todd8

221 ms·

1. 1651.▲
   by todd8 13y ago

   It would be a more useful graphic if the axis were actually capacity and cost (as labeled). As it is now the Y-axis is showing us the capacity/cost. When looking for drive I'm usually not trying to maximize capacity for a certai
2. 1652.▲
   by todd8 13y ago

   Why do these kinds of posts produce so much noise on HN? Its not because HNewsers are silly or stupid. Its because programming languages really do matter. However, experience with Java isn't enough to have a wise perspective on Java
3. 1653.▲
   by todd8 13y ago

   In 1980, while working at Texas Instruments, I wrote a program to draw mazes one night. My first version started out quite simple and elegant, but the mazes it printed (on our departments line printer) weren't very difficult to solve.
4. 1654.▲
   by todd8 13y ago

   I'm not sure these qualify as solutions that your are looking for, but they are very interesting, fun, and useful. 1) Squeak Smalltalk 2) IPython
5. 1655.▲
   by todd8 13y ago

   Thanks for pointing out Textadept. I'm going to take a look at it. Lua seems almost ideal as an extension language, and it would be a more familiar language than Emacs Lisp for most programmers. I want to look at what Textadept does
6. 1656.▲
   by todd8 13y ago

   I certainly hope so, and I have (around) fifteen myself including one that covers the internet cookie and another which I think covers the Galois Counter Mode for encryption or at least certain applications of GCM. I filed for these as a p
7. 1657.▲
   by todd8 13y ago

   Sublime Text is pretty and fairly easy to use. I own a copy. However, I would seriously recommend that you take the time to learn Vim or Emacs. I've used both, extensively, and can recommend either without reservation. They have sli
8. 1658.▲
   by todd8 13y ago

   Python has three basic numeric types, unbounded integers, floats (with the precision of C doubles), and complex (for example, 5+0.3j). However, its standard library includes both a decimal type and a fraction type. The decimal type has be
9. 1659.▲
   by todd8 13y ago

   This is an interesting article, but it contains some rather surprising innumeracy in its cavalier comparison of 2^128 to the number of grains of sand in the earths crust. 2^128 is an enormous number, roughly 3.4e38:
10. 1660.▲
    by todd8 13y ago

    Imagine the difficulty in debugging modern CPUs. Remember the floating point problems Intel had? There are far too many possible edge cases to be confident that testing alone will reveal them. Consequently, both Intel and AMD use formal
11. 1661.▲
    by todd8 13y ago

    Growing up, before the internet, I fell in love with libraries. I discovered Scientific American and it's regular column "Mathematical Games" by Martin Gardner. I eventually read every one of those columns written by Gardner
12. 1662.▲
    by todd8 13y ago

    I'm replying to my own comment because the other commenters have made such good points and I'm responding to several at once. I wish that in my rather long career that I had a chance to work on a big project using Lisp. How else
13. 1663.▲
    by todd8 13y ago

    I've heard all of these arguments in support of Lisp for many years, but I'm still not convinced. Indisputably, Lisp is remarkable and holds a special place in the pantheon of programming languages. Every argument in it's f
14. 1664.▲
    by todd8 13y ago

    I currently work at an adjustable height table. I really like standing for about four hours each day while I work. I lower the table to sit whenever I get too tired of standing. For sitting, I use a strange stool-like chair with a spring
15. 1665.▲
    by todd8 13y ago

    RinohType is interesting to me because I too am frustrated by TeX/LaTeX. I agree with others that RinohType isn't (yet) a "modern LaTeX". But we need more efforts like this (see for example the excellent Lout by Jeffre
16. 1666.▲
    by todd8 13y ago

    Java isn't new anymore. It wasn't really groundbreaking even when it was new in 1995: * Object-orientation: Simula-67 mid 1960's, CLU 1974, Smalltalk 1980 * Garbage collected memory: In Lisp since 1959 !! * JVM: UCSD
17. 1667.▲
    by todd8 13y ago

    I'm not a climate scientist, but something bothers me about this debate. Why is it that skeptics are dismissed at best as ignorant or stupid, as paid shills for big oil, or even terrorists. I'm skeptical of at least some climate
18. 1668.▲
    by todd8 13y ago

    Jeff Atwood writes that his new CODE keyboard is "the first truly great mechanical keyboard". Xah Lee takes issue with this in his review of the CODE keyboard, and in my opinion Xah makes some good points. First, comparable mec