145 karma · joined February 25, 2013
Software Engineer @agoric
@nikrdc, if this is you, why are you doing something so destructive and stupid?
The best way to enforce POLA, and especially this particular problem of not allowing libraries to have access to each other, is object capabilities (ocaps) [3]. An object capability combines designation with authority -- if you have access to a capability, you can use it. If you don't have access, you can't use it. You can think of this (very roughly) as a key to a car as opposed to your name being on a guest list for a party. I didn't really touch on ocaps in this piece, but it's a necessary component for being able to enforce POLA well.
[1] https://developers.google.com/caja/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ME7oHHQbuM
[3] http://habitatchronicles.com/2017/05/what-are-capabilities/
1) Air is blown through the product and any dust is taken out. 2) The product is run through a bunch of screens that take out anything too big or too small. 3) The product is put through a gravity separator to separate based on mass. 4) Finally, the product is put through an optical sorter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0gWUeqzk_o) which uses blasts of air to push out unwanted materials from a stream of falling product.
I'm sure you could use the same process for Legos. Not sure about how to distinguish between branded and unbranded Legos though.
This. This is everything that's wrong about modern science.
Secondly, I think attributing the mild sexism in the game to intentional world-building is a bit of a stretch, considering that the main religious figure in the game is a warrior woman prophet. I don't think women warriors would be such a surprise in that world! It's more likely that it's just something that came from our current society that got mapped onto the game because the creators didn't think about it. It's unfortunate, because with such an interesting mythology, you could do some really novel cultural things in that world.
Anyways, I've gotten off topic, but I do think there are characteristics that make it easier to blend into the programmer lifestyle (such as video games) and characteristics that make it harder (such as liking fashion) and all of those characteristics contribute to the person's choice of whether to become a programmer, especially since programming is more of an all-consuming occupation than most. And, these characteristics are not equally shared between men and women.
Are you saying that the stereotypical programming lifestyle is equally appealing to men and women? Just looking at video games, I don't think that's the case. For instance, I recently started playing Dragon Age Origins, and playing as a female Gray Warden, I kept getting repeated comments from NPCs saying "Really? A female Gray Warden. Wouldn't expect that", and so forth. Why would a woman choose to make a video game that is continuously surprised that she exists? I really enjoyed the game, but it's honestly the stuff like that that tells you in subtle ways that you're not welcome.
But what was "programming"? Was it a skill/profession, or a lifestyle that was being offered to the women? I think it's often seen as a lifestyle - i.e. programmers only eat pizza and wear hackathon t-shirts and spend their free time playing video games. Of course this is wildly inaccurate. Good programmers need to only have knowledge and an interest and ability to learn more - what you eat, wear, and enjoy as a hobby shouldn't matter. But if you go to someone and ask if she wants to give up her own lifestyle and own interests to become a "programmer", she's going to say no.
I suspect that so many people enjoy the stereotypical activities that they're unable to separate out the programming lifestyle from the actual skills necessary.
Edit: I'm referring to the way that most people open CSVs in Excel, by clicking on the file and having Excel be the default CSV program, not by importing it. Is there a way to turn off the scientific notation for good?
I was struck by how the art student had no way of showing whether her misfortunes were accidental or related to her investigation. Is there a way she could have seen who was reading her email?
I'm not by any means an expert on labor in Europe, but it seems like the obvious way to increase the number of jobs, especially to those who need them most, is to allow employers more flexibility. Instead of artificially creating stratification (some people having no jobs or very temporary jobs, and some having incredibly cushy ones) we would have many more low paying jobs in the middle.