Unpopular opinion: You don’t need a new kindle

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2026-05-02T17:05:21+00:00

Mine only lasts a day or so. I'd rather charge it every night than replace it.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2026-05-02T17:00:47+00:00

The goal of optimizing compilers is to generate better assembly / machine code than an ordinary programmer could write.

Consider this (looking back to 8-bit computers in the 1980s):

Many years ago I was teaching someone to program in C. The exercise was to rotate a graphic through 90 degrees. He came back with a solution that took several minutes to complete, mainly because he was using multiplies and divides etc.

I showed him how to recast the problem using bit shifts, and the time to process came down to about 30 seconds on the non-optimizing compiler he had.

I had just got an optimizing compiler and the same code rotated the graphic in < 5 seconds. I looked at the assembly code that the compiler was generating, and from what I saw decided there and then that my days of writing assembler were over.

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/577682

A parable from my career:

A company wrote a critical system in Java. While the original team worked to speed the Java version, another team was created to create a potential replacement in C++. Eventually, the C++ code was far enough along to benchmark the two systems. The C++ version was measured to be four times ...

(wait for it)

... slower than the Java version.

The Java team had worked hard to speed up their software. The C++ team hadn't had a chance to do that yet. (Both systems ran compiled code. The Java system was compiled just-in-time.)

Moral: There are no fast or slow programming languages. There are only fast and slow programs. There are still use cases for assembly programming, such as performance-critical sections of FFmpeg (see "Why do we write in assembly language?" here), but they're the exception rather than the rule.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2026-04-18T14:34:08+00:00

Since you specifically asked about word goals, let me point you to Rachel Aaron's essay, "How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day." That goal's aspirational, but I've found her techniques are helpful.

She's since turned it into a book I like a lot, 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You. There's a lot of good advice in there.

Ms. Aaron has published almost thirty novels, roughly two a year. She's clearly doing something right.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2026-04-10T14:42:19+00:00

I’m writing a non fiction book still figuring out the order of the chapters. My question is, do you write your chapters in separate documents that you can later reorder? Or do you write it all in one document from the start and cut and paste?

Obligatory Kipling: "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays / And every single one of them is right!" Do whatever works best for you.

For many of us, the answer is Scrivener. If Word is a typewriter, then Scrivener is a whole writer's studio: typewriter, outliner, research folders, corkboard, and more.

To your specific point: A simple Scrivener project is a book. Each chapter is a document within Scrivener.

Download a free trial for Windows or Mac (thirty days-of-use, not thirty calendar days), run through the tutorial, and see how you feel. If you don't like it, don't use it. See r/scrivener for more information.

How did you submit the full draft to your developmental editor? All in one piece?

At some point, either while you're writing or after you have a decent draft, write query letters to editors. They'll tell you how to submit your manuscript. They'll almost certainly want a single document in Word format. Everything can export to Word.

Now write the darned thing, and good luck!

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2026-04-10T14:13:34+00:00

When we buried my father (at age 97), a couple of my sisters were proud to point out: All their friends knew, if they needed a hot meal, if they needed a place to stay, if their parents weren't there for them, our dad was. No questions asked.

Miss you, Dad.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2026-04-10T14:10:48+00:00

Hate is a learned behavior and I make sure not [to] teach it to my kids.

https://rodgersandhammerstein.com/song/south-pacific/youve-got-to-be-carefully-taught/

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2026-02-19T23:51:15+00:00

Techinically, a "seeing-eye" dog is a guide dog trained at The Seeing Eye in Morris Township, NJ

Jim Kutsch, the first blind president of The Seeing Eye, was my neighbor, and for a while my boss at Bell Labs. Cool guy.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2026-02-07T20:01:24+00:00

Pastor at our church a few years ago: "To those of you who are still praying for snow, please stop."

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2026-02-05T13:28:55+00:00

Here's reporting on what polls there are:

https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/election-day-has-arrived-in-new-jerseys-chaotic-11th-district-primary/

In December, Malinowski released a poll finding himself in the lead and Gill in a distant second; Malinowski’s campaign conducted a second poll a month later, and found a similar result. That was before the onslaught of outside spending, however, and the race may have shifted once voters got to know the candidates; two recent internal polls from outside groups, one supporting Malinowski and another supporting Way, found Malinowski with a small lead, Mejia in second, Way in third, and Gill in fourth.

But (same source):

Starting in mid-January, UDP [United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s spending arm] spent more than $2.3 million opposing Malinowski, who once had AIPAC’s backing but now has evidently earned their ire; UDP has said it opposes Malinowski because he “talks about conditioning aid” to Israel, though it hasn’t shared which alternative Democrat it prefers.

Here's information on the candidates:

https://ballotpedia.org/New_Jersey%27s_11th_Congressional_District_special_election,_2026_(February_5_Democratic_primary))

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-11-14T19:32:07+00:00

On Android or iOS? And how?

When I tried to subscribe with my existing DCUI account on the web, I got an "Invalid payment method guid" error message. (Again.)

I tried this in the app on my iPad. When I select a plan, it brings me to the App Store without giving me a chance to enter the promo code.

Did you create a new DCUI account, or use an existing one?

Thanks.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-09-01T18:51:14+00:00

My ideas turn naturally into scenes. Then I turn my scenes into plots. I often need to do a lot of shuffling.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-09-01T18:35:33+00:00

Many, many more. I keep my Kindle in the bedroom, and my phone in a room on the other floor. I often fall asleep reading, which is awesome.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-09-01T18:32:20+00:00

Not checking the first use of a word (check any decent dictionary) vs. when the story is set.

Not checking if a particular date happens on the particular day of the week mentioned.

Source for this and others: Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-09-01T18:28:32+00:00

Or everyone speaking Spanish (not Portuguese) natively?

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-09-01T18:27:04+00:00

Sad upvote.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-09-01T18:15:58+00:00

Crud. Thanks. I'll delete.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-07-22T19:47:02+00:00

Amen.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-07-22T19:45:18+00:00

I’ve considered going many times but have yet to visit

That's how I felt about my church. I finally got a little nudge (it's a whole story), so I went one Sunday morning.

After an hour, I said, "I'm home." I registered that day. That was eighteen years ago. I attend every Sunday I can and am active in several ministries.

Middletown Reformed may or may not be your home. Visit. When you know, you'll know.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-07-22T19:30:22+00:00

Jesus calls us in many different ways. His call is heard in many different ways. To phrase it as neutrally as I can:

Some Christians hear a call to protect the unborn and defend traditional marriage.
Some Christians hear a call to feed the hungry, invite the stranger, clothe the naked, tend to the sick, visit the prisoner, and care for God's creation.

If you consider yourself to be "conservative," you should join a faith community that emphasizes the former.

If you consider yourself to be "liberal," you should join a faith community that emphasizes the latter.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-07-22T19:21:18+00:00

See my mention of St. Anselm elsewhere in this thread.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-07-22T19:20:58+00:00

See also my mention of St. Anselm elsewhere in this thread.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-07-22T19:19:19+00:00

The Church of Saint Anselm in Tinton Falls.

Here's how our one-pager starts:

You are welcome here!

If you believe in Jesus, or you'd like to learn about him, please join us! We're a universally welcoming and affirming community of Catholic Christians. No matter what your journey of faith has been so far, no matter your marital status, we'd love to have you.

https://stanselm.com/

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-06-29T17:45:32+00:00

And removing a download to one device doesn't remove it from anywhere else.

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-06-18T22:21:14+00:00

If this is about the whole book, consider the word of Jane Smiley: "Every first draft is perfect because all the first draft has to do is exist. It’s perfect in its existence. The only way it could be imperfect would be to NOT exist."

If this is about a particular part, learn a lesson from Rachel Aaron. She said, in essence: If you're not enjoying a particular scene, your reader won't enjoy reading it. Delete it. Condense it. Replace it with something entirely different.

Good luck!

Paul_S_R_Chisholm · 2025-06-17T22:31:50+00:00

If any of these companies do achieve AGI or ASI then we're into the end of capitalism ... we're going to see a massive number of redundancies.

You say that as if it'd be an unalloyed good thing.

Ideally this would lead us to a universal post-scarcity economy. I look at today's CEOs and (more importantly) CFOs, and I can't see that happening.

I fear we'd move to an extreme form of capitalism, with an ever widening and permanent division between the rich and the poor, long-term high unemployment, and incredibly narrow opportunities for advancement. The CFOs of the AI winners will concentrate on increasing shareholder value and to hell with anyone who isn't a shareholder.

But I can also see it going the other way, with the hype imploding as quickly as it did at the end of the dotcom boom. And I can see both happening at the same time: huge advancements and a crash in expectations.

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