aardvark

5 ms·

1.
by aardvark 10y ago
Although a few high-level languages existed at the time, compilers back then were not capable of code optimization. The only way to write code tight enough to operate a spacecraft would have been Assembly language.
2.
by aardvark 13y ago
I went to college in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and I can testify that about 30-40% of the CS students were female. And even then some people were expressing concern about how male-dominated the field was becoming.
3.
by aardvark 13y ago
>Furthermore, the stock market isn’t influenced by value today like it was thirty years ago. This simply isn't true. It was nearly 30 years ago that Warren Buffett published his article "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsvi
4.
by aardvark 13y ago
This. And related to risk: When a website fails, it doesn't hurt anyone; if this tube were built, and then found to have a fatal design flaw, the liability would be enormous.
5.
by aardvark 13y ago
>Sure, if you have skills that are needed in Africa or Bangladesh, it's best to go there. But not everyone has such skills. That's the key. It sounds like Trigg has found a way to combine his skills with his values in a unique way.
6.
by aardvark 13y ago
If a car has been on the lot a long time, then there's not a lot of interest in it. The dealer is more likely to accept any offer just to get it off the lot. For a car that's newly arrived, there's a greater likelihood (or at least a greate
7.
by aardvark 13y ago
So, email corydoras@ridculousfish.com and he'll reply with a hint about his identity?
8.
by aardvark 14y ago
Or seawater marketed as fruit juice.
9.
by aardvark 16y ago
It looks great! One thing I'd like to see, if possible, is an adjustment to account for deficit spending. In other words, if the government is spending $175 for every $100 collected, adjust the expenses accordingly, so we could clearly see
10.
by aardvark 16y ago
Red Hat is making pretty good money supporting GPL'd software, over $700 million in FY 2010.
11.
by aardvark 16y ago
The cartoon notes that the comparison was taken from Neil Postman's book "Amusing Ourselves to Death". Postman wrote this 25 years ago. If anything, his observation is even more true today.
12.
by aardvark 16y ago
When I decided I was ready to move on from my last job, I went over to the library (2 blocks away) to update my resume during my lunch hour. I saw that the library had an opening for a programmer, so I applied. I was called for an interview
13.
by aardvark 17y ago
I'm not convinced corporations would necessarily hire more people due to lower tax rates. If sales forecasts don't look promising, the additional workers' net contribution may be negative even with a 0% tax rate.
14.
by aardvark 17y ago
The copywriting is a little over the top, but my suggestion is for the book itself. I'd like to see more details. Your sample chapter on Lexers, for example, would be much stronger if you went into more details (maybe 3-4 pages) on how a sc
15.
by aardvark 17y ago
Yeah, as if he's going to sell 500 copies at $39.99.
16.
by aardvark 17y ago
That's exactly the situation we had at the place I used to work. Management believed it was better to deal with the limitations of legacy software than with the expense of modernizing it. As of 2006, when I left, they were even still using
17.
by aardvark 17y ago
Mel likely wrote the blackjack program before Kernighan ever offered that advice.
18.
by aardvark 17y ago
Good point. I wonder how much of that is due to the long period of peace and prosperity that the U.S. has experienced; in the absence of any serious external threats, it becomes easier for partisans to squeeze their political opponents into
19.
by aardvark 17y ago
True; the larger problem here is with the medium itself: Twitter does not provide room for context or nuance.
20.
by aardvark 17y ago
All I'm getting is "service unavailable"
21.
by aardvark 17y ago
It might be interesting to see the results of 15-20 iterations of this experiment, to see how perceptions differ over time.
22.
by aardvark 17y ago
I'm guessing the COBOL tweets are probably from people who primarily code in a different language, but still have that one legacy COBOL app that they still have to maintain.
23.
by aardvark 17y ago
Bytecode instructions?
24.
by aardvark 17y ago
Agreed about 40. That answer only works in English.
25.
by aardvark 17y ago
Are you calling josefresco a chimp?
26.
by aardvark 17y ago
I doubt Sun planned for this. If it hadn't been for the financial downturn, Sun's acquisition of MySQL (with its 12 million customer base) could have been Sun's path to new profitability. Maybe not a guarantee, but I suspect they were hopin
27.
by aardvark 17y ago
"you'll quickly see that only one, Peter Eisentraut, works for Sun" True, but Josh Berkus also worked for Sun until last summer. So maybe it's correct to say Sun has been a major backer.
28.
by aardvark 17y ago
I probably wasn't very clear. I'm not trying to say the technology is bad; simply that success in the market is due to the marketing and not to the technology. Others who are selling the same or similar technology haven't had the same marke
29.
by aardvark 17y ago
I'd say OSX's (and Red Hat's) success bears testimony to the fact that good marketing, not good technology, is the deciding factor in market success.
30.
by aardvark 18y ago
No surprise. Someone using Firefox is not going to switch back to IE, just like someone who has a favorite text editor is not going to switch to the next version of Microsoft Notepad.

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