Once, long ago, I witnessed the re-entry of a large booster section. It was nightime, and it looked like an enormous sparkler drifting silently across the sky in slow motion. The main body was slowly tumbling, getting larger and smaller, and leaving a trail of golden sparks as long as my spread-out hand. Smaller bits would split off, each with their own trail, and they would split again, and again. After maybe thirty seconds it disappeared over the horizon toward the ocean.
Glad it didn't land in my backyard, although the souvenir sales might have compensated a bit.
I LOVE rewriting code! I have a garage FULL of wheel prototypes!
Seriously, rewriting is an essential part of maintaining software. It brings the code up to date, flushes out old bugs (and adds new ones, of course), and provides an opportunity to look at the entire project in a new light.
I would argue against a ground-up rewrite (ala Netscape) in most cases. But certainly revisiting and rewriting parts and pieces will be beneficial in the long run.
I, for one, miss our knuckle-dragging forbears. I bet they were fun at parties.
Seriously, the problem is that natural selection (the non-inteligent kind, anyway) doesn't choose the best of breed, it just mindlessly selects from whatever organisms survive. It's a stochastic process not a deterministic one.
Last first, pirates, rebels, patriots are just views of the same person from different directions.
First last, chaos is more robust than order. You cannot easily knock out 1,000 little transmitters, but one big one is easily disabled.
Also ran, the information payload for chaos is either infinite (as in the number of monkeys typing) or zero (as in the sense of what they have typed).
Slashdot Mirror
In communist China potato mashes you!
Once, long ago, I witnessed the re-entry of a large booster section. It was nightime, and it looked like an enormous sparkler drifting silently across the sky in slow motion. The main body was slowly tumbling, getting larger and smaller, and leaving a trail of golden sparks as long as my spread-out hand. Smaller bits would split off, each with their own trail, and they would split again, and again. After maybe thirty seconds it disappeared over the horizon toward the ocean.
Glad it didn't land in my backyard, although the souvenir sales might have compensated a bit.
I LOVE rewriting code! I have a garage FULL of wheel prototypes!
Seriously, rewriting is an essential part of maintaining software. It brings the code up to date, flushes out old bugs (and adds new ones, of course), and provides an opportunity to look at the entire project in a new light.
I would argue against a ground-up rewrite (ala Netscape) in most cases. But certainly revisiting and rewriting parts and pieces will be beneficial in the long run.
Fourth law of robotics: I like to be hurt. Slap me again, baby! Oooh, yeah!
Chaos is more robust than order.
Example: There is nothing you can do to make my bedroom much more crowded, smelly, or dangerous to walk across.
Of course, robustness is not always to ultimate goal...
Like people? Try Soylent Green!
I guess I'll put away my moon-skates, then.
I had visions of Red Planet (the one by Heinlein, not Hoffman) where they ice-skate down the canals. So many dreams, too many dang scientists!
You think you're bright, don't you? Will I go blind looking at you? Doubt it!
Don't confuse math with arithmetic.
Arithmetic is numbers, math is ideas.
I have lots of ideas, but they never add up to anything.
I, for one, miss our knuckle-dragging forbears. I bet they were fun at parties.
Seriously, the problem is that natural selection (the non-inteligent kind, anyway) doesn't choose the best of breed, it just mindlessly selects from whatever organisms survive. It's a stochastic process not a deterministic one.
See: Stick insect wings come and go.
So one machine says to the other, "Hey, give me some SLACK, will ya?"
Last first, pirates, rebels, patriots are just views of the same person from different directions. First last, chaos is more robust than order. You cannot easily knock out 1,000 little transmitters, but one big one is easily disabled. Also ran, the information payload for chaos is either infinite (as in the number of monkeys typing) or zero (as in the sense of what they have typed).