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Comment Poker isn't really about math (Score 1) 340

It's about psychology: guessing what your opponents hold, whether you can beat what you think they hold, or whether you can bluff them into folding.

I'm betting that a good human player could pretty quickly learn how this bot plays, and learn how to react to various scenarios to defeat it...regardless of the math.

Comment Programming is NOT helped by isolation (Score 0) 294

Programming is a creative activity that is greatly enhanced by teams of programmers being present together in one place. Team members feed off each other, and perform far better than they could in isolation. Sure, programming CAN be done remotely, but not at the same level.

This is true not only at the individual level, but at the corporate level. There is a reason software companies congregate in Silicon Valley, why oil companies congregate in Houston, and entertainment companies congregate in Hollywood. The talent pools for these industries has been built up over a long period of time, and establishing similar talent pools elsewhere is no easy task.

It works both ways: a software company in Silicon Valley has a much easier time finding good programmers than software companies elsewhere, and programmers in Silicon Valley have a much easier time finding good jobs there, than elsewhere.

Comment Why not use it, if it works? (Score 1) 303

If programming were strictly about efficiently providing instructions to computers, then anthropomorphism would be wasteful and counter-productive. Think about all of the code and processor cycles devoted to displaying data as windows, folders, icons, or just plain aesthetics. Those metaphors are highly wasteful of computer processing power.

But the point is, computers are, above all, a tool for people. So why not make them function in a way that is understandable to people? If anthropomorphism helps programmers understand the interconnections of complex software, then by all means, we should use it! If the metaphors break down, fix the metaphor, or use a different one. It's how we think. It's OK if it's not perfect, as long as it gets the job done.

Comment Multifocal contact lenses (Score 1) 464

I don't like progressive glasses, or any glasses for that matter. I love my multifocal contact lenses, Typical multifocals have five focal lengths, and you can't even see where each ring is, your eyes just naturally move to where the text is clear. There is no going back to glasses for me!

Comment Smart kids are usually socially awkward (Score 4, Insightful) 224

Face it, smart kids were mercilessly teased in school since a long time before 1994. But being socially awkward, these kids stick to what they ARE good at, like tinkering with computers. This provides an escape for them, since they don't have a clue how to be accepted by others.

Girls tend to mature socially earlier than boys. They DO understand how to relate to others socially, and they don't want any part of the kind of treatment they see their smart male friends enduring. So...they do the smart thing...they stay away.

Is this all a terrible injustice? Probably. But we shouldn't be blaming the men. They are the ones who stuck with their quest despite the pressure. If there is anyone to blame, blame Hollywood, which (at the time) produced movie after movie reinforcing the "nerd" stereotype.

Comment Author doesn't understand agile (Score 1) 153

Nor do many people who profess to use it.

In 25 years, I have yet to see a type of project that couldn't benefit from an agile approach...done correctly, of course. At its core, Agile is about breaking down a big project into manageable pieces. This process can be done logically, and it can be done nonsensically.

Comment Not impressed (Score 1) 160

Below are the results I got. Really? So I'm the only person who speaks English, running Chrome on Windows 7, in the Central time zone? If that's enough to identify me, then I'm feeling pretty exposed.

Google, on the other hand, can probably tell me my life history, with all the data they have on me.

Yes! (You can be tracked!)
34.59 % of observed browsers are Chrome, as yours.
22.54 % of observed browsers are Chrome 39.0, as yours.
58.71 % of observed browsers run Windows, as yours.
40.04 % of observed browsers run Windows 7, as yours.
26.96 % of observed browsers have set "en"as their primary language, as yours.
1.09 % of observed browsers have UTC-6 as their timezone, as yours.
You have the only browser out of 11099 with this fingerprint.

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