Viewing profile — ec429

Non-emphatic letter-spacing changes are susceptible to automation, thus should be automated. If, for instance, uppercase text requires wider spacing, the browser — or better still,…

That's not gopher. Gopher doesn't have semantic markup. In fact, gopher doesn't define a document format at all (unless you count the format of the menus); it's a transport protoco…

I disagree: increased letter spacing is a form of emphasis. Perhaps you are confusing it with kerning, which does make text easier to read, and which absolutely should at all times…

Well, I'm a bit autistic myself, so it's no surprise. But in fact I do care about typography (in particular, I obsessed over bad kerning /before/ xkcd mentioned it); I just think t…

Hmm, I disagree. In my opinion, 'clean' web design means the now sadly old-fashioned approach of: have some text, marked up to indicate emphasis, headings etc., then let the damn b…

Three shall be the version of the Python, and the version of the Python shall be three. Version four shalt thou not use, nor shalt thou use version two, excepting that thou then up…

"For that matter, you'd think there would be a better service out there that would research anything like that." You're asking for the Semantic Web. No, really: if everyone's data …

Yes: that's exactly my point (b).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: _the US cannot be trusted with stewardship of the global Internet_. Wired suggests that some want to move this stewardship to the UN. Th…

I strongly suspect that this will prove to be limited by the RF path; it relies (as far as I can tell) on coherent properties of the wavefront. This means it will break as soon as …

Try R. It's a powerful open source statistical language, also fairly good at linear algebra.

Solution: don't use monolithic applications with bloated GUIs. Instead, use small, simple tools, driven from the command line where possible. If the problem domain is naturally gra…

According to the article, the interference is 86dB above the GPS signal (400mn.×). Wikipedia gives figures of 60-80dB. The LightSquared band is from 50MHz to 16MHz below the GPS L1…

What about nonstandard analysis? Or, to put it another way, Infinity is a hyperreal number.

I was thinking the same, and found it particularly amusing that "design" types are only now finally realising the virtues of the command line. What'll the next Ubuntu UI revolution…

If some airmail stages through a US airport, does the US have the right to rifle through the mailbags on the plane?

Moreover, it's a foreign post office and much of the mail is foreign - since when does the FBI have jurisdiction over the entire world?

I quite agree (and it's sickening how 'elitism' has become an insult). However, I would add that she does have a point about Oxford not being up to scratch (she should have applied…

I think the /real/ abuse of power here isn't the RIAA/MPAA at all... it's the US (or rather, govt and certain corporations thereof) thinking that because key Internet infrastructur…

Oh I agree that the previous govt were dreadful. But I can understand /Labour/ being bereft of clue. I expect better from the Tories. Then again, I suppose they've been a bit busy …

Open source (decentralised Linux style) seems to have compensated for the network effect of large teams. Hence why Linux is 3.0 and HURD still hasn't shipped ;) points at CatB http…

They could let those people become teachers without having to go through the rigmarole of largely useless training. The next academic year is nearly eight months away; that's /bags…

Most of what you say is spot on, but I take issue with your suggestion that "a good curriculum" will solve the problem. What is needed is /no/ set curriculum; it is in the nature o…

I suspect that there are plenty of people qualified to teach programming, it's just that most people currently teaching ICT are not qualified to teach anything (if the idiots I was…

To be still more pedantic, there are two kinds of definition of an interface: definition-within-the-type-system and definition-within-the-documentation. The string library is speci…