From online: Is there any benefit of using byte intead of int? I have a case where the range of possible values is between 0..100, so an int would be way to much for this, a byte is also more than sufficent for this. But then I think about the 32 bit architecture of today’s [...]
Repost: Learning new languages considered harmful? No.
The Pragmatic Programmers suggest learning a new language every year (The Pragmatic Programmer, page 14). I think they’re right, but I think their blanket statement needs clarification. Here’s the actual quote: Different languages solve the same problems in different ways. By learning several different approaches, you can help broaden your thinking and avoid getting stuck [...]
Repost: I wonder why I resist repairing myself.
I was reading an essay concerning left vs. right sources of authority and something stood out: the author referred to Dr. Charles Krauthammer’s opinion on stem cell research and factored in Dr. Krauthammer’s paralysis. I didn’t know any of this. The paragraph in question that caught my eye: Take, for example, Krauthammer’s position on embryonic [...]
Repost: I am an Avatar fanboi
I’ve decided I am definitely an Avatar fanboi. Visually the movie was unbelievably impressive (if you haven’t seen it in 3D, you haven’t really seen it!), and the story… Well, the story was basically “Pocahontas in Spaaaaaaaace” but I am willing to forgive that. There were enough nice details that I was able to ignore [...]
Repost: If you like the NBA, you need this book
Bill Simmons’ book, The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy is fantastic (or, I suppose, FAAAAAAAAAANTASTIC! as the NBA marketing machine would have phrased it.) I am about halfway through, closing in on those players he considers the best of all time (so far) – what with the first third of [...]
Repost: Not giving is “wrong,” but that’s the wrong word
In “Is It Wrong Not to Help? Part I,” from Psychology Today, Professor Peter Singer has this interesting chain of logic: First premise: Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad. Second premise: If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as [...]
Repost: It’s not about C++ and Java Performance.
Warning: anecdotal conclusions coming. I think the crucial flaw in every Java v. language is that they always focus on, you know, specific code. “Here’s a fibonacci routine using recursion… in Java, it’s X, and in C++, it’s Y! Wow!” Every time I see that kind of comparison, I’m left cringing. It’s crap. It’s interesting only [...]
Repost: Frustrating “points” on homeschooling
My wife and I homeschool, mostly because we have inquisitive kids who were told – and I quote – to “stop asking questions” in their public schools. That was the final straw for us, after noting that their behavior was far, far worse after going to school than not. Here’re the points: The education of [...]
Repost: Some of what I’d wanted to do for TheServerSide
Ah, TSS… so much potential, unused. I had big plans for TheServerSide. I’d like to let you in on some of them, because I don’t have time to make them happen all by my lonesome, and I hate the idea of letting what could have been a good set of ideas disappear if I were [...]
Repost: TheServerSide, you suck. TSS readers, you do too.
As editor for TSS, I had a specific audience and specific goals in mind. The audience was the tech industry, primarily enterprise Java developers. The goals were to impart knowledge to the audience that otherwise might involve investments of time that the audience might not want to make — to vet the content before wasting [...]