cwp

62 ms·

511.
by cwp 11y ago
Writing code is not mechanical and deterministic. Executing code is mechanical and deterministic. As much as possible, anyway. Code has bugs because people don't think like computers.
512.
by cwp 11y ago
All the packages I need have been part of nixpkgs, except for node packages from npm. For those, I run npm2nix to generate nix expressions from the package.json files. That's occasionally tricky when npm packages do "clever"
513.
by cwp 11y ago
Yes. Almost all of them, actually. By "build" I mean the whole package installation process, including moving the compiled files into their final destinations. If you're upgrading an existing package, and that involves overwr
514.
by cwp 11y ago
The contents of any package are immutable; once they're written they're never modified again. New versions of the package get installed in a different directory tree.
515.
by cwp 11y ago
Yes. In many cases, switching to the new version of the package is nothing more than rewriting a symlink. Sometimes it's more involved, like restarting a service. Either way, the cut over happens after building the new package has co
516.
by cwp 11y ago
Yeah, I've been running NixOS on production servers for about a year. I'm at a small startup, so it's not huge scale (yet!) but it works great.
517.
by cwp 11y ago
So you assume that all BitCoin users maintain active Coinbase accounts?
518.
by cwp 11y ago
This is funny, and probably very satisfying, but if you need to send this kind of email, you're doing it wrong. I get that other industries are different, but if you're looking for a job in the tech world, do your homework. To (a
519.
by cwp 11y ago
Well, they don't have to be that creative, if 67 out of 70 attempts succeeded.
520.
by cwp 11y ago
I've been using Nix at a startup for about a year now. For us, the value is easy and exact replication of an application's execution environment. Setting up a development environment for a new hire is just a matter of cloning the
521.
by cwp 11y ago
This is what makes Nix special. The "functional package manager" paradigm means you don't overwrite the old version when installing the new version.
522.
by cwp 11y ago
It's an SQLite database, so you wouldn't be able to merge changes made in different clones.
523.
by cwp 11y ago
WTF? I can't believe this is the top comment. I don't believe in life after death, but I do believe that the world will continue to exist after I die. And in that world, chances are good that my wife and kid will still be alive, b
524.
by cwp 11y ago
Depends why the therapist is suggesting it. If he thinks that praying in and of itself will be valuable, eg, because the patient is religious and a calm, focussed mental state would be valuable, then it is good therapy. If the therapist i
525.
by cwp 11y ago
Ah, excellent. Taking a more nuanced view than the simple binary "safe" or "not safe". Let's continue down that path. Since nothing is 100% safe, we ought to choose the most safe option. And since we're talki
526.
by cwp 11y ago
This highlights a further asymmetry in CAP. Yes, P is unavoidable if you have a distributed system. But also, availability is a property of the system when there is a partition . If you're not going to tolerate partitions, what does i
527.
by cwp 11y ago
This guy needs do some travelling. If you want to feel different, go some place where you really are different. Go live in Mongolia. Immerse yourself in the art scene in Milan. Move to a favela. If you just want to be different for its own
528.
by cwp 11y ago
Yeah. I use Lyft rather than Uber, not to avoid supporting an unethical company, but because I don't want an unethical company tracking my movements.
529.
by cwp 11y ago
Here's another interesting thought: QV might reduce the influence of PACs by solving the principal-agent problem. PACs like Crossroads are not, in fact, wealthy people. They're pools of donations from many politically sympathetic
530.
by cwp 11y ago
Your $100M got you 4 years in Congress. Let's say you can pass a key bill that'll make you more than $100M. It had better not piss people off very much, because in the next election they'll buy TWO votes each and you'll
531.
by cwp 11y ago
The thing is, we already have the tyranny of the wealthy. The Tullock paradox is basically that the cost of lobbying is dwarfed by the returns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullock_paradox I'm still getting my he
532.
by cwp 11y ago
NIH isn't limited to the commercial world. There's a problem to be solved, and inventing a solution is much better for one's career than pointing out an existing solution.
533.
by cwp 11y ago
Surely there's a little more to it than that.
534.
by cwp 11y ago
Yeah, it boils down to that, but there's a reason the author wrote this article, rather than a three-sentence paragraph. His point is that this is not just a "perceived problem", but a real problem that affects regular workin
535.
by cwp 11y ago
By driving more slowly, under street lights, in a separate lane. You're right. Just saying "drivers should be more careful!" isn't going to have any effect. We need to change transportation infrastructure to be safer for
536.
by cwp 12y ago
Agreed. The only objection I have to wind and solar is that they are insufficient. We should use them as much as possible, but we're going to need nuclear if we want to replace fossil fuels.
537.
by cwp 12y ago
I always find this kind of philosophical thought experiment unsatisfying. Super-accurate predictions of human behaviour are just not possible. If I could do it, I'd be a gazillionaire philanthropist/playboy dating supermodels and
538.
by cwp 12y ago
Well, if you don't actually share those observations, they're not doing us much good, are they? Did you have helicopter parents in the 70s? Are you a free-range parent that gets supported by your community instead of persecuted by
539.
by cwp 12y ago
Give it a rest. Sometimes personal observations really are relevant.
540.
by cwp 12y ago
Yeah. That's the premise of the article. Given the kind of planet that's easy to find, what sort of conditions might support life?

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