Having been recently accused of “vile” habits in regard to tea-drinking, I feel that I need to clear the air. :) I’ve never been officially tested, but I am almost certainly a supertaster. (This explains, among other things, my aversion to most vegetables and my status as a nationally ranked beer judge). I’ve never been…
Tag: geekthoughts
I found this article interesting. The author posits: “A good programmer will spend most of his time doing work that he hates, using tools and technologies that he also hates.†While I disagree with many of his supporting arguments, I think the overall theme is pretty accurate. Working with software, the good parts seem to…
Found this article interesting. Not too many hundreds of years ago, cutting-edge scientific research involved watching balls roll down ramps. Making fundamental discoveries seems to be slowing down, or at least getting harder. As a consequence, we should expect more big discoveries from the sciences where the relevant technology follows a Moore’s-Law-like exponential growth trajectory….
Facebook (v): to deliberately create an impenetrable computer user interface for purposes of manipulating users. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
According to this article, a recent terror suspect almost got on a plane despite being recently added to the no-fly list. Why is it so difficult to administer a no-fly list? The CAP Theorem has answers. (Disclaimer: as always, this blog is apolitical–this isn’t about whether no-fly lists are a good idea or not, only…
Dora: Oh no! Lawrence Fawusu, 52, Operational Manager of the International Commercial Bank Ghana Limited is in trouble! He needs to move the sum of US$22, 000.000 (TWENTY TWO MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLAR) outside the country, but doesn’t know where to turn. Dora: Who do we call when we don’t know the way to go?…
If Moore’s law applies to flash (and flash-like) memory storage, and it certainly seems like it does, in another decade we will all be carrying around a terabyte on our phones. What happens then? More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
Tractors are to dogs as rocking chairs are to cats. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
If you live close enough to a Netflix mailing hub, it’s possible to get on the maximal schedule: Enjoy a DVD over the weekend Mail it back on Monday Tusday, Netflix gets it, ships a new one Which you get (and watch) on Wednesday Return in Thursday mail Friday, Netflix gets it, ships a new…
First draft: get it on the paper (or screen). No editing. No criticism. Crap is fine, just get it down. Leave markers in trouble spots, but don’t stop. First revision: Quick pass over everything. Get the obvious flaws fixed. Wordsmithing, checking for horrible words, passive voice, adverbly writing, etc. Skip over the hard stuff. About…
Raining bacon. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
My personal stability theory, as it applies to software engineering: in a multilayered software architecture, the likelihood layer N works well can be expressed as a probability (less than 1 in practice) relative to the lower level layer N-1. For example, if you attempt to write a mission critical Tcl app on a flaky Tcl…
I think estimation is an important skill, and if not, I’ll eat my 10,000 hats. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
All the input/output/port stuff in XProc seemed incomprehensible to me until I recognized something simple. Every time you see a <pipe> element, read it as “comes from”. For example <p:output port=”result”> <p:pipe step=”validated” port=”result”/> </p:output> reads as ‘output to the “result” port comes from the port “result” on step “validated”‘ and <p:input port=”source”> <p:pipe step=”included”…
The rules of Nomic Chess start out like regular chess, except that when it is your turn, instead of making a move, you can change the rules such that any particular class of pieces (say pawns) can move like any other class of pieces (say queens). An optional second rule is that when you are…
From CMSMcQ at Balisage: Context switches are expensive. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
I hate moving at high speed with multiple large chunks of metal in close formation. I hate the sound of traffic. The smell. I hate it when people jump in a car to drive somewhere a block away. I hate driving. I hate parking. I hate SUVs. Also, getting a root canal leaves me in…
There are no limits, only quanta. There is no smooth, only lumpy. Analog is a myth; the world is digital. We just haven’t found the extent of its mantissa. – SymbolismLost. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
Since all these childhood media properties (just recently Transformers, G.I. Joe, Land of the Lost) are getting the movie treatment, why not a few more? Pez, the movie (directed by Michael Bay) A band of interdimensional travelers with rectangular bodies and grotesquely large heads arrive on earth to plant monitoring probes, with sprout out of…
Google Android Will Be on 18-20 Phones by End of 2009 source. Let’s see, Larry, Sergey and Eric Schmidt, there’s three phones… More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
My plan is to start unsubstantiated rumors about the SUV Flu, and by association cause people to distance themselves from said implicated devices. You can help. Despite denials from the CDC (you know they’re in the pockets of the auto industry), SUV flu is serious and spreading fast. You might already have it and not…
The following is from an actual Midwestern newspaper clipping (you know, the things printed on flattened trees) from circa 1992. Monday, July 19, 7 p.m. — Overeaters Anonymous at the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, use south door (kitchen). On a serious note, researchers at Cornell University found that people who pass through an entryway near…
Never trust a document with “Manifesto” in the title, nor that document’s writer. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
Omito: (Spanish) First-person singular (yo) present indicative form of omitir (to omit). (Proto-English) Shortened word form of an error of omission, e.g. in written. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
Your search – :-) – did not match any documents. Suggestions: Try different keywords. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
Sudo says make me a sandwitch. Sudo says clap your hands. Sudo says touch your nose. Sudo says turn in a circle. Now give me a thumbs up. Ha! I didn’t say sudo says! More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
With apologies to a real news site. (02-27) 16:14 PST SEATTLE, (AP) Amazon.com Inc. changed course Friday and said it would allow copyright holders to decide whether they will permit their works to be read aloud by the latest laryngeal apparatus, a feature that has been under development for several thousand years. The move comes…
It is what you don’t expect that most needs looking for. From Neal Stephenson’s Anathem, p 29. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.
Steorn is making noise again about the free energy device they claim to have invented. The proper scientific attitude to have toward such claims is skepticism, though most responses (always from individual who have never seen it) goes well beyond that. But think of the downside if every phone, iPod, refrigerator, car, air conditioning unit,…
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. — attributed to Pablo Picasso. Economies are useless. They can only provide goods and services. More collected Geek Thoughts at http://geekthoughts.info.