And yet he was right. AC long distances lines work with very basic technology.
DC long distance transmission lines have some advantages, but the technology is much more complicated and still much more expensive. There are a few around, but usually they are a last resort - only used when AC is not possible.
Tcl is great - and it is a good example of a (mostly) functional programming language based on closures. Smalltalk is even better, but just as obscure.
Luckily, you can achieve the same programming style in Python. You just need to be careful with arrays - they are mutable, and sometimes respond in unpredictable ways.
for a computer that revolutionised the very concept of a computer. The Macintosh was not about RAM, or CPU, or colour. The key part was the mouse, and GUI that could make use of it. That alone made it the most suitable device for a wide range of activities.
Indeed. Antivaxers are an anti-intellectual movement (anti-enlightenment, if you want to put it into historical context), mixed in with some anti-authoritarian sentiments, and they come from all parts of the spectrum.
That is not how I read the article. It may seem more difficult, but it is just a bit harder to learn. Once you have learned, it turns out to be easier (or at least faster) than using the mouse.
I agree that there are situations where the mouse is probably the right tool. Marking the area for electronic signature of a document, for example. But for most interactions, finding an entry in a menu takes a lot more time than just using the right key command.
Even if "crap" and "damn" are not swear words, I fail to imagine a situation where they are appropriate in a comment or a variable name (unless you are building a bad language filter, of course).
Exactly. The correct answer is that we do not know.
The process is called "up-scaling" - bringing a technology from a small number to significant market penetration. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not, and it is notoriously hard to predict.
Current automotive technology clearly scaled very well, that is why it is being used in a Billion vehicles. Some technology did not make the cut, like rotary engines, turbines,flying cars, rear wheel steering, omnidirectional wheels etc.
The key problem with compressed gas is heat. As you compress it, the gas gets hot, and as the gas gets hot, it gets harder to compress. This can easily reduce your efficiency to 10% if you are not careful.
There are two solutions: quasi-isothermal compression and expansion, which requires is complicated.
Or you store heat and pressure separately, and recombine them again when you want to use the energy. Storing heat is possible, but by no means trivial.
It may take a long time before compressed air is competitive with pump storage.
GMT is *not* a reference time zone. It used to be decades ago, but since GMT is subject to DST like the rest of Europe, it no longer serves that purpose. The reference is called UTC - Universal Time Coordinated.
Exactly. Google is enabling app developers to spy on users, app developer abuses this to defraud Google. I guess that is what you get if you drop "Don't be evil".
> and shun the more expensive models which would be cheaper in the long run.
Yes, because there is no guarantee that they will actually be cheaper to run. This promise has been made a few times, and been broken every time.
The only potential difference in the market is the subscription model, where ink is included, and you pay for a certain number of prints per month. That offers an opportunity to be truly competitive.
Unfortunately, my bank has a nasty habit of doing exactly this. And no, you cannot call them back, because it is usually a call from back office (and they only call, they do not usually take calls).
I think that banks has long trained customers to fall for this scam.
Yes, I agree that some problems are more complicated than they seem, especially if you need to synchronise with some other state, or a poorly documented piece of software.
State is the key problem, the article is right about that. If I find these problems, I try to eliminate states as much as possible. Sometimes a different programming approach help. Reconstructing a value rather than saving it reduces complexity. But sometimes you need the state, and then you may want to look at state machine theory, which is not always intuitive.
All the big internet companies operate illegally. Facebook keeps lying to us, Slashdot keeps harassing me for "consent" to monetise my data, everybody is in on it, everybody does it. I nearly prefer the sites that just do not give you access if they cannot set cookies, or you have an ad blocker. At least that is honest (or I am too optimistic there, too?).
> "Rockstar Developer": The code is actually kinda OK, however perfection often makes their code dense at time, and difficult to maintain, until I can figure what is going
I like that. It can be both incredibly elegant and hard to figure out.
Dropbox is a bit of a special case, because it does indeed need quite a lot of meta-information, and the access to that may differ from filesystem to filesystem. But it is not that difficult: you have ext4 and btfs as the main contenders, and possibly raiser and XFS, but you could always ask for a mount if somebody uses an esoteric filesystem.
Part of the problem is that we often confuse Computer Science and Software Engineering. We actually need a lot of the latter, but a lot fewer of the former. Just like we need a lot of people who can install satellite dishes than radio scientists.
If you need an engineer, get an engineer, not a scientist.
Slashdot Mirror
And yet he was right. AC long distances lines work with very basic technology.
DC long distance transmission lines have some advantages, but the technology is much more complicated and still much more expensive. There are a few around, but usually they are a last resort - only used when AC is not possible.
Tcl is great - and it is a good example of a (mostly) functional programming language based on closures. Smalltalk is even better, but just as obscure.
Luckily, you can achieve the same programming style in Python. You just need to be careful with arrays - they are mutable, and sometimes respond in unpredictable ways.
for a computer that revolutionised the very concept of a computer. The Macintosh was not about RAM, or CPU, or colour. The key part was the mouse, and GUI that could make use of it. That alone made it the most suitable device for a wide range of activities.
Indeed. Antivaxers are an anti-intellectual movement (anti-enlightenment, if you want to put it into historical context), mixed in with some anti-authoritarian sentiments, and they come from all parts of the spectrum.
That is not how I read the article. It may seem more difficult, but it is just a bit harder to learn. Once you have learned, it turns out to be easier (or at least faster) than using the mouse.
I agree that there are situations where the mouse is probably the right tool. Marking the area for electronic signature of a document, for example. But for most interactions, finding an entry in a menu takes a lot more time than just using the right key command.
If manufacturers have an interest in monetising smart TVs, why are they so ugly, so hard to use, and so featureless after just a few years?
While I understand the position presented here, I see no evidence that they are actually putting in the effort.
A system wide setting for dark mode is logically better than a site by site or program by program setting, so this seems well overdue.
Of course for legacy sites like Slashdot, it will need to work some magic.
The headline is factually wrong, and the way things are going here, that is intentional. So Slashdot is lying to us, again.
Even if "crap" and "damn" are not swear words, I fail to imagine a situation where they are appropriate in a comment or a variable name (unless you are building a bad language filter, of course).
Exactly. The correct answer is that we do not know.
The process is called "up-scaling" - bringing a technology from a small number to significant market penetration. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not, and it is notoriously hard to predict.
Current automotive technology clearly scaled very well, that is why it is being used in a Billion vehicles. Some technology did not make the cut, like rotary engines, turbines,flying cars, rear wheel steering, omnidirectional wheels etc.
The key problem with compressed gas is heat. As you compress it, the gas gets hot, and as the gas gets hot, it gets harder to compress. This can easily reduce your efficiency to 10% if you are not careful.
There are two solutions: quasi-isothermal compression and expansion, which requires is complicated.
Or you store heat and pressure separately, and recombine them again when you want to use the energy. Storing heat is possible, but by no means trivial.
It may take a long time before compressed air is competitive with pump storage.
You are aware that stress is measured in force per area, not elephants per volume?
GMT is *not* a reference time zone. It used to be decades ago, but since GMT is subject to DST like the rest of Europe, it no longer serves that purpose. The reference is called UTC - Universal Time Coordinated.
Slashdot - half truth for nerds.
So if you are worried that they lost your data, you could give them your data again, in the hope that they will not lose it this time?
Does anybody else think that you would have to be quite naive to do that?
Exactly. Google is enabling app developers to spy on users, app developer abuses this to defraud Google. I guess that is what you get if you drop "Don't be evil".
> and shun the more expensive models which would be cheaper in the long run.
Yes, because there is no guarantee that they will actually be cheaper to run. This promise has been made a few times, and been broken every time.
The only potential difference in the market is the subscription model, where ink is included, and you pay for a certain number of prints per month. That offers an opportunity to be truly competitive.
Yes, that is true.
Unfortunately, my bank has a nasty habit of doing exactly this. And no, you cannot call them back, because it is usually a call from back office (and they only call, they do not usually take calls).
I think that banks has long trained customers to fall for this scam.
Why would you need a a quadraphonic head phone socket? Is that for people with four ears?
Yes, I agree that some problems are more complicated than they seem, especially if you need to synchronise with some other state, or a poorly documented piece of software.
State is the key problem, the article is right about that. If I find these problems, I try to eliminate states as much as possible. Sometimes a different programming approach help. Reconstructing a value rather than saving it reduces complexity. But sometimes you need the state, and then you may want to look at state machine theory, which is not always intuitive.
All the big internet companies operate illegally. Facebook keeps lying to us, Slashdot keeps harassing me for "consent" to monetise my data, everybody is in on it, everybody does it. I nearly prefer the sites that just do not give you access if they cannot set cookies, or you have an ad blocker. At least that is honest (or I am too optimistic there, too?).
I wonder what Apple is paying Slashdot for this...
> "Rockstar Developer": The code is actually kinda OK, however perfection often makes their code dense at time, and difficult to maintain, until I can figure what is going
I like that. It can be both incredibly elegant and hard to figure out.
Dropbox is a bit of a special case, because it does indeed need quite a lot of meta-information, and the access to that may differ from filesystem to filesystem. But it is not that difficult: you have ext4 and btfs as the main contenders, and possibly raiser and XFS, but you could always ask for a mount if somebody uses an esoteric filesystem.
And yet, this is what people votes for. The most Ferengi like government ever.
Part of the problem is that we often confuse Computer Science and Software Engineering. We actually need a lot of the latter, but a lot fewer of the former. Just like we need a lot of people who can install satellite dishes than radio scientists.
If you need an engineer, get an engineer, not a scientist.