nknight

64 ms·

631.
by nknight 15y ago
I assume you're talking about dynamic languages like Python or Ruby. It's common for underlying system characteristics to leak through the abstractions, so something like this isn't necessarily "handled". In CPython's case, as far as I can
632.
by nknight 15y ago
> SA_RESTART is also not a guaranteed solution for someone trying to be standards-compliant, since it's part of the XSI extensions, which may not be present or otherwise required for the application. I need to backtrack on this. I jus
633.
by nknight 15y ago
Notice how long and complex your discussion of this issue is, and how many different systems you have to investigate in depth to even begin to form a coherent picture. All we're trying to do is close a file safely. This is core functionalit
634.
by nknight 15y ago
I think you're missing the broader point. We don't actually have a problem with the close() behavior differing between implementations, we have a problem because there is no way to determine the correct course of action afterward. For HP-UX
635.
by nknight 15y ago
There's actually two distinct things you might want to know: 1) The current state of the system. 2) Whether the current state of the system is equal to or later than one reflecting your change. #1 is technically unknowable without a locking
636.
by nknight 15y ago
Three obvious problems, actually: 1) Thread A closes fd X for File Y, Thread B opens fd X for File Y. Thread A sees fd X referring to File Y, closes it again out from under Thread B. 2) Since the behavior is unspecified, it's possible you c
637.
by nknight 15y ago
> I think the author of this post simply doesn't know what "unspecified" means. I'm pretty confident Colin Percival knows what "unspecified" means. I suspect he also knows how it's different from "implementation-defined" (also pointed
638.
by nknight 15y ago
Yeah, I was just looking at that after I posted my initial comment, and I think I agree with you. That's the only reading I can see that doesn't create more questions than it answers. I think in this case, Occam's razor says "this part of t
639.
by nknight 15y ago
This gets even stranger than you might think. Consider fclose()[1], which says, after the ordinary disclaimer that POSIX defers to the C standard, "The fclose() function shall perform the equivalent of a close() on the file descriptor that
640.
by nknight 15y ago
I don't think I've ever seen a more dramatic real-world example of unwittingly strengthening the point you're arguing against. jemalloc didn't work quite as they wanted, so they customized it, and you really think that's a counterpoint to a
641.
by nknight 15y ago
> It would be akin to rewriting malloc. Aside from the fact that memory allocators are written, rewritten, and tweaked all the time, your own organization's actions defang this argument: Firefox 3 included a switch to jemalloc.
642.
by nknight 15y ago
> Are you saying that we can build an air lock, a solar panel, an air filtration system, or a robotic arm with a 3D printer? Sure, why not? Some of them might have to be designed differently, but I don't recall anybody from NASA ever
643.
by nknight 15y ago
> I don't care about implementation details unless it turns out to be relevant. Then you are reckless. It is both possible and desirable to anticipate obvious problems in a design and avoid them before they present themselves operatio
644.
by nknight 15y ago
> Unless it turns out the sorting routine has a significant impact on the overall performance, I wouldn't care a bit if it used Bubblesort, Quicksort or Bogosort. By your evident logic, then, Bogosort is the right default choice, beca
645.
by nknight 15y ago
XML bloat would still add to bandwidth costs (or add more CPU/RAM overhead if you compress it), TCP segments are not fixed size. I know there's this tendency to dismiss bandwidth these days, but it's quite misguided. You literally wouldn't
646.
by nknight 15y ago
> Premature optimisation is the root of all evil. Argument by cliché, and a badly misunderstood one, at that. It's not a pass to engage in poor design practices. Would you deploy bubblesort on the grounds that quicksort is a premature
647.
by nknight 15y ago
> What's wrong with XMPP multi-user chat? I was speaking more generally than XMPP. I don't know the fundamental causes, but I haven't seen group/multi-user chat work reliably in years -- I think the last time I did, everybody was on I
648.
by nknight 15y ago
As someone deeply concerned with real-world operation of systems, I find your removal of the "claim" distressing. It is true that developers routinely create very poorly thought out protocols that have massive overhead, but it is far from g
649.
by nknight 15y ago
Apparently Messenger does link with Facebook and Yahoo, but I don't see anything indicating a general federation. It occurs to me that IM services have established a twisted, mutant, incompletely-routed version of an IRC network amongst the
650.
by nknight 15y ago
> There was once a catalog of nebula called Messier Hah, I'd sort of known what the Messier catalog was, but you inspired me to look at its Wikipedia page[1]. Apparently Charles Messier was looking for comets, and was tired of getting
651.
by nknight 15y ago
Most people do not insist on being unsafe, and will avoid behaviors that they are told are unacceptable and have concrete consequences. Getting a ticket or even going to jail is a lot more concrete for most people than accidents, which happ
652.
by nknight 15y ago
Your arguments pretty much apply to drunk driving, don't they?
653.
by nknight 15y ago
What point would that be, exactly? The only "point" I took away from his rambling, defeatist post is that he doesn't think we should fight. If that's his "point", I can't believe you'd call it "valid".
654.
by nknight 15y ago
My concern troll alarm is going off. Do you have an alternate plan to kill SOPA?
655.
by nknight 15y ago
Apologies, seems one of your fellow bloggers was less clueful, the first post I'd read said "profit", not "revenue". Even so, you're still looking at this from a very narrow worldview. Not everyone thinks massive profits are necessary for s
656.
by nknight 15y ago
I've only been here six years, and truth be told I avoid SF at all costs, but all I have to do is look at the job listings. SF listings are full of every Social Web Media Infinity-point-Fad known to man. South Bay -- Platforms, infrastructu
657.
by nknight 15y ago
I find this new world where $800 million in profit is "not so profitable" to be very bizarre. Equally bizarre is that these bloggers on both sides keep getting attention. It's just another holy war.
658.
by nknight 15y ago
I'm particularly annoyed with the synonymization of "San Francisco" and "Silicon Valley". They are not the same thing.
659.
by nknight 15y ago
I disagree with none of your principles except the one that apparently says legal intervention is necessary. The walled gardens are not a secret, people are making the decision to buy these devices knowing they won't be able to do certain t
660.
by nknight 15y ago
> I mean, if a company needs to hire a person for a certain critical role in the next months, how is a person that cannot work during that period of time going to do the job? I think you're making unwarranted assumptions. Specifically

More ›