I have a story to tell about Mr. Tramiel. He touched my life in such an obvious way, with such a hackable C64, and I got the chance to thank him in person for his vision.
I used to work in Silicon Valley. When I first went there, I had visions of rubbing elbows with personal computing luminaries like Jobs, Wozniak, Tramiel, and Bushnell. Let me tell you, working in a startup is not the way to make this happen. Of course, Nolan Bushnell doesn't live in Silicon Valley, and Steve Jobs was busy running Apple, so they got scratched off my list. I did get to meet Steve Wozniak, simply because I was in the right place at the right time. But Jack Tramiel was... well, someone I wanted to meet badly enough to track down myself.
I had heard he still lived near Silicon Valley, but it was only by sheer luck that I came across a way to contact him (which I won't share here). It was my last week to work before moving back east, and I worked up the courage to initiate contact with him. Immediately, I found out he was someone who valued what privacy he could get, so I had to explain why I wanted to meet him in person. He graciously agreed to meet me for Thursday lunch. That gave me two days to think about what I wanted to say to him, and to ask him.
Not that it mattered. I got there a little bit before he did, got shown to his customary booth, and started tripping over my own tongue as soon as he showed up. Any photos you've seen of him reflect exactly how he looked: somewhat rotund, mostly bald, clearly Jewish, and very contented with life. The ease with which he greeted me showed I wasn't the first 37-year-old Commodore fanboi he'd ever met.
We ordered our meals, and began to chat. I tried to present myself as respectfully as I could, but... really, this was Jack Tramiel, and I was having lunch with him! He explained right away that he had just come from the gym, he always ate there after his workout, and that's how the restaurant host knew where to seat me. He worked out three times a week, as a way to stay somewhat active, but he had a good life, he knew it, and it showed.
We talked about how he had learned what American business was about, and how he had learned about America. When I told him I was from Ohio, he piped up immediately with, "Ah, my favorite city is Toledo, Ohio. Even though I've never been there." I knew he was a Holocaust survivor, but I didn't know that an American from Toledo, Ohio was the first Allied soldier to greet him when the Ahlem labor camp was liberated. This soldier taught him to speak basic English, talking about Toledo, Ohio enough that it essentially became young Jacek's understanding of what city life in the USA was like.
We talked about Commodore Business Machines, and how the design evolved from the early PET, through the VIC-20, C-64, and C-128. He had wanted economical designs from the beginning of his involvement with computers, and his products reflected that. He bore no ill will towards IBM, Apple, or any of the other competitors. It was all business; life is too short for animosity on any level. As the fortunes of CBM varied through time, that philosophy made it easier for him to stand aside and let history take its course. (I've heard that from a few other Holocaust survivors as well.)
We also talked a little politics. I asked him what he thought about the conservative/liberal polemic, and his response was simple: The government governs a nation, but it's a nation of people. When a government prefers the nation over her citizens, they suffer as he suffered. He asserted that no form of government was completely immune to this hazard, but some are less suceptible to it.
I had a website that the time, and said something about what an incredible brag I would have for it. He demurred a little, and asked that I refrain from speaking publicly about having lunch with him, at least while he was alive. So I did.
Except that you know perfectly well that will never happen. The only way you can claim it will is by resorting to a "no true Scotsman" denial of reality.
If, by "they," you mean "corporate interests," then you aren't talking about the government. OTOH, if, by "they," you mean "elected representatives," then you're talking about a minority.
In either case, the overt supporters of SOPA and PIPA got a whole lot of egg on their faces. Congress was forced by the bad PR to back off, and the corporate backers of the bills lost a lot of business (does GoDaddy ring a bell?).
I would challenge "supremacy of the military" on the grounds that our Commander in Chief is, and always has been, a civilian. A veteran, perhaps, but never an active-duty soldier. And the second-in-command since 1949, the Secretary of Defense, is also a civilian.
As for "controlled mass media," well, you're posting on Slashdot, aren't you? And isn't the article two back titled "Millions of Subscribers Leaving Cable TV for Streaming Services"?
And a fantastic "sawfish-config" program that gives you GUI access to just about every configurable option, from basic to really esoteric, including theme-specific options. That way, you don't have to know Lisp or Scheme(*) to configure it.
(*)Or rep, the Lisp implementation developed by John Harper for his Sawmill/Sawfish project. "rep" is an abbreviation for "read-evaluate-print", the loop that Lisp-ish languages use. The desire has been expressed on the Sawfish Wiki, and on the mailing list, to re-work Sawfish for a more standardized Lisp-ish language, probably Scheme.
"We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr J. Arkell. We note that Mr Arkell's attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off."
The original can stand, as well. The suits can keep their crappy proprietary systems. They can keep their heavy-handed tactics. And they can keep digging their hole, all the way to China.
Replying to undo bad mod.
But I agree with you, wholeheartedly. In fact, I'll take it a step further: criminal charges for those responsible, and if found guilty, incarcerate them with the population they helped put away. This should be the rule for every LEO and judge caught abusing their offices.
True, but again, this overflow will show up much sooner in a smaller setting, say when the algorithm is compiled with 16-bit or even 8-bit integer variables.
You haven't shown that 2^64 is an inherent lower bound for the appearance of the overflow bug.
I picked 2^64 only because I'm currently using an AMD64X2. It will vary from one architecture to another, anyway, unless the code uses types with explicit bit-widths, like "uint64" or "float80". The point is, know the hardware and software specs, and their accompanying limitations, and make sure you don't exceed them.
Incidentally, people who don't know about computer architecture wouldn't be aware about overflows, so wouldn't know to check these conditions. Something about semi-educated programmers and their ability to debug code?
More like their ability to develop quality code to begin with. I seriously doubt they would get hired, or their software used, by the Big Data described in the article.
If it isn't working correctly on a petabyte dataset, then it isn't "working correctly", period, no matter how well-hidden the bugs are with gigabyte and terabyte datasets. An unhandled overflow error that doesn't manifest until you exceed 2^64, is still an unhandled overflow error.
For a trivial example of my point, try using 32-bit signed integers to calculate the Collatz iteration of 113,383.
Your favorite candidate has no chance of winning the one poll that matters, and he never will, thanks to his own history. And the fact that everybody knows this, does not mean there is some big Conspiracy to Keep Your Man Down. He did it to himself; the only thing everyone else is doing to him is telling the truth. It's why he refuses to do most campaign interviews: he knows he'll be called to account for his past actions.
Slashdot Mirror
Which is why we must remain on guard against SOPA and PIPA. I'm already hearing rumblings from their supporters to try again.
"Draft law" is only one dropped letter away from "daft law".
I'll say it was within the past 10 years. Yes, I'm being vague, for personal reasons.
I have a story to tell about Mr. Tramiel. He touched my life in such an obvious way, with such a hackable C64, and I got the chance to thank him in person for his vision.
I used to work in Silicon Valley. When I first went there, I had visions of rubbing elbows with personal computing luminaries like Jobs, Wozniak, Tramiel, and Bushnell. Let me tell you, working in a startup is not the way to make this happen. Of course, Nolan Bushnell doesn't live in Silicon Valley, and Steve Jobs was busy running Apple, so they got scratched off my list. I did get to meet Steve Wozniak, simply because I was in the right place at the right time. But Jack Tramiel was... well, someone I wanted to meet badly enough to track down myself.
I had heard he still lived near Silicon Valley, but it was only by sheer luck that I came across a way to contact him (which I won't share here). It was my last week to work before moving back east, and I worked up the courage to initiate contact with him. Immediately, I found out he was someone who valued what privacy he could get, so I had to explain why I wanted to meet him in person. He graciously agreed to meet me for Thursday lunch. That gave me two days to think about what I wanted to say to him, and to ask him.
Not that it mattered. I got there a little bit before he did, got shown to his customary booth, and started tripping over my own tongue as soon as he showed up. Any photos you've seen of him reflect exactly how he looked: somewhat rotund, mostly bald, clearly Jewish, and very contented with life. The ease with which he greeted me showed I wasn't the first 37-year-old Commodore fanboi he'd ever met.
We ordered our meals, and began to chat. I tried to present myself as respectfully as I could, but... really, this was Jack Tramiel, and I was having lunch with him! He explained right away that he had just come from the gym, he always ate there after his workout, and that's how the restaurant host knew where to seat me. He worked out three times a week, as a way to stay somewhat active, but he had a good life, he knew it, and it showed.
We talked about how he had learned what American business was about, and how he had learned about America. When I told him I was from Ohio, he piped up immediately with, "Ah, my favorite city is Toledo, Ohio. Even though I've never been there." I knew he was a Holocaust survivor, but I didn't know that an American from Toledo, Ohio was the first Allied soldier to greet him when the Ahlem labor camp was liberated. This soldier taught him to speak basic English, talking about Toledo, Ohio enough that it essentially became young Jacek's understanding of what city life in the USA was like.
We talked about Commodore Business Machines, and how the design evolved from the early PET, through the VIC-20, C-64, and C-128. He had wanted economical designs from the beginning of his involvement with computers, and his products reflected that. He bore no ill will towards IBM, Apple, or any of the other competitors. It was all business; life is too short for animosity on any level. As the fortunes of CBM varied through time, that philosophy made it easier for him to stand aside and let history take its course. (I've heard that from a few other Holocaust survivors as well.)
We also talked a little politics. I asked him what he thought about the conservative/liberal polemic, and his response was simple: The government governs a nation, but it's a nation of people. When a government prefers the nation over her citizens, they suffer as he suffered. He asserted that no form of government was completely immune to this hazard, but some are less suceptible to it.
I had a website that the time, and said something about what an incredible brag I would have for it. He demurred a little, and asked that I refrain from speaking publicly about having lunch with him, at least while he was alive. So I did.
The hour and a half I spent
Apple would simply have found another source.
Furthermore, if the LEO is indeed acting properly, your video will be his/her defense when the perp becomes vengeful.
If everyone intelligent did it
Except that you know perfectly well that will never happen. The only way you can claim it will is by resorting to a "no true Scotsman" denial of reality.
Why do you think they're pushing PIPA and SOPA?
If, by "they," you mean "corporate interests," then you aren't talking about the government. OTOH, if, by "they," you mean "elected representatives," then you're talking about a minority.
In either case, the overt supporters of SOPA and PIPA got a whole lot of egg on their faces. Congress was forced by the bad PR to back off, and the corporate backers of the bills lost a lot of business (does GoDaddy ring a bell?).
I would challenge "supremacy of the military" on the grounds that our Commander in Chief is, and always has been, a civilian. A veteran, perhaps, but never an active-duty soldier. And the second-in-command since 1949, the Secretary of Defense, is also a civilian.
As for "controlled mass media," well, you're posting on Slashdot, aren't you? And isn't the article two back titled "Millions of Subscribers Leaving Cable TV for Streaming Services"?
An ARM emulator running on an 8-bit microcontroller.
Alan Turing strikes again!
So its got a lispy config file.
And a fantastic "sawfish-config" program that gives you GUI access to just about every configurable option, from basic to really esoteric, including theme-specific options. That way, you don't have to know Lisp or Scheme(*) to configure it.
(*)Or rep, the Lisp implementation developed by John Harper for his Sawmill/Sawfish project. "rep" is an abbreviation for "read-evaluate-print", the loop that Lisp-ish languages use. The desire has been expressed on the Sawfish Wiki, and on the mailing list, to re-work Sawfish for a more standardized Lisp-ish language, probably Scheme.
RPi didn't sell me anything, either. No money has changed hands. No money will change hands until it ships. I'm merely in the queue to get one.
(Way, way down in the queue, apparently...)
Just be glad you didn't have a case of the crabs!
But my mother lives in Hackensack!
1816, the Year Without a Summer. And now this is the Year Without a Winter.
After all, every computer so far trusts that its human programmer(s) have a clue. This bad assumption is the greatest source of uncertainty.
Arkell v. Pressdram:
"We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr J. Arkell. We note that Mr Arkell's attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off."
The original can stand, as well. The suits can keep their crappy proprietary systems. They can keep their heavy-handed tactics. And they can keep digging their hole, all the way to China.
You're hoping to understand your un-subbed tentacle porn?
Replying to undo bad mod. But I agree with you, wholeheartedly. In fact, I'll take it a step further: criminal charges for those responsible, and if found guilty, incarcerate them with the population they helped put away. This should be the rule for every LEO and judge caught abusing their offices.
MSIE's download progress bars lie 99% of the time, and just make something up the other 17%.
Can we trust the reported times for MSIE users to work these calcudoku puzzles?
True, but again, this overflow will show up much sooner in a smaller setting, say when the algorithm is compiled with 16-bit or even 8-bit integer variables. You haven't shown that 2^64 is an inherent lower bound for the appearance of the overflow bug.
I picked 2^64 only because I'm currently using an AMD64X2. It will vary from one architecture to another, anyway, unless the code uses types with explicit bit-widths, like "uint64" or "float80". The point is, know the hardware and software specs, and their accompanying limitations, and make sure you don't exceed them.
Incidentally, people who don't know about computer architecture wouldn't be aware about overflows, so wouldn't know to check these conditions. Something about semi-educated programmers and their ability to debug code?
More like their ability to develop quality code to begin with. I seriously doubt they would get hired, or their software used, by the Big Data described in the article.
If it isn't working correctly on a petabyte dataset, then it isn't "working correctly", period, no matter how well-hidden the bugs are with gigabyte and terabyte datasets. An unhandled overflow error that doesn't manifest until you exceed 2^64, is still an unhandled overflow error.
For a trivial example of my point, try using 32-bit signed integers to calculate the Collatz iteration of 113,383.
Stop being a Paul-bot and RTFA.
Your favorite candidate has no chance of winning the one poll that matters, and he never will, thanks to his own history. And the fact that everybody knows this, does not mean there is some big Conspiracy to Keep Your Man Down. He did it to himself; the only thing everyone else is doing to him is telling the truth. It's why he refuses to do most campaign interviews: he knows he'll be called to account for his past actions.
He's no victim. Stop with the histrionics.
is a Metallica song with birds in the background.
Lars, meet Rumblefish. Rumblefish, Lars.
Who's got the popcorn for this show?
As parent demonstrates...