|
Sean Ewington wrote: Freaked out
That's the polite version!
|
|
|
|
|
Is the head of Y Combinator fixing the world, or trying to take over Silicon Valley? Sorry about the font.
|
|
|
|
|
A judge in Texas has put the kibosh on a last-minute legal attempt to block the controversial decision for the US to give up control of one of the key systems that powers the internet. Freedom?
|
|
|
|
|
|
In his current column for the Communications of the ACM, Cerf worries about the decreasing longevity of our media, and, thus, about our ability as a civilization to self-document—to have a historical record that one day far in the future might be remarked upon and learned from. Surely someone is preserving these jokes on clay tablets.
|
|
|
|
|
It’s not just systemd, not just Linux, not just software; the whole industry is at fault. We have taught ourselves, wrongly, that there is no alternative. A poor craftsman blames his tools.
|
|
|
|
|
He quotes Andrew Ayer in there: "Go and Rust are compelling, safe languages for writing the type of systems software that has traditionally been written in C."
Rust, I agree - it is squarely aiming at the kinds of tasks traditionally written in C/C++.
Go, on the other hand, is *not* a systems programming language. It has strengths for writing all sorts of software, but there is simply no way it will ever be used to write a safe alternative to something like Systemd.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
|
|
|
|
|
Sean Ewington wrote: A poor craftsman blames his tools.
Agreed. Much as I disparage script languages, this statement:
Everything is terrible because the fundamental tools we use are, still, so flawed that when used they inevitably craft terrible things.
I very much disagree with. It really isn't the tool's fault.
It's ironic that he quoted Ayer (my bold):
Writing bug-free software is extremely difficult … good programmers recognize the difficulty of writing bug-free software and understand the importance of designing software in a way that minimizes the likelihood of bugs or at least reduces their impact. The systemd developers understand none of this, opting to cram an enormous amount of unnecessary complexity … written in a memory-unsafe language.
The issue is not the tool! Give me a plumber's wrench and I can make a complete mess of the plumbing fixtures because I have no idea how to properly use the tools of the trade.
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
Good programmers can make good software despite bad tools - it will just take more time and be worst than what they could do with better tools, but still good.
Good programmers recognize bad tools and won't use them, if given the chance.
If you take a monkey and give it good tools you still have things produced by a monkey (basically dejections and annoyance).
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
|
|
|
|
|
I think there's some truth it this, but for a different reason--all these toy languages distract too many developers and diminish their expertise. As they say, Jack of all trades, master of none, though many don't even rise to the level of "jack of all trades".
Another big impact is that when a "cool" language loving developer leaves, the team has a real problem finding a replacement. Thirteen years ago, I got an interview as a Python programmer because my resume was the only one with the word Python on it--though what I'd done is to convert a Python tool to C++! (In the end, they were forced to hire a transfer from another department who didn't know Python at all.)
|
|
|
|
|
The spacecraft arrived at the Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which is about 4km on its longest side, in 2014. It became the first mission to orbit around a comet, and, with its small Philae lander, the first to touch down on a comet’s surface. Spoiler alert: It 'sploded.
|
|
|
|
|
An open source, physically secure personal computer. ORLY
|
|
|
|
|
Our database load used to be rather write heavy, but the reads increased in a disproportionate amount every day, and we kept throwing money at the problem without really knowing why.
But then one day, I went to actually find out - and this story is meant to guide you in a similar effort. A cautionary tale.
|
|
|
|
|
This is a traffic light controlled by a Raspberry Pi, and hooked up to a publicly accessible website. Harmless, mild amusement.
|
|
|
|
|
One common complaint in the twenty-first century is that nothing is built to last. Even complex, expensive computers seem to have a relatively short shelf-life nowadays. One computer in a small auto repair shop in Gdansk, Poland, however, has survived for the last twenty-five years against all odds. The Little Commodore That Could
|
|
|
|
|
Redmond is working hard to add some much-needed checks and balances to its platform. One of these is age ratings. Adapt or die.
|
|
|
|
|
Despite high-profile, large-scale data breaches dominating the news cycle – and repeated recommendations from experts to use strong passwords – consumers have yet to adjust their own behavior when it comes to password reuse. Yea but I put my birth date at the end. You'd never guess how old I am, I'm practically ageless.
|
|
|
|
|
Posting this isnt a good idea, because it is a constant 
Press F1 for help or google it.
Greetings from Germany
|
|
|
|
|
My passwords are strong and unbreakable. I create them by writing 16 random letters, numbers, and special characters, in no specific order, on a piece of paper; so no one could ever guess them. I then fold the paper and put it under my keyboard. I got that idea from a coworker because that's what all the smart people do.
|
|
|
|
|
We're online, all the time. Day and night. Weekday and weekend. Technology, supposed to make our lives easier, has made it a lot more complicated. You can take the internet from my cold, dead hands.
|
|
|
|
|
I find I need to go offline for a bare minimum of least 40 hours/week or even caffeine can't keep me going; 45-50 if I don't want to either drug myself awake or asleep. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
|
|
|
|
|
Indian users claim sharing information with Facebook puts their privacy in danger. OK so maybe they will 'now,' but weren't gonna.
|
|
|
|
|
A day after announcing a new artificial intelligence partnership with IBM, Google, Facebook and Amazon, Microsoft is upping the ante within its own walls. "My horn will toot the loudest."
|
|
|
|
|
If many politicians are to be believed, an Internet disaster is set to commence this Saturday. That's when a tiny branch of the US Commerce Department officially hands over its oversight of the Internet's "address book" or root zone—the highest level of the domain naming system (DNS) structure—to a nonprofit, a Los Angeles-based body called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) tl;dr: Conservative politicians are resisting change
modified 30-Sep-16 16:23pm.
|
|
|
|
|
By analyzing 26 million online job postings, researchers discovered that approximately half of the jobs in the top income quartile (paying a minimum of $57,000 a year) required some degree of computer coding skills. "Some people say it's folly, but I'd rather have the lolly"
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
