In the scanerio you describe, the program was, in fact, not proved to be correct because the people who did the proof failed to take into account the real requirements for the system.
Sure, but isn't that the whole problem with moving the argument up a level? We haven't actually solvedf the real issue. We've just changed it from "the program was wrong" to "the spec was wrong". Sounds like hand waving to me.
The simple fact is that this stuff is hard. And there's no "right" way... just a series of tradeoffs.
For me it's all about the home row. I don't need to move my hands out of position at all when using vi. And I can manipulate huge chunks of code as such. I don't think you've truly experienced it until you get used to "hjkl" instead of the cursor keys. And there's just so many power-user commands. And vim is just the most fully featured version of vi.
Oh, and pico breaks lines (a total no-no when coding) unless you add -w. It's more a word processor than a coders editor. No powerful formatting commands either.
I've seem some impressive emacs works, so no argument that emacs is a great coder's editor.
I like to say "vi is like playing a text-based video game that just happens to result in code".
I know... I'm just saying that in contrast to the rumore about the possible MacBook (iBook) release, I've got facts that the 17" MacBook Pro (Powerbook) has shipped. Three days early, in fact.
So he's calling his compatriots "lemmings" because when they compare Windows to OSX they'll like Windows less? He himself says the reason for peoples' conversion will be "frustration with Windows limitations". And how does that makes them lemmings? Seems like you'd much more accurately be called a lemming if you stayed on the more popular Windows platform after a side-by-side comparison made you feel that OSX was better.
I'm a USian, but my Dad grew up in the UK. He got me plasticine insted of Play-doh growing up, and when I'd go to a friend's house and try to work with Play-doh, I just found it frustrating! Aside from drying out, you can't make sufficient detail because it's too crumbly.
Admittedly you can't dry plasticine at all, so if you want something permanent you're out of luck. But just for pure creativity, I got to give props to plasticine. And it's also cool because it led me into animation, and film.
There's nothing wrong with calories, though! You just don't want to eat more than you're burning is all. I'm just saying that if you're going to eat 300 calories, I think you're better off eating fried potatoes than many processed foods, some which may initially seem healthier... like artificial "diet" foods . Of course 300 calories of simple meats and green veggies would be even better, but I stand by my statement that simple natural foods are not so bad.
Okay, "perfectly healthy" might have been a poor choice of words. My point was that it's a natural source of calories, and would have few side effects. If you're going to eat 300 calories of something, fried potatoes is probably better than an energy bar or some other highly unatural "health" food.
I'd agree whole grain rice is better. And I'd say some greens even better than that. But give me fried natural food over processed crap any day of the week. YMMV.
You know, I'm not sure why fried food got such a bad name. If you fry some potatoes in non-hydrogenated vegetable oil, it's a perfectly healthy side dish. I'd wager that's healthier than a "healthy low-fat" item that's processed beyond recognition and loaded with chemicals. Just my opinion, of course.
Your body works different from mine. It takes less than 24 hours for food to go through my system. I won't get into how I know that.
I was a vegetarian for a year. It did not agree with my physically: I was often weak and tired, I had chronic diarrhea, and I got sick plenty. For me, the healthiest i've ever been was over the past year and I eat fresh unprocessed meats and vegetables every night.
But I'm not going to claim that would work for everyone else.
Well said. I'm surprised how many otherwise intelligent people believe that the free market solves all. Actually, I'm surprised how many people believe any one system can solve all. I actually love the free market and believe it's a very good social foundation. But if the free market worked completely, we would never have government in the first place, right? It can hardly be argued that the first human village was over regulated. Yet governance formed because centralized authority was needed in certain cases. Of course we went far overboard with regulation at various points in our history, as we are wont to do. And now we're going overboard with free markets.
I just wish that we'd admit that free markets are needed for some things and social programs needed for (a minority) of other things. Then we can argue about it, test it, and find which is better case by case. But instead you get arguments about which method will singlehandedly save the world, and when it doesn't work, the proponents just push harder because it's a religion to them. Oh well.
Despite the harsh responses you've received, I'd say you're right about everything except for your suggestions to make Mac's more Windows-like. The way the Mac works is different, usually because they believe it's better, so it shouldn't be trying to emulate Windows for the sake of switchers.
But I totally agree with your comments that the ads are off-putting. I find them amusing, sure, but I imagine a lot of people will just find them smug, and it will further push the idea that mac users are snobs, which is something I've been fighting against for a while now. I love my Mac, but I have a Windows XP box (which doesn't need to restart often!) and Linux & FreeBSD serves. It's all good. Use what you like. Try out something different if you're curious.
Anyways, hope you get used to your Mac's macness soon. It took me several months, but I do prefer most features now.
Actually, my favorite reason for having command-c instead of ctrl-c is that it differentiates GUI commands from command line commands. This is obviously not an issue for the average user, but I spend a lot of my time in the terminal, and it's great being able to use all the standard unix ctrl strokes while simultaneously using the GUI command strokes. Under windows you use ctrl-c to copy, unless you're in a terminal in which case you have to use something else (shift-insert? it's been a while).
That doesn't sound right to me. Older machines often use less energy -- at least every time I've built a new machine over the past decade the power supply got bigger. Sure, they are less powerful too, but then they probably won't be used for the most modern computing tasks.
Aside from that, reuse is always more efficient than recycling. So if you can use something that has already been manufactured and shipped, instead of buying something new, go for it.
My wife uses Aperture all the time for her professional photography business, and though she said it was a little buggy, it hasn't caused her any serious problems. Overall she really loves it. She feels it's about as stable as most any 1.0 app. If they can get an even better team working on it, that's cool, but is it really considered such a failure?
I'll give a third option as to why someone might not be convinced: theory is one thing and practice is another. If I took the time to fully understand every CS theory out there when the creator can't even be bothered to implement a few examples, I wouldn't have time to make a living. Especially if it is as easy and obvious as you say, it shouldn't take all that much time.
When I've come up with novel coding ideas in the past the first thing I do is post a proof of concept. That burden is really on the author. Don't blame it on lack of receptiveness on the public or some establishment. New ideas are embraced all the time if someone demonstrates them properly. You just haven't done that.
It's a bit frustrating to read your ideas, which seem interesting, and then years later you still haven't done a thing about it except complain that nobody else has done the hard work of implementing them. I can only assume that means you can't do it. Which is a shame, because if you could, it would be something quite extraordinary. Time to move on... nothing to see here.
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In the scanerio you describe, the program was, in fact, not proved to be correct because the people who did the proof failed to take into account the real requirements for the system.
Sure, but isn't that the whole problem with moving the argument up a level? We haven't actually solvedf the real issue. We've just changed it from "the program was wrong" to "the spec was wrong". Sounds like hand waving to me.
The simple fact is that this stuff is hard. And there's no "right" way... just a series of tradeoffs.
Cheers.
For me it's all about the home row. I don't need to move my hands out of position at all when using vi. And I can manipulate huge chunks of code as such. I don't think you've truly experienced it until you get used to "hjkl" instead of the cursor keys. And there's just so many power-user commands. And vim is just the most fully featured version of vi.
Oh, and pico breaks lines (a total no-no when coding) unless you add -w. It's more a word processor than a coders editor. No powerful formatting commands either.
I've seem some impressive emacs works, so no argument that emacs is a great coder's editor.
I like to say "vi is like playing a text-based video game that just happens to result in code".
Cheers.
I would have thought so... but iTunes 6 remains uncracked.
Cheers.
ha ha
I know... I'm just saying that in contrast to the rumore about the possible MacBook (iBook) release, I've got facts that the 17" MacBook Pro (Powerbook) has shipped. Three days early, in fact.
Cheers.
The 17" macbook pro's are shipping. I have a tracking number, in any case! We'll see how long it takes fedex to get them here from Shanghai.
Cheers.
So he's calling his compatriots "lemmings" because when they compare Windows to OSX they'll like Windows less? He himself says the reason for peoples' conversion will be "frustration with Windows limitations". And how does that makes them lemmings? Seems like you'd much more accurately be called a lemming if you stayed on the more popular Windows platform after a side-by-side comparison made you feel that OSX was better.
What a weird article.
Cheers.
You know, I've never tried that stuff ... I should. Thanks for mentioning it!
I'm a USian, but my Dad grew up in the UK. He got me plasticine insted of Play-doh growing up, and when I'd go to a friend's house and try to work with Play-doh, I just found it frustrating! Aside from drying out, you can't make sufficient detail because it's too crumbly.
Admittedly you can't dry plasticine at all, so if you want something permanent you're out of luck. But just for pure creativity, I got to give props to plasticine. And it's also cool because it led me into animation, and film.
Cheers.
Well, that's actually quite interesting :) I guess I better revise my recipe to boil potatoes and then add a little olive oil and salt afterwards!
Thanks for the link.
There's nothing wrong with calories, though! You just don't want to eat more than you're burning is all. I'm just saying that if you're going to eat 300 calories, I think you're better off eating fried potatoes than many processed foods, some which may initially seem healthier... like artificial "diet" foods . Of course 300 calories of simple meats and green veggies would be even better, but I stand by my statement that simple natural foods are not so bad.
Cheers.
Okay, "perfectly healthy" might have been a poor choice of words. My point was that it's a natural source of calories, and would have few side effects. If you're going to eat 300 calories of something, fried potatoes is probably better than an energy bar or some other highly unatural "health" food.
I'd agree whole grain rice is better. And I'd say some greens even better than that. But give me fried natural food over processed crap any day of the week. YMMV.
Cheers.
You know, I'm not sure why fried food got such a bad name. If you fry some potatoes in non-hydrogenated vegetable oil, it's a perfectly healthy side dish. I'd wager that's healthier than a "healthy low-fat" item that's processed beyond recognition and loaded with chemicals. Just my opinion, of course.
Cheers.
Your body works different from mine. It takes less than 24 hours for food to go through my system. I won't get into how I know that.
I was a vegetarian for a year. It did not agree with my physically: I was often weak and tired, I had chronic diarrhea, and I got sick plenty. For me, the healthiest i've ever been was over the past year and I eat fresh unprocessed meats and vegetables every night.
But I'm not going to claim that would work for everyone else.
Cheers.
Well said. I'm surprised how many otherwise intelligent people believe that the free market solves all. Actually, I'm surprised how many people believe any one system can solve all. I actually love the free market and believe it's a very good social foundation. But if the free market worked completely, we would never have government in the first place, right? It can hardly be argued that the first human village was over regulated. Yet governance formed because centralized authority was needed in certain cases. Of course we went far overboard with regulation at various points in our history, as we are wont to do. And now we're going overboard with free markets.
I just wish that we'd admit that free markets are needed for some things and social programs needed for (a minority) of other things. Then we can argue about it, test it, and find which is better case by case. But instead you get arguments about which method will singlehandedly save the world, and when it doesn't work, the proponents just push harder because it's a religion to them. Oh well.
Cheers.
Despite the harsh responses you've received, I'd say you're right about everything except for your suggestions to make Mac's more Windows-like. The way the Mac works is different, usually because they believe it's better, so it shouldn't be trying to emulate Windows for the sake of switchers.
But I totally agree with your comments that the ads are off-putting. I find them amusing, sure, but I imagine a lot of people will just find them smug, and it will further push the idea that mac users are snobs, which is something I've been fighting against for a while now. I love my Mac, but I have a Windows XP box (which doesn't need to restart often!) and Linux & FreeBSD serves. It's all good. Use what you like. Try out something different if you're curious.
Anyways, hope you get used to your Mac's macness soon. It took me several months, but I do prefer most features now.
Cheers.
Actually, my favorite reason for having command-c instead of ctrl-c is that it differentiates GUI commands from command line commands. This is obviously not an issue for the average user, but I spend a lot of my time in the terminal, and it's great being able to use all the standard unix ctrl strokes while simultaneously using the GUI command strokes. Under windows you use ctrl-c to copy, unless you're in a terminal in which case you have to use something else (shift-insert? it's been a while).
Anyways, I do like that. YMMV.
Cheers.
Excellent series of posts, shark. Refreshing perspective from a domain I know little about.
Cheers.
Ooo! I like that. I hadn't really thought of it that way, but DRM screws them as much as it screws us, doesn't it. Hoist by their own petard.
Cheers.
Thanks!
Too bad you're anonymous... we've been looking for a guy to slip into the mix. She's really into slashdot geeks. And so am I.
Smile for the camera, pretty boy.
"No" as in "no ads" or "no" as in "There are no other alternatives"?
That doesn't sound right to me. Older machines often use less energy -- at least every time I've built a new machine over the past decade the power supply got bigger. Sure, they are less powerful too, but then they probably won't be used for the most modern computing tasks.
Aside from that, reuse is always more efficient than recycling. So if you can use something that has already been manufactured and shipped, instead of buying something new, go for it.
Cheers.
My wife uses Aperture all the time for her professional photography business, and though she said it was a little buggy, it hasn't caused her any serious problems. Overall she really loves it. She feels it's about as stable as most any 1.0 app. If they can get an even better team working on it, that's cool, but is it really considered such a failure?
Cheers.
I'll give a third option as to why someone might not be convinced: theory is one thing and practice is another. If I took the time to fully understand every CS theory out there when the creator can't even be bothered to implement a few examples, I wouldn't have time to make a living. Especially if it is as easy and obvious as you say, it shouldn't take all that much time.
When I've come up with novel coding ideas in the past the first thing I do is post a proof of concept. That burden is really on the author. Don't blame it on lack of receptiveness on the public or some establishment. New ideas are embraced all the time if someone demonstrates them properly. You just haven't done that.
It's a bit frustrating to read your ideas, which seem interesting, and then years later you still haven't done a thing about it except complain that nobody else has done the hard work of implementing them. I can only assume that means you can't do it. Which is a shame, because if you could, it would be something quite extraordinary. Time to move on... nothing to see here.
Cheers.