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hermitcrab

8,122 karma · joined February 29, 2008

Developing products as an Indie since 2005.
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hermitcrab··on UK Green party drops longstanding opposition to nuclear power
They don't seem to be terribly interested in the environment for a 'green' party.
hermitcrab··on UK Green party drops longstanding opposition to nuclear power
>there is no way to deal with the long term waste.

Yes there is, bury it. Its what we do with lots of other waste. Of course, you have to be a bit more careful than you would be with a standard landfill. But the engineering is well understood. It is usually just the fact that nobody wants it buried near them that causes political issues.

>The waste will burden hundreds of generations for millenia

Pumping more carbon into the atmosphere is also a huge burden for future generations.

>Climate change is a minor problem in comparison

What do you base that on?

hermitcrab··on Patrick Stewart has died
When the father is away for extended periods, his wife has to manage without him. So when the father comes home, he often feels unneeded.
hermitcrab··on Patrick Stewart has died
It is worth watching the BBC 'Who do you think you are' documentary about his genealogy. He talks movingly about his violent father's war trauma and how it affected the whole family.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mfw63

(not sure if it is regionally restricted) also:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZsy4Rj7uAiT2NL8RIgH0...

hermitcrab··on MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch
Nobody is putting their greasy fingers on my beautiful OLED screen.
hermitcrab··on No more icons in every menu by default
This seemed like a dumb idea when it came out, making the menus look much more cluttered. I'm glad I didn't waste time adding loads of tiny icons to my application menus.

Apple seems to be dropping the ball on UI recently. Their glass UI also felt like a triumph of eye candy over usability.

hermitcrab··on Tiny possum and glider thought extinct for 6000 years found in remote West Papua
Tiny? Borneo is 723,154.07 km^2 and the 3rd largest island in the world.
hermitcrab··on Why do we have so many meetings?
I've run a 1-man software company for the last 21 years. I don't think I've had anything you would call a meeting in that time. Also haven't worn a tie, commuted more than 1 minute to my office or had to set my alarm clock for work. Living the dream. ;0)
hermitcrab··on Priest killed by falling crucifix during sermon on fragility of life
If there is a God, he has a pretty dark sense of humour.
hermitcrab··on Rabbits were a medieval royal luxury in England until the Black Death
>You realise that rabbits were once so rare in Australia they had to be introduced to salve the British passion for killing small things?

There were no rabbits in Australia, until they were introduced by humans (intentionally or otherwise).

hermitcrab··on Rabbits were a medieval royal luxury in England until the Black Death
Lobster was once considered only fit for prisoners and poor people (due to being a bottom feeder).
hermitcrab··on Tesla Roadster
I'm sure it will happen real soon. Right after the Mars colony and fully autonomous driving.
hermitcrab··on Tesla Roadster
Personally, I find that the more tech there is in a motorsport, the more boring it is to watch. F1 being a prime example. YMMV
hermitcrab··on Celebrating 70 Years of Fortran
I remember working with a guy who had programmed in FORTRAN in the days of punch cards. He said he once dropped the stack of cards and had to reconstruct the order. He always numbered the cards after that.

Apparently, programmers would 'unpunch' a hole in a card by taping some paper back in the hole to save repunching a new card! And sometimes these 'chads' would fall out, making for some interesting debugging.

hermitcrab··on Celebrating 70 Years of Fortran
I remember a piece called SPAG (I think) that could turn FORTRAN spaghetti code (with lots of GOTOs) into relatively clean, structured code. It was very useful.
hermitcrab··on Tesla Roadster
While the flip is technically very impressive (assuming they can reproduce it live) I can't see any real world scenario where any of this stuff is remotely useful.

How is the fan going to cope with the debris on a typical road?

How is driving around in close proximity to high pressure gases not an accident waiting to happen?

Given Musk's track record on fulfilling his promises, I'm not holding my breath that it is ever going to make it onto a race track. Let alone beat every track record.

hermitcrab··on Celebrating 70 Years of Fortran
It is way of sharing variable values without using parameters. But it is ugly and easy to make errors, e.g. accidentally missing a variable out of the middle of the list in one function or subroutine means all the later variables have unexpected values.

It is a log time since I did any FORTRAN. Maybe they improved it?

hermitcrab··on I Know Why the Mathematicians Weep
>Newton famously compared his achievements to “standing on the shoulders of giants”

Newton was possibly just taking a dig at his small-statured rival, Hooke. Newton was brilliant, but a shit.

hermitcrab··on Do dentists know what they're doing?
Fun read with a serious point. But if the writer had paid more attention to what the dentists were saying, rather than their looks, maybe he would have made better choices?
hermitcrab··on Celebrating 70 Years of Fortran
I believe it has changed quite a lot, keeping its focus for scientific/engineering computing, but adapting more modern language constructs. I'm not sure how much of the archaic stuff (COMMON blocks, ENTRY points etc) is supported in the more recent standards for backward compatibility.
hermitcrab··on Celebrating 70 Years of Fortran
I started off programming in FORTRAN in my first job, 40 years ago. There was a lot of terrible stuff in FORTRAN from a software engineering point of view: COMMON blocks, GOTOs, ENTRY points (to enter a subroutine part way through!), but it was one of the first high level language and language designers had a lot to learn.
hermitcrab··on Celebrating 70 Years of Fortran
"A good FORTRAN programmer can write FORTRAN in any language"
hermitcrab··on Container ship sinks in Strait of Hormuz as Iran steps up attacks
Geography wins over technology.
hermitcrab··on Container ship sinks in Strait of Hormuz as Iran steps up attacks
The market for oil is global and so is the price. Supply and demand.
hermitcrab··on Submarine cable resilience
My son's school computing teacher was convinced that these oceanic communication cables float on the surface - to the extent they had a bit argument about it in class. I'm not sure how the teacher thought ships navigated around them.
hermitcrab··on Submarine cable resilience
>only have to deal with one atmosphere.

A difference of one atmosphere?

hermitcrab··on Citroen revives the 2CV for an electric age
>The real problem is the nonsensical CAFE rules.

A classic case of badly thought out rules/incentives getting perverse outcomes? But CAFE rules seem to be a US thing and we are seeing car size inflation in the UK, even if not to the same extent.

>The companies are just making the thing people are buying.

It is not clear to me to what extent the car companies are catering to the demand for big SUVs or creating the demand for big SUVs.

UK roads and parking spaces aren't getting any bigger. It is all going to end very badly.

hermitcrab··on Worlds more habitable than Earth?
Impressive. But we are a very long way from being able to sustain hundreds of live humans in a closed environment for a multi decade/century voyage.
hermitcrab··on Worlds more habitable than Earth?
I don't think that terrarium contains any animals.

The 'biosphere 2' attempt at building a self-sustaining environment with humans, did not succeed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

hermitcrab··on Citroen revives the 2CV for an electric age
More profit on bigger cars?
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