The fundamental problem this argument has is that computers are in the world. Probably not to the degree required and certainly not up to AGI. But, self driving cars and Boston dynamics exist. The gap between "in the…
People deciding to stop working is a good thing. It means they have market power and potential employers need to take that into account.
I've written maps that I've regretted later. "map(+1, list)" isn't too bad. But as you chain things and/or put more in the lambda, it gets less comprehensible. Then, some cross cutting requirement comes in and you…
Scripts are a subset of program focusing. The primary characteristic being they rely on another program to interpret the source at run time. Scripts also tend to be a problematic subset since libraries written in…
There are still 2 basic sources of benefit. First, power stations generally use turbines which are much more efficient than internal combustion engines. Even after accounting for inefficiencies electric often comes out…
My keyboard is set up in a similar manner but it adds a point of complexity. Ctrl-Shift-Arrow is harder to use since the Fn key is trying to take up a thumb.
I'll give it points for the arrow keys. There just really isn't much in the way of good positions for arrow keys on a split layout. That said I don't like what it's doing with the thumbs. Thumbs want to move radially…
Would say the best reason to try something weird is if the normal approach just isn't working. I never managed to touch type on a normal keyboard. Now that I'm using a split layout, I've learned to touch type. That…
Manufactured or pre-made split keyboards aren't cheap. However if you're making your own the costs aren't all that different. So it's easier to ignore the cost and effort if you're making a split keyboard. Also by…
You can make a mechanical keyboards significantly quieter. Most of the noise isn't actually from the switches themselves but rather from the impact of the keys bottoming out into hard plastic. So a set or 2 of o-rings…
Sadly, I use an Android and can't say if this is what I would want but it seems on a better path. Most things I've seen for Android are replicating a traditional graphing calculator. Which suffers from 2 major problems.…
This kinda captures one of my concerns. While I could care less about the particulars of how people interact with computers, I do find it concerning that modern devices seem to make general purpose computing less…
Personal experience tells me that size is probably a proxy for "this code is mathematically written". If you have even a vague idea of the math of the code you're writing, the code tends to be both shorter and have…
It's been a while since I've used it but yum used to tie up my machine pretty badly on significant upgrades. After reboot it could take hours to finish applying the upgrade, during which time the machine was usable. Apt…
That's not really what tends to happen with deer. The situation starts with them on one side of the road deciding to cross. Then the partway through they freeze. There's often not time to react. Deer are very poorly…
The thing is that it doesn't really matter. There are only 2 options here. Either, the car should have seen the woman and taken corrective action or it was driving faster than it can see. Just because the speed limit…
Personally, I don't find it all that bad. The digitizer on our tablet our tablet crapped out a few months back. I found a YouTube video on how to replace it. The tools cost like $7 off of Amazon and the digitizer was…
I'm not sure Apollo is the best benchmark. The primary goal was to send the astronauts there and bring them back. Just changing the primary goal should result in a huge reduction in the cost per gram. You'd just send a…
That's some wells. When I was growing up, my parents' well was pretty much untreated. The water was a acidic so that first morning drink of water tasted of copper. I suspect most of the safety came from arranging the…
I think the general problem with any automated solution is that there is so much room to game them. For instance, I could selectively replace a few visible ASCII characters with non-ASCII look a likes. Then, the…
I once did a thought experiment on what it would take to replace the paper scoring sheets for horse competition. It was fairly daunting. It needs to be simple enough for a lay person to use well. Recording, corrections,…
At what point do you call someone a programmer? They seem to be using "knowing how to code in a traditional programming language". However, I would not use that definition. Most of what we do though is thinking about a…
Cigarettes are literally dried up leaves. Their customers light the product on fire and then buy more the next day. Given that as a viable business model, how do you not make ridiculous quantities of money?
It's a bit of an unfair comparison though. The problem and tool set were predefined before Knuth started. Also it's a problem that's particularly suited to Unix tools. There are many problems where Web might have…
Static types and tests check different things. Tests are for making things function as desired. Types are for making sure they actually connect sensibly where desired. Sometimes you can use them for the other purposes…
The fundamental problem this argument has is that computers are in the world. Probably not to the degree required and certainly not up to AGI. But, self driving cars and Boston dynamics exist. The gap between "in the…
People deciding to stop working is a good thing. It means they have market power and potential employers need to take that into account.
I've written maps that I've regretted later. "map(+1, list)" isn't too bad. But as you chain things and/or put more in the lambda, it gets less comprehensible. Then, some cross cutting requirement comes in and you…
Scripts are a subset of program focusing. The primary characteristic being they rely on another program to interpret the source at run time. Scripts also tend to be a problematic subset since libraries written in…
There are still 2 basic sources of benefit. First, power stations generally use turbines which are much more efficient than internal combustion engines. Even after accounting for inefficiencies electric often comes out…
My keyboard is set up in a similar manner but it adds a point of complexity. Ctrl-Shift-Arrow is harder to use since the Fn key is trying to take up a thumb.
I'll give it points for the arrow keys. There just really isn't much in the way of good positions for arrow keys on a split layout. That said I don't like what it's doing with the thumbs. Thumbs want to move radially…
Would say the best reason to try something weird is if the normal approach just isn't working. I never managed to touch type on a normal keyboard. Now that I'm using a split layout, I've learned to touch type. That…
Manufactured or pre-made split keyboards aren't cheap. However if you're making your own the costs aren't all that different. So it's easier to ignore the cost and effort if you're making a split keyboard. Also by…
You can make a mechanical keyboards significantly quieter. Most of the noise isn't actually from the switches themselves but rather from the impact of the keys bottoming out into hard plastic. So a set or 2 of o-rings…
Sadly, I use an Android and can't say if this is what I would want but it seems on a better path. Most things I've seen for Android are replicating a traditional graphing calculator. Which suffers from 2 major problems.…
This kinda captures one of my concerns. While I could care less about the particulars of how people interact with computers, I do find it concerning that modern devices seem to make general purpose computing less…
Personal experience tells me that size is probably a proxy for "this code is mathematically written". If you have even a vague idea of the math of the code you're writing, the code tends to be both shorter and have…
It's been a while since I've used it but yum used to tie up my machine pretty badly on significant upgrades. After reboot it could take hours to finish applying the upgrade, during which time the machine was usable. Apt…
That's not really what tends to happen with deer. The situation starts with them on one side of the road deciding to cross. Then the partway through they freeze. There's often not time to react. Deer are very poorly…
The thing is that it doesn't really matter. There are only 2 options here. Either, the car should have seen the woman and taken corrective action or it was driving faster than it can see. Just because the speed limit…
Personally, I don't find it all that bad. The digitizer on our tablet our tablet crapped out a few months back. I found a YouTube video on how to replace it. The tools cost like $7 off of Amazon and the digitizer was…
I'm not sure Apollo is the best benchmark. The primary goal was to send the astronauts there and bring them back. Just changing the primary goal should result in a huge reduction in the cost per gram. You'd just send a…
That's some wells. When I was growing up, my parents' well was pretty much untreated. The water was a acidic so that first morning drink of water tasted of copper. I suspect most of the safety came from arranging the…
I think the general problem with any automated solution is that there is so much room to game them. For instance, I could selectively replace a few visible ASCII characters with non-ASCII look a likes. Then, the…
I once did a thought experiment on what it would take to replace the paper scoring sheets for horse competition. It was fairly daunting. It needs to be simple enough for a lay person to use well. Recording, corrections,…
At what point do you call someone a programmer? They seem to be using "knowing how to code in a traditional programming language". However, I would not use that definition. Most of what we do though is thinking about a…
Cigarettes are literally dried up leaves. Their customers light the product on fire and then buy more the next day. Given that as a viable business model, how do you not make ridiculous quantities of money?
It's a bit of an unfair comparison though. The problem and tool set were predefined before Knuth started. Also it's a problem that's particularly suited to Unix tools. There are many problems where Web might have…
Static types and tests check different things. Tests are for making things function as desired. Types are for making sure they actually connect sensibly where desired. Sometimes you can use them for the other purposes…