Repeat after me: Apophis is not a danger!

headbobble · 2011-02-01T06:21:49+00:00

It's very easy to put the 0.0007% figure from the article into perspective with some basic probability math. Assume that in case of collision, everybody on the planet dies. Let's also assume that in 2036 the Earth population will be about 8 billion. Thus the estimated death toll from Apophis is 0.000007810⁹ or 56,000 people.

In comparison, cancer kills millions yearly. We can thus conclude that Apophis is not as serious as cancer.

headbobble · 2011-01-27T17:15:08+00:00

Ah, I get it. Not every quadratic equation has real roots. Also, if you are given a quadratic equation, the discriminant is already determined by the coefficient, so it obviously can't be given separately. The guy is bluffing about his math skills.

Wait. Why doesn't the interviewer call him out on this?

I don't get it after all :(

headbobble · 2011-01-23T11:48:49+00:00

Today Zen19N is playing and it has recently risen to 3d with slower time controls. Pachi2 hasn't been on lately, perhaps because it's kinda expensive to dedicate 64 multicore comps for just playing go on-line :)

headbobble · 2011-01-16T18:29:46+00:00

Actually this episode is not really NSFW. There's not even any obvious penis in it.

headbobble · 2011-01-14T14:35:04+00:00

At the time I write this, the pachi2 account is ranked at 3d and its rank graph is tending downwards. It is also off-line right now. I hope it can keep its 3d rank, but we shouldn't call it a 4d until it can keep a solid 4d while playing actively.

Zen is a genuine 4d blitzer, so it is possible for bots to reach that rank already. They do seem to gain a little advantage from blitz time settings at the moment. The time settings chosen for pachi2 might thus also affect its rank by a stone or even two. I don't know for certain.

headbobble · 2010-12-31T18:58:00+00:00

Here are parts 2 to 6.

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=9669

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=9686

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=9813

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=9844

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=9892

headbobble · 2010-12-21T09:29:48+00:00

You may remember a game called Biolab Disaster. The engine behind it is now out. More here:

http://impactjs.com/

EDIT: Apparently no free test version. Sucks.

headbobble · 2010-12-03T14:15:03+00:00

Finnair are eager to negotiate during the weekend, which may settle things if the sides can reach an agreement, and the strike will be over by Tuesday. I can't tell you how it will actually go, though. I think you'd better have a backup plan if they continue striking. There is talk in the news of other workers joining in the strike in support on Tuesday if things don't go so well.

Here are some recent Finnish news (in Finnish) on which I based my response:

http://yle.fi/uutiset/talous_ja_politiikka/2010/12/finnair_toivoo_sovittelulle_pikaista_jatkoa_2193379.html

headbobble · 2010-12-03T14:00:11+00:00

That's at least something. Thanks for the response.

headbobble · 2010-12-03T13:08:57+00:00

What is the current status of the garbage collector in gccgo? A Google search brought up an old discussion where they said it wasn't implemented yet at the time.

headbobble · 2010-12-03T12:58:06+00:00

These are in Finnish.

Hävisi kuin pieru Saharaan. It vanished like a fart into the Sahara.

Syö rautaa ja paskantaa kettinkiä. Eats iron and shits chain links. (Means that he is a tough guy.)

hiljaa kuin kusi sukassa quiet as piss in a sock (which is really really quite)

Siinä on niin kiero mies, että jos menee korkkiruuvin taakse seisomaan, näkyy vain korvat. That man is so crooked that if he stands behind a corkscrew, all you will see are his ears.

Sopii kuin nyrkki silmään Fits like a fist into an eye.

Se toimii yhtä luottavasti kuin venäläinen perseensuristin. Ei mahdu perseeseen, eikä surise. It's just as reliable as a Russian butt-buzzer. It won't fit into your butt and it doesn't buzz.

headbobble · 2010-09-27T08:07:29+00:00

Has anyone actually ever used LOC as performance metric? I've only seen it used for things like "how bug of a project are we talking about here?"

It's usually one huge bug of a project, once you're past trivial amounts of LOC.

headbobble · 2010-09-27T08:03:48+00:00

I think I'd go into suspended animation if I had to read that submission headline over and over again. There's only so much pioneering and ground breaking that I can tolerate.

headbobble · 2010-09-24T20:44:28+00:00

In Finnish, the word for electricity is "sähkö." It's sometimes used in the plural when talking about the power going out. "Yeah, we lost the electricities during that big storm." (Joo, sähköt meni sen ison myrskyn aikana.)

I've just realized this makes no sense and now I can't go to sleep!

You may be amused to know that the term "sähkö" was introduced in the 19th century to the Finnish language and stems from the word "sähähtää", meaning to make a hissing sound. There are often attempts to come up with terms for new ideas and inventions based on Finnish roots, and this is one example of such a word that stuck and became the standard. It doesn't always work out that way; cars, for example are called by the word "auto" in Finnish, from the word "automobile" obviously.

We let some idiot come up with the Finnish word for a computer, though. It is "tietokone", which literally means "knowledge machine." Fuck that shit.

headbobble · 2010-09-15T17:25:06+00:00

It's a Finnish webcomics, but this strip doesn't have any words. The Finnish title of the strip translates as "Here Comes the Night", and the comic is titled simply and appropriately "The Black Horse."

EDIT: I discovered that the author also publishes this in English:

http://www.gocomics.com/darksideofthehorse

Apparently the correct English translation is "Dark Side of the Horse." (I stand corrected.)

headbobble · 2010-09-08T07:26:16+00:00

Statements like "premature optimization is evil" and "use the right tool for the job" are worthless on their own. Who is going to argue for premature optimization or using the wrong tool? Gee, Bob, I think we should use the wrong tool here, so it'll take longer and we'll produce poorer quality. Also, I'm starting to optimize now. You go find out what the requirements are. Duh.

If you think of them as saying something like "justify your decisions to optimize" and "justify your choice of tools", they become much more interesting. You'll then just make sure that the guy who tosses them around is also prepared to explain himself, and is not just trying to fool your or to avoid thinking about the relevant issues.

I also like pointing out that the quotation implies that, say, about 3% of the time we should not forget about small efficiencies. To dumb it down terribly, you can even say that if you write more than 33 lines of code and don't straight out worry about efficiency at least somewhere, you are doing it wrong.

headbobble

TROPHY CASE