lucas_membrane

11 ms·

61.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
>> Errors are almost always the result of faults. Barring cosmic rays, hardware issues or really unusual race conditions between the application and the operating system, if an error occurs it is because the programmer screwed up and
62.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
I'm talking about tangible non-financial assets -- e.g. hydrogen bombs, hospital beds in VA hospitals, US and interstate highways, national parks, national laboratories, etc. IIRC, state and local governments are required to either re
63.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
Keynes was aware of the argument. It was he who said that, "The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run, we are all dead." > Extrapolate the obvious OK. The list of things that are going to get wors
64.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
The odd thing is that the federal government's balance sheet does not have to balance, and thus no credible federal balance sheet exists. The total (accounting, market, or replacement) value of all the nationally owned assets is not
65.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
The name is still an owned thing. It will go through the mill and come out someplace else in a new (possibly lesser) incarnation someplace else sometime, as long as someone with enough money thinks it has enough value. These things take a
66.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
A major cause of the problem is that when a user sits at a computer or terminal or even a cellphone to do a certain task, software (and hardware) from a large number of producers is often involved between between entry and the awaited respo
67.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
> "developers ... should use a low-spec machine" That is exactly what Michael Brown, founder of Central Point Software, insisted on back in the 1980's when they were producing the #1 selling PC software according to PC m
68.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
However, when you look at the physics, you have to admit that the human body is just about never an isolated system. Human bodies contain more microbes than they contain cells. The microbes, share the food supply, have their own energy
69.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
In 1986 and early 1987, PC's did not have more than 640kb of RAM, just about all the programming tools for IBM PC's were limited to 64kb program size, and there were all kinds of really mickey-mouse ways to try to get around those
70.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
When I bought Turbo Pascal in 1987, the retail price was $59.95 (USD), IIRC. A little earlier it was less, $39.95 IIRC. Pascal was an academically-oriented language, which would only let you use variables correctly according to their decla
71.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
Doesn't mention his role in burning Washington, DC, and attacking Baltimore. If he had been brave enough to send one of his ships of the line into Baltimore harbor instead of just a few frigates and gunboats, Ft McHenry would now be
72.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
Before that (1919-1930), it was PENnsylvania 5000.
73.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
> absolute trash for less than $1,000 or high-end, high-quality for $5000+ I've been noticing the same thing. But I also suspect that many people pay a little more for stuff, expecting that to make it better. The number of brands
74.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
I saw a report recently that said that a population study (from some country in Europe, IIRC) showed that people who are still getting their COVID vaccinations updated are subsequently having worse COVID experience than others. Unfortunate
75.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
Once I've forgotten which colors mean what, I can't figure out how to see the help again. And the grey and green are hard for me to distinguish. Besides that, I can use this (big time).
76.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
Prior to terra-forming of Mars, i.e. creating a self-sustaining biosphere out in the open there, all settlements there will be underground or so very well sealed to keep oxygen in and radiation out to be faux-underground. Who in the world
77.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
If a corporation buys some stores from another corporation it pays a price. It then values all the tangible assets to find out how much it puts on its books as tangible assets to be depreciated over their respective useful lives. It will
78.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
But if my source code has length n in binary, and I had an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of terminals, they could find it in pi or any similar digit sequence within (((n * n) * n) * n)! years. Finding a jpeg of
79.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
Kroger buys other retailers. Their income (and their taxes) will be reduced by (amortization of) the intangible cost of the retailers bought. This is money paid to the shareholders of the retailers who sold out, which should also be count
80.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
I recall that the US NIST also had some office in Colorado called the Earth Rotation Service. Maybe you can still call them if there is any problem.
81.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
> $35 million Putting $35 million on the table to accomplish what has eluded us for so long and is supposed to sustain modernity for the next 1000 years is small enough to convince me that this is more promotion than promise. That'
82.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
I worked with accounting enough to know that it is unable to provide a proper analytical framework for social or economic problems. Or, as Lenin put it, "For practical work, we need to have figures ... But we will defer the verificatio
83.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
>> profit margin on MY TICKET The allocation of profits down to specific activities depends on the allocation of revenues and expenses amongst activities, and all such allocations are inherently arbitrary. They depend on the stories
84.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
But Sears gave Donald Rumsfeld a lifetime discount card. Which brings us to the major government subsidy of US airlines. People work for airlines at reduced wages to have available very great discounts on their personal travel, totally un
85.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
Bananas are OK, but slightly green bananas are far better for us than the sweet tasting ones that are starting to turn.
86.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
The plausibly healthful cold cereals in supermarkets I shop now are down to shredded wheat, the original Cheerios, and FiberOne (expensive). The protein thing is a sideshow; the requirement for protein is only 70 grams/day, so most
87.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
> If Landis' claim is true, that would upend entirely the Warren commission's findings. Not so. Three shots were fired according to about 85% of the witnesses. Previously, we had a missing bullet. The bullet Landis found migh
88.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
> could not have been fired at that rate The stories all say that the FBI reported the minimum time to fire that rifle was 2.25 seconds. How was that determined? How can a supposedly experimental result like that have no error bars? W
89.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
That's just about true. The original experiment showing that cloth between hamster cages reduced transmission was pretty strong evidence that it ought to work. And there have been some retrospective studies finding that masking was e
90.
by lucas_membrane 3y ago
How much of the problem is academianic? Scheme has been taught in renowned universities, but may be in decline thereabouts. How to get new blood into the pipeline without universities in the movement? How to get universities to teach the

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