drblast

60 ms·

511.
by drblast 16y ago
It's not that difficult or tedious, but it does require that you read the elf specification, or write your own "OS" from scratch. http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/tiny/teensy.htm... The idea is that you strip away everything t
512.
by drblast 16y ago
Some things I'm glad to have done: 1. Write a Hello World application from scratch. No C library, compiler, linker, nothing. You get a hex editor. 2. Write a non-bootstrapped compiler or interpreter using assembler. 3. Write a program th
513.
by drblast 16y ago
When I said every language is inferior to Lisp, I meant that in the most tongue-in-cheek way possible :-)
514.
by drblast 16y ago
Lisp is my happiness language, and everything else isn't. So for me there are really two types. Every language that's not Lisp, while obviously inferior, usually has some domain-specific use. I do get a huge kick out of C and assembly when
515.
by drblast 16y ago
There are other data types besides pointers to structs. Specifically, stdint.h data types are a good example (on linux). int myfunction(uint64_t arg0); When writing cross-platform code, there are typically a lot of these kinds of
516.
by drblast 16y ago
Thanks, just what I was looking for!
517.
by drblast 16y ago
If I have data types defined as function arguments in header files, I need to include the headers for those data types. There's apparently no way around this, and it does result in messy dependencies. I'm just curious if large projects hav
518.
by drblast 16y ago
Can anyone who's worked on a well-written, large C project comment on the best way to structure headers and include files? I don't like including stdio.h and stdint.h in every .c and .h file, but it seems like the "standard" way to compile
519.
by drblast 16y ago
The article really fails here, this is a horrible example and horrible reasoning. I'm no Java expert, but the reason you'd synchronize a smaller block of code, or use any finer grain lock, rather than a whole method is that you'd have a sho
520.
by drblast 16y ago
An engineer and a mathematician went out for a drink. On the other side of the room, they spotted a gorgeous woman. "I wish I could work up the courage to talk to her," said the shy mathematician. "No problem," said the engineer. "Just wa
521.
by drblast 16y ago
I felt the same way and started making my own editor: http://vianedit.appspot.com Unfortunately I had to make it use vi key-bindings since the emacs ones were incompatible with most browser defaults. But it's extensible like emacs, throu
522.
by drblast 16y ago
Rent control creates a shortage of affordable housing. Sure, it might make cities nicer because with rent control only wealthy people can afford housing, so all of the low-income people live elsewhere. Think about living in SF on a teache
523.
by drblast 16y ago
"In other words, the reason why some people see their work as a calling might have little to do with the work itself, and a lot to do with how the person approaches the work. " For all of my working life I've had the tremendous benefit of c
524.
by drblast 16y ago
Living with one child is like living with a demanding, but mostly reasonable, roommate who really likes spending time with you until she goes to bed early. Having two or more children is like living in a circus where all the performers are
525.
by drblast 16y ago
From what little I've used Haskell, the strings-as-list paradigm was exceptionally useful. A lot of people also complain about the performance of strings in Haskell, so this is right where the tradeoff is today. Tomorrow it won't likely be
526.
by drblast 16y ago
You CAN do this, but it's a monumental effort to fix a tiny problem.
527.
by drblast 16y ago
That's what I end up doing. It works, but with most apps having tabs on the top of the window (Chrome in particular), I end up fighting the hidden taskbar when switching tabs or moving windows. Plus, I like to have a clock visible on the
528.
by drblast 16y ago
Sure I'll elaborate. By the way, if you have any way to fix these problems via configuration, please let me know. Minor complaint: the default theme is a fixed-pixel gradient that doesn't rotate when you move the bar to the right, so the v
529.
by drblast 16y ago
With wide screens, there is a scarcity of vertical screen space, especially on netbooks. Windows 7 actually solves this problem best; I can move the task bar over to the right and have the full screen height for applications. Windows XP had
530.
by drblast 16y ago
How is tagging any more laborious than saving in directories? If I save to /home/user/Photos/Christmas/2009, then treat each one of those as a "tag." If later I navigate to /home/user/2009/Christmas, I should see everything "under" that dir
531.
by drblast 16y ago
When my daughter was two she had a knack for crawling up next to the computer, mashing the keys for three seconds, and causing an unbelievable amount of software carnage. I think at one point she changed the default language to Swahili. It
532.
by drblast 16y ago
Filesystems are confusing because they force a hierachy, and we all know that real-world data isn't all hierarchical. The best filesystem abstraction is GMail, because you can tag things and search them. Instead of saving my photos to /hom
533.
by drblast 16y ago
The top answer is an excellent demonstration of the central limit theorem and why the question's assumption that rand() and rand() * rand() are "equally random" is wrong. The central limit theorem is one of the most initially surprising and
534.
by drblast 16y ago
That would necessitate some sort of minimum wage law for people doing legal work. A solvable problem, I think. If I have to pay myself $50 an hour to represent my cause, it only hurts me if my cause isn't legitimate. Or maybe set some thre
535.
by drblast 16y ago
Right, that's a potential downside. Makes me think the personal injury attorneys would be more likely sue big fish in an attempt to win the legal lottery. Of course, the smart company has a defense against this tactic: only use the funds p
536.
by drblast 16y ago
This seems like the potential downsides are almost as bad as the potential wins. The obvious problem with our system is that the party with the deepest pockets can drag a case out until the opposing party cries uncle and gives up. There's a
537.
by drblast 16y ago
The really cool thing here is if you click a few links in the article, you find an API to write your own Starcraft AI, and a competition for them. This is the ultimate programming game! http://code.google.com/p/bwapi/
538.
by drblast 16y ago
What struck me is the guy was coding to pass his tests only, not thinking about the right way to code the algorithm. It's like coding by taking stabs in the dark until every degenerate case you thought of is handled correctly. There's stil
539.
by drblast 16y ago
It's closer to the former. My job is managerial and has nothing to do with writing code. There is not a single person at my office who knows, or cares, about my hobby.
540.
by drblast 16y ago
I like writing programming languages. No, I love writing programming languages. However, I don't expect that people would ever pay me to do it because there are so many people passionate about it that it gets done for free. I believe I w

More ›