6 ms·

Please don't use the R word, which is so deeply emotive and meaningful, in such an inappropriate context.

by jdub 13y ago

fleitz 13y ago
Rape has meanings other than non-consensual sex. GP: Please use the word rape to the full extent provided by the english language, and let those who don't like the word deal with it. As for the benchmark, who writes their own load balancer? Isn't this generally a solved problem? If the point is to extract max performance from a simple ping-pong server then I'd go right to C and epoll/libevent/etc. I'm guessing that the team is somehow trying to extrapolate data from a ping-pong server to the actual problem they're trying to solve which is dare I say, stupid. In general the best way to solve this problem is use whatever language the team / person writing the software likes because having them write it faster generally outweighs whatever server costs one will run into, whenever this is not the case the best answer is 99% of the time: write it in C.
- glurgh 13y ago
  Rape has meanings other than non-consensual sex. Not really. Ravish might. But other than on, say, gamer message boards, 'rape' doesn't have many other meanings than forcible sexual assault. Take a look at the usage in print and find casual uses of 'rape' in that context.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - edu 13y ago
    rape 1 |rāp| noun [...] 2 the wanton destruction or spoiling of a place or area: the rape of the Russian countryside. Source: New Oxford American Dictionary edit: styling, source
    - glurgh 13y ago
      That's right. A lot words have metaphorical uses. Now, would you say 'it lynched that server' or 'it made that server its bitch'? You could, surely. The meaning will be clear. You'll still sound like a complete douchebag. And that's really the point - not getting into some three mile debate about denotation and connotation - it's to not sound like a douchebag.
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
  - bad_user 13y ago
    You have to admit, the thought of forcible sexual assault of a MacBook Pro is kind of funny.
    - glurgh 13y ago
      This is why I don't let my MBP out with strangers.
- aninhumer 13y ago
  It doesn't matter whether there are other meanings. The fact remains that there is a single meaning which is understandably deeply upsetting to some people. I'd imagine you'd avoid topics that upset your friends in real life, and some of us like to extend this courtesy to strangers on the internet as well. If you feel your "full extent of the English language" is more important than the emotions of strangers, that's your choice, but forgive me and others for judging you as an asshole.
  - PommeDeTerre 13y ago
    Let me get this straight. So he's an "asshole" because you and possibly some other people refuse to accept that certain English words have multiple distinct definitions, and because you also refuse to take into account context when reading such words? It's a rather unusual stance to take.
    - aninhumer 13y ago
      I'm not refusing to accept anything. Of course words have multiple meanings, but that doesn't mean the other meanings magically disappear just because they're not implied by context. Interpretation of natural language is strongly influenced by lexical connotations. If you use a negative word in your sentence, people will have negative reactions to it, regardless of your intent. In practice most people who do this are merely profoundly ignorant and unsympathetic, rather than overtly being assholes. But yes, if someone intentionally choose to use words with upsetting connotations, I consider them an asshole.
  - laichzeit0 13y ago
    Neither you, nor anyone else on the face of this planet, has the right not to be offended. Now moving on..
    - steveklabnik 13y ago
      Neither you, nor anyone else on the face of this planet, has the right not to be criticized for the actions they take.
- bad_user 13y ago
  > As for the benchmark, who writes their own load balancer? Isn't this generally a solved problem? You'd be surprised, but no, it isn't a solved problem because the problem can't be solved in a general way and a lot of people are writing their own load balancers. > If the point is to extract max performance from a simple ping-pong server then I'd go right to C and epoll/libevent/etc. For a ping-pong server, sure, but a ping-pong server has no value in real life. The point of building your own load balancer is for doing custom load balancing and routing, based on individual needs of the project. The complexity grows exponentially and while big companies are building such things in C, mere mortals do not have the resources for it. And in fact building on top of libevent is not going to give you performance advantages over Java NIO. The only thing that sucks about building on top of the JVM (compared to C) is the garbage collector, that can lead to unpredictable latencies related to blocking the whole process during the marking phase, even with CMS, although it is manageable and much better productivity-wise than to deal with GLibc incompatibilities or with multi-threading in C, plus I hear that G1 from JDK7 for large heaps and CPUs with multiple cores, or Azul's pauseless GC are awesome. There's always a tradeoff of course, but sometimes the best path for many projects is the solution that makes the best compromises between productivity and performance and that's why I'm a happy Scala user and love the JVM.
  - rkangel 13y ago
    I'm always amused by the slight fear that web developers treat C with (and even more so by comments like "does anyone actually write anything in C/C++ any more?"[1]), although I do appreciate the compliment that us embedded software engineers aren't "mere mortals" ;-) Sure, even for people who are experienced with it it takes a bit longer to write robust code in C than it does in a higher level language, but the performance benefits can be enormous. If you've got a well defined block of functionality that needs to be quick, you might well be better off taking the time to do a C implementation than you would be spending ages optimising a Scala implementation. Of course I spend a lot of my time arguing the opposite at work - we write a lot of C++ out of habit, but it's not performance critical at all and it's running on Linux on an Intel Atom. We'd be a lot more productive writing the app in (for example) Python. [1] Short version, yes, lot's more than in any single language you use (cheating slightly here by counting C and C++ together). Go a few levels down in the stack of whatever you're writing and you'll get to C/C++ probably quite quickly, or worst case at the OS (and if you don't have an OS, then you're writing embedded code, and you started in C).
andyhmltn 13y ago
It's a word. I find it weird that people are so offended by a word rather than the context that's its used in. You really need to get a grip.
- aninhumer 13y ago
  If you find this "weird", then you have a poor understanding of natural languages. It is well understood that lexical connotations affect people's interpretation of text. You wouldn't expect people to react positively to violent body language while you deliver a nonviolent sentence, why should you expect them to react positively to you using violent metaphors in a nonviolent sentence?
  - andyhmltn 13y ago
    Context my friend. Why are you offended when someone is clearly not using it in the context you seem to be offended by?. It's intention behind the communication that you should react to. If there is no intention then it's pointless crying over it.
    - aninhumer 13y ago
      Humans are not emotionless robots who can interpret the intention of a sentence without being influenced by the way in which it is constructed. If you use a word with negative connotations, people will react more negatively to your sentence than if you don't, regardless of your intent. It might be "pointless" but it is a simple reality of human behaviour, and it is even more pointless to complain about people being human.
      - klibertp 13y ago
        > Humans are not emotionless robots who can interpret the intention of a sentence without being influenced by the way in which it is constructed. But hackers strive to be.
donquichotte 13y ago
But may I use the G word? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh1RkRxnAOs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh1RkRxnAOs

Please don't use the R word, which is so deeply emotive and meaningful, in such an inappropriate context.

by jdub 13y ago

Please don't use the R word, which is so deeply emotive and meaningful, in such an inappropriate context.

Rape has meanings other than non-consensual sex. GP: Please use the word rape to the full extent provided by the english language, and let those who don't like the word deal with it. As for the benchmark, who writes their own load balancer? Isn't this generally a solved problem? If the point is to extract max performance from a simple ping-pong server then I'd go right to C and epoll/libevent/etc. I'm guessing that the team is somehow trying to extrapolate data from a ping-pong server to the actual problem they're trying to solve which is dare I say, stupid. In general the best way to solve this problem is use whatever language the team / person writing the software likes because having them write it faster generally outweighs whatever server costs one will run into, whenever this is not the case the best answer is 99% of the time: write it in C.

glurgh 13y ago
Rape has meanings other than non-consensual sex. Not really. Ravish might. But other than on, say, gamer message boards, 'rape' doesn't have many other meanings than forcible sexual assault. Take a look at the usage in print and find casual uses of 'rape' in that context.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- edu 13y ago
  rape 1 |rāp| noun [...] 2 the wanton destruction or spoiling of a place or area: the rape of the Russian countryside. Source: New Oxford American Dictionary edit: styling, source
  - glurgh 13y ago
    That's right. A lot words have metaphorical uses. Now, would you say 'it lynched that server' or 'it made that server its bitch'? You could, surely. The meaning will be clear. You'll still sound like a complete douchebag. And that's really the point - not getting into some three mile debate about denotation and connotation - it's to not sound like a douchebag.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
- bad_user 13y ago
  You have to admit, the thought of forcible sexual assault of a MacBook Pro is kind of funny.
  - glurgh 13y ago
    This is why I don't let my MBP out with strangers.
aninhumer 13y ago
It doesn't matter whether there are other meanings. The fact remains that there is a single meaning which is understandably deeply upsetting to some people. I'd imagine you'd avoid topics that upset your friends in real life, and some of us like to extend this courtesy to strangers on the internet as well. If you feel your "full extent of the English language" is more important than the emotions of strangers, that's your choice, but forgive me and others for judging you as an asshole.
- PommeDeTerre 13y ago
  Let me get this straight. So he's an "asshole" because you and possibly some other people refuse to accept that certain English words have multiple distinct definitions, and because you also refuse to take into account context when reading such words? It's a rather unusual stance to take.
  - aninhumer 13y ago
    I'm not refusing to accept anything. Of course words have multiple meanings, but that doesn't mean the other meanings magically disappear just because they're not implied by context. Interpretation of natural language is strongly influenced by lexical connotations. If you use a negative word in your sentence, people will have negative reactions to it, regardless of your intent. In practice most people who do this are merely profoundly ignorant and unsympathetic, rather than overtly being assholes. But yes, if someone intentionally choose to use words with upsetting connotations, I consider them an asshole.
- laichzeit0 13y ago
  Neither you, nor anyone else on the face of this planet, has the right not to be offended. Now moving on..
  - steveklabnik 13y ago
    Neither you, nor anyone else on the face of this planet, has the right not to be criticized for the actions they take.
bad_user 13y ago
> As for the benchmark, who writes their own load balancer? Isn't this generally a solved problem? You'd be surprised, but no, it isn't a solved problem because the problem can't be solved in a general way and a lot of people are writing their own load balancers. > If the point is to extract max performance from a simple ping-pong server then I'd go right to C and epoll/libevent/etc. For a ping-pong server, sure, but a ping-pong server has no value in real life. The point of building your own load balancer is for doing custom load balancing and routing, based on individual needs of the project. The complexity grows exponentially and while big companies are building such things in C, mere mortals do not have the resources for it. And in fact building on top of libevent is not going to give you performance advantages over Java NIO. The only thing that sucks about building on top of the JVM (compared to C) is the garbage collector, that can lead to unpredictable latencies related to blocking the whole process during the marking phase, even with CMS, although it is manageable and much better productivity-wise than to deal with GLibc incompatibilities or with multi-threading in C, plus I hear that G1 from JDK7 for large heaps and CPUs with multiple cores, or Azul's pauseless GC are awesome. There's always a tradeoff of course, but sometimes the best path for many projects is the solution that makes the best compromises between productivity and performance and that's why I'm a happy Scala user and love the JVM.
- rkangel 13y ago
  I'm always amused by the slight fear that web developers treat C with (and even more so by comments like "does anyone actually write anything in C/C++ any more?"[1]), although I do appreciate the compliment that us embedded software engineers aren't "mere mortals" ;-) Sure, even for people who are experienced with it it takes a bit longer to write robust code in C than it does in a higher level language, but the performance benefits can be enormous. If you've got a well defined block of functionality that needs to be quick, you might well be better off taking the time to do a C implementation than you would be spending ages optimising a Scala implementation. Of course I spend a lot of my time arguing the opposite at work - we write a lot of C++ out of habit, but it's not performance critical at all and it's running on Linux on an Intel Atom. We'd be a lot more productive writing the app in (for example) Python. [1] Short version, yes, lot's more than in any single language you use (cheating slightly here by counting C and C++ together). Go a few levels down in the stack of whatever you're writing and you'll get to C/C++ probably quite quickly, or worst case at the OS (and if you don't have an OS, then you're writing embedded code, and you started in C).

andyhmltn 13y ago

It's a word. I find it weird that people are so offended by a word rather than the context that's its used in. You really need to get a grip.

aninhumer 13y ago
If you find this "weird", then you have a poor understanding of natural languages. It is well understood that lexical connotations affect people's interpretation of text. You wouldn't expect people to react positively to violent body language while you deliver a nonviolent sentence, why should you expect them to react positively to you using violent metaphors in a nonviolent sentence?
- andyhmltn 13y ago
  Context my friend. Why are you offended when someone is clearly not using it in the context you seem to be offended by?. It's intention behind the communication that you should react to. If there is no intention then it's pointless crying over it.
  - aninhumer 13y ago
    Humans are not emotionless robots who can interpret the intention of a sentence without being influenced by the way in which it is constructed. If you use a word with negative connotations, people will react more negatively to your sentence than if you don't, regardless of your intent. It might be "pointless" but it is a simple reality of human behaviour, and it is even more pointless to complain about people being human.
    - klibertp 13y ago
      > Humans are not emotionless robots who can interpret the intention of a sentence without being influenced by the way in which it is constructed. But hackers strive to be.

donquichotte 13y ago

But may I use the G word? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh1RkRxnAOs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh1RkRxnAOs