

 Discussion on answer by Laetus: How t…

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GrandOpener
Jan 9, 2018 18:50
"Those are young autocracies and are extremely unrepresentative of autocracies as a whole." This ties in tightly to the OP's source of 4X games, rather than real-world history. Those games, by definition, involve you as a new (and usually benevolent) autocrat. By contrast, democracy in that context involves other agents working towards goals that may not exactly match the win condition that you are aiming for. I don't think the notion/perception of inefficiencies in democracies is wrong--I think it's just more specific to that exact situation than the OP initially realizes.
 

 Discussion on answer by Andrew Jon Do…

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GrandOpener
Jun 4, 2017 05:07
@DavidGrinberg These comments are a perfect microcosm of the situation described in the answer. Those who disagree claim there are no facts or support, when (post edit) there clearly is. Perhaps those facts are mistaken or that support can be discredited. Argue against them if you want. But the assertion that it's a partisan non-answer is itself exactly the kind of partisan whinging that you are miffed about. I am attempting to keep my politics out of the conversation here, but I am upvoting because I think it is an objectively good answer with a rational assessment of the situation.
 

 Discussion on question by Michael Kjö…

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GrandOpener
Dec 8, 2016 02:58
We get "graphics only as add-ons to text," so presumably we still get to the point where we can share photos and watch silly cat videos, but the window chrome around these activities is all fixed resolution and monospace fonts? No Steve Jobs ever came through, concerned about kerning? There was never any market for nicer looking window chrome? I can't buy it. I could definitely think of reasons that certain specific packages or organizations would use this paradigm (which might cover all the appliances in a story) but all computers everywhere? It just doesn't add up.
 

 Discussion on question by Mik378: At …

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GrandOpener
Nov 10, 2016 23:44
I don't think there's a definitive answer that applies in all situations. If you sell me a car, and when I come to pick it up it has no tires, and you say "Well, tires weren't on the contract, why didn't you complain then?!" we are going to have a problem. That's a totally different situation from me being disappointed at delivery time that it doesn't have an integrated GPS system, without having ever asked for one. The "correct" answer depends a lot on whether ABCD already reasonably imply EFG, or whether EFG are entirely separate work.
 

 Discussion on question by Revenant: T…

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GrandOpener
Jun 16, 2016 12:50
The guideline I've heard--which I've found to be true in my own work--is this: "If you don't have time to do unit tests, then you definitely don't have time to not do unit tests."
 

 Discussion on question by oldmud0: A …

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GrandOpener
Jun 8, 2016 22:40
More than anything else, I'd recommend thinking of this as a learning experience that 250 lines of test code for a 3000 line project is nowhere close to enough. The WHOLE point of test code is being able to safely refactor. If you feel like you cannot safely refactor without having a finished product that you can manually test, then those tests are not doing their job. If you feel like you are trapped in a situation where the tangled mess cannot be refactored, job number one should be improving your test suite until the point where you can refactor.
 

 Discussion on question by Amit Jain: …

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GrandOpener
Dec 24, 2015 19:48
I am another person that does not have sounds available the vast majority of time that I'm web browsing. I suspect there are a lot of people like this, and a lot of the reason for lack of sound design is that unless the sound is integral to the site (game, art installation, etc.), the majority of users will simply not experience it.
 

 Discussion on answer by paj28: Is the…

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GrandOpener
Sep 27, 2015 15:33
"In fact, it is the client that is at greater risk." What is your reason to make that assertion? While I can't cite any studies, my personal experience has been that it's considerably more likely for my password to be exposed in a company-side data breach than for me to be afflicted with a key logger.