With respect to tagged pointers, there seems to be some recent movements on that front in CPython: https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/132509
Readit Newssushibowl commented on How often does Python allocate? zackoverflow.dev/writing/... · Posted by u/ingve
sushibowl commented on Do I not like Ruby anymore? (2024) sgt.hootr.club/molten-mat... · Posted by u/Vedor
I'm sort of the inverse of this author: I have always liked Python and disliked Ruby. It's true though that python has changed a lot, and it's a mixed bag IMHO. I think every language feature python has added can have a reasonable argument made for its existence, however collectively it kind of makes the language burgeon under the weight of its own complexity. "one way to do it" really hasn't been a hard goal for the language for a while.
I'm really charmed by ML style languages nowadays. I think python has built a lot of kludges to compensate for the fact that functions, assignments, loops, and conditionals are not expressions. You get comprehensions, lambdas, conditional expressions, the walrus operator... most statements have an expression equivalent now.
it seems like, initially, Guido was of the opinion that in most cases you should just write the statement and not try "to cram everything in-line," so to speak. However it can't be denied that there are cases where the in-line version just looks nice. On the other hand now you have a statement and an expression that is slightly different syntactically but equivalent semantically, and you have to learn both. Rust avoids this nicely by just making everything an expression, but you do get some semicolon-related awkwardness as a result.
sushibowl commented on Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in aspen trees livescience.com/animals/l... · Posted by u/geox
It's amazing the impact that the reintroduction has had. On a recent winter trip there I also learned that the reintroduction literally moved rivers [1]:
- Elk quit loitering along streams, so willow and cottonwood shot up, anchoring soil and narrowing channels.
- The new woody growth gave beavers lumber; their colonies jumped from one in 1996 to a dozen within fifteen years, raising water tables and rebuilding wetlands.
- With healthier riparian zones came deeper pools, colder water, and a surge in native trout and song-bird nests.
[1] https://phys.org/news/2025-02-predators-ecosystems-yellowsto...
As far as I know, the science on this is far from settled. There is no consensus and the evidence in favor of a trophic cascade in Yellowstone came predominantly from two studies done by the same team/person. Later studies failed to replicate findings.
Do wolves fix ecosystems? CSU study debunks claims about Yellowstone reintroduction
https://eu.coloradoan.com/story/news/2024/02/09/colorado-sta...
A good story: Media bias in trophic cascade research in Yellowstone National Park
https://academic.oup.com/book/26688/chapter-abstract/1954809...
sushibowl commented on The forbidden railway: Vienna-Pyongyang (2008) vienna-pyongyang.blogspot... · Posted by u/1317
This reminds me of a rail trip I’ve always wanted to take: Western Europe to Singapore, which may not be as geopolitically interesting, but may be the longest possible continuous rail journey.
When I first had the idea there was still a gap in the way in Southeast Asia, but it looks like it may have been closed now: https://www.seat61.com/map-of-train-routes-in-southeast-asia...
There was an article about this journey just recently: https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/portugal-to-singapore-trai...
Unfortunately you may have to wait some time, at the moment the journey is not be completable because the Paris-Moscow express service (and indeed all train service between Russia and Western Europe) is suspended due to sanctions against Russia.
sushibowl commented on Experimental release of GrapheneOS for Pixel 9a grapheneos.social/@Graphe... · Posted by u/moelf
> All Dutch banks now advertise to install Google pay for wireless payments.
That sounds like a very big mistake to me. And a missed opportunity: in some countries, banked work together to develop their own systems. People can send money to each other and pay everywhere with a small app that is not BigTech from the US.
I think there should be such an app in every country; you don't want your payment system to fully depend on US companies.
Dutch banks did this, it is called iDeal: https://www.ideal.nl/en/
iDeal is ubiquitous in The Netherlands for individuals sending money to each other, and for online payments. However it does not support NFC payments in physical stores. Dutch banks decided to go with Google/Apple wallet for this. I believe in the longer term Wero https://wero-wallet.eu/ (and potentially the digital euro https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/html/index.en.ht...) is supposed to take over this usecase in the EU.
sushibowl commented on What made the Irish famine so deadly newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/pepys
Famines, blockades & sanctions on basic goods were the WMD of the colonial age. All the latecomer nations raced to get out from under this boot and become empires - and became the same sort of monster or worser.
Every meal is a gift from Harber & Bosch + the world order allowing international trade.
A glimps can be had, when looking at countries going bankrupt who can not import these basics: Sri-Lanka https://www.wfp.org/news/food-crisis-sri-lanka-likely-worsen... or Pakistan.
> Every meal is a gift from Harber & Bosch + the world order allowing international trade.
Let's not forget Norman Borlaug
sushibowl commented on Becoming physically immune to brute-force attacks (2021) seirdy.one/posts/2021/01/... · Posted by u/emurlin
Thank it is expanding now really means that it will expand forever? Are there not other physics at play that could stop that at some point, yeah I don't know much about any of this just wondering out loud.
This is generally unknown, of course. However it currently appears that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, i.e. it is expanding faster and faster.
Obviously it can't be ruled at that at some point this would stop and/or reverse. But there's no reason to think so, and if we're considering arbitrary future changes then we may as well consider that the universe might suddenly start heating up again in the future, or more mass will start appearing out of nowhere. Or god appears and hands out free decryption keys to everyone.
sushibowl commented on Becoming physically immune to brute-force attacks (2021) seirdy.one/posts/2021/01/... · Posted by u/emurlin
Hmm, isn't it?
A key (hah!) property of key derivation functions is that they allow you to customize the key that you get out, mainly because you may need a specific length (e.g. 512 bits) for whatever encryption algorithm you're using. bcrypt lacks this functionality: you only ever get 192 bits of hash.
> Mr Newell, who worked for Microsoft for 13 years on Windows, said his company had embraced the open-source software Linux as a "hedging strategy" designed to offset some of the damage Windows 8 was likely to do.
> "There's a strong temptation to close the platform," he said, "because they look at what they can accomplish when they limit the competitors' access to the platform, and they say, 'That's really exciting.'"
> This is seen by commentators, external to be a reference to the inclusion of a Windows Store in the Microsoft operating system.
Having an open platform is good for consumers, but Valve is primarily looking out for themselves here. Gabe realized that windows could take Apple's IOS route (i.e. https://blog.codinghorror.com/serving-at-the-pleasure-of-the...) and lock down their OS, and everything he's done since has been an effort to protect his company against that existential threat.