Nice name. I do something along these lines in my LaTeX source; never thought of it as a thing.
Readit Newsggchappell commented on Red Programming Language: Plans for 2019 red-lang.org/2019/01/full... · Posted by u/rebolek
A language with a GC does not seem appropriate for a "full-stack" language with which one would write operating systems, drivers, or game engines. I don't know why any language without full manual memory management would ever posit itself as being appropriate for these domains. It's naive at best.
Generally agreed, although the huge number of bugs out there that are attributable to manual memory management suggests that other solutions are worth looking for. Perhaps Rust is heading in the right direction.
ggchappell commented on The Path to Give California 12 Senators, and Vermont Just One theatlantic.com/ideas/arc... · Posted by u/korethr
Sure, popular election of senators is at least a little problematic. But maybe what we really want is a return to the original model, where members of the House are elected by the people, while senators are chosen by state legislatures.
ggchappell commented on Sobriety startups shaking up the 12-step model abc.net.au/news/2019-01-0... · Posted by u/mathgenius
After years and years of struggling with alcoholism and AA, I got sober with naltrexone using the "Sinclair Method". I followed the treatment plan for a few weeks and at the end quitting drinking was easy and obvious. That was just over ten years ago and I haven't had a drink or gone to any meetings since.
I'm only one person and I'm fully aware that the plural of anecdote isn't data. However, the experience was so drama, and more importantly self-loathing, free and so effective, that I can't help but feel bitter towards the proponents of AA who insist on it being a monopoly... especially those in positions of power in the criminal justice or public health systems because from my perspective it's a malicious and vindictive stance.
> ... I can't help but feel bitter towards the proponents of AA who insist on it being a monopoly... especially those in positions of power in the criminal justice or public health systems ....
Not an alcoholic, but I had extended discussions with a number of AA members some years ago. And I found that many of them also felt pretty negatively about the involvement of the justice system with AA. What happens (they said) is that people are forced to attend AA meetings as part of sentencing, but these people generally are not interested in recovery. The result is a lot of wasted time and the diversion of resources away from people who could be helped.
Here we go again: the latest in a long line of sites that I can't figure out, while lots of others comment "cool".
I click "Sort it". Nothing happens. <sigh>
For all those silent folks who are just like me: know that you are not alone.
ggchappell commented on More than ‘know thyself’: on all the other Delphic maxims aeon.co/ideas/more-than-k... · Posted by u/diodorus
All 147 maxims are available here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphic_maxims#147_Delphic_max...
The last is, fittingly, the most meaningful of them all: On reaching the end be without sorrow.
"Do not stop to be thrifty" -- I imagine that should be "Do not stop being thrifty"?
"Master wedding-feasts" -- what does that mean?
"Grieve for no one" seems odd.
ggchappell commented on Sci-Hub Proves That Piracy Can Be Dangerously Useful torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-... · Posted by u/okket
When you really think about it, it's pretty enraging. How much human progress has been lost to academic profiteering? What could we have accomplished if knowledge flowed more freely?
I realize that it costs money to publish journals and papers, but the system that we have now seems broken.
> I realize that it costs money to publish journals and papers, ....
Does it?
The authors are not paid. The referees (who do peer review) are not paid. The editors are not paid. The authors submit LaTeX, so no professional typesetters are needed. Eliminate the hard-copy printed journal, which no one reads these days, and all you are left with are the costs of hosting and maintaining a website -- which doesn't need to be at all fancy. That's dirt cheap.
ggchappell commented on A Parable by Dijkstra (1973) cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/t... · Posted by u/fpvsoop
> I have told the above story to different audiences. Programmers, as a rule, are delighted by it, and managers, invariably, get more and more annoyed as the story progresses; true mathematicians, however, fail to see the point.
I see the point. In fact I'd go so far as to call myself "delighted". But I thought I was a true mathematician.
'Scuse me while I go have a little existential crisis.
ggchappell commented on Why Gov.uk content should be published in HTML and not PDF gds.blog.gov.uk/2018/07/1... · Posted by u/edent
I agree with the point of the article.
Still, there is so much out there that is available only in one of the MS Office formats, and Gov.UK is apparently doing better than that. So there is actually some cause for celebration here, IMHO.
On the other hand, if I choose to donate money to Wikmedia, 80% of it goes to other places, like their "content" sites, which consists of this bunch of mediocrity:
Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikivoyage, Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies, Wikinews, Wikiversity, and Wikidata.
I don't give a shit about any of these projects, the only one I really don't want to go away is Wikipedia, and the rest could die and I wouldn't even blink, except as those projects also support Wikipedia. Increase Wikipedia's expenses if you must! Double it! Triple it! Just don't pretend that the foundation is struggling to support the thing that most people donating actually care about.