thisrod

59 ms·

511.
by thisrod 15y ago
The ultimate graphical configuration editor, Smalltalk, does all of this. It even puts text fields labelled "comment" where the user is likely to want them. Which is configurable, in case the user wants them elsewhere.
512.
by thisrod 15y ago
Sure they are. The enemy might send a guided missile through the window of the office next to the general's. What a disaster!
513.
by thisrod 15y ago
Once this becomes a principle of residential planning, communities become far more liveable. It was reasonable for Le Corbusier to claim so in 1920. To believe it in 2011, one has to ignore the result of a century of doing it: the suburb
514.
by thisrod 15y ago
I agree. Let's extend the article's advice. Suppose, for the sake of argument, your minions do work harder when you remind them how much they have to do and how little time to do it. It follows that they'll work harder still if you mislea
515.
by thisrod 15y ago
Pretend you're an MP. You, or at least your advisors, know how Christian conservatives "think". They believe in things that make them Christian conservatives, like censoring the web. They'll vote for you if you say that you believe those
516.
by thisrod 15y ago
I suspect all these derive from a Buddhist parable, in which a novice fish asks a master fish to define the "sea" that the master keeps mentioning. The original point was different: the master's description is necessarily mystical, but the
517.
by thisrod 15y ago
The reactor did surivive the earthquake. It failed because of an Engineering 101 level mistake: "But sir - the question only said to shut down the power plant. It didn't mention doing without electricity!" I'm surprised by both those th
518.
by thisrod 15y ago
Here is Stallman's proposal, in his own words: http://stallman.org/articles/internet-sharing-license.en.htm... Australia, Canada, the US and the UK spend lots of public money on books, paintings, plays, concerts and broadcasts. Stallman
519.
by thisrod 15y ago
It was if those guys had used the language for a few years I hope that's a joke. If you don't know who K and R are, and where they wrote the book, you should look it up.
520.
by thisrod 15y ago
The original Plan 9 file server, kenfs, is a kind of versioning system. He must have thought it was a good idea at the time.
521.
by thisrod 15y ago
I don't follow the logic here. Who is going to use this? If they drive a Big White Truck, an ordinary capnograph won't make it any bigger. Otherwise, they're not even trained to check for a pulse, because history shows they'll stuff it up
522.
by thisrod 15y ago
In the 40s, floating point numbers were the hot new thing in programing. John von Neumann argued against them, because anyone smart enough to use a computer could track the exponents in their head. Or so I've heard. This is the classic tr
523.
Queensland tests GPS phones with 1cm precision(theaustralian.com.au)
2 points by thisrod 15y ago|0 comments
524.
by thisrod 16y ago
Obviously, feedback is part of learning language. B. F. Skinner argued that it was the whole explanation, as you're claiming. That was the idea Chomsky challenged. You're not addressing the crucial point. The suprise isn't that people ca
525.
by thisrod 16y ago
If I pick up a ball and say "ball" consistently ... The controversial question is how people learn grammar, not vocabulary. Even taken the first sentence as given, why does that imply a UG? That model is what Chomsky meant by "universal
526.
by thisrod 16y ago
Here's my understanding of Chomsky's argument. Facts: I can write sentences that no one has ever spoken before. The rest of you will have opinions whether they are allowed in English. Those opinions will tend to agree. Conclusion: Our kno
527.
by thisrod 16y ago
The programs on Github were written by amateurs. Professionals can do better - compare Python, PHP and Gnuplot to Mozilla, Scheme, Haskell, Plan 9 and Mathematica. But evidently people can keep their day jobs and still write good programs
528.
by thisrod 16y ago
That's normal. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is now easy to treat. It hasn't killed many rich people for 15 years.
529.
by thisrod 16y ago
To what extent does Knuth believe in God? For all I know, he might be a Christian atheist. Such people do exist, at the extreme Spongian end of the church.
530.
Analysis of Brisbane's dams and the flood(resources.news.com.au)
1 points by thisrod 16y ago|0 comments
531.
by thisrod 16y ago
Thanks. That sounds good.
532.
by thisrod 16y ago
I've read some of his Scheme - thanks for pointing that out. Does anyone know who Oleg is in real life?
533.
by thisrod 16y ago
It would be nice for this site to give more detailed advice on studying Haskell. Learning a language should be a side effect of studying its canon of programs. Is there a book that relates to Haskell as TAoCP does to machine code, SICP to
534.
by thisrod 16y ago
> I'm not saying there are 2 transmiting frequencies. 200 years ago, people might have believed you. Then Fourier showed that your statements contradict each other. He said a lot of other interesting things - Bracewell's book is a goo
535.
by thisrod 16y ago
If the datum mattered, we'd declare victory already. Aviation GPS units use latitude and longitude, the maps use UTM, and the pilots have no way to convert. D'oh!
536.
Whole bicycle made with 3D printer(theaustralian.com.au)
2 points by thisrod 16y ago|0 comments
537.
by thisrod 16y ago
Hear hear. Suppose the following. Fortunately, you're in a remote bit of Australia. Unfortunately, you've broken a leg. Fortunately, you have a rescue chopper on the phone. Unfortunately, you dropped your GPS in a river. Fortunately, y
538.
by thisrod 16y ago
I was impressed by the clarity of that talk. It makes one point. Sequential programs look like do rest = do first one do rest, but parallel programs look like do half = do one half do other half. The example
539.
by thisrod 16y ago
The most interesting part of this is the irrational thinking it exposes in the developed world. What's the difference between extending Canada to include a bit of Africa, and letting more Africans move to the existing Canada? I think it's
540.
by thisrod 16y ago
Note that "building" is used in a loose sense: the transistors and wires are simulated. It sounds good anyway. It would be interesting to compare this to the last chapter of SICP, which also builds a simulated computer and compiler. Aroun

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