4 ms·

Syntax error or not, tattoo still seemingly dumb. I figured it was going to be a forever loop or something...

by JimmaDaRustla 13y ago

pavel_lishin 13y ago
Why is a non-terminating loop better than a fork bomb?
- tinco 13y ago
  A fork bomb will quickly take up your systems resources and invariably will force you to turn off your computer. A non-terminating loop will simply drag on forever, stealing cycles whenever it gets the chance.
  - Dylan16807 13y ago
    Dragging on doing nothing is what I would call 'dumb'. Fork bombs actually do something, and pose interesting challenges.
  - Someone 13y ago
    Also: 1) an infinite loop will never use more than one CPU. Because of that, on almost any hardware less than 10 years old, normal users might barely notice an infinite loop that doesn't do I/O. A fork bomb, on the other hand, will try and create 2*N processes after N iterations, all of them competing on equal footing with your shell for CPU time and memory. 2) it is fairly easy to kill an infinite loop. Killing the explosion of processes that a fork bomb creates is a different thing. Between the time that you detect the process ID of a process to kill and the time you kill it, that process may have spawned a few new processes. More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_bomb#Defusing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_bomb#Defusing
  - cdcarter 13y ago
    > A fork bomb will quickly take up your systems resources and invariably will force you to turn off your computer. A curious analogy for being alive...
- pavel_lishin 13y ago
  Replying to self rather than everyone; I meant as a tattoo choice, not as an actual problem to have on your computer.
  - JimmaDaRustla 13y ago
    "Forever" being more symbolic - I've seen people use it and then define a variable "in love" or something of that corny nature. Fork bomb, albeit could be somewhat symbolic of real life, just doesn't seem to have any clear meaning - so obscure that they even got the syntax wrong. Disclaimer: I'm pessimist.

Syntax error or not, tattoo still seemingly dumb. I figured it was going to be a forever loop or something...

pavel_lishin 13y ago

Why is a non-terminating loop better than a fork bomb?

tinco 13y ago
A fork bomb will quickly take up your systems resources and invariably will force you to turn off your computer. A non-terminating loop will simply drag on forever, stealing cycles whenever it gets the chance.
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  Dragging on doing nothing is what I would call 'dumb'. Fork bombs actually do something, and pose interesting challenges.
- Someone 13y ago
  Also: 1) an infinite loop will never use more than one CPU. Because of that, on almost any hardware less than 10 years old, normal users might barely notice an infinite loop that doesn't do I/O. A fork bomb, on the other hand, will try and create 2*N processes after N iterations, all of them competing on equal footing with your shell for CPU time and memory. 2) it is fairly easy to kill an infinite loop. Killing the explosion of processes that a fork bomb creates is a different thing. Between the time that you detect the process ID of a process to kill and the time you kill it, that process may have spawned a few new processes. More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_bomb#Defusing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_bomb#Defusing
- cdcarter 13y ago
  > A fork bomb will quickly take up your systems resources and invariably will force you to turn off your computer. A curious analogy for being alive...
pavel_lishin 13y ago
Replying to self rather than everyone; I meant as a tattoo choice, not as an actual problem to have on your computer.
- JimmaDaRustla 13y ago
  "Forever" being more symbolic - I've seen people use it and then define a variable "in love" or something of that corny nature. Fork bomb, albeit could be somewhat symbolic of real life, just doesn't seem to have any clear meaning - so obscure that they even got the syntax wrong. Disclaimer: I'm pessimist.