Re: Three-way comparison - long overdue
But others will tell you that's too complex.
8318 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2009
I've always found computing to be non-orthogonal. OK I grew up with lots of different languages but C and C++ were my main weapons and C++ has its history writ large in its syntax but its all logical as far as I can see. There's a rational use-case for everything in it, it might not be your rational use-case but you are free to write your own language which will magically become as complex as C++ once you've added solutions to all the rational use-cases and as 'ugly' to the majority of users.
If a language is simple enough for you to know all of it then its not complicated enough for modern use. If you are using bits of a language you dont understand RTFM.
I think, like many seemingly superior offerings, by the time it had all the security and other things required for a modern operating system it would be, well like a modern system of some form.
The Amiga was good because it wasn't using 8086 small model compatibility, something MS-Dos did which lost computing a decade as a result.
Friction occurs as the air passes along the edges of the incoming object. However at the front the compression of air is what causes the massive temperature rise. This results in temperatures far higher than we can achieve in an oxyacetylene torch - and you've never say one of those frictioned its way through the safe door.
One thing about HTML is style sheets and javascript. One idea behind them is the recipient can use their style sheets to enhance accessibility amongst other things. Its also possible to completely obfuscate the content by a simple change to a style sheet which can move a word forward or backward in a message.
In the same way I would never be dumb enough to send a legal document as a PDF to someone to print and sign I would never expect HTML to look exactly like it does on my machine because I cannot guarantee how it appears - you must have noticed how web sites fail to display sometimes as the CSS or javascript doesnt load for some reason Its not safe enough for important things.
Only if it can afford intelligent managers capable of understanding and using the software. It never ceases to amaze me how confused high paid executive officers are confused with things like stock control. Most of them would be delighted with their cut of sales to the lad and would not be happy to lose it.
Fruit trees benefit from seemingly savage pruning from time to time.This includes branches, ring barking where a ring of up 9/10ths of bark around the tree is removed. Root pruning is also an option. It is thought the near death experience forces them to be fruitful rather than just CO2 stores.
I used to work on a GEC4000 that could spot lightning 30 miles away, despite being quite far inside building with lots of stuff you would think shielding, though of course it could have been serial line for one of the other computers acting as an aerial. As the summer storms used to come up from France is was often a lot better than the weather forecast as to what was going to happen. Friday afternoon - blank screen. hot humid air, sunny skies? Reboot and see if you can get to a a good save point and then leg it home and down the pub on the docks to have a beer or two while the storm rumbled over the sea full of lighting and eventually a cold wind would spill over the quay which would signal the time to get into the pub and order 4 pints so you could have something to drink in the lightning flashed dark as the power went out.
I remember the joy of managing to ease a two pin plug into a socket in a very posh French hotel though there was an ominous click as it got fully seated. After a pleasant weeks work and some serious food we packed up to leave on the Friday morning and the boss popped in to jolly me along and saw the lead hanging out of the socket. I'd packed the laptop and PS and decided the lead wouldnt be coming with me without some serious problems having realised it was the wrong plug and the ominous click was the metal end dislocating. I'd even unscrewed it to check and decided to pretend I'd forgotten the lead. The boss looked at it and just grabbed and pulled yanking the socket and ten foot of ducting all the way up wall and some rather nice plaster architrave where it disappeared into the ceiling void. I was heading out through the door at the time and I might have escaped to the lobby if I hadn't stupidly pissed myself laughing which meant I had to stand their looking stupid while he blamed it all on me!
"Somehow the term "AI" loses its mystery if all it comes down to is matrix maths". I have a feeling when we work out how evolution wires lots of these simple matrix maths engines together your jaw will happily move back to lower than a snakes belly mode. Well assuming you can actually grasp how it works that is.
EIV but by phone. There is a condition called Engineer In Vicinity whereby a machine that fails regularly will function perfectly when the engineer with eye-watering charges is in attendance. I had a Superbrain II that failed to boot from disk or exhibited some disk problem. The engineer was called and it booted flawlessly about 30 times and flawlessly passed a multitude of tests, Forms were signed and the machine functioned flawlessly until (in the days before mobile phones) the engineer drove past the security for her 3 hour drive home only to be called back to repeat the process the next day.
I was hiring a jeep in the Caribbean while suffering from jetlag. It was an automatic (?) and I started the thing and attempted to manually put it into gear which involved my left hand reaching for the gear lever and it being LHD opening the door while simultaneously trying to push down the non-existent clutch unbalancing myself and falling out onto the floor next to the nice lady who had just rented me her lovely new car!
Who the fuck invented traffic alerts? I used to drive down from Herts to the west country to go diving many weekends, 6:30 on radio 4 there was normally some pretty good comedy. It would invariably be interrupted by a traffic alert from some pissant station two hundred miles away and of no relevance and I'd manually switch back to R4 to hear the studio audience dying of hysterics and then miss the rest of the program arguing with the missus about turning off the traffic alerts in her car as I've never heard a relevant one. Why the fuck I'd want to hear about a Norfolk tractor accident in Dorset is beyond me,
I had a tower with a big heatsink and big fan. The fan was running fine but the damn thing was still overheating. All looked good - shiny fan blades seemingly whizzing round but holding a bit of tissue nearby indicated little airflow. Unscrewed the fan to find the heatsink was chock full of fine yellow dust which turned out to be from the foam in the comfy old chair a couple of feet away. In the right light you could see a little puff of the dust coming out from the cushion as you slumped into it heading directly into the air intake on the tower. For some reason the stuff only liked to stick on to aluminium which it did with relish. Took about two hours to scrape it all out as I hadn't got any thermal paste to hand and didnt want to pressure wash it in situ! Turned the cushion round so the leak went into the chair body and all was well,