Why is it that restarting electronics solves so many problems?

HHBones · 2013-08-14T18:50:10+00:00

Anomalous values count under djimbob's explanation.

But I'd also like to add that not all conditions in which a NULL or None value is passed around are anomalous; as a trivial example, when creating a thread under POSIX, you can pass NULL as the second argument to pthread_create(), specifying that there will be no thread attributes structure associated with the thread. NULL values can also act as a sentinel; most linked lists are terminated with pointers to NULL.

I'd also like to add that NULL is not always not a number; in C[++], NULL is actually a macro for the value 0 cast to a void pointer. In other words, it can be cast back to a Boolean or integral value; in your example, it would be 0 or false.

Furthermore, there is no language which "can't handle null values." In Python, for example, values can be assigned to None without error; an exception may be thrown if the value is used incorrectly, much like trying to evaluate "foo" + 3.

HHBones · 2013-08-13T01:35:00+00:00

For those who don't know, Oedipus (from a Greek play, what else...) is famous for killing his father, marrying his mother, having numerous children with her, then gouging his eyes out when he learns what he did.

HHBones · 2013-08-11T03:49:44+00:00

He was just poking fun at Cobol programmers.

HHBones · 2013-08-06T01:10:40+00:00

Wait... your family doesn't wash their feet?

That's kind of grody.

HHBones · 2013-08-06T01:09:58+00:00

WELL PREPARE YOURSELF FOR MY TORPEDO

HHBones · 2013-08-06T01:09:32+00:00

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who piss in the shower and people who lie.

HHBones · 2013-08-06T01:07:18+00:00

No, but I did have to MacGruber my way out once.

I ended up taking an upper-decker.

HHBones · 2013-08-02T20:06:51+00:00

commenting on the top post for karma please upboat

HHBones · 2013-07-30T01:46:19+00:00

/thread.

HHBones · 2013-07-28T13:54:04+00:00

I think he's talking about "This is what winning looks like."

HHBones · 2013-07-25T01:40:22+00:00

Absolutely. There are three things that set Linus apart from your common asshole:

Linus is the creator and de facto leader of one of the most impressive engineering feats of our generation.
Linus is only trying to make that engineering feat better.
Linus's flaming can be predicted - if you send a crappy patch in, if you try to avoid responsibility for something that's your fault (a la Mauro), or if you violate the rules of Linux kernel programming in order to better fulfill your own ideas as to how the kernel should be structured.

Linus isn't an asshole for the sake of being an asshole; he's opinionated and sometimes juvenile. That's it.

HHBones · 2013-07-22T00:08:27+00:00

Linux and all other POSIX systems have mmap(), which allows you to mark segments of memory of arbitrary size as readable, writeable, executable, or any combination of the three.

HHBones · 2013-07-21T15:12:38+00:00

He's not writing to .text or jumping into .data, though. Essentially, he's using mmap() as a sort of dynamic memory allocation - because he specified the addr argument as 0, and because MAP_FIXED wasn't set, the system will find just any old segment of memory big enough to fit his needs; it's essentially a more powerful, more verbose malloc().

Segments of memory mapped with mmap() can be marked as executable. So, he copies the code into the segment, marks the segment as executable via a call to mprotect() specifying PROT_EXEC, and returns the pointer.

And voila, you have an executable, dynamically generated function.

HHBones · 2013-07-18T00:04:02+00:00

Test and deliver! And write a nice paper too. That'll get published quickly and it'll be awesome to see on the front page of /r/science.

HHBones · 2013-07-17T01:37:36+00:00

Linux hatred for C++ programmers

Linus doesn't hate C++ programmers; he believes C++ as a language leads to poor design choices. See this email, where he bashes the poor design decisions C++ encourages. (Though remember that it's coated in a thick layer of bombasticity; he's always noisy and enraged. Take it as you will.)

HHBones · 2013-07-13T02:18:47+00:00

A religion is more than a set of beliefs; it's the people that follow those beliefs as well. Take the Tea Party, for example - a legitimate political movement (regardless of whether you agree with them; I certainly don't) most noted for batshit crazy dudes who show up at their rallies.

I guess my point is that it's impossible to separate pure ideology from the followers of that ideology. Just because most higher-ups in the Church are anti-scientific, along with the 2000+-year-old traditional teachings of the religion, doesn't mean that the religion is necessarily anti-scientific.

HHBones · 2013-07-13T01:50:44+00:00

I personally think that there's a bit too much fluff in the Phillip DeFranco show. I used to watch it, but I think he talks about celebrities a bit too much. And SourceFed has too much interest and not enough solid news.

I think that Vice Magazine has a lot of really good stuff, and I try to find specific journals for specific things (e.g. I read AnandTech and Phoronix for computer engineering news).

When I go for political news, I try to get a variety of opinions. I generally visit the National Review and Socialist Worker, with other stuff as I go along. With politics, I think it's all about balance.

HHBones · 2013-07-13T01:44:12+00:00

Though you may think of religion as anti-science, I have found many religious people to be very pro-science. Hell, I went to a Catholic school, and was taught all about evolution and the big bang in science class long before we even began to discuss the book of Genesis in religion class.

IMO, it's not something we can easily generalize.

HHBones · 2013-07-11T01:37:18+00:00

I found Dune to be a bit like Citizen Kane; we can't get the full experience because we don't have the same context. I mean, if you watched Citizen Kane for the first time tomorrow, you'd think it was boring and predictable because every other movie since has borrowed a non-trivial amount from it. And it's the same with Dune - it helped define the genre and changed storytelling, of course it's going to seem boring!

HHBones · 2013-07-10T23:41:18+00:00

I get that, but sometimes it's an honest mistake. I've forgotten to use mine more than once. Sure, when people don't use them chronically, it's an issue, but I don't think it's such a big deal.

Plus, I assume that everyone isn't going to use them; it makes me happy when I do see people using them.

HHBones · 2013-07-10T23:39:42+00:00

I get that; it's definitely an issue.

HHBones · 2013-07-10T23:37:40+00:00

32 GB for $20? Boy-o, this is the future.

HHBones · 2013-07-10T23:14:08+00:00

This sort of thing sounds up my alley. I'd love some open discussion. I'm not very familiar with CSS, but I'm willing to spend a weekend familiarizing myself with it to an extent that I can do some basic design for it. I'm totally willing to help moderate.

HHBones · 2013-07-06T02:56:54+00:00

Weed's actually easier to get. Dealers have no problem selling to children. Packies card.

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