buggy_code

Hi!

Perhaps I should ask a lawyer this, but I'm sure someone on HN must have already faced this issue and figured it out. Here it is:

Suppose I'm running a social network site and users are allowed to upload photos. The site needs to filter for adult content, but we lack the resources to do so ourselves. This seems like a perfect application for M. Turk. Now, are there any potential legal issues for this (since the photos presented to the M. Turk-ers are user uploaded photos.)

Thanks!

According to Wikipedia:

The most remarkable feature of these remains the macro system. It provides far more expressive power than Lisp's S-expression manipulation system, Scheme 84's hygienic extend-syntax macros, or R5RS's syntax rules. Indeed, it is fair to say that the macro system is a carefully tuned API for the compiler. Using this compiler API, programmers can add features and entire domain-specific languages in a manner that makes them completely indistinguishable from built-in language constructs. For example, both the class system and the component system are nothing but macro libraries.

What I don't understand is:

* how is this more powerful than Lisp's S-exp macro system and

* haven't people created object systems on top of Lisp's s-exp system?

Thanks!

(And what are the best open source alternatives).

We're setting up something private for sharing documents.

Thanks!

Hey,

I realize this appears OT, but I don't think I'm the only one on HN with this problem, and we can just think of it as 'hacking social interactions' instead.

Here's the problem -- I've broken through the fear (of rejection) of talking to random, attractive girls. However, I have problem maintaining the smalltalk (i.e. conversation generally dies after 2-3 minutes).

Here's a typical scenario: () I find some reason to talk about them -- if waiting @ bus stop (do you know when the next bus comes along?); if waiting in life for smoothie (those are nice ear rings ...); etc ... () then, conversation starts dying; [btw, I'm on a college campus]; i.e. we can chat a bit a bout their major / field of study, etc ... but that's about it

The goal here isn't the pickup society's goal of: hey, go into a random bar, get laid; it's just figuring out how to meet new people + have interesting conversations without those .. ehh .. awkward 10 second silences that kill everything.

Suggestions? (help me debug my life, lol)

Cheers!

From reading the biographies of famous entrepreneurs (Gates, Ellison, Jobs, Woz, Clark) it seems like:

() those who marry in young 20s end up with divorce () the successful marriage ends up one in the late 30s or early 40s

Can HN shed light on this? Do most entrepreneurs end up with this problem, or are these just especially high profile founders, and as a result, they needed balls of steel to bring the revolutions they did (thus probably resulting in slightly intolerable personalties).

Thanks!

[Curious about this myself via the whole: marriage or startup first question; marriage first results in the question of -- crap, I have responsibilities; startup first results in the issue of -- crap, gold diggers]

I realize you guys aren't lawyers, but I want to see if any if you have dealt with this before.

Here's what I am considering doing: I want to use the art work from GPL-ed games, and I don't want to distribute my source code under the GPL.

Here's what I'm considering doing:

* write my iPhone game (not releasing it's source)

* when run, my iPhone game contacts the debian (or source forge) servers; downloads the corresponding .tar.gz or .deb

* my iPhone game then extracts the art work + boots up and runs the game

* this artwork, of course, will then be cached on the phone for future uses

I'm thinking of doing something similar for desktop games too.

1) has anyone tried this? 2) has anyone considered this? 3) before I pay expensive lawyer fees -- is this clearly legal or clearly against the GPL?

thanks!

Here's the problem:

I'm building an iPhone app. It talks to a server. I want each iPhone to only be able to have _one_ account on the server -- I don't want people creating lots of separate accounts and having them collude.

Now, my iPhone app and my server are talking to each other over TCP/IP. In theory, anyone can build a computer program that fakes the protocol my iPhone app uses (not very hard -- just download the app, log the packets, reverse engineer the API; I can encrypt my traffic, but they can run the app under a VM / extract the key).

So, although I'm generally not a big fan of Trusted Computing -- does the iPhone support anything like this? Where my server can remotely detect "is this device an iPhone?" + "give me a non-forgable UUID" (even if I force the device to be an iPhone, the attacker can still create another iPhone app and have it talk via the same API).

Thanks!

(Sorry: I realize the business man in me says "err, build the product first, worry about this later"; but I'm kind of curious -- both from a technical perspective and a design perspective -- if I know that creating each account requires purchasing an iPhone / iPod touch, I can know up front that people are less likely to create silly accounts & try to screw around).

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/tim_ferriss_smash_fear_learn_anything.html

In the URL above, Tim Ferris describes how he learned Japanese uber fast by finding the list of 1-2K most common Japanese words and memorizing them.

Is there a similar list for Chinese (probably yes). What is it called? Where can I get a copy of it?

Thanks!

I'm building a MMORPG for the iPhone.

The iPhone app connects to server to join the world. Between the app & the server, I can't figure out how to detect if the particular instance of the app is legit or if it's pirated. Is there a way to do this?

I know that I can grab the UUID off the phone ... but unless apple sends me a list of every UUID that purchased my app, I see no way to check for this.

Thanks!

I'm interested in reading interviews of founders of great computer games. Besides "Masters of Doom", are there any other books?

I'd love to read things on the founding of Wow / Lineage / Everquest; the start of Duke Nukem / Unreal / Halo / Mario; ... or anything else along those lines.

Book preferred, but list of interviews cool too.

Thanks!

Hi!

I'm about to roll my own tools for debugging _analog_ circuits. I'm hoping to read stories of great tools to give me ideas. Things I've really liked are gdb, valgrind, the lisp machine's / smalltalk's abilities to jump right into the line of code that caused the exception, and some FPGA tricks with jtag.

What are some of the most inspiring debugging tools you know of? Any + all links appreciated.

Thanks!