Intro ----- "This describes an adaptive, stable, natural mergesort, modestly called timsort (hey, I earned it ). It has supernatural performance on many kinds of partially ordered arrays (less than lg(N!) comparisons needed, and as few as N-1), yet as fast as Python's previous highly tuned samplesort hybrid on random arrays."
Don't you love simple, two-word statements that the majority of your audience understands to mean "someone's become fixated on something that will magically 'fix everything'"?
I could make exactly the same type of post about any technology or approach.
When trying to make people aware of an approach that they do not know, do *not* use words such as "amazing". They simply obscure any real information, and turn off precisely those people who it may benefit.
If I were to run your post through spambayes I suspect it would classify your post as spam on my machine. Although it may have enough useful markers to counteract the obvious spam markers.
... is that in both the instant runoff (as we have in Australia - we call it two-party preferred) and Borda systems, the final result *tends* to be either the first or second choice of the majority of voters. Of course, as the number of candidates increases, this obviously becomes less the case as votes are further split. But in any case, the final result will be from the upper half of the majority of voters preferences.
As the concocted example shows, this is much less likely to occur in a plurality system. In fact, the plurality system actively works against this being the case where there are more than two candidates.
... but has anyone considered the possibility that they have done this specifically to show how useless EULAs are and to show that they should not be enforceable.
I actually think they're a bunch of slimey bastards, but I can't completely discount the other possibility.
Re:Error,Cannot Close Application, Click OK to clo
on
Gnarly Error Messages
·
· Score: 3, Informative
No - what should happen is something like...
An unexpected error has occurred. The details of the error have been recorded in the log file:
Log file name
Please email the above file to devteam@company.invalid.
Your currently-opened files have been saved as the files:
Filename 1
Filename 2
[Application name] will now quit.
and then quit as gracefully as possible.
This does a couple of things:
1. It saves the state in a logfile.
2. It tells the user what is going on, without confusing them.
3. It allows the user the option of opening the logfile and seeing what info they will be sending the developer.
4. It allows the user to recover their work (hopefully - not always possible).
Re:Error,Cannot Close Application, Click OK to clo
on
Gnarly Error Messages
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Actually, that is very poor error reporting. It gives no indication of what the error is. It gives no indication of *where* the error is.
At the very least, the line number should be written to a log file, with as much data as you can pull together. A better thing to do is to write a stack trace to a log file, with a snapshot of the environment when it occurred (what you tried to do, locals, globals, etc).
I saw this, and the last two steps sound arse backwards.
Why go to the trouble of implementing your own widgets (drawing everything manually in quartz)? Surely it would be easier to go directly from X11 to Aqua? Drawing your own widgets is the very last thing you should do.
Unless of course they mean to put everything into Quartz windows, but also have it running (hidden) under X11 and blit to the Quartz windows. Which seems almost as stupid.
Re:A shot in the dark as to why it happened ...
on
Mule Gives Birth
·
· Score: 2
Unfortunately not... haven't found a way yet to replicate my brain onto the net;)
You may note the title "A shot in the dark..." and the last sentence... especially the theory bit.
It's just a wild guess. Perhaps I should have put the last sentence first.
A shot in the dark as to why it happened ...
on
Mule Gives Birth
·
· Score: 2
Normally a mule has 63 chromosomes according to the article (presumably 62 paired donkey/horse and one paired horse/horse).
However, this mule suffers a form of "mule Down's syndrome" - she only has 62 pairs. The father is a donkey. There is a match in the number of chromosomes.
So, what is considered a genetic disability in humans could possibly be considered a genetic advantage in mules.
Note: no science whatsoever backs this theory as far as I know... but then again, there wasn't much in the article either.
The third in one of the best series of games is actually going to be ported to the PC. Finally game makers are realising that there's money to be made on the Dark Side too...;)
Of course, since I want to be in on the beta, I'm not deep-linking to the info:)
Ah - you're thinking of the butchered "Warriors of the Wind" - something I've fortunately never seen:)
There has since been an uncut release which I happened to see at Japanime (2000?) in Sydney. Very good, but as I said, IMO not as good as Miyazaki's other directorial efforts (Kiki, Porco Rosso, Mononoke, etc).
I've got to say that I disagree with this. Nausicaa is very good, but it really pales in comparison to the manga.
Kiki's Delivery Service (also Miyazaki for those who don't know) is my all-time favourite movie (of any genre), and one of the few where I enjoy the dub as much as the sub (Kirsten Dunst was perfect as Kiki:)
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is without a doubt my favourite manga. An incredibly strong, detailed storyline, beautiful drawing. The anime suffered due to the fact that the manga was not complete when the anime was made.
That's true - but as a recording medium there are better (non-lossy) things.
The only real advantage minidisc has is size. The disadvantages are numerous - lack of people with players, lossy, expensive.
Yes - being expensive when there are other cheaper alternatives tends to mean that the more expensive alternative stays expensive, unless it has huge advantages.
Slashdot Mirror
Samplesort vs Timsort.
Intro
-----
"This describes an adaptive, stable, natural mergesort, modestly called
timsort (hey, I earned it ). It has supernatural performance on many
kinds of partially ordered arrays (less than lg(N!) comparisons needed, and
as few as N-1), yet as fast as Python's previous highly tuned samplesort
hybrid on random arrays."
That's very true - he literally *won't* know what hit him, since he doesn't actually have anything to do with the 'net.
This really is a silver bullet posting.
Don't you love simple, two-word statements that the majority of your audience understands to mean "someone's become fixated on something that will magically 'fix everything'"?
I could make exactly the same type of post about any technology or approach.
When trying to make people aware of an approach that they do not know, do *not* use words such as "amazing". They simply obscure any real information, and turn off precisely those people who it may benefit.
If I were to run your post through spambayes I suspect it would classify your post as spam on my machine. Although it may have enough useful markers to counteract the obvious spam markers.
Ah - thought it must be a problem with accents.
... not "do-ee".
"Dewey" is pronounced "jew-ee" where I am
As in "Hugh-ee", "Jew-ee" and "Loo-ee".
Thanks.
This one *has* to be an accent-related one. I can't work out what it's meant to be.
... but the others elude me.
I can get "cheat em"
Could you please post it again, spelt phonetically?
... is that in both the instant runoff (as we have in Australia - we call it two-party preferred) and Borda systems, the final result *tends* to be either the first or second choice of the majority of voters. Of course, as the number of candidates increases, this obviously becomes less the case as votes are further split. But in any case, the final result will be from the upper half of the majority of voters preferences.
As the concocted example shows, this is much less likely to occur in a plurality system. In fact, the plurality system actively works against this being the case where there are more than two candidates.
... but has anyone considered the possibility that they have done this specifically to show how useless EULAs are and to show that they should not be enforceable.
I actually think they're a bunch of slimey bastards, but I can't completely discount the other possibility.
No - what should happen is something like ...
An unexpected error has occurred. The details of the error have been recorded in the log file:
Log file name
Please email the above file to devteam@company.invalid.
Your currently-opened files have been saved as the files:
Filename 1
Filename 2
[Application name] will now quit.
and then quit as gracefully as possible.
This does a couple of things:
1. It saves the state in a logfile.
2. It tells the user what is going on, without confusing them.
3. It allows the user the option of opening the logfile and seeing what info they will be sending the developer.
4. It allows the user to recover their work (hopefully - not always possible).
Actually, that is very poor error reporting. It gives no indication of what the error is. It gives no indication of *where* the error is.
At the very least, the line number should be written to a log file, with as much data as you can pull together. A better thing to do is to write a stack trace to a log file, with a snapshot of the environment when it occurred (what you tried to do, locals, globals, etc).
Think of the ESD man!!!
:)
I saw this, and the last two steps sound arse backwards.
Why go to the trouble of implementing your own widgets (drawing everything manually in quartz)? Surely it would be easier to go directly from X11 to Aqua? Drawing your own widgets is the very last thing you should do.
Unless of course they mean to put everything into Quartz windows, but also have it running (hidden) under X11 and blit to the Quartz windows. Which seems almost as stupid.
Unfortunately not ... haven't found a way yet to replicate my brain onto the net ;)
..." and the last sentence ... especially the theory bit.
You may note the title "A shot in the dark
It's just a wild guess. Perhaps I should have put the last sentence first.
Normally a mule has 63 chromosomes according to the article (presumably 62 paired donkey/horse and one paired horse/horse).
... but then again, there wasn't much in the article either.
However, this mule suffers a form of "mule Down's syndrome" - she only has 62 pairs. The father is a donkey. There is a match in the number of chromosomes.
So, what is considered a genetic disability in humans could possibly be considered a genetic advantage in mules.
Note: no science whatsoever backs this theory as far as I know
It's called "proving that it works". If it can run Win2K from Linux on the hardware:
:)
1. It tells them that their port is sufficiently complete to do so;
2. The hardware is capable of it, and so is capable of pretty much anything a normal PC can do.
I would consider this a very valuable thing to do. Not to mention that it's a real kick in the nuts for MS
... go have a look at Ambrosia Software.
... ;)
:)
The third in one of the best series of games is actually going to be ported to the PC. Finally game makers are realising that there's money to be made on the Dark Side too
Of course, since I want to be in on the beta, I'm not deep-linking to the info
Unfortunately not. However, I suspect the icon drew inspiration from everyone's favourite little cook ;)
Yeah - I know. Looking forward to it - had a "season" pass (all sessions except for the opening IIRC) at the previous one ...
Ah - you're thinking of the butchered "Warriors of the Wind" - something I've fortunately never seen :)
There has since been an uncut release which I happened to see at Japanime (2000?) in Sydney. Very good, but as I said, IMO not as good as Miyazaki's other directorial efforts (Kiki, Porco Rosso, Mononoke, etc).
I've got to say that I disagree with this. Nausicaa is very good, but it really pales in comparison to the manga.
:)
Kiki's Delivery Service (also Miyazaki for those who don't know) is my all-time favourite movie (of any genre), and one of the few where I enjoy the dub as much as the sub (Kirsten Dunst was perfect as Kiki
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is without a doubt my favourite manga. An incredibly strong, detailed storyline, beautiful drawing. The anime suffered due to the fact that the manga was not complete when the anime was made.
"Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!" is the Australian catchcry/warcry.
Try it. Go into a crowded area which could possibly have Australians (say, a large shopping centre). Yell out "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!".
I can almost guarantee that you will get back the response "Oi! Oi! Oi!".
Indeed. Python would be a much better choice.
... (pymacs).
Which is available by the way
Dude, hate to break it to you, but there's a lot still going on in Python development ...
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev
1. Get a personal trainer who will help me lose weight.
2. Build a house with all the stuff I want in it.
3. Take the time to see my friends and meet other people.
4. Open source development - probably starting with Python.
Um - what does "cracker" have to do with a racial slur (I really want to know)?
...
Remember, not everyone is from the US
That's true - but as a recording medium there are better (non-lossy) things.
The only real advantage minidisc has is size. The disadvantages are numerous - lack of people with players, lossy, expensive.
Yes - being expensive when there are other cheaper alternatives tends to mean that the more expensive alternative stays expensive, unless it has huge advantages.