Posts by Christopher Hogan 12 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2007
>>And Ruby, does it even have a language specification?
And how many languages have an ISO standard?
APL, that old beast has .NET, web deployment, object orientation and functional programming (not many languages can do both properly), array handling like a dream, generally more features than you can shake a stick at.
OK, readability you cry (if you've even even seen it), but if you can't read mathematical symbols, then you aren't good enough to write APL anyway
It were called "Persistance Programming" when I were a lad.
It can be implemented at language level - APL has had external variables (mapped onto files) for donkey's years.
Palm OS, yes, but you did lose data without battery power.
As someone above said, virtual memory, mapped to solid state disks is the future, but you still need a "hard reboot" to stop really nasty problems and/or a better way of programming.
I can't remember the exact figure, but it was 80% of code is devoted to transforming data from a version useful for storage into a form useful for processing - and vice versa.
If the OS is handling all storage, then we can get on with the real work - which sadly is spending 90% of the remaining coding time transforming data from a form useful for processing into something which is "splatted" onto a screen...
>"I'm pretty sure there are no Gaeltacht areas in the vicinity of the Boyne"
>The Rath Cairn Gaeltacht is just 4 miles from the Boyne, between Athboy and Trim.
Hmmm - a sad feature of the Gaeltacht areas used to be that they would paint out the English names on the old black & white fingerposts, (though I've not seen that with the shiny new EU paid for green & white direction signs) - this tended to piss off not just the tourists but the rest of the English speaking population.
My Dad came from a few miles away, the other side of Dublin - and there they used to go around & paint out the Gaelic in revenge...
"Do they honestly expect a terrorist to be carrying a laptop with a document on the desktop entitled "Plans to blow up the United States"? What REALLY are the objectives behind allowing these numpties this sort of power? I suppose the least paranoid explanation is it allows them to say to the right wing press that they're "doing something" about terrorism."
One question on the immigration form used to be "do you plan to overthrow the Government of the United States" - I can't remember who was alleged to have written "sole purpose of trip"...
I love the sneering tone of so many of these messages.
"Everybody else - if you don't like the sound aeroplanes make, why did you buy a house next to a fucking airport?" - errr 'cos it didn't have 3 runways? Because it had only 3 terminals, not 5? Because the government "promised" no terminal 6 & 3rd runway when they pushed through terminal 5?
The argument isn't really about CO2 or noise - that comes from battling the Greens & the locals, it's all about greed from BAA and lies and incompetence from the government.
If a bigger airport is "good for the economy" then why not 4 or 5 runways - reductio ad absurdum, but if this is a good idea why not pave over the whole of southern England - what a minute, 3 million new homes in the south east? They want to do that already.
And ground transport? To get to Heathrow travellers mainly use the M25, the business motorway in Europe. It's already 12 lanes wide at T5. Build a railway link? Apparently, yes across Staines moor a SSSI
And the principle of all your eggs in one basket? Bush's visit to Heathrow caused enormous disruption, as did the recent "glide in" incident. So it seems daft to keep on concentrating traffic in one place. Spoke & Hub? So most passengers are in transit & never see more than the terminal - explain to me who that benefits other than BAA & BA? I still remember the BA jet crashing down on the roundabout (yes, I live locally, but not under the flight path), so what happens when a jet crashes at Heathrow, or on the surrounding housing (they've built over most of the green fields around the airport & a 3rd runway would get rid of most of the rest). Ashford hospital was the main emergency centre for the airport, but it's been downgraded to a minor injuries unit - a major incident at Heathrow now would require a nightmare journey through London traffic.
It's interesting to see those swearing at the opposing viewpoints: always the tactic of the small minded fascist.
> There should be a rule that MPs cannot resign and then re-stand in the same seat for a minimum of 3 years or so.
No - we ought to follow the Costa Rican model - NO sitting MP can stand for his/her seat at 2 consecutive elections.
I also think that:
>Socialism (in all it's guises) = Total control of the population.
Is more accurate than:
>1. (at left) zero economic liberty, max personal liberty
...
>1 is aka socialism, communism, etc
Socialism IS dictatorship by definition. Read Mill
What saddens me most is the wild-eyed, spittle threaded rantings against Davis because he "is from the nasty party".
Such fragile egos, such shallow beliefs that can't afford to be challenged - the "he can't be a good guy" {fingers in ears} "naahh, naahh, naahh, I'm not listening" approach of all (apparently) "left-wing" comments
Precisely the sort of denial of other people's opinions that New Labour so love.
Presumably the person who believes that Davis should not have resigned and should "respect democracy" (though what bribing the Ulster Unionists has to do with democracy is beyond me) would also agreed that the miners had no right to protest about the closures of the pits - it was a decision made democratically in Parliament after all - or does "democracy" only hold for people who vote in the approved manner?
> So to all you whiny Brits I have this to say to you. If you don't like it don't come here.
I don't any more
>Once again if the US is so evil why is the UK gov so willing to follow the US?
Because the "government" run by Gollum Brown is fascist - "why cant you distinguish US citizens from the government" same rules apply to this country.
>Healthy Californian tan: fast lane.
As long as it isn't too dark...
"BTW, it has NEVER been proven that any mobile device (or hard drive device) had interfered with ANY piece of navigational equipment, ..."
When you take a mobile to the edge of a cell, it ramps up its signal & attempts to get a better connection. This tends to swamp those signals from mobiles nearer to the centre of a cell.
As far as I'm aware the reason for turning of your mobile on a 'plane is so that 200+ mobiles screaming "attach me to the cell" being dragged over every cell on the approach to a runway doesn't crash all the mobile networks around an airport.
It's estimated that every jumbo flying across the Atlantic has 10 mobiles in hand luggage which people have forgotten to turn off.
I don't see flocks of 'planes falling out of the sky every day.
Just don't tell security at T5 or it'll be another excuse to rifle (should I have used that word?) through your hand luggage.
>A government spokesman has just confirmed that the action taken was due to a >'real & credible' security threat.
>"Terrorists were using coded t-shirts to signal other operatives to action.
>You will be happy to know that thanks to the diligent actions of our security services >yet another terrorist atrocity has been thwarted. This incident outlines why we >should increase the detention time for suspects to 40 days."
Surely not even the rejects from the asylum that we have "in government" could say something as outrageously stupid as that?
> 1.) The merchant gets their money after a period - not instantaneously - holding a gun to their head won't get you any cash from the proposed fraud at a tube station - it'll just be a good-old plain armed robbery of cash on the premises. The period is there for stopping fraud/chargebacks, and for 'clearing' purposes.
It's still worth bopping someone one the head & using the card. The merchant might to get the cash, but the thief has the goods.
>You're suggesting that scum will mug you for your card, so they can get a tenner off of it for White Lightning or something?
Yes. I've known people mugged for a fiver - and 3 trips to different offies & it adds up to a lot of White Lightning
The problem with things like the Oyster card is that to obtain the discount you can't top it up anonymously, you must submit your bank details. The discount is because "cashless payments are more efficient - odd you don't get a discount on credit card or debit card payments. Also to get the discount you must swipe at both ends of your journey, not just on boarding.
So, it's sod all about efficiency - it's about tracking where you gen on and off the transport system.
And cashless payments are a wet dream for a fascist government such as in power in Britain. I'm not surprised to find out they are already in use in Singapore for the same reasons - a government obsessed with control over its citizens.
when you read "We are living in a period when central government appears reluctant to regulate unless absolutely necessary." from a supposedly independent body which includes the word Parliamentary in its name, you know you are in for some government sponsored guff designed to soften us up for the next round of hidden (from whom?) tax rises and intrusions into our privacy.
This is just days after a report which says the average spped of traffic in London is just over 11 mph. So a vast expense on number plate reading cameras, no income from sppeeding fines, oh well got to use 'em for something - better track those good citizens about their daily business.
Gollum Brown and his whole sick government are Stalinists..
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