It can be made to work. In the UK, for instance, we have The Co-Op - one of the largest consumer-owned businesses in the world, and
John Lewis - a partnership, with the company held in trust on behalf of its employees.
I use ASSERTs all the time. It's altogether a better thing to get an assertion error (that points out exactly which assumption I'm making turns out not to be true) than a core dump. Here's an example from what I'm looking at right now...
palette = findHash(colour); ASSERT(palette);
The assertion's there because I know that the appropriate entry exists in the hash table. If it's not, there's something very wrong. I could write
palette = findHash(colour); use(palette->data);/* we know the colour's in the hash table */
or
palette = findHash(colour); if (palette == 0) { fprintf(stderr, "palette is null"); exit(4); }
but that's exactly what the ASSERT does. And it'll be trimmed out in release builds. (Although I tend to leave assertions in place, even in release builds, if they're relatively cheap, as here.)
As I recall, the story is also in Jon Bentley's "Programming Pearls"
Indeed:
... an anecdote from IBM's Yorktown Heights Research Center. When a
programmer used his new computer terminal, all was fine when he was sitting
down, but he couldn't log in to the system when he was standing up. That
behavior was 100 percent repeatable: he could always log in when sitting and
never when standing.
Most of us just sit back and marvel at such a story; how could that terminal
know whether the poor guy was sitting or standing? Good debuggers, though,
know that there has to be a reason. Electrical theories are the easiest to
hypothesize: was there a loose with under the carpet, or problems with static
electricity? But electrical problems are rarely consistently reproducible.
An alert IBMer finally noticed that the problem was in the terminal's keyboard:
the tops of two keys were switched. When the programmer was seated he was a
touch typist and the problem went unnoticed, but when he stood he was led
astray by hunting and pecking.
-- "Programming Pearls" column, by Jon Bentley in CACM February 1985
There is no law preventing unsigned artists releasing their music for free on the web. The fact that most choose not to shows that they *do* actually want to be paid for their work.
It's hard to make money on the web, it's a very crowded place. Some musicians try to cut out the middle men by licensing legitimate copies of their own material, see Cerebral Sounds for instance, but they're swamped by sites such as allofmp3 who simply pocket the cash.
If you've ever had your windsheild get a tiny nick (from a small pebble) which slowly grew into a gigantic crack that spreads across the whole pane, you've experienced the wonders of tempered glass. I think you're thinking of annealed glass. Tempered glass doesn't propogate single cracks, it shatters into tiny pieces, as described here.
In fact with 60,000,000 people in the UK the chances they have the right suspect based on DNA evidence alone is only one in 60
And conversely there are 59,999,940 people who could demonstrate 'beyond doubt' that they were not the right suspect.
'Register a DNA sample and you will never be a suspect' - unless you're closely related DNA-wise to the true suspect - is a beguiling argument.
But it presupposes that the authorities are capable of maintaining an accurate, secure, database. There would be a very strong incentive for a 'bad person' to register a fake sample, so that they would be eliminated early from an enquiry.
And even if the authorities were to find a match in their database for a sample obtained at a crime scene, how could they locate the individual who provided the sample? Aha! - force people to provide a fresh sample every time they visit a hotel or use a government service. Too expensive? Then make everybody buy an ID card instead, and have it reference the central DNA database.
That would be a very strong incentive for a 'bad person' to carry a fake ID card (perhaps pretending to be me or you).
So if the police arrested somebody, they would be obliged to take a fresh DNA sample if only to validate their identity card. And now we have an entire new layer of bureaucracy, with its unerring ability to f*** up. Woe betide you if a data entry error were to list you as 'interesting to the state.'
Most innocent people would voluntarily provide a DNA sample if there were other evidence linking them to a serious crime and the additional DNA evidence was likely to exonerate them. If they were wise they would ensure the sample was destroyed afterwards.
But what about non-serious crimes (a parking ticket, for instance)? Should refusal to provide a DNA sample be a serious crime? Should I be obliged to show my ID card (and hence reveal my DNA sample)? What should the penalty be if I fail to show my card on request?
From tfa - the average U.S. commuter spends about 100 hours a year driving just to work - 20 hours more than a typical year's supply of vacation. This personal "daily grind" uses more than 15,000 miles and 1,000 gallons of gas every year
100 hours to work - assuming it's 100 hours from too, this commuter's averaging 75 mph, so I don't really understand why they're moaning about the traffic.
"Immediately after the events at the travel agents three men were seen running to a silver vehicle which was parked in Howard Street... We have trawled through many hours of CCTV and have a number of sightings of the vehicle... This includes a sighting of the vehicle travelling along Morley Street at 3.02pm, moments before the events at the travel agents." He said the vehicle was seen 40 minutes later travelling along Manchester Road, out of Bradford city centre, in the general direction of the motorway network.
The caller doesn't know the advertiser's number, so the only way the customer can contact the advertiser is through Google. And Google knows you called, so it can take a commission on any sale.
That's still got potential for confusion - it could be a 'we've finished processing the messages' flag, which obviously should be a boolean, but somebody else wrote the code, so we can't be sure.
totalMessages++;
would be better, but it's still not perfect. Sometimes the hardest part of programming is creating meaningful variable names.
He's already tried. According to the NotW Mr Stimpson said, "I'd read the research, I knew it had never happened before. I didn't understand how I could be negative after one year especially because I had been having unprotected sex with my [infected] partner after the diagnosis, believing we had nothing to lose."
He was going in for repeat tests every two months, so his status is well documented.
The press may be lazy and uninformed, but the UK department of health has issued a number of guides and leaflets on pandemic influenza. These give hard information, for instance:
"There are 16 haemagglutinin subtypes of Influenza A (designated 1-16),
and 9 neuraminidase subtypes (1-9). While relatively few infect humans,
all have been detected in free-flying birds which can harbour the viruses
without their causing symptoms. Since 1959, rare, but serious, outbreaks
of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry have been caused by H5
and H7 virus subtypes. These were thought to cause only mild symptoms
such as conjunctivitis in humans. However, since an outbreak of H5N1
infection in poultry in Hong Kong in 1997, these viruses have been
shown to be able to jump the species barrier and cause severe infection
with a high mortality in humans.
So far these viruses only appear to have spread from person to person
with difficulty, and with no further onward transmission, but concern is
twofold:
That step-wise adaptation of the viruses will give them greater affinity
to infect and transmit between humans;
That exchange of genetic material between the avian and a 'regular'
circulating human virus - during co-infection, for example, in a pig or
possibly a person - will have the same effect.
The longer the outbreaks of H5N1 influenza that took hold in Asia in
early 2004 last - and there are signs that the virus has become endemic
in birds in the region - the more likely it is thought to be that a new
virus will emerge. Even if the ability of the virus to cause disease in
humans is attenuated, the potential remains for a future virus with
pandemic potential to emerge and spread. Such a strain is likely to be
antigenically different from the H5N1 strains currently circulating in Asia.
The degree of cross protection that would be afforded by an H5N1
vaccine prepared against the current H5N1 strain cannot be predicted."
As the UK's chief medical officer said in 2002: "Most experts believe that it is a matter of when, not whether, another influenza pandemic strikes."
The current bird flu outbreak is worrying because it could very easily jump to humans. And if the 1918 example is anything to go by, it would kill the 'healthiest' people most efficiently, by causing their immune system to overreact and destroy their lungs.
So yes, you might worry, but not too much because there's not a lot you can do about it.
It may be connected with with IBM Hursley, their UK laboratories in Winchester, England, which did some of the original development of disk drives.
IBM has a review and discussionof disk 'file' innovation in the 25 years up to 1981 which describes the Winchester technology in some detail, but doesn't seem to identify where the work was carried out.
Slashdot Mirror
It can be made to work. In the UK, for instance, we have The Co-Op - one of the largest consumer-owned businesses in the world, and John Lewis - a partnership, with the company held in trust on behalf of its employees.
The assertion's there because I know that the appropriate entry exists in the hash table. If it's not, there's something very wrong. I could write
or
but that's exactly what the ASSERT does. And it'll be trimmed out in release builds. (Although I tend to leave assertions in place, even in release builds, if they're relatively cheap, as here.)
I think you mean sentient
A pound sterling per pound weight is about 45p / kilo, which is about the going rate for a large bag of potatoes
Indeed:
Most of us just sit back and marvel at such a story; how could that terminal know whether the poor guy was sitting or standing? Good debuggers, though, know that there has to be a reason. Electrical theories are the easiest to hypothesize: was there a loose with under the carpet, or problems with static electricity? But electrical problems are rarely consistently reproducible. An alert IBMer finally noticed that the problem was in the terminal's keyboard: the tops of two keys were switched. When the programmer was seated he was a touch typist and the problem went unnoticed, but when he stood he was led astray by hunting and pecking.
-- "Programming Pearls" column, by Jon Bentley in CACM February 1985
It's hard to make money on the web, it's a very crowded place. Some musicians try to cut out the middle men by licensing legitimate copies of their own material, see Cerebral Sounds for instance, but they're swamped by sites such as allofmp3 who simply pocket the cash.
According to wikipedia the cafe has a 1Gb pipe. The 100Mbit connections are to the desktop.
If you've ever had your windsheild get a tiny nick (from a small pebble) which slowly grew into a gigantic crack that spreads across the whole pane, you've experienced the wonders of tempered glass. I think you're thinking of annealed glass. Tempered glass doesn't propogate single cracks, it shatters into tiny pieces, as described here.
legion n 1 the principal unit of the ancient Roman army comprising 3000-6000 foot soldiers and cavalry. 2 also in pl a very large number; a multitude.
legion adj many or numerous.
And conversely there are 59,999,940 people who could demonstrate 'beyond doubt' that they were not the right suspect.
'Register a DNA sample and you will never be a suspect' - unless you're closely related DNA-wise to the true suspect - is a beguiling argument.
But it presupposes that the authorities are capable of maintaining an accurate, secure, database. There would be a very strong incentive for a 'bad person' to register a fake sample, so that they would be eliminated early from an enquiry.
And even if the authorities were to find a match in their database for a sample obtained at a crime scene, how could they locate the individual who provided the sample? Aha! - force people to provide a fresh sample every time they visit a hotel or use a government service. Too expensive? Then make everybody buy an ID card instead, and have it reference the central DNA database.
That would be a very strong incentive for a 'bad person' to carry a fake ID card (perhaps pretending to be me or you).
So if the police arrested somebody, they would be obliged to take a fresh DNA sample if only to validate their identity card. And now we have an entire new layer of bureaucracy, with its unerring ability to f*** up. Woe betide you if a data entry error were to list you as 'interesting to the state.'
Most innocent people would voluntarily provide a DNA sample if there were other evidence linking them to a serious crime and the additional DNA evidence was likely to exonerate them. If they were wise they would ensure the sample was destroyed afterwards.
But what about non-serious crimes (a parking ticket, for instance)? Should refusal to provide a DNA sample be a serious crime? Should I be obliged to show my ID card (and hence reveal my DNA sample)? What should the penalty be if I fail to show my card on request?
100 hours to work - assuming it's 100 hours from too, this commuter's averaging 75 mph, so I don't really understand why they're moaning about the traffic.
That'll be 10^51 and 10^31...
From Dave Schroeder posted 01/23/06
By following these steps, the iMacs that had difficulty with certain EFI modules appear to have been restored to a functioning state:
- Disconnect the internal hard disk
- Disconnect the iMac from AC power
- Plug in AC while holding the power button
- Power up the iMac and zap NVRAM (cmd-opt-P-R)
The hard disk can be reformatted and the operating system restored.No sheep? Or guinea pig? Or goat? Or any kind of fish? Or rabbit? Or horse? Or dog? Or sausage? I am disappointed in you.
"Immediately after the events at the travel agents three men were seen running to a silver vehicle which was parked in Howard Street... We have trawled through many hours of CCTV and have a number of sightings of the vehicle... This includes a sighting of the vehicle travelling along Morley Street at 3.02pm, moments before the events at the travel agents." He said the vehicle was seen 40 minutes later travelling along Manchester Road, out of Bradford city centre, in the general direction of the motorway network.
That doesn't sound very automatic to me.
And the six people arrested in London the next day were all released without charge.
The caller doesn't know the advertiser's number, so the only way the customer can contact the advertiser is through Google. And Google knows you called, so it can take a commission on any sale.
He was going in for repeat tests every two months, so his status is well documented.
"There are 16 haemagglutinin subtypes of Influenza A (designated 1-16), and 9 neuraminidase subtypes (1-9). While relatively few infect humans, all have been detected in free-flying birds which can harbour the viruses without their causing symptoms. Since 1959, rare, but serious, outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry have been caused by H5 and H7 virus subtypes. These were thought to cause only mild symptoms such as conjunctivitis in humans. However, since an outbreak of H5N1 infection in poultry in Hong Kong in 1997, these viruses have been shown to be able to jump the species barrier and cause severe infection with a high mortality in humans.
So far these viruses only appear to have spread from person to person with difficulty, and with no further onward transmission, but concern is twofold:
The longer the outbreaks of H5N1 influenza that took hold in Asia in early 2004 last - and there are signs that the virus has become endemic in birds in the region - the more likely it is thought to be that a new virus will emerge. Even if the ability of the virus to cause disease in humans is attenuated, the potential remains for a future virus with pandemic potential to emerge and spread. Such a strain is likely to be antigenically different from the H5N1 strains currently circulating in Asia.
The degree of cross protection that would be afforded by an H5N1 vaccine prepared against the current H5N1 strain cannot be predicted."
The current bird flu outbreak is worrying because it could very easily jump to humans. And if the 1918 example is anything to go by, it would kill the 'healthiest' people most efficiently, by causing their immune system to overreact and destroy their lungs.
So yes, you might worry, but not too much because there's not a lot you can do about it.
It had stopped.
Perhaps he was looking for something a little less verbose...
static char* __helper(char *to, int foo)
{
if (foo >= 16)
to = __helper(to, foo / 16);
*to++ = "0123456789abcdef"[foo % 16];
return to;
}
void int_to_hex(char* buffer, int value)
{
*__helper(buffer, value) = 0;
}
It may be connected with with IBM Hursley, their UK laboratories in Winchester, England, which did some of the original development of disk drives. IBM has a review and discussionof disk 'file' innovation in the 25 years up to 1981 which describes the Winchester technology in some detail, but doesn't seem to identify where the work was carried out.
Notice how they've got a whole second level domain to themselves - not www.bl.co.uk or www.bl.gov.uk, just www.bl.uk.