flogic

7 ms·

1.
by flogic 6y ago
The fundamental problem this argument has is that computers are in the world. Probably not to the degree required and certainly not up to AGI. But, self driving cars and Boston dynamics exist. The gap between "in the world" and no
2.
by flogic 7y ago
People deciding to stop working is a good thing. It means they have market power and potential employers need to take that into account.
3.
by flogic 7y ago
I've written maps that I've regretted later. "map(+1, list)" isn't too bad. But as you chain things and/or put more in the lambda, it gets less comprehensible. Then, some cross cutting requirement comes in and
4.
by flogic 8y ago
Scripts are a subset of program focusing. The primary characteristic being they rely on another program to interpret the source at run time. Scripts also tend to be a problematic subset since libraries written in scripting languages tend t
5.
by flogic 8y ago
There are still 2 basic sources of benefit. First, power stations generally use turbines which are much more efficient than internal combustion engines. Even after accounting for inefficiencies electric often comes out better. The other ben
6.
by flogic 8y ago
My keyboard is set up in a similar manner but it adds a point of complexity. Ctrl-Shift-Arrow is harder to use since the Fn key is trying to take up a thumb.
7.
by flogic 8y ago
I'll give it points for the arrow keys. There just really isn't much in the way of good positions for arrow keys on a split layout. That said I don't like what it's doing with the thumbs. Thumbs want to move radially mor
8.
by flogic 8y ago
Touch typing is one of those things it's easy to underestimate the importance of. I've been using computers heavily since the late 80's. But, I've only learned to touch type in the past couple of years. I'm going to
9.
by flogic 8y ago
Would say the best reason to try something weird is if the normal approach just isn't working. I never managed to touch type on a normal keyboard. Now that I'm using a split layout, I've learned to touch type. That makes it w
10.
by flogic 8y ago
Manufactured or pre-made split keyboards aren't cheap. However if you're making your own the costs aren't all that different. So it's easier to ignore the cost and effort if you're making a split keyboard. Also by d
11.
by flogic 8y ago
You can make a mechanical keyboards significantly quieter. Most of the noise isn't actually from the switches themselves but rather from the impact of the keys bottoming out into hard plastic. So a set or 2 of o-rings on the keys will
12.
by flogic 8y ago
Sadly, I use an Android and can't say if this is what I would want but it seems on a better path. Most things I've seen for Android are replicating a traditional graphing calculator. Which suffers from 2 major problems. One, graph
13.
by flogic 8y ago
This kinda captures one of my concerns. While I could care less about the particulars of how people interact with computers, I do find it concerning that modern devices seem to make general purpose computing less accessible. I love my phone
14.
by flogic 8y ago
Personal experience tells me that size is probably a proxy for "this code is mathematically written". If you have even a vague idea of the math of the code you're writing, the code tends to be both shorter and have fewer bugs
15.
by flogic 8y ago
It's been a while since I've used it but yum used to tie up my machine pretty badly on significant upgrades. After reboot it could take hours to finish applying the upgrade, during which time the machine was usable. Apt has never
16.
by flogic 8y ago
That's not really what tends to happen with deer. The situation starts with them on one side of the road deciding to cross. Then the partway through they freeze. There's often not time to react. Deer are very poorly adapted to dea
17.
by flogic 8y ago
The thing is that it doesn't really matter. There are only 2 options here. Either, the car should have seen the woman and taken corrective action or it was driving faster than it can see. Just because the speed limit says X doesn'
18.
by flogic 9y ago
Personally, I don't find it all that bad. The digitizer on our tablet our tablet crapped out a few months back. I found a YouTube video on how to replace it. The tools cost like $7 off of Amazon and the digitizer was about $20. A few m
19.
by flogic 9y ago
I think they're planning for 100% automated. So hopefully, poor behavior should not be an issue.
20.
by flogic 9y ago
I'm not sure Apollo is the best benchmark. The primary goal was to send the astronauts there and bring them back. Just changing the primary goal should result in a huge reduction in the cost per gram. You'd just send a tiny excav
21.
by flogic 9y ago
That's some wells. When I was growing up, my parents' well was pretty much untreated. The water was a acidic so that first morning drink of water tasted of copper. I suspect most of the safety came from arranging the conditions so
22.
by flogic 9y ago
I think the general problem with any automated solution is that there is so much room to game them. For instance, I could selectively replace a few visible ASCII characters with non-ASCII look a likes. Then, the investigators just need to s
23.
by flogic 9y ago
I once did a thought experiment on what it would take to replace the paper scoring sheets for horse competition. It was fairly daunting. It needs to be simple enough for a lay person to use well. Recording, corrections, and commenting all n
24.
by flogic 9y ago
At what point do you call someone a programmer? They seem to be using "knowing how to code in a traditional programming language". However, I would not use that definition. Most of what we do though is thinking about a problem and
25.
by flogic 9y ago
Cigarettes are literally dried up leaves. Their customers light the product on fire and then buy more the next day. Given that as a viable business model, how do you not make ridiculous quantities of money?
26.
by flogic 9y ago
It's a bit of an unfair comparison though. The problem and tool set were predefined before Knuth started. Also it's a problem that's particularly suited to Unix tools. There are many problems where Web might have resulted in
27.
by flogic 9y ago
Static types and tests check different things. Tests are for making things function as desired. Types are for making sure they actually connect sensibly where desired. Sometimes you can use them for the other purposes though that often prod
28.
by flogic 9y ago
Capitalism is more about a few controlling the means of production than it is about market activity. People tend to think of it as a market economy but it's really about who has power and reaps it's rewards.
29.
by flogic 9y ago
Kite power is one of my pet hopes. I keep hoping it will gain some significant traction. Looks like there may be a a test power installation going up in Scotland https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/kite-power-stat
30.
by flogic 9y ago
Should this issue be addressed at a technical level or a policy level? No matter how they manage the distro, so stuff is going to come down to policy and process. To me it seems like the sort of thing that should be handled with package aud

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