osullivj

9 ms·

91.
by osullivj 4y ago
Northern Ireland is not a nation. Ireland is a nation with four provinces: Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connaught. Six of Ulster's nine counties are part of the UK, and the other three are part of the Repulblic of Ireland.
92.
by osullivj 4y ago
I remember the lpsz vars: long pointer to string zero terminated. What's the W for this? I'm guessing Simonyi's Hungarian Notation was for early C compilers that didn't have function prototype decls? Younger HNers may no
93.
by osullivj 4y ago
Thanks to the OP for taking me back 30 years to a training course on the Rational Rose UML toolkit [1]. Back then the sales pitch was "spend time drawing beautiful class diagrams in Rose and the toolset will generate most of the code&
94.
by osullivj 5y ago
It's a very important point, because all political careers end in failure. Why? Because those bent on the having and holding of power never willingly take their hands of the levers of power. They must be removed, and the great advantag
95.
by osullivj 5y ago
Corvair K63: I have three - one in the office, one at home and one at my other half's house. I grew up with IBM Model M as the ideal keyboard, and the K63 is the closest I've found. Cherry MX switches, and super robust, with that
96.
by osullivj 5y ago
VAX VMS Clustering: a single CPU architecture on VAX HW meant that micros and minis could cluster, and your process could be hosted anywhere in the cluster. It's taking a long, long time to reinvent that particular wheel with a combina
97.
by osullivj 5y ago
Not to mention the name "Wolf". Evidently, he is a "man of destiny". Oddly his linkedin profile pic has a toddler on his shoulders. I assumed the child was his own - the article does have a passing mention of finding a w
98.
by osullivj 5y ago
I saw the Microwriter [1] demoed at the Nottingham Micro Computer Club forty years ago. Nothing new under the sun! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwriter
99.
by osullivj 5y ago
A house, or any other infrastructure. IMHO a big factor in America's capacity for reinvention and renewal is not being saddled with infrastructure designed to last for centuries. Disclose: I live and work in England, love old buildings
100.
by osullivj 5y ago
"Difficult part first" is the right approach for legacy migration, or any mandated enterprise dev, to surface tricky issues ASAP. MVP is about product market fit, which is a given via mgmt authority in a corp environment.
101.
by osullivj 5y ago
Similarly "all political careers end in failure" [1]. Why? Because, to succeed in politics is to achieve power. And leaders who achieve high office never willingly relinquish it. The excess of self belief that propelled them to th
102.
by osullivj 5y ago
Boston/Cambridge and NYC were initially built during colonial times, before cars and railroads, so were originally built for navigation by foot or horse.
103.
by osullivj 5y ago
A classic from the early days of the patterns movement. IIRC the authors originated the anti=patterns concept. Still seeing this in production environments today.
104.
by osullivj 5y ago
Only one of the five acknowledged nuclear powers buys rather than builds their warheads: UK buys from US, because of the Manhattan Project history. NB the critical calc about the mass of Uranium 235 necessary for fission was done at Birming
105.
by osullivj 5y ago
Francis Spufford's Red Plenty is fascinating on engineering culture in closed societies. The recent Chernobyl drama series addresses the same point too. Technical problem solving and innovation work best in open societies where there&#
106.
by osullivj 5y ago
Possibly because the British ruling classes tend to have an humanities education [1]. Cf Boris quoting Sophocles, and Kermit the Frog, at the UN earlier this week. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures
107.
by osullivj 5y ago
Visual Studio 2022 has support for debugging Linux binaries running under WSL2: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/build-and-debug-c-wit...
108.
by osullivj 5y ago
That's a useful signal. I wouldn't invest in or work for any startup backed by a guy who can't admit to a friend that he got things wrong.
109.
by osullivj 5y ago
A British PM imposing capital gains tax on residential property sales would be as popular as a US President setting gasoline taxes at European levels. The economic logic may be sound, but politics is the art of the possible...
110.
by osullivj 5y ago
I'm a phil grad too, and agree. Too many inaccessible dry canonical texts. And no mention of Quine! I'd pick texts that animate the subject; with motivation the classics become more accessible. So for PhilSci I'd have Feyerab
111.
by osullivj 5y ago
The UK still has capital gains tax on sales realising property appreciation. The main exception is on a vendor's principal residence, so most home owners never pay it.
112.
by osullivj 5y ago
Colin Lancaster's Fed Up has a lot to say on the "new normal" in the global financial system: permanent low rates, the impossibility of unwinding QE etc [1] [1] https://etrading.wordpress.com/2021/06&#x2F
113.
by osullivj 5y ago
Yes, it's tough! And yes, London is cold. The rest of the country is not like that. However, you're not really trapped yet. Reading between the lines you don't yet have children, and a huge mortgage and school fees geared to
114.
by osullivj 5y ago
Jerry is on Crosby's wonderful 1969 solo LP If Only I Could Remember My Name. The article mentioned Neil's early 70s solo output: Harvest and Goldrush. No mention of the brilliant stuff from Stills: Stills I & II, and two asto
115.
by osullivj 5y ago
Agreed: the lawn is much more important in anglo culture. Compare with Italian or French formal gardens. Britain has a temparate climate with high precipitation, which does make lawn cultivation easier than Mediterranean climates. Just take
116.
by osullivj 5y ago
I found it refreshing to read a non anglocentric view. Agree we must be alert for the fallacy of conceptual retrospection.
117.
by osullivj 5y ago
I've worked as permanent staff for ISV product companies and banks. I've also worked for a consulting firm on banking projects, and as a contractor at banks and ISV product companies. I could say a lot about the differences [1], b
118.
by osullivj 5y ago
The article alludes to Byantine Emperor's tendency to impose uniform solutions to theological issues; I'm guessing that's a reference to the Iconoclasts and their destruction of icons as a response to Muslim conquest in the E
119.
by osullivj 6y ago
That was my experience. My guess is capital seems abundant to well connected insiders in the Bay Area. It's not in London where revenue is a prerequisite. One startup I know had to go to Berlin for funding.
120.
by osullivj 6y ago
Not surprising to a British reader. Sutton Trust research [1] finds that positions of influence in the UK, and the professions generally, are dominated by the 7% who were privately educated. Conclusion: networks and connections are everythi

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