Programming with Ones and Zeros - <AUTHOR> http://www.hanshq.net/ones-and-zeros.html

<comment><USER2> I made an 8086 emulation library ( [https://bitbucket.org/earlz/x86lib/src](https://bitbucket.org/earlz/x86lib/src)) a while back and it was extremely fun to get so intimate with machine code.

I can't remember the exact resource I used for the opcodes and their encodings, but it was the best resource ever. It included cycle information, a description of what the opcode did, and what flags and registers it affected. I haven't been able to find that resource though in a couple years at least. It followed some common template that was used for a number of other topics as well (including DOS interrupts and some obscure programming language)

One of the other fun things I did was craft some self-modifying code... although I once had a bug in it and that was almost impossible to debug

<comment><USER2> ah I found it! [http://www.ousob.com/ng/iapx86/index.php](http://www.ousob.com/ng/iapx86/index.php) "norton guide" is apparently the magic word for it

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Computers up until the early 80s had "keys" to flip bits directly in memory, from the hobbyist Altair 8800 and its clones ( see the close up panel image at the bottom of [http://www.vintage- computer.com/altair8800.shtml](http://www.vintage- computer.com/altair8800.shtml) ), the DEC PDP series ( [http://home.earthlink.net/~n1be/pdp11/PDP11.html](http://home.earthlink.net/~n1be/pdp11/PDP11.html) ), Data General Nova...

And back in ye old times, the legendary Seymour Cray cold-booted the CDC 1604 for the first time directly from the keys on the front panel before any OS or software existed to run on the machine.

</comment><comment><USER4> If I run the fib example on a Linux 64bit install and forget the -m32 flag (both GCC and Clang) it will return 0 for each call (the earlier return 42 example worked thou), add the flag and it works. Curious to know what change caused that?

<comment><USER5> It's because of the difference in how arguments are passed to functions in 32-bit vs 64-bit mode.

In the System V AMD64 ABI, the first integer argument to a function is passed in the rdi register.

The fib function however, being written for 32-bit mode, is expecting the argument on the stack, and loads it from esp+4, so it gets a garbage value.

The value on the top of the stack is the return address, which is probably somewhere around 0x0000000000400000 (the default entry point). Loading from esp+4 gets the high bits which are all zeros, so that's what goes into %ecx.

If you build the program as a position-independent executable (gcc -fpic -pie), it will get loaded at a random address and it will print a different value.

<comment><USER4> As soon as I read that, it was an o of course moment, especially with the time the orginal author spent talking about the ABI. Cheers

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have been personally diving into compilers lately, and the amount of research which obviously went into this is pretty high (there are at least 3-4 independent resources which are required to find the right opcodes and ordering and...).

Well done and presented!

</comment><comment><USER7> Very cool! Nice descriptions and presentation (and the movie reference at the end is great).

I look forward to going through this in finer detail.</comment>


The New Classics of Computer Science - <AUTHOR> http://arantaday.com/blog/the-new-classics/

<comment><USER2> GEB as a classic of computer science? Why? It's imaginative, right, but it lacks the rigor to be a classic. Better to read about recursion, formal systems, lambda calculus, undecidability, complexity theory, etc from some math text... at least I have found it to be a lot more interesting and revealing.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I think there's some renaissance man posturing going on in this list.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The books you list are great books, but I still wouldn't take SICP or TAOCP off the list.

Generally speaking, I think the real question we need to be asking with lists like this, is "Who is the audience?"

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks. I was shooting for people who had already read sicp, htdp, design pattern, etc (and who have at least tried their hand at taocp ;-)).

Those are all great books of course, but there are a lot of topics outside their domain. I was hoping to choose books that complement/supplement the classics.

<comment><USER4> I see. But wouldn't most people who have read SICP and HTDP and tried their hand at TAOCP be a bit beyond GEB and the New Turing Omnibus? I mean, I'd heartily recommend those to folks who haven't yet made the leap...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think Design Patterns is mischaracterized as a "classic text of computer science". It's only 14 years old (which rules out some definitions of 'classic'), not nearly so profound as TAOCP and SICP (the other two books in your list), and it would be a stretch to say it's about computer science.

Computer Science != Software Engineering.

I would follow up by saying that, no matter how wonderful Road to Reality is, it's also not about CS, and GEB only overlaps the field.

An incorrectly titled post, perhaps?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> A new and improved post, based on the feedback I received for my first post (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=296641>) from PieSquared (thanks!).

</comment><comment><USER6> I liked the kleinberg/tardos algorithms book better than clrs: www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321295358.

I felt it was more direct.

</comment><comment><USER7> +1 for Road to Reality.</comment>


Bitcoin: The World's First Decentralized Ponzi Scheme - <AUTHOR> https://webb-site.com/articles/bitcoinponzi.asp <comment><USER2> I think that it is not a pure sum zero game. It has a input, the money from illegal activities (drugs, black money, illegal prostitution...) which has less value as input that as output.

</comment><comment><USER3> So put your life savings into shorting bitcoin. It's a sure thing right?

<comment><USER4> "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Arguments against Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fall apart when you realize people are using it for more than frivolous speculation, such as to escape extreme currency controls from their totalitarian governments. And no, asking said governments nicely to please not screw us as hard daddy doesn't work, because the new tyrant who ends up in power after overthrowing the previous government will end up just as bad.</comment>


Raytheon: UFO's aren't real, unless our company can make money from them - <AUTHOR> https://www.raytheon.com/news/feature/uap_atflir <comment><USER2> Terrible post title

<comment><AUTHOR> Raytheon is trying to have it both ways, they want to tow the US government line, but they also sell more advanced camera systems (including to governments outside the US). This article illustrates the contradiction well and the title is a snarky way to reflect that.</comment></comment>


When we fight over IT, nobody wins - <AUTHOR> http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080523_004962.html <comment><USER2> The article misses the key point about why IT workers aren't promoted into management more often. It's a conundrum many of us here have faced.

If you're any good, remaining a technician pays MORE than becoming a manager.

Would you rather solve problems and build cool stuff or deal with B.S. all day long?

Those who can do. Those who can't manage.

<comment><USER3> I don't know what industry you work in, but everywhere I've worked (in financial services IT) managers were better paid than those they managed - often very significantly so.

<comment><USER2> Maybe you should try something other than financial services.

(My experience in health care, government, insurance, and financial services is that "normal" rules of business and supply/demand don't always apply. They have worked hard for 100 years to insulate themselves.)</comment></comment></comment>


The excruciating final hours of George Washington (2014) - <AUTHOR> https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/dec-14-1799-excruciating-final-hours-president-george-washington <comment><USER2> _At 9:30 a.m., another bloodletting of 18 ounces was performed followed by a similar withdrawal at 11 a.m. At noon, an enema was administered._

or

 _Dr. Craik ordered another bleeding. This time, 32 ounces were removed_

i wonder how much lifespan this measures did take off of him, in this particular instance maybe hours, days, or even some weeks (of course it could have also been the primary cause of death). but all this bollocks throughout a lifespan could well be measured in whole lost years.

of course, i have no idea if this is true or not, it may also be that this kind of measures, if a body is just healthy enough, have no impact at all in the long run.

<comment><USER3> A weird case of having too much money ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_Unit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States_by_net_worth)) since cutting edge medicine he could afford at that time would be quackery today? The blistering agents applied in his throat and externally seem pretty painful, one today on my hand or foot is quite a hassle, on top of the bloodletting weakening a person. The 40% blood on his deathbed sounds incredible in hindsight but there are a few people who regularly give blood today as often as is permitted every couple of months without apparent ill effects.

<comment><USER4> it might not be as painful as it sounds. i lost a large amount of blood once (to the point of browning out), and it basically feels like being really, really drunk. you don't really understand what's happening and you're pretty numb to things like pain.

<comment><USER5> That sounds kinda nice!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As ridiculous as these medical treatments sound to the modern ear, I wonder how people will look back on our "state of the art" 200 years from now.

<comment><USER7> Between the emergence of resistant bacterial strains and growing understanding of internal microbiomes, the future will not look kindly on our use of antibiotics. And of course, you don't need to go into the future to find people who look dimly on the state of the art in nutrition.

<comment><USER8> Won't look too kindly?

The alternative to antibiotics in a lot of these cases is death.

Not sure anyone would look at that "unkindly".

<comment><USER9> I believe the parent was thinking of our using antibiotics for things like increasing growth rates in livestock, hand soap marketing, and viral infections; but maybe your incredibly uncharitable interpretation is correct ...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This story makes me happy that we have modern medicine. But I am reminded that not too long ago we used to do lobotomies on the regular. So I still take most medical advice with a grain of salt....

<comment><USER11> There are way worse things that you could experience which is present even today (psycological things especially). This doesn't sound too bad actually.

<comment><USER12> What kind of psychological things are so bad?

<comment><USER13> Schizophrenia, depression

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Amazing how a medical doctor from that era would probably be put in jail today for the treatments they did.

<comment><USER15> We should put things in perspective. Nowadays doctors still treat diseases by cutting off bits out of the patient, and dentists still employ medieval procedures.

<comment><USER16> Mine uses a scanning array and a 3D milling machine to manufacture implants and fillings in office. Not all that medieval.

You may just need a new dentist.

<comment><USER15> > Mine uses a scanning array and a 3D milling machine to manufacture implants > and fillings in office. Not all that medieval.

How did your dentist found room in your mouth to jam in some implants?

That sort of thing is pretty medieval even if you sugarcoat your modern day version of wooden dentures with CAD software and CNC milling machines.

<comment><USER16> Because they're able to detect issues before they get that bad, all my natural teeth are in place. I come in, they scan my teeth, drill out a tiny amount of decay before it turns into something that requires a tooth to be removed, and precisely mill a filling instead of hammering and drilling away my teeth to fill it with some lead alloy like the days of old. Anyone doing that is stuck in decades old practices.

I understand where you're trying to go with your comment. It's simply not the case that we're being given bottles of gin while the dentist pulls out a hammer and chisel.

I just went in and had part of my tooth replaced because part of it crushed (I have very bad teeth). I felt zero pain. My heart rate remained under 60 the whole time. It was quick and easy.

Good Dentists are not mad scientists out to destroy you for financial gain.

<comment><USER13> They might not use lead fillings, but they still use mercury amalgam unless you tell them not to. Filling your mouth with Mercury seems pretty medieval even though there are good reasons for it (the mercury amalgam has far better mechanical properties than the plastic that replaces it).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> So would he have died anyway?

<comment><USER18> Without these treatments, he could have been alive today. It's a great shame.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> George Washington on Native Americans:

"The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more."

[https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-20-02-...](https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-20-02-0661)

This is part of the scorched earth tactics that resulted in not only the death of millions of natives but the almost extinction of the American Bison, an importance source of food and clothing for many tribes.

<comment><USER20> > "The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their > settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as > possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and > prevent their planting more."

There is far worse if you dig further into the history of george washington and his father/grandfather in regards to the native americans.

> This is part of the scorched earth tactics that resulted in not only the > death of millions of natives but the almost extinction of the American > Bison, an importance source of food and clothing for many tribes.

"Kill Every Buffalo You Can! Every Buffalo Dead Is an Indian Gone"

[https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/05/the- buf...](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/05/the-buffalo- killers/482349/)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bison_skull_pile_edit.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bison_skull_pile_edit.jpg)

It is no secret that the architects of nazi germany admired the genocide of the native americans and modeled themselves after the US. And yet, we are in such denial about our role in the death of natives. ( It was "smallpox" ).

"termed a "war of extermination" by Governor Peter Burnett who declared warfare would not cease with Native Americans "until the Indian race becomes extinct""

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hardeman_Burnett](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hardeman_Burnett)

<comment><USER21> > And yet, we are in such denial about our role in the death of natives. ( It > was "smallpox" )

You make a good point but you're also wrong.

The way the colonies (and later United States) treated the natives was absolutely deplorable and immoral. The US (from the founding fathers until very recent times) is as guilty as you say.

HOWEVER... it cannot be denied that the accidental spread of European diseases wiped out over 50% of all natives before the era of colonization even began. Even today if contact is made with isolated peoples great care must be taken and medical services kept on stand-by. A disease ravaging the isolated group is a very, very real possibility.

It also means if humanity does every colonize another planet (even in our own solar system), if the flow of people ever stops we may not be able to re- establish it due to disease risk.

<comment><USER22> It's also fun to think about the scenario where the Americans practiced husbandry when contact was made, we could have had a two way "genocide"!

<comment><USER19> For that you would need an animal that breeds in captivity, reaches maturity quickly, eats inexpensive food (not meat), with good temperament, and that can be handled in a farming environment (not as agile as deer or as strong as a bison).

In the Americas, the only animal that responds to that description are llamas, guinea pigs, capybaras, etc. None of them found in North America.

<comment><USER22> Yes, I've read 1491 as well :)

<comment><USER19> And I assume 1491 was not all original research :)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Peugeot Bets on a Different Kind of Hybrid Car - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/business/global/peugeot-bets-on-a-different-kind-of-hybrid.html

<comment><USER2> Isn't compressed air somewhat like capacitors? So-so energy density, but great power density? It's supposed to be great for a burst of speed, but not for lots of range.

<comment><USER3> Perhaps, but my understanding is that gas engines are really very efficient at keeping you at speed; it's accelerating from a stop where you use a lot of fuel. So a burst of power with little range can win out if it adds a lot less mass to the car than the battery and electric motor in an electric hybrid.

<comment><USER4> Yep, it's a completely mechanical way to recover the energy expended in braking and apply it to getting the vehicle rolling again. In this way the gasoline engine is mainly used to maintain speed and climb hills.

Other experimental vehicles have used flywheels to capture braking energy, but the advantage of compressed gas is that it can store the energy indefinitely (assuming no leaks).

Sounds like it could be more efficient and reliable than the electrochemical process that electric hybrids use, with less weight and environmental concerns related to battery manufacture and disposal.

<comment><USER5> Well, there's always a risk when you're storing energy. In this case it would be explosion. Could be a very small risk, though.

<comment><USER6> I had the same "concern" but they say: The energy stored in the nitrogen tank is small — equivalent to only about five teaspoons, or a couple dozen cubic centimeters, of gasoline

So I guess that the explosion of a tank full of "about five teaspoon" should not wreak too much damage :)

<comment><USER7> What I gather from the article it's not the stored energy that's of some concern, but the 250 bar nominal pressure in the tanks - a rupture might lead to metal splinters flying around. However, they claim that the car's underfloor is enough shielding. I'd say let some independent safety tests figure that one out.

So far I think this is a very promising concept - I was always weary about electrical hybrids because of the use of rare earth metals and the environmental impact in some regions because of that. Putting some nitrogen tanks and mechanical/electronic bits in a car to achieve the same effect for city driving seems like a big winner - mass produced I'd think you could make those cars only minimally more expensive than normal gas powered ones. Electrical Hybrid car prices, meanwhile, don't seem to scale down much.

<comment><USER8> Here in Argentina ~1/5 of the cars use compressed natural gas (mostly methane) tanks at 200 bars, because it is cheaper than gasoline. I don't remember any horror story of a crash, and these cars are generally considered almost as safe as the usual cars. The main drawback is that the tank is very big and uses half of the back trunks.

More information: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_natural_gas>

<comment><USER9> We do the same in Greece, the tank is 50-60 liters (not sure if that volume is when the gas is at STP or compressed), though, and takes around the room of the spare. That's also where they put it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Oh gosh, I don't want to complain, but I reported this about 1 month ago, and it didn't even get 1 point.

It seems different timezones, have different taste :P hehe

<comment><USER8> I saw you submission last month. The problem is that it looked like direct copy of an AFP new that looked like a direct copy of a press release of Peugeot, so it was difficult to know how interesting the new method was and how much was only hype.

The NYT has a little more credibility and the article seams to be written more independently, but until there are some more real use case reports with the new cars it's still difficult to separate the reality from the hype.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, I see what you mean. I will remember that in future. Cheers, and thanks for reply.</comment></comment></comment>


Kleros: A Cornerstone of Mass Adoption in the Decentralized Economy? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/kleros/kleros-a-cornerstone-of-mass-adoption-in-the-decentralized-economy-a446ec3606aa <comment><USER2> Who chooses the jurors/arbitrators and how can you ensure they are capable of making judgements on complex issues?</comment>


FBI 'Concerned' About Cell Phone Encryption - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2469302,00.asp

<comment><USER2> They can still strong arm you into giving them access via the law - they just have to follow the process now.</comment>


Why I quit Facebook and we are sharing much more than you think - <AUTHOR> https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140709173931-11228988-why-i-quit-facebook-and-we-are-sharing-much-more-than-you-think

<comment><USER2> > However, you should realize that Mark is by heart 100% hacker himself (back > in his Harvard days) and I have no desire to hand my personal data to a > hacker so he can employ a team of hackers to sell my data to advertisers.

Oh lawd. Mixing up 'programmer/hacker' with 'script kiddie/hacker' to make your point is not a great way to make your sales pitch.

People, don't kill your facebook account. Do what I did and _unfollow everyone_. Facebook is a great calendar, party planner, and rolodex. The main problem most people have is the abuse cycle described in the article, but that's really easy to kill if you just nuke your feed by unfollowing everyone. Facebook gets increasingly agitated as you unfollow everyone, and they start popping up surveys asking you why you're doing it. _Just what do you think you 're doing, Dave?_</comment>


High Schoolers are now Freelancing (What do you think). - <AUTHOR>

So, I'm still in high school, and I freelance.  I've done work with companies like ConvertKit (with Nathan Barry), Badgeville (internship), and started a few of my own.  Whats your input on high schoolers who are now freelancing? (btw, my website is http://sambaumgarten.me) <comment><USER2> I don't know, but in Tunisia to be freelancer it's much better than pursuing school. In fact, freelance ensure a good income and at least you are working in something rather than you have an undergraduate degree and jobless!

</comment><comment><USER3> it's good, if this not prevent you to be successful in school education and you have free time for your social life.</comment>


Apple Said to Be Removing Headphone Jack from Upcoming 2018 iPad Pro Models - <AUTHOR> https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/28/ipad-pro-2018-models-no-headphone-jack/ <comment><USER2> Are they going to force keyboards + portrait? Isn't that going to make it impossible to have a one-piece keyboard case? Split-screen was designed for landscape use. Are we really supposed to give up:

      - reliable unlock with TouchID
      - keyboard cases
      - headphone jack
      - split screen
      - laptop form factor
      - watching netflix/youtube
      - editing audio/video
      - code editing with split-screen

We need a Darwin award for Technology PMs. The 12" iPad was making great strides towards being a laptop replacement, these changes would take it backwards to glorified ebook/pdf reader.</comment>


Common Errors in English Usage - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html <comment><USER3> I thought this looked familiar. Then I realized it's because I've submitted it before ;-)

Original link: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1502209>

Quite illustrative that links do indeed tend to fall off the newest page too soon. When posted 83 days ago, it got 1 upvote.

</comment><comment><USER4> For a much better look at English grammar, check out Grammar Girl: <http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/>

Her blog covers English usage and grammar issues in simple, "quick and dirty" tips. So you'll usually get a quick explanation of why something works the way it does, and then get a quick tip explaining how to remember it.

I also bought her book (which is just collected posts from the blog.)

<comment><USER5> Just checked her site and it's really good. Thanks for the tip.

I have found one interesting tip regarding braces, brackets and parantheses. While I use all three of them all the time, she says that brackets and braces are seldom used. Moreover, she asserts that most probably many of readers have never used braces. And she is right. Just shows how different the world seems to her compared to what it seems to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Maybe a list of common errors in English usage would be more useful if it were a manageable list. How about the 20 most common errors in usage. I'd bet (but surely there are some studies on this) that the following would appear near or close to the top of the list:

it's for its; there for their; alright for all right; 'the reason is because', for 'the reason is that'; dangling modifiers; missing or unclear pronominal antecedents; and subject/verb agreement.

<comment><USER7> Loose vs. lose comes up far too often here.

Also: <http://www.uta.edu/owl/top20.htm>

<comment><USER8> I also notice a lot of "eke vs. eek" here. Turns out there's this property called onomatopoeia that escapes many people.

<comment><USER9> In fairness, "eke" is a rarely used word. No such excuses for they're/there/their though.

<comment><USER8> Whether it's used rarely or frequently, it's still incorrect and I see it all over the place, which was my _point_...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I believe this has already been posted to HN several times. It also appears some of the word links are broken. ie oeuvre

</comment><comment><USER11> Does this happen to anyone? Sometimes, I don't make an error - I didn't know it was an error that existed or that was commen - but upon reading about it, I start making the error.

This is similar to when I read about psychological disorders and the like - <USER2> seems like I learn about something and start acting it out in some weird way.

Long story short, sometimes I'd rather not read these lists of common errors.

<comment><USER12> Your comment made me wonder if _commen_ is a common misspelling of _common_. It appears that's all you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> When in doubt, you can also use my little webapp: <http://phras.in>

It also works if you type something like this: <http://phras.in/realize/realise>

_/shameless plug_

</comment><comment><USER14> I bought the first edition of Bugs In Writing ([http://www.amazon.com/BUGS- Writing-Revised-Guide-Debugging/d...](http://www.amazon.com/BUGS-Writing- Revised-Guide-Debugging/dp/020137921X)) years ago, and have found it an excellent reference.

It's aimed at technical writers and is a beautifully written book. Highly reccomended.

[Edit: I've just been reading the reviews on Amazon, and it seems a few people are put off by the 'cuteness' of the book, feeling it's not professional. The book has a strong personality (if a book can have such a thing) and lots of cat references/pics, so if you're likely to find that annoying it's not the book for you. Myself, I liked it]

</comment><comment><USER15> "Although digital clocks routinely label noon "12:00 PM" you should avoid this expression not only because it is incorrect, but because many people will imagine you are talking about midnight instead. "

Uh?

<comment><USER16> I highly suspect this is outdated advice. Technically there was some ambiguity about whether 12pm/am would denote midnight or noon, since am/pm are relative to noon. However, the computer age has utterly removed that ambiguity. 12pm is noon, 12am is midnight. Digital clocks have spread familiarity with that convention widely throughout the developed and developing world. I doubt there is any serious confusion any longer.

I suspect that this is a piece of advice (avoiding the use of "12pm") which particular crufty old newspaper editors hold onto dearly even though it has passed out of utility.

<comment><USER17> You'll still confuse people (generally outside Anglo-American culture) who are used to 24-hour digital clocks.

<comment><USER9> If they've not familiar with pm timing, they'll be confused for the entire afternoon, not just noon.

<comment><USER17> They'll almost certainly have encountered am/pm times before, but nobody teaches you the 12pm = noon convention.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I just started a github repo to port these to a machine readable format

<http://github.com/maxogden/common-english-errors>

</comment><comment><USER19> Is it just me, or does the phrase, "Common Errors in English Usage" sound wrong? Shouldn't it be, "Common Errors in the Use of English"? So I checked on their own site: <http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/usage.html>. I guess I'm right. :)

<comment><USER20> How does it imply that you're right? "Common Errors in English Use" sounds much worse to me.

<comment><USER19> It says that, as a general rule, you should use 'use' instead of 'usage'. So I reconstructed the sentence to make it use 'use'.

Also, the :) was intended to make it a bit of a joke.

<comment><USER20> > It says that, as a general rule, you should use 'use' instead of 'usage'.

Nowhere does it say that. It says that only if both seem appropriate (obviously disallowing modifying the rest of the sentence -- that is clear from the context and the example). In this case, "use" doesn't seem appropriate at all.

<comment><USER19> Ok, you win. Although again I would like to point you to the initial smily, ":)", meaning, "joke".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> > _Unlike asbestos removal, "as best as" removal is easy, and you don't have > to wear a hazmat suit._

</comment><comment><USER22> What a fantastic resource, and what a waste that it's in dead paper form (or even web page form).

An automatic style checker would be far more useful, and I bet with some machine learning you could crank out useful but conservative warnings for every one of these entries.

</comment><comment><USER23> <http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/their.html> This one.

For the love of all that is holy, if you have to read just one then read that one.

</comment><comment><USER24> Effect / affect is a bugbear of mine, it pops up every now and again in bug descriptions and so on i.e. "this bug has effected a number of users".

Great reference site, thanks.

</comment><comment><USER25> "Fill this form OUT? You don't fill a form OUT, you fill it IN! Have we all suddenly turned American?!?"

If only Hugh Laurie had any idea then about his role as Greg House.

</comment><comment><USER26> It's great, but try reading the one on apostrophe's and see if you can still get it right every single time. We need some sort of _academy anglaise_ to make decisions on the language and exorcise the apostrophe once and for all. Cursed thing it is.

<comment><USER27> I'm pretty sure you made an apostrophe mistake in "apostrohpe's" - the "s" is making "apostrophe" plural.

<comment><USER26> That was a stab at irony, which apparently flew over the heads of most readers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> As I am always forced bring up in English grammar threads, without a formal (decidable) grammar or an agreed-upon body of work to signify "common usage," there is no formal way to decide whether _any_ statement is grammatical English.

<comment><USER29> English isn't a formal language so it doesn't matter if there's no formal way of deciding grammaticality.

Usage is mostly about imprecise, changing social conventions. That doesn't imply that it's useless to talk about it. We can talk about language usage more or less in the same way we talk about what to wear on such and such occasion.

<comment><USER28> That's not how I think about things. If you claim that a certain statement is "incorrect" English, to me that means you must have a decision procedure in mind. Sure, most of the time it's "common sense" whether something is grammatical: "The sky is blue" is fine and "They sky are blue" is wrong. However, the same applies to deciding whether programs halt or not. Most programs either halt quickly or are obviously infinite loops, yet we know a decision procedure that works on arbitrary programs is impossible.

I'm not suggesting that talking about grammar is impossible or pointless. I'm saying that for the discussion to make sense, there needs to be some formal way to settle whether something is grammatical or not. You could try to make a formal grammar for English, but that's probably futile. A better approach would be to choose a list of written works as the English "canon" and judge usage (hopefully as objectively as you can) against that body of work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I often intentionally use these on people as sort of a test.

<comment><USER9> Do you make a lot of friends that way?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Gentlemen, start registering your quirky domain names!

</comment><comment><USER32> The point of English is that when they become common enough they become correct.</comment>


Faceoff: Android vs. iOS - <AUTHOR> https://realm.io/news/appbuilders-kriplaney-vieira-ios-android-faceoff/ <comment><USER2> How do people feel about having access to Android's source code versus not having iOS' source code? I like the idea that whilst certain features are permission-gated, my apps can pretty much do anything that Google's apps can do. Even if my apps aren't allowed to do something, I can still see how that something works.

Apple keeps many APIs closer to the chest, so there are many things that their apps can do that my apps will never be allowed to do. And while theoretically this approach leads to a higher-quality API surface, Apple does tend to deprecate APIs here and there.

How do the different approaches to platform openness affect other developers?

</comment><comment><USER3> "iOS Simulator (4:27)

The iOS Simultator is much faster than the Android one, because it's not an emulator. It's basically an i386 Mac OS app. The simulator cannot access the camera, but a lot of other things can be simulated, including how the graphic rendering is working, locations, localizations, and iCloud integration. It still can't simulate multi-touch or force touch unfortunately."

You can simulate multi-touch (hold Option) and force touch (Hardware->Simulate Finger Touch or Hardware->Use Trackpad Force for 3D Touch {If you have a force touch enabled Macbook Pro})</comment>


Why Intel is betting its chips on microprocessor mastermind Jim Keller - <AUTHOR> https://fortune.com/longform/microchip-designer-jim-keller-intel-fortune-500-apple-tesla-amd/ <comment><USER2> Giving links that require to subscribe first is a waste of our time.</comment>


Issue 62938 – Barometer driver hangs and kills accelerometer on its way - <AUTHOR> https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=62938 <comment><USER3> Aaaah I2C, one of the simplest protocols there is and also probably the one that gave me the most debugging time.

If someone wants to look into it and is willing to tinker with the guts of the phone, the first thing is to see the state of the bus when the devices stop responding. I2C's "idle" level is high thanks to pull ups, the devices only drive the bus through an open drain.

Sometimes a device's state machine will go fubar (either because of a hardware bug or programing error) and will lock the bus down, basically making it impossible for anybody else to use it.

If this happens the next step is to disconnect/reset all other devices on the bus to make sure which one is screwing up (that's the difficulty with I2C, since the two lines can be driven by any master or slave you can never really know who's doing what when things go wrong).

An other thing to look for is the level of the line. Since there are many devices and pull ups on the wire it's not common to have messed up levels (0 is really 0.2 or 1 is really 0.8, if the pull up is too strong or too weak respectively). Depending on temperature and other factors that can lead certain interfaces to sample bad values.

And then well... you have to capture the transaction that causes the lock up and try to understand what goes wrong...

As a quick fix it might just be possible to force a reset of the bogus chip when a lockup is detected, that would prevent having to restart everything. There's usually a GPIO for that (if they wired it...).

I hope you have a good oscilloscope!

Quite frankly I can empathize with the dev not wanting to look into this bug, by the looks of it that's the kind of minor bug that'll take several days to track down and fix.

<comment><USER4> Very good summary, though let me throw in some doubt:

        > it might just be possible to force a
        > reset of the bogus chip when a lockup is
        > detected [..] There's usually a GPIO for
        > that (if they wired it...).

Yes, _if_ they wired it. In my experience, actual design with this best practice is frustratingly rare. It's as if the hardware designers think, "Oh, it's just I2C, what could go wrong."

If they didn't do it, the chips are probably only connected to a master board level reset, and you're basically screwed.

To find out whether it's the case on the affected devices, absent schematics or a scope, I'd grep around the kernel sources and look for definition of such a pin. (If sources aren't available, try symbols.)

<comment><USER5> You're being _way_ too kind to these chips.

Look at the datasheet for the BMP280 barometer chip, the AK8963 compass, and the MPU6500 accelerometer (close enough):

[http://datasheet.octopart.com/BMP280-Bosch- datasheet-1369120...](http://datasheet.octopart.com/BMP280-Bosch- datasheet-13691204.pdf) [http://www.akm.com/akm/en/file/datasheet/AK8963.pdf](http://www.akm.com/akm/en/file/datasheet/AK8963.pdf) [http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/datasheets/Components/Ge...](http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/datasheets/Components/General%20IC/PS- MPU-6000A.pdf)

The compass (AK8963) has a reset line, the other two have no reset line at all. Your best bet is to drop VCC, but what are the chances the hardware guy just tied them to the power bus and left it at that?

<comment><USER6> > The compass (AK8963) has a reset line, the other two have no reset line at > all. Your best bet is to drop VCC, but what are the chances the hardware guy > just tied them to the power bus and left it at that?

That is, if you also have even more circuitry to disable the bus pullups; otherwise they will continue to power the device via clamping diodes, potentially calling further confusion. The hardware guys don't implement I2C slave power control for a reason: it gets _bloody expensive_ real fast - <USER2> in terms of BOM cost and PCB estate.

Having said that, the lack of a RESET line on many I2C slaves is just ridiculous. I have a sticker on my monitor that says "fix the hanging MMA8451Q bug"; it's been there for at least three months. The very thought of debugging I2C transactions makes me stop even trying.

<comment><USER5> Good point about the pull-ups. Forgot about that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Pedantic, but: can we replace the title with something like "Bug in AOSP breaks barometer, accelerometer usage."

<comment><USER8> No worries, it won't be long before a helpful mod comes along to change the title to "Issue 62938: Barometer driver hangs and kills accellerometer on its way." Enjoy the context we have until that happens.

<comment><USER9> What context? Right now the title is empty clickbait: "This bug in AOSP is impeding science. How to best get Google's attention?"

<comment><USER8> Context, being what does it affect, and why should anybody care. The current title accurately states what is affected (AOSP), and does a less great job of saying who should care (all scientists and probably the entirety of humanity, apparently). The "correct" title gives no indication of what is affected, and little motivation for caring. The title probably will change (they seem to do that, anyhow), but it will probably change for the worse. This is an argument that's been going for years, and it's not going anywhere, but I'm still going to gripe about it from time to time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It would be a lot easier to get their attention if there was an actual 'adb bugreport' attached to the bug.

There's very little context on what the bug is and how to reproduce it besides some vague references to PressureNET (which means very little to someone who hasn't used that before).

</comment><comment><USER11> How do you know it's a bug in AOSP. It could well be a driver issue.

<comment><USER12> It affects the Nexus 5 (and to a lesser extent Nexus 4), shouldn't that be stock Android?

<comment><USER13> The Android Open Source Project refers to the components released by Google as open source. This is the framework for the most part, plus a few Java apps. The drivers are part of the per-device "BSP" layer, and not part of AOSP. They're sometimes delivered as source (certainly the kernel components are), but often not (the userspace HAL libraries are almost never source-visible).

This bug looks to be between the kernel driver and sensor HAL to me. It might be fixable in code we can see, but none of that is part of "AOSP".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is a hardware issue that only affects some of the phones. I did a factory reset and no additional apps installed and still the phone stopped to auto- rotate every day needing a reboot. RMA'd the phone, the new one does not have the accelerometer problem anymore. However, it has the focus problem in low light conditions which the first one didn't have. Not sure I will buy another LG phone in the future.

</comment><comment><USER15> Ah, I'm glad I stumbled upon this. I've seen this exact problem on my device and didn't know what was triggering it. I've been running a widget to track barometric changes, specifically SyPressure, and since I installed it, at least 3 times I've seen the orientation sensor stop working. I hadn't made the correlation since I was in other applications when it would fail.

</comment><comment><USER16> It's probably embarrassing to admit but I read the title and wondered if Barometer was an Uber competitor and some driver had gone postal. It did not quite fit the meaning but it was the best I could do till I read the bug.

but the whole embedded market seems like this now - everything just the wrong side of reliable and abstractions an impossibility. maybe I am just too new to the area.

</comment><comment><USER17> Look on the bright side, my first interpretation of the subject line was "solder in a new chip" not "This can only be fixed via reboot."

</comment><comment><USER18> Please, won't anybody think of the science?!

</comment><comment><USER19> Promise them cake. That worked for GlaDOS...</comment>


The New StumbleUpon V4: Less Content, More Social - <AUTHOR> http://www.brentcsutoras.com/2009/10/13/stumbleupon-v4-content-social/ <comment><USER2> The article doesn't mention it but more and more people are using their url shortener <http://mashable.com/2009/06/09/supr/> in Twitter and I find that very annoying because it automatically adds its own toolbar to Chrome that I need to close.</comment>


Deep Learning Is Going to Teach Us All the Lesson of Our Lives - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/basic-income/deep-learning-is-going-to-teach-us-all-the-lesson-of-our-lives-jobs-are-for-machines-7c6442e37a49 <comment><USER2> In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,

By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;

But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

[...]

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins

When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,

As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,

The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

([http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_copybook.htm](http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_copybook.htm))

<comment><USER3> _" The Gods of the Copybook Headings" is a poem published by Rudyard Kipling in 1919, which, editor Andrew Rutherford said, contained "age-old, unfashionable wisdom" that Kipling saw as having been forgotten by society and replaced by "habits of wishful thinking."

The "copybook headings" to which the title refers were proverbs or maxims, extolling virtues such as honesty or fair dealing that were printed at the top of the pages of 19th-century British students' special notebook pages, called copybooks. The school-children had to write them by hand repeatedly down the page.

David Gilmour says that while topics of the work are the "usual subjects", the commentary "sound better in verse" while Alice Ramos says that they are "far removed from Horace's elegant succinctness" but do "make the same point with some force."_ \- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gods_of_the_Copybook_Headi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gods_of_the_Copybook_Headings)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is linkbait-ish, breathless hype. I stopped reading after "we've gone from linear to parabolic!"

<comment><USER5> Yeah, it reminded me of Spaceballs. "They've gone to plaid!" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAWL8ejf2nM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAWL8ejf2nM)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> AI => automation => unemployment => basic income

That basic argument makes sense to me but the leap to say that AlphaGo proves automation is accelerating doesn't.

Go is one of many task-specific AI's. It's not clear that it implies anything about generalized AI (which most experts agree is still very far off) or the rate at which task-specific AI's are developed.

<comment><USER7> Basic income = food stamps. Enjoy being a worthless loser for the rest of your life.

<comment><USER8> Better a worthless loser than a rampaging radical or starved loser.

<comment><USER7> It's wishful thinking to think that men can be reduced to this and that an eventual revolution will not ensue. A new political and social order must be found. "Men were not meant to live like this," people will eventually agree.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I wonder if "Deep Learning" could be applied to something like interstellar travel to figure out how exactly it could be done.

<comment><USER10> probably not

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The 2 job classes that's wages have fallen the most also happen to be the ones most effected by globalization of trade.

<comment><USER3> The other two happen to be the ones that are most dependent on intellectual property protections in public marketplaces.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> there's a subtle transition between "deep learning masters very specialized skills" to "let's generalize this thought to everything possible".

I work in deep learning and I think the article is more fear than food for thought.

</comment><comment><USER3> _All of this is why it's those most knowledgeable in the AI field who are now actively sounding the alarm for basic income. During a panel discussion at the end of 2015 at Singularity University, prominent data scientist Jeremy Howard asked "Do you want half of people to starve because they literally can't add economic value, or not?" before going on to suggest, "If the answer is not, then the smartest way to distribute the wealth is by implementing a universal basic income."_

People all over the world are adding an incredible amount of economic value to the knowledge economy, it's just being captured completely by Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, etc.

 _First, news publishers have lost control over distribution.

Social media and platform companies took over what publishers couldn't have built even if they wanted to. Now the news is filtered through algorithms and platforms which are opaque and unpredictable. The news business is embracing this trend, and digital native entrants like BuzzFeed, Vox, and Fusion have built their presence on the premise that they are working within this system, not against it.

Second, the inevitable outcome of this is the increase in power of social media companies.

The largest of the platform and social media companies, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and even second order companies such as Twitter, Snapchat and emerging messaging app companies, have become extremely powerful in terms of controlling who publishes what to whom, and how that publication is monetized.

There is a far greater concentration of power in this respect than there ever has been in the past. Networks favor economies of scale, so our careful curation of plurality in media markets such as the UK, disappears at a stroke, and the market dynamics and anti-trust laws the Americans rely on to sort out such anomalies are failing.

We need regulation to make sure all citizens gain equal access to the networks of opportunity and services they need. We also need to know that all public speech and expression will be treated transparently, even if they cannot be treated equally. This is a basic requirement for a functioning democracy.

For this to happen, there has to be at least some agreement that the responsibilities in this area are shifting. The people who built these platform companies did not set out to do so in order to take over the responsibilities of a free press. In fact, they are rather alarmed that this is the outcome of their engineering success._ \- [http://www.cjr.org/analysis/facebook_and_media.php](http://www.cjr.org/analysis/facebook_and_media.php)

Silicon Valley has seemingly abandoned the notion of treating intellectual property as a capital good. Facebook is a marketing platform, not a marketplace. The solution is to add actual market value to intellectual property instead of covering operations costs with advertising.

If I write a song I can sell it on an open marketplace to competing publishers. It will be treated as a capital good. It can be recorded by numerous recording artists and packaged and resold in myriad other ways. All of that is measurable productivity. All of that lets songwriters, publishers, recording artists and music marketers make real profits and pay their rent.

If I write a song and publish it to a private social media platform like Facebook it goes nowhere. It's not a capital good, there is no notion of intellectual property, and I am not financially rewarded for the benefits that it gives to the other users of Facebook. There's no market value for a Facebook post. The only measurable value is from the indirect commerce that it stimulates. Facebook captures all of the profits from selling advertising. Facebook is not a public platform. It is a private, closed platform that we're all stuck with it due to network effects.

 _Capital, like energy, is a dormant value. Bringing it to life requires us to go beyond looking at our assets as they are to actively thinking about them as they could be. It requires a process for fixing an asset 's economic potential into a form that can be used to initiate additional production.

[...]

Any asset whose economic and social aspects are not fixed in a formal property system is extremely hard to move in the market. How can the huge amounts of assets changing hands in a modern market economy be controlled, if not through a formal property process? Without such a system, any trade of an asset, say a piece of real estate, requires an enormous effort just to determine the basics of the transaction: Does the seller own the real estate and have the right to transfer it? Can he pledge it? Will the new owner be accepted as such by those who enforce property rights? What are the effective means to exclude other claimants? This is why the exchange of most assets outside the West is restricted to local circles of trading partners._ \- [http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/desoto.htm](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/desoto.htm)

There's a lot of potential economic energy contained in the non-repetitive cognitive tasks that billions of people are performing on social media every day, it's just not being treated like capital, rather being captured by the private intellectual property industries.

Can we please explore some tried-and-true methods of establishing and maintaining marketplaces of intellectual property before we give up and start preaching about silly experiments like basic income?

Blindly paying people basic income in order to create intellectual property that is completely captured by Google is literally the dumbest way to distribute wealth through society.

 _dumb

verb

2.

literary

make dumb or unheard; silence.

"a splendor that dazed the mind and dumbed the tongue"_

We need to speak and we need to speak through the free and public exchange of information with measurable value.

</comment><comment><USER13> It didn't win 5 times in a row without defeat. It won 3 times, lost, and then won again.

<comment><USER14> I don't agree with the premise of the article but the 5-0 results refer to Fan Hui's match ("Europe's top Go player").

The article describes the outcome of Lee Sedol's match correctly:

> Lee went on to lose all but one of their match's five games.

<comment><USER15> It wasn't written very clearly, I had to reread that paragraph a few times before understanding what you just explained.</comment></comment></comment>


Mercurial at Facebook: Developer Infrastructure at Facebook's Scale - <AUTHOR> https://developers.facebooklive.com/videos/561/big-code-developer-infrastructure-at-facebook-s-scale

<comment><AUTHOR> tl;dr facebook used svn, then had 3 git repositories (server, ios, android) and now moves to a single mercurial repository.

They've made changes to mercurial to be able to do 'sparse checkouts' (only the files you need) and to only use a 'shallow history' (transparent on demand history fetching).</comment>