linguae

8 ms·

91.
by linguae 8mo ago
I’ve been thinking a lot more about this lately. Big Tech today is far more powerful than 1990s Microsoft and 1970s IBM ever were. I’m not anti-AI, but the sheer power major players like OpenAI, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta have make me
92.
by linguae 8mo ago
Two years ago I decided to give up my career as an industry researcher to pursue a tenure-track professor position at a community college. One of the reasons I changed careers is because I felt frustrated with how research at my company ch
93.
by linguae 8mo ago
I’m not the OP, but my answer is that there’s a big difference between building products and building businesses. I’ve been programming since 1998 when I was in elementary school. I have the technical skills to write almost anything I want
94.
by linguae 8mo ago
C++ is not my favorite language, and if I had full control, I’d prefer a more beginner-friendly language. However, most of our students intend to transfer to a university. We have articulation agreements with universities defining what is
95.
by linguae 8mo ago
We teach discrete structures as mostly a math class with problem sets, but we have some programming exercises to help “concretize” some of the more abstract portions of the class and to also provide motivation to students who want to see pr
96.
by linguae 8mo ago
I wonder if there are still undergraduate CS programs that use a functional programming language in the intro course? MIT switched away from SICP (Scheme) to Python back in the late 2000s, and Berkeley switched away from Scheme sometime af
97.
by linguae 8mo ago
I understand your sentiment. Unfortunately, the history of America's legal system isn't simple. There are people in prison who never actually committed a crime, but who were convicted because they couldn't afford good legal
98.
by linguae 8mo ago
This reminds me of something I thought about last night while I was preparing lecture slides for an introductory object-oriented programming course for a community college. I was rewatching Steve Jobs’ January 1997 Macworld speech, where h
99.
by linguae 9mo ago
I remember those days. Thankfully Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 had a Windows 95/98-style desktop but used the rock-solid NT kernel. Unfortunately they were not marketed to home users. I feel similarly about the classic Mac OS: exc
100.
by linguae 9mo ago
When the Republican Party has been largely purged of opposition to Trump (except for senators Rand Paul, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski and a tiny handful of people in the House), and when six out of nine Supreme Court justices are gener
101.
by linguae 9mo ago
Americans have a history of rioting over economic and social conditions, however. An attack on Greenland may open a Pandora’s box of consequences that will devastate America by us becoming a pariah state, which will lead to economic pain.
102.
by linguae 9mo ago
To add, this 56% is not evenly distributed politically. Protests in California, Minnesota, and New York (all blue states) are not likely to get red state representatives and senators to threaten Trump with removal. Blue state congresspeop
103.
by linguae 9mo ago
Short of enough Republicans finally declaring enough is enough and deciding on impeachment or the fourth clause of the 25th Amendment, the only other option is for pro-impeachment senator candidates to run as Republicans in the primaries, w
104.
by linguae 9mo ago
I agree that there’s always been toxicity on the Internet, but I also feel it’s harder to avoid toxicity today since the cost of giving up algorithmic social media is greater than the cost of giving up Usenet, chat rooms, and forums. In par
105.
by linguae 9mo ago
Sure: this is the document that I wrote about building a component-based desktop: https://mmcthrow-musings.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-proposal-for...
106.
by linguae 9mo ago
I agree. Six years ago during COVID I wrote a document describing my idea of a dream personal computing environment, where all functionality is accessible using an API, enabling scripting and customizable UIs. UIs are simply shells coveri
107.
by linguae 9mo ago
I lean libertarian and I resent the nanny state, but I’m sympathetic to the idea of restricting social media access to children for two reasons: 1. Even in the 1990s, there were problems with child predators using chat rooms and Web forums
108.
by linguae 9mo ago
To me, it seems like Apple’s traditional culture is dead. On one hand, while I like the classic Mac OS and Tiger-Snow Leopard Mac OS X, Apple’s UI guidelines aren’t sacred scripture; they should change as we discover new insights about hum
109.
by linguae 9mo ago
It’s not about whether I trust Sam Altman or any other Big Tech executive. It’s about the disturbing amount of power these executives have and their ability to act in ways that have profound consequences downstream, from cornering the RAM
110.
by linguae 9mo ago
I see a lot of references to a “K-shaped” economy where there happens to be enough well-off people who are continuing to spend to push prices further upward, even though more people are forced to cut back since they can’t afford higher pric
111.
by linguae 9mo ago
I quit eating out in the Bay Area over a year ago (except for socializing) because the prices feel painfully expensive to me while my pay hasn’t increased anywhere near the rate of restaurant price hikes. $14 for a burrito that cost roughl
112.
by linguae 9mo ago
I wholeheartedly and sadly agree with you. Seems like the idea of native apps on both macOS and Windows has been losing ground in favor of Electron apps. I understand the challenge of writing applications tailored to each platform and why
113.
by linguae 9mo ago
I will have to try this out when I get the free time! I’ve been periodically checking on the GNUstep ecosystem since 2004, and this is the most exciting development I’ve seen since Étoilé from the late 2000s. Judging by the screenshots, t
114.
by linguae 9mo ago
Additionally, Gershwin is the name of the intended follow-up to the cancelled Copland project.
115.
by linguae 9mo ago
I’m an American and I love Japan, in fact, I’m typing this in my hotel room in Tokyo. This is my 14th trip here in 16 years; my seventh trip since Japan lifted COVID-19 travel restrictions in late 2022. Japan does many things well; I love
116.
by linguae 9mo ago
Good points, though I have some other thoughts (note that this is coming from an American; I don’t know the situation in other democratic countries): 1. More people have access to a university education today than in previous generations.
117.
by linguae 9mo ago
I have fond memories of watching Computer Chronicles as a kid in the 1990s on PBS in Sacramento. Even though Sacramento is only a two-hour drive from Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley felt like a far-off place as a kid from a low-income famil
118.
by linguae 9mo ago
I wonder what we can do to preserve personal computing, where users, not vendors, control their computers? I’m tired of the control Microsoft, Apple, Google, OpenAI, and some other big players have over the entire industry. The software h
119.
by linguae 9mo ago
I’d feel better about the RAM price spikes if they were caused by a natural disaster and not by Sam Altman buying up 40% of the raw wafer supply, other Big Tech companies buying up RAM, and the RAM oligopoly situation restricting supply. Th
120.
by linguae 10mo ago
I think if Richard Stallman had no qualms about proprietary software, he would have remained in the Lisp machine world, either working for Symbolics or Lisp Machines, Inc., or perhaps starting his own thing. Stallman was a Lisp hacker befo

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