Search found 514 matches
- Fri Jul 28, 2017 7:29 pm UTC
- Forum: Books
- Topic: Recommend a book
- Replies: 484
- Views: 255831
Re: Recommend a book
I recently finished the Remembrance of Earth's past series by Liu Cixin, which is incredible. Hard scifi where everything goes wrong for humanity. The first book feels more grounded as it's set in the 20th/21st century (starting with the cultural revolution), while the other two skip further and fur...
- Wed Oct 14, 2015 4:44 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 15072
- Views: 2480061
Re: In other news... (humorous news items, etc)
bigglesworth wrote:You might prefer the other name "swegway".speising wrote:why the fuck is this called "hoverboard", and why the reference to McFly, except because of the date?
sweg == swag? I am more confused than ever.
- Tue Oct 13, 2015 9:02 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 15072
- Views: 2480061
Re: In other news... (humorous news items, etc)
apparently awesome modes of transport are illegal in the UK :( http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/12/hoverboards-illegal-pavements-roads-scooters Bad news if you like gliding down the street like a low-rent Marty McFly: “hoverboards” (also known as self-balancing scooters) are illegal to...
- Tue Sep 22, 2015 9:42 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: Favourite technical podcasts
- Replies: 1
- Views: 2565
Re: Favourite technical podcasts
I'd also be interested to hear about more podcasts. I listen to a lot, but not so many that are coding related. A couple I can recommend are Hanselminutes and Software Engineering Radio. Hanselminutes covers a very broad range of subjects and is quite light and accessible. SE radio tends to be more ...
- Sun Mar 29, 2015 9:12 am UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: genetic go bot
- Replies: 6
- Views: 3484
Re: genetic go bot
I stumbled upon an AI the other day that looks interesting: https://github.com/pasky/michi Michi aims to be a minimalistic but full-fledged Computer Go program based on state-of-art methods (Monte Carlo Tree Search) and written in Python. Our goal is to make it easier for new people to enter the dom...
- Fri Mar 06, 2015 10:23 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: genetic go bot
- Replies: 6
- Views: 3484
Re: genetic go bot
Another approach could be to aim for something less than winning full games (such as capture go), and then evaluate each position based on the local area instead of thinking about global strategy or reading out branches. It'll still suck against humans, but could still be interesting if you just wan...
- Fri Dec 26, 2014 12:39 am UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: Airbender and Korra - Shyamalan's Masterpiece Animated
- Replies: 1712
- Views: 353222
Re: Airbender and Korra - Shyamalan's Masterpiece Animated
On Korrasami: http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace Personally I don't find the ending at all ambiguous, but I agree with the sentiment. I think kiss or no kiss, the final scene made sense in the context of the rest of the season, but thei...
- Thu Dec 25, 2014 11:54 am UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: Contribute very little to the conversation
- Replies: 194
- Views: 24963
Re: Contribute very little to the conversation
I skipped over most of the thread because it is quite long
- Thu Dec 25, 2014 11:52 am UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: Broken Picture Telephone
- Replies: 385
- Views: 93320
Re: Broken Picture Telephone
patzer wrote:Hi Pinkie!

- Wed Dec 24, 2014 9:10 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: Broken Picture Telephone
- Replies: 385
- Views: 93320
Re: Broken Picture Telephone
Drawing
Spoiler:
- Wed Dec 24, 2014 3:21 pm UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: Airbender and Korra - Shyamalan's Masterpiece Animated
- Replies: 1712
- Views: 353222
Re: Airbender and Korra - Shyamalan's Masterpiece Animated
I loved the ending. The only time I thought the writing was bad was the first half of season 2, where they rushed over the civil war and the motivations of the main characters just made no sense. I agree there is a lot about the technology and the wider world that didn't make sense, but I could forg...
- Sat Sep 27, 2014 4:32 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: Whats the point of query builders in scripting languages
- Replies: 10
- Views: 5158
Re: Whats the point of query builders in scripting languages
Something like $select . $from . $order doesn't work well when your queries get more complex, especially if you are supporting more than one database. For example, one query might need to be compiled to any of these: ⋅ select top 10 ... ⋅ select first 10 ... ⋅ select .....
- Sun Aug 03, 2014 1:37 pm UTC
- Forum: The Help Desk
- Topic: I wanna try Linux. Again. (x4).
- Replies: 52
- Views: 18608
Re: I wanna try Linux. Again. (x4).
What did you find difficult to customise with XFCE? I the settings menu is quite well organised and there's plenty of information out there if you google what you're interested in. For example changing the colours - https://wiki.xfce.org/howto/install_new_themes - which explains the difference betwe...
- Mon May 12, 2014 6:07 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: automating youtube browsing
- Replies: 5
- Views: 3089
Re: automating youtube browsing
Have you looked at their API? You should be able to get all that information without needing to scrape the HTML.
They have client libraries for a bunch of languages but you could use Lua and parse the JSON yourself if that's easier.
They have client libraries for a bunch of languages but you could use Lua and parse the JSON yourself if that's easier.
- Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:41 pm UTC
- Forum: Gaming
- Topic: GO weiqi igo baduk
- Replies: 154
- Views: 60485
Re: GO weiqi igo baduk
I made a thing: http://online-go.com/group/185 - please join and start games!
I'm about 10kyu at the moment but I'm still provisionally ranked on there so I've probably missed my chance to be top of all the ladders
I'm about 10kyu at the moment but I'm still provisionally ranked on there so I've probably missed my chance to be top of all the ladders

- Fri Jan 03, 2014 11:09 am UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: Request for input/assistance on project concept
- Replies: 2
- Views: 2862
Re: Request for input/assistance on project concept
For music, have a look at http://musicbrainz.org/
The Picard tagger software does most of what you want out of the box, and if you can't easily automate that there are c/c++ libraries available http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Developer_Resources
The Picard tagger software does most of what you want out of the box, and if you can't easily automate that there are c/c++ libraries available http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Developer_Resources
- Tue Nov 26, 2013 7:50 pm UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: My Little Pony: Friendship is MAGIC!
- Replies: 1371
- Views: 321957
Re: My Little Pony: Friendship is MAGIC!
(although Luna's banishment still makes no sense) How so? Cuz that's one part of this show that I'm REEEEEEAAAAAALLLLLLY into. The sudden switches between 100% good/evil is what bothers me. They didn't give any reason for her becoming Nightmare Moon, she just did. The flashbacks in ...
- Mon Nov 25, 2013 9:22 pm UTC
- Forum: Gaming
- Topic: GO weiqi igo baduk
- Replies: 154
- Views: 60485
Re: GO weiqi igo baduk
Anyone fancy a game on http://online-go.com/ ?
I've just started playing correspondence games on there and it seems pretty good. If people are interested we could start an XKCD group and get a ladder going?
I've just started playing correspondence games on there and it seems pretty good. If people are interested we could start an XKCD group and get a ladder going?
- Sun Nov 24, 2013 7:47 pm UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: My Little Pony: Friendship is MAGIC!
- Replies: 1371
- Views: 321957
Re: My Little Pony: Friendship is MAGIC!
After princessgate I was kind of horrified to watch the new episode, but I actually enjoyed the premiere. The super alicorn backstory potion was pretty ridiculous but I liked how they fleshed out the mythology (although Luna's banishment still makes no sense) and set up the rest of the s...
- Mon Sep 23, 2013 9:29 pm UTC
- Forum: Religious Wars
- Topic: Python 2.x vs. python 3.x
- Replies: 16
- Views: 25410
Re: Python 2.x vs. python 3.x
pygame and mutagen don't support it yet I've been using Pygame with Python 3 for ages now. You can download Pygame for Python 3 here . Maybe it works for you, but those releases don't appear to exist anywhere outside that page, and they're windows only. The latest versions on pypi are python2 only ...
- Wed Sep 04, 2013 6:36 pm UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: Top 10 movies of 2012
- Replies: 21
- Views: 10997
Re: Top 10 movies of 2012
Huh, I thought I'd have a hard time coming up with 10, but apparently I've seen at least 12. In order of awesomeness: ⋅ Moonrise Kingdom ⋅ 21 Jump Street ⋅ Cabin in the Woods ⋅ Cloud Atlas ⋅ Django Unchained ⋅ Avengers ⋅ Iron Sky ...
- Sun Sep 01, 2013 6:20 pm UTC
- Forum: Hardware
- Topic: How do I connect the friggin power button?
- Replies: 2
- Views: 4059
Re: How do I connect the friggin power button?
Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely try and follow that next time. These connectors have been the most fiddly part of the whole build.
After finally getting the power ones sorted I managed toscrew up usb 3 get it working \o/
After finally getting the power ones sorted I managed to
- Sun Sep 01, 2013 3:25 pm UTC
- Forum: Hardware
- Topic: How do I connect the friggin power button?
- Replies: 2
- Views: 4059
How do I connect the friggin power button?
So I'm attempting to a build a new PC. It has lots of little cables from the case: the power switch, reset switch, and some LEDs. My motherboard (MSI H87-G43) has a 9 pin JFP1 connector which these are supposed to go into. The problem I'm having is the cables don't want to actually stay on the conne...
- Sun May 12, 2013 12:58 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: Broken Picture Telephone
- Replies: 385
- Views: 93320
Re: Broken Picture Telephone
Spoiler:
- Sun May 12, 2013 10:07 am UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: STAR! Trek into Darkness?
- Replies: 165
- Views: 47726
Re: Star Trek into Darkness
By "different levels of explanation and depth" do you mean none? I'm not a huge fan of the old movies but I don't think the new ones stand up that well even on their own. I don't care so much about changing the rules, it's their black and white morality, shallow villains, and contrived plo...
- Wed May 08, 2013 8:18 pm UTC
- Forum: XKCD Meetups
- Topic: Geohashing
- Replies: 12
- Views: 28653
Re: Geohashing
Awesome video
Now I want to attempt a geohash again...

- Mon Apr 08, 2013 9:29 pm UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: My Little Pony: Friendship is MAGIC!
- Replies: 1371
- Views: 321957
- Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:51 pm UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: Game of Thrones: The TV Show (novelisation coming soon)
- Replies: 2102
- Views: 341032
Re: Game of Throngs
Yeah, Tyrion didn't really need to be in the episode, and it was a bit exposition-y in places, but overall it was a pretty good episode. That scene with Sansa and the Tyrells was wonderful. I still feel like they try to cram too many characters into an episode though sometimes. I would much rather t...
- Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:22 am UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: Broken Picture Telephone
- Replies: 385
- Views: 93320
Re: Broken Picture Telephone
Spoiler:
- Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:29 pm UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: My Little Pony: Friendship is MAGIC!
- Replies: 1371
- Views: 321957
Re: My Little Pony: Friendship is MAGIC!
The songs were decent enough, I think it's more that they didn't tie into the episodes very well, rather than the music itself. The songs in this episode could have been part of the first episode of season 1 and would still have made sense. It was just a distraction rather than aiding the story as &...
- Fri Feb 15, 2013 11:17 pm UTC
- Forum: Gaming
- Topic: Kickstarter Thread. Everything Goes Here.
- Replies: 426
- Views: 178268
- Sun Feb 03, 2013 12:38 pm UTC
- Forum: Religious Wars
- Topic: Python 2.x vs. python 3.x
- Replies: 16
- Views: 25410
Re: Python 2.x vs. python 3.x
Only annoying in that you have to unlearn stuff. Pretty much all the backwards incompatible changes fix stuff that was stupid before: ⋅ for i in range() is the obvious way to build a loop, but it creates a useless list, so you really want xrange() ⋅ 'bla' and str() is how you c...
- Sat Feb 02, 2013 5:40 pm UTC
- Forum: Religious Wars
- Topic: Python 2.x vs. python 3.x
- Replies: 16
- Views: 25410
Re: Python 2.x vs. python 3.x
I'm not familiar with what you're trying to do, but what's wrong with bytes exactly? Isn't it essentially as the same as regular strings in python2?
- Sun Nov 18, 2012 5:20 pm UTC
- Forum: Forum Games
- Topic: Broken Picture Telephone
- Replies: 385
- Views: 93320
Re: Broken Picture Telephone
Spoiler:
- Sat Nov 03, 2012 12:27 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: Commenting and Conventions
- Replies: 37
- Views: 6912
Re: Commenting and Conventions
"Stuff" is insufficiently descriptive. There are different kinds of documentation that need to be considered. If you make a product that does [x], and in order to do so, it make use of a Foo, Bar, and a Baz then your [x] is a feature/product level documentation. There hopefully is a high ...
- Thu Nov 01, 2012 8:46 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: Commenting and Conventions
- Replies: 37
- Views: 6912
Re: Commenting and Conventions
I don't subscribe to the idea that comments should be avoided because they will inevitably become inaccurate - I think this kind of attitude leads to very change-averse coding, No, people who are not confident that the software works leads to change-averse coding. If you have sufficient tests (not ...
- Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:06 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: Commenting and Conventions
- Replies: 37
- Views: 6912
Re: Commenting and Conventions
I guess I lean more towards commenting than most. I don't subscribe to the idea that comments should be avoided because they will inevitably become inaccurate - I think this kind of attitude leads to very change-averse coding, hurting the long term maintainability of your software for the sake of av...
- Sat Oct 27, 2012 11:33 am UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: [Java] Multiple returns vs single exit
- Replies: 21
- Views: 7812
Re: [Java] Multiple returns vs single exit
Sure, a bunch of random returns scattered throughout the body of a long rambling function can be confusing, but that problem is caused by having a long, rambling function, not having multiple returns. This. I think the main issue is # of branches. Multiple returns is just an indicator that your fun...
- Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:10 pm UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: python array output to file is'nt unicode?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1540
Re: python array output to file is'nt unicode?
NumPy includes several functions for IO: http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/referen ... es.io.html
- Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:08 am UTC
- Forum: Coding
- Topic: Python Returning None?
- Replies: 2
- Views: 5059
Re: Python Returning None?
Yup. Printing is not the same as returning a value from a function. It is just a side effect that calling the function has. If x is 0 or below, there are no return statements, so the return value is None. A more pythonic way would be to handle your bad input using exceptions , like this def power():...