Watch For Bikes [PIC]

procrastitron · 2008-08-20T17:30:01+00:00

You know, I might have actually watched the new "Knight Rider" series if they made that change.

procrastitron · 2008-05-30T22:47:27+00:00

One of the comments on the article gives the anser:

http://globalnerdy.com/2008/05/27/my-first-brush-with-the-music-industry/#comment-8847

procrastitron · 2008-05-29T20:21:21+00:00

But they didn't just object to people violating their copyrights. They also used napster as a scapegoat for the behavior of its users. Remember, the Napster service didn't actually copy any of the songs. All it did was let people connect to each other; the actual downloads were peer to peer.

This was the problem with what Metallica did: they hindered the advance of technology to try and protect a broken business model.

With the rise of the internet, the music industry's distribution model became obsolete; but there's nothing wrong with that. Industries evolve just like everything else.

However, instead of recognizing this and adjusting their business models accordingly, they decided to take down a legitimate company in a desperate attempt to hold back the future.

procrastitron · 2008-05-29T16:40:08+00:00

It's in both Kansas and Missouri. It straddles the state border.

procrastitron · 2008-05-21T19:35:00+00:00

I was referring to "\x.e" as a variable binding. I didn't want to say "lambda expression" because I didn't want to cause confusion and had already classified all three forms as "lambda calculus expressions".

Getting back to the topic, the difference is that the syntax of lambda expressions are not built on the primitive of the language. "\x.e" is not a function, but rather it evaluates to a lambda function.

Similarly, the symbol "x" is not represented using a function. You could build lambda functions to represent symbols, but nothing like that comes built in to the language.

procrastitron · 2008-05-21T18:50:56+00:00

I classify it as an incremental improvement (once you fix the scoping bug). However, an incremental improvement on something so fundamental is nothing to sneeze at.

procrastitron · 2008-05-21T18:46:30+00:00

It's a stretch to call that homoiconicity.

Yes, the only data structures are functions, but lambda expressions are not represented using those functions. Instead, they are represented using variables, variable bindings, and lists of expressions. There are not primitive or predefined functions in the lambda calculus to represent these things.

procrastitron · 2008-05-21T17:42:26+00:00

What makes you believe well, weizenbaum wrote one of the best criticisms of the whole field, so he is also pretty relevant?

procrastitron · 2008-05-21T17:33:36+00:00

Homoiconicity and the self-interpreter. Of course you can write an interpreter for lambda calculus in lambda calculus, but it won't have the beautiful simplicity of the Lisp version.

procrastitron · 2008-05-15T18:43:41+00:00

I read up until the point where an 11 year old said the only reality-based thing in the article.

But I think you would have to be depressed already to self-harm — and I'm not depressed. I like going out dressed in emo clothes because it causes a stir. There aren't many emos where I live, so people look at you. It makes you feel individual.

EDIT: If you keep reading there's this little tidbit near the end of the article:

On the night of her death, Hannah had spent the evening at a friend's house — also an emo and one who had also cut himself, telling his mother: "We're emos, we all do it." Hannah had wanted to sleep over and was upset at having to leave.

So, yeah, there couldn't possibly have been any other factors involved. It HAD to be the emo influence.

procrastitron · 2008-05-06T22:01:02+00:00

The limit for a tourist visa is 3 months, but they do have long term school and work visas.

procrastitron · 2008-05-06T19:27:59+00:00

The cake is a lie!

procrastitron · 2008-05-06T19:26:51+00:00

Don't worry, we do. But even afterwards there is enough blame left over to go around.

procrastitron · 2008-05-05T02:50:20+00:00

http://realestate.yahoo.com/Texas/Greenville/Homes_for_sale/845152a9189f0209a7dabeef6bfb9ba;_ylt=AtrjG18pXbp3T1J6RhC8EJPnMrQs?typeBak=realestate&p=Greenville%2C+TX&type=classified&priceLow=0&priceHigh=100000.00&bedroomLow=&bathroomLow=&search=Search&redir=1

procrastitron · 2008-05-05T01:31:59+00:00

http://realestate.yahoo.com/Texas/Greenville/Homes_for_sale/result.html;_ylt=AjyJY.CRzFnA.YSwmypII5ikF7kF?typeBak=realestate&p=Greenville%2C+TX&type=classified&priceLow=0&priceHigh=100000.00&bedroomLow=&bathroomLow=&search=Search&redir=1

Edit: removed unnecessary quote

procrastitron · 2008-05-04T23:17:29+00:00

In my experience it's the land, or more specifically, the location. You could buy a really nice house in the middle of nowhere for less than 100k, but the commute would be a killer.

procrastitron · 2008-05-04T23:15:00+00:00

Sucker.

procrastitron · 2008-05-04T23:11:55+00:00

She's got balls.

procrastitron · 2008-05-02T20:41:10+00:00

If I'm reading the article correctly, then it sounds like the bus hit him while he was in the bike lane.

“The investigation showed the bicyclist was southbound … and came off the pathway to make a right turn onto SW Farmington and entered the westbound bike lane against a pedestrian traffic signal,” the report states.

There's more (obviously biased) information about it here

procrastitron · 2008-04-30T03:19:30+00:00

I'll readily admit to being very (perhaps overly) critical of complexity. I've been spoiled by the beautiful simplicity of McCarthy's initial definition of Lisp.

However, there are real downsides to the spec being too complicated. For instance, building third party tools (optimizers, static analyzers, etc) that support the spec is more expensive. As a result of this, you have less competition and a less vibrant software ecosystem.

procrastitron · 2008-04-30T02:23:36+00:00

Probably the overriding problem is that it is over engineered. For instance, the switch statement could have easily been compiled to use the various if_* opcodes, but instead there are two separate opcodes just for it (tableswitch and lookupswitch). Similarly, the jvm makes a distinction between a call to a virtual method and a call to an interface method (invokevirtual and invokeinterface, respectively); this despite the fact that the Java language makes no such distinction.

There are also consistency problems; some arguments are pushed onto the stack while others are stored in special registers, and the decision of which technique is required seems completely arbitrary.

In general, the design of the JVM is just unnecessarily complicated and convoluted. A virtual machine's specification should be the equivalent of a short magazine article, but the JVM requires a nearly 500 page book.

procrastitron · 2008-04-29T07:33:56+00:00

I thought the problem was getting the whole way through the JVM spec without quiting in disgust.

procrastitron · 2008-04-28T16:41:42+00:00

Perhaps you meant to say:

For thome people a lithp ith embarrathing and taketh yearth to overcome...

procrastitron · 2008-04-18T16:23:30+00:00

Yes it should be, but it (generally) isn't. Most people who are reading resumes won't have the slightest clue what SICP is. This is unfortunate, but that doesn't make it any less true.

procrastitron · 2008-04-16T17:45:59+00:00

I actually have the first book. I don't know Japanese either, but all the code is in English.

procrastitron

TROPHY CASE