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67,355 | bluishgreen | 2007-10-13T18:15:58 | "Data visualization is more a medium than a technology" | http://www.scribemedia.org/2007/10/04/stamen-2/ | 2 | 1 | [
67474
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,361 | razorburn | 2007-10-13T18:40:19 | The Case for Google | http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2007/10/the_case_for_go.php | 10 | 3 | [
67386
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,365 | markpeterdavis | 2007-10-13T18:51:20 | How To Submit Your Executive Summary To A VC | The VC process from an entrepreneur's perspective has many steps, which I will cover in the ensuing posts. The first step is submitting your executive summary. There are lots of ways to submit your executive summary: cold channels (e.g., cold email or cold LinkedIn introduction), through introducing yourself to a VC at a networking event or through a 3rd party introduction (e.g., a lawyer or mutual contact)... | http://getventure.typepad.com/markpeterdavis/2007/07/process-submitt.html | 5 | 4 | [
67381,
67540,
67467
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,371 | queensnake | 2007-10-13T19:09:43 | This week's (Oct 13th) Economist ('Chinese peasant') issue | .. paper, yes, but it's got a whole section (ie many pieces) on the rapidly increasing pace and form of innovation and what it means. Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up, read it at your library (subscriptions sometimes arrive faster than at bookstands) or look for it to come online. <p>This is unconventional I know, sorry... </p><p>(More than just this one:<p><a href="http://economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9928154" rel="nofollow">http://economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_i...</a><p>btw) | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | invalid_url | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T16:37:59 | null | train |
|
67,405 | joeguilmette | 2007-10-13T20:02:38 | How many of you YC applicants are non-hackers? | My friend and I are both pretty geeky, especially by comparison to normal people. We can both poke around in CSS, and set up a simple CMS. As far as code goes, that's the end of it though. We plan on working with developers, leaving the actual coding to them, while focusing on the overall flow and design of our site/apps.<p>How many other applicants are in the same boat? | 5 | 11 | [
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] | null | null | invalid_url | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T16:37:59 | null | train |
|
67,407 | sabhishek | 2007-10-13T20:08:23 | Quantum Suicide | http://science.howstuffworks.com/quantum-suicide.htm/printable | 6 | 17 | [
67571,
67503,
67507,
67486
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,435 | nickb | 2007-10-13T20:44:15 | Supply Side Economics Fail Music Industry Again | null | http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/12/supply-side-economics-fail-music-industry-again/ | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,457 | pg | 2007-10-13T21:39:19 | PCs to Be Seen, Not Heard | null | http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/technology/circuits/11basics.html?ex=1349755200&en=68c3c50567e3f24a&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss | 2 | 2 | [
67466,
67518
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,460 | rms | 2007-10-13T21:43:18 | Will be in San Francisco this Sunday/Monday... what to do/anyone want to meet up? | Hi everyone. My cofounder and I will be spending all day Sunday and Monday in San Francisco (just missing the reddit party, unfortunately) and are looking for things to do. We're up for anything, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions and beyond. Thanks for your suggestions.<p>I would love to meet up with anyone that will be around Sunday afternoon/evening/night or Monday evening. Post here or email me. | 7 | 14 | [
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] | null | null | invalid_url | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T16:37:59 | null | train |
|
67,465 | callipygian | 2007-10-13T21:50:34 | Musings from Alexa | How do they come about their traffic rank numbers? | http://startuptofinish.com/2007/10/13/musings-from-alexa/ | 1 | 1 | [
67480
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,469 | rokhayakebe | 2007-10-13T22:05:07 | Ask News.YC: Who is working on a Mobile Startup? (Me:Mobile+VOIP) | I tried, downloads, SMS, WAP and all the other crap. Now I am giving VOIP its fair shot. At least this time I have a revenue model from the beginning. . | 2 | 1 | [
67711
] | null | null | invalid_url | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T16:37:59 | null | train |
|
67,478 | kkim | 2007-10-13T22:17:55 | Report Urges U.S. to Pursue Space-Based Solar Power | null | http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/071011-pentagon-space-solarpower.html | 3 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,482 | neilc | 2007-10-13T22:20:28 | Fred Wilson: Why Do You Want To Invest? | http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2007/10/why-do-you-want.html | 10 | 1 | [
67501
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,484 | kkim | 2007-10-13T22:28:49 | What if C.E.O. Pay Is Fair? | null | http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/business/13nocera.html?ex=1349928000&en=64c141849fc323a6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss | 4 | 2 | [
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67,504 | a13x | 2007-10-13T23:44:22 | Inquiry into health risks of wi-fi in classrooms | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/13/nwifi113.xml | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,519 | divia | 2007-10-14T01:03:02 | Encouraging and amusing PG comment from last cycle about the odds of being accepted | http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32183 | 12 | 1 | [
67710
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,524 | transburgh | 2007-10-14T01:18:16 | Facebook Has LinkedIn In Their Crosshairs | null | http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/13/facebook-has-linkedin-in-the-crosshairs/ | 3 | 1 | [
67595
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,526 | gibsonf1 | 2007-10-14T01:38:02 | Banks May Pool Billions to Stop Securities Sell-off | http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/business/14bank.html?ei=5065&en=6489772aacb69342&ex=1192939200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print | 3 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,527 | mnemonicsloth | 2007-10-14T01:46:29 | Military proposes $20B power satellite to shorten logistical tail. | Points for Discussion:<p>1. Too bad this wasn't proposed in the seventies. Justification for a long-lasting commitment to building orbital infrastructure is just what the space program needed back then.<p>2. Is it better to have a semi-competent, underfunded, civilian space program, or a semi-competent, overfunded, military space program?<p>3. Isn't it neat to think that somewhere out there, somebody's "running a startup" with a nine-figure budget? | http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,301479,00.html | 6 | 2 | [
67547
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,529 | hwork | 2007-10-14T01:55:53 | How I Think - An Example from Saturday Morning | http://www.markmcgranaghan.com/posts/82 | 3 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,532 | nickb | 2007-10-14T01:59:04 | Facebook Fanboys - Arrington/Calacanis: "Building Facebook-only apps is suicide" | null | http://www.podtech.net/home/4369/facebook-fanboys-are-you-pro-or-con-part-2 | 5 | 2 | [
67633,
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] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,533 | drm237 | 2007-10-14T01:59:40 | Ruby Matters: Contracts vs. Promises | In teaching Ruby to Java developers, two things seem to shock and annoy developers: open classes and the lack of interfaces. Because Java developers are inundated with interfaces, it's hard to imagine a language whose libraries are strictly defined in this manner. | http://memeagora.blogspot.com/2007/10/ruby-matters-contracts-vs-promises.html | 4 | 0 | null | null | null | no_error | Ruby Matters: Contracts vs. Promises | null | null |
In teaching Ruby to Java developers, two things seem to shock and annoy developers: open classes and the lack of interfaces. Because Java developers are inundated with interfaces, it's hard to imagine a language whose libraries are strictly defined in this manner.Interfaces in Java and .NET are exactly like legal contracts (where the compiler is the all-powerful judge). If you implement an interface yet don't meet the terms of the contract, the judge refuses to allow you to proceed.Mixins in Ruby are more like promises than contracts. When you agree to pick up a friend at the airport, you don't sign a contract, you promise you'll be there. The punishment is purely social: if you break a promise, your friends won't do stuff for you. Here's an example.In Ruby, a common Mixin is Comparable, which gives you the same behaviors as the Comparator interface in Java. The promise in Comparable is that you will implement the "spaceship" operator (<=>), which returns negative if the left-hand side is less than the right, 0 if they are equal, and positive if the LHS is greater than the RHS (which is exactly like the similar compare() method in Java). class Employee include Comparable attr_accessor :name, :salary def initialize(name, salary) @name, @salary = name, salary end def <=>(other) name <=> other.name end end list = Array.new list << Employee.new("Monty", 10000) list << Employee.new("Homer", 50000) list << Employee.new("Bart", 5000) list.sort! # Monty vs. Homer list[0] < list[1] # => true # Homer vs. Monty list[0] > list[1] # => false # Homer is between Bart and Monty? list[1].between?(list[0], list[2]) # => trueIf you violate the promise by mixing in Comparable and yet don't implement the spaceship, nothing bad happens...until you try to ask your friend Comparable to perform a service for you (like compare two things with between? or call the sort! method). Then, you get an error message complaining "undefined method `<=>' for Employee". And this happens at runtime, not at compile time.This is a fundamentally different mindset than the legalistic strongly contracted languages. It demonstrates one of the reasons that you can't slack off on writing your unit tests in Ruby: you don't find out important things until runtime. It is certainly a different way of thinking about implementing APIs. While lots of Java developers think this leads to chaos in large development teams, I have not found that to be true (and I think that most Ruby developers would agree with my assessment). The trade-off is strict control vs. flexibility. If there is one thing that my experience has taught, it is that flexibility is the most important thing for strong programmers, echoed by many of Paul Graham's essays.If you must have stronger contracts in Ruby, there is a framework called Handshake that allows you to create pre- and post-conditional invariants ala Eiffel. While I understand the appeal of Handshake, I would be loathe to use it on a project because I prefer the power of flexibility rather than the strictures of constraints.
| 2024-11-08T02:08:04 | en | train |
67,534 | drm237 | 2007-10-14T02:02:37 | All-You-Can-Eat IT Service for Small Businesses | Sinu provides IT service and tech support to small businesses for a flat monthly fee, regardless of how much time is spent fixing technology problems. | http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/10/allyoucaneat_it.html | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | no_error | news | null | null | InformationWeek is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLCThis site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.HomeLatest NewsOriginal reporting, exclusive interviews, and sharp analysis by experienced journalists. Coverage of the breaking and developing news that IT executives need to know about, like moves in the enterprise IT market, major cyberattacks, and more.Previous12345…1623NextEditor's ChoiceWebinarsHarnessing Mainframe Data for AI-Driven Enterprise AnalyticsNov 12, 2024Navigating the Risks: Why SaaS Management is Crucial for Compliance and Security in Healthcare & FinanceNov 14, 2024Strengthening Cloud Security: Addressing Today's Threats and Preparing for TomorrowNov 19, 2024White PapersWork Smarter, Not Harder with Gemini in Security OperationsSmart Service Management--Easy Automation for Manual IT TasksFive Essential Steps to SOC TransformationZoom Workplace vs. MSFT Teams EbookCabinet-Integrated Liquid Cooling Supports Rising Power Density and Maximum Sustainability for High-Performance Computing Data Center EnvironmentsReports2024 InformationWeek US IT Salary ReportMay 29, 20242022 State of ITOps and SecOpsJun 21, 2022Never Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox. | 2024-11-08T01:58:23 | en | train |
67,550 | tapostrophemo | 2007-10-14T03:01:38 | Breaking: Know why they're not doing the next round in Boston...? | Becuase the Indians are going to beat the Red Sox, and pg & co. don't want to hang their heads in shame.<p>:-)<p>(And not that I'm really a sports fan, but I do currently live in the Cleveland area.) | 1 | -1 | null | null | true | invalid_url | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T16:37:59 | null | train |
|
67,564 | amichail | 2007-10-14T04:39:55 | Websites May Require Visually Impaired Access In California | http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/13/websites-may-require-visually-impaired-access-in-california/ | 13 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,566 | eastsidegringo | 2007-10-14T04:56:35 | Netflix says: Outsourcing is For Quitters | When every other company is outsourcing or offshoring everything (especially call centers) Netflix opens up a call center in...Oregon? It makes you wonder how necessary it is for other companies when an internet-based company can keep it in the States. | http://blogs.dovetailsoftware.com/blogs/main/archive/2007/10/12/the-highest-tech-humans.aspx | 4 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,576 | gibsonf1 | 2007-10-14T05:22:07 | NASA scoops up planetary details on Jupiter flyby | null | http://www.news.com/NASA-scoops-up-planetary-details-on-Jupiter-flyby/2100-11397_3-6212592.html?tag=nefd.lede | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,578 | gibsonf1 | 2007-10-14T05:31:30 | Dell: Microsoft warnings haven't hurt Linux uptake | null | http://www.news.com/Dell-Microsoft-warnings-havent-hurt-Linux-uptake/2100-7344_3-6213270.html?tag=nefd.top | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,584 | h34t | 2007-10-14T06:26:39 | Ask YC: Are any of you interested in China / international business? | Are any of you interested or involved in international business-related startups?<p>This week I am in Guangzhou, China for the Canton Fair, a huge exhibition for Chinese manufacturers. These are the folks who actually <i>make</i> the stuff we all see in Walmart (think: obscenely low prices, and just-as-obscene minimum order quantities). Walking through these isles is kind of like walking through your grandmother's garden and seeing where everything you eat (/consume) actually comes from. It's the biggest show of its kind in China.<p>Have any of you thought about anything along the lines of Alibaba.com (which Yahoo paid $1 billion for 40% of)? Connecting international buyers/sellers? Related services? Importing/branding/product-design? <p>I've been living in China for 10 months. Just interested in whether any of the community here has dabbled in stuff like this (or wants to). | 16 | 28 | [
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|
67,586 | nickb | 2007-10-14T06:27:42 | Solar Cells Crystallized Out of Molten Silicon | null | http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/1mm_diameter_solar_cell_spheres_formed_in_freefall_by_gravity/ | 4 | 1 | [
67644
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,592 | rms | 2007-10-14T06:52:50 | Power an LED light from your phone line for free | http://www.metacafe.com/watch/868499/free_hidden_electricity/ | 4 | 2 | [
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67666
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,596 | joeguilmette | 2007-10-14T07:19:14 | Any fans of Couchsurfing? | http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07287/824742-243.stm | 8 | 3 | [
67792,
67655
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,604 | bootload | 2007-10-14T08:26:24 | Why Facebook sucks | http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/10/13/whyFacebookSucks.html | 24 | 27 | [
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] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,611 | mqt | 2007-10-14T08:59:34 | Richard Stallman: My Lisp Experiences and the Development of GNU Emacs | http://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.html | 25 | 3 | [
67837
] | null | null | no_error | My Lisp Experiences and the Development of GNU Emacs - GNU Project | null | null |
Transcript of Richard Stallman's speech at the
International Lisp Conference, 28 Oct 2002.
Since none of my usual speeches have anything to do with Lisp, none
of them were appropriate for today. So I'm going to have to wing it.
Since I've done enough things in my career connected with Lisp I
should be able to say something interesting.
My first experience with Lisp was when I read the Lisp 1.5 manual
in high school. That's when I had my mind blown by the idea that there
could be a computer language like that. The first time I had a chance
to do anything with Lisp was when I was a freshman at Harvard and I
wrote a Lisp interpreter for the PDP-11. It was a very small machine—it
had something like 8k of memory—and I managed to write the
interpreter in a thousand instructions. This gave me some room for a
little bit of data. That was before I got to see what real software
was like, that did real system jobs.
I began doing work on a real Lisp implementation with JonL White
once I started working at MIT. I got hired at the Artificial Intelligence Lab
not by JonL, but by Russ Noftsker, which was most ironic considering
what was to come—he must have really regretted that day.
During the 1970s, before my life became politicized by horrible
events, I was just going along making one extension after another for
various programs, and most of them did not have anything to do with
Lisp. But, along the way, I wrote a text editor, Emacs. The
interesting idea about Emacs was that it had a programming language,
and the user's editing commands would be written in that interpreted
programming language, so that you could load new commands into your
editor while you were editing. You could edit the programs you were
using and then go on editing with them. So, we had a system that was
useful for things other than programming, and yet you could program it
while you were using it. I don't know if it was the first one of
those, but it certainly was the first editor like that.
This spirit of building up gigantic, complicated programs to use in
your own editing, and then exchanging them with other people, fueled
the spirit of free-wheeling cooperation that we had at the AI Lab
then. The idea was that you could give a copy of any program you had
to someone who wanted a copy of it. We shared programs to whomever
wanted to use them, they were human knowledge. So even though there
was no organized political thought relating the way we shared software
to the design of Emacs, I'm convinced that there was a connection
between them, an unconscious connection perhaps. I think that it's the
nature of the way we lived at the AI Lab that led to Emacs and made it
what it was.
The original Emacs did not have Lisp in it. The lower level
language, the non-interpreted language—was PDP-10
Assembler. The interpreter we wrote in that actually wasn't written
for Emacs, it was written for TECO. It was our text editor, and was an
extremely ugly programming language, as ugly as could possibly be. The
reason was that it wasn't designed to be a programming language, it
was designed to be an editor and command language. There were commands
like 5l, meaning move five lines, or
i and then a string and then an ESC to insert that
string. You would type a string that was a series of commands, which
was called a command string. You would end it with ESC ESC, and it
would get executed.
Well, people wanted to extend this language with programming
facilities, so they added some. For instance, one of the first was a
looping construct, which was < >. You would put those around
things and it would loop. There were other cryptic commands that could
be used to conditionally exit the loop. To make Emacs, we [1] added facilities to have subroutines with
names. Before that, it was sort of like Basic, and the subroutines
could only have single letters as their names. That was hard to
program big programs with, so we added code so they could have longer
names. Actually, there were some rather sophisticated facilities; I
think that Lisp got its unwind-protect facility
from TECO.
We started putting in rather sophisticated facilities, all with the
ugliest syntax you could ever think of, and it worked—people were
able to write large programs in it anyway. The obvious lesson was that
a language like TECO, which wasn't designed to be a
programming language, was the wrong way to go. The language that you
build your extensions on shouldn't be thought of as a programming
language in afterthought; it should be designed as a programming
language. In fact, we discovered that the best programming language
for that purpose was Lisp.
It was Bernie Greenberg, who discovered that it
was [2]. He wrote a version of Emacs in Multics
MacLisp, and he wrote his commands in MacLisp in a straightforward
fashion. The editor itself was written entirely in Lisp. Multics Emacs
proved to be a great success—programming new editing commands
was so convenient that even the secretaries in his office started
learning how to use it. They used a manual someone had written which
showed how to extend Emacs, but didn't say it was a programming. So
the secretaries, who believed they couldn't do programming, weren't
scared off. They read the manual, discovered they could do useful
things and they learned to program.
So Bernie saw that an application—a program that does something
useful for you—which has Lisp inside it and which you could extend
by rewriting the Lisp programs, is actually a very good way for people
to learn programming. It gives them a chance to write small programs
that are useful for them, which in most arenas you can't possibly
do. They can get encouragement for their own practical use—at the
stage where it's the hardest—where they don't believe they can
program, until they get to the point where they are programmers.
At that point, people began to wonder how they could get something
like this on a platform where they didn't have full service Lisp
implementation. Multics MacLisp had a compiler as well as an
interpreter—it was a full-fledged Lisp system—but people wanted
to implement something like that on other systems where they had not
already written a Lisp compiler. Well, if you didn't have the Lisp
compiler you couldn't write the whole editor in Lisp—it would be
too slow, especially redisplay, if it had to run interpreted Lisp. So
we developed a hybrid technique. The idea was to write a Lisp
interpreter and the lower level parts of the editor together, so that
parts of the editor were built-in Lisp facilities. Those would be
whatever parts we felt we had to optimize. This was a technique that
we had already consciously practiced in the original Emacs, because
there were certain fairly high level features which we re-implemented
in machine language, making them into TECO
primitives. For instance, there was a TECO
primitive to fill a paragraph (actually, to do most of the work of
filling a paragraph, because some of the less time-consuming parts of
the job would be done at the higher level by a TECO
program). You could do the whole job by writing
a TECO program, but that was too slow, so we
optimized it by putting part of it in machine language. We used the
same idea here (in the hybrid technique), that most of the editor
would be written in Lisp, but certain parts of it that had to run
particularly fast would be written at a lower level.
Therefore, when I wrote my second implementation of Emacs, I
followed the same kind of design. The low level language was not
machine language anymore, it was C. C was a good, efficient language
for portable programs to run in a Unix-like operating system. There
was a Lisp interpreter, but I implemented facilities for special
purpose editing jobs directly in C—manipulating editor buffers,
inserting leading text, reading and writing files, redisplaying the
buffer on the screen, managing editor windows.
Now, this was not the first Emacs that was written in C and ran on
Unix. The first was written by James Gosling, and was referred to as
GosMacs. A strange thing happened with him. In the beginning, he
seemed to be influenced by the same spirit of sharing and cooperation
of the original Emacs. I first released the original Emacs to people
at MIT. Someone wanted to port it to run on Twenex—it
originally only ran on the Incompatible Timesharing System we used
at MIT. They ported it to Twenex, which meant that there
were a few hundred installations around the world that could
potentially use it. We started distributing it to them, with the rule
that “you had to send back all of your improvements” so we
could all benefit. No one ever tried to enforce that, but as far as I
know people did cooperate.
Gosling did, at first, seem to participate in this spirit. He wrote
in a manual that he called the program Emacs hoping that others in the
community would improve it until it was worthy of that name. That's
the right approach to take towards a community—to ask them to join
in and make the program better. But after that he seemed to change the
spirit, and sold it to a company.
At that time I was working on the GNU system (a free software
Unix-like operating system that many people erroneously call
“Linux”). There was no free software Emacs editor that ran
on Unix. I did, however, have a friend who had participated in
developing Gosling's Emacs. Gosling had given him, by email, permission
to distribute his own version. He proposed to me that I use that
version. Then I discovered that Gosling's Emacs did not have a real
Lisp. It had a programming language that was known as
“mocklisp,” which looks syntactically like Lisp, but didn't
have the data structures of Lisp. So programs were not data, and vital
elements of Lisp were missing. Its data structures were strings,
numbers and a few other specialized things.
I concluded I couldn't use it and had to replace it all, the first
step of which was to write an actual Lisp interpreter. I gradually
adapted every part of the editor based on real Lisp data structures,
rather than ad hoc data structures, making the data structures of the
internals of the editor exposable and manipulable by the user's Lisp
programs.
The one exception was redisplay. For a long time, redisplay was
sort of an alternate world. The editor would enter the world of
redisplay and things would go on with very special data structures
that were not safe for garbage collection, not safe for interruption,
and you couldn't run any Lisp programs during that. We've changed that
since—it's now possible to run Lisp code during redisplay. It's
quite a convenient thing.
This second Emacs program was “free software” in the
modern sense of the term—it was part of an explicit political
campaign to make software free. The essence of this campaign was that
everybody should be free to do the things we did in the old days
at MIT, working together on software and working with
whomever wanted to work with us. That is the basis for the free
software movement—the experience I had, the life that I've lived at
the MIT AI lab—to be working on human knowledge, and
not be standing in the way of anybody's further using and further
disseminating human knowledge.
At the time, you could make a computer that was about the same price
range as other computers that weren't meant for Lisp, except that it
would run Lisp much faster than they would, and with full type checking
in every operation as well. Ordinary computers typically forced you to
choose between execution speed and good typechecking. So yes, you could
have a Lisp compiler and run your programs fast, but when they tried to
take car of a number, it got nonsensical results and eventually
crashed at some point.
The Lisp machine was able to execute instructions about as fast as
those other machines, but each instruction—a car instruction would
do data typechecking—so when you tried to get the car of a number
in a compiled program, it would give you an immediate error. We built
the machine and had a Lisp operating system for it. It was written
almost entirely in Lisp, the only exceptions being parts written in
the microcode. People became interested in manufacturing them, which
meant they should start a company.
There were two different ideas about what this company should be
like. Greenblatt wanted to start what he called a
“hacker” company. This meant it would be a company run by
hackers and would operate in a way conducive to hackers. Another goal
was to maintain the AI Lab culture [3].
Unfortunately, Greenblatt didn't have any business experience, so
other people in the Lisp machine group said they doubted whether he
could succeed. They thought that his plan to avoid outside investment
wouldn't work.
Why did he want to avoid outside investment? Because when a company
has outside investors, they take control and they don't let you have
any scruples. And eventually, if you have any scruples, they also
replace you as the manager.
So Greenblatt had the idea that he would find a customer who would
pay in advance to buy the parts. They would build machines and deliver
them; with profits from those parts, they would then be able to buy
parts for a few more machines, sell those and then buy parts for a
larger number of machines, and so on. The other people in the group
thought that this couldn't possibly work.
Greenblatt then recruited Russell Noftsker, the man who had hired
me, who had subsequently left the AI Lab and created a successful
company. Russell was believed to have an aptitude for business. He
demonstrated this aptitude for business by saying to the other people
in the group, “Let's ditch Greenblatt, forget his ideas, and
we'll make another company.” Stabbing in the back, clearly a
real businessman. Those people decided they would form a company
called Symbolics. They would get outside investment, not have
scruples, and do everything possible to win.
But Greenblatt didn't give up. He and the few people loyal to him
decided to start Lisp Machines Inc. anyway and go ahead with their
plans. And what do you know, they succeeded! They got the first
customer and were paid in advance. They built machines and sold them,
and built more machines and more machines. They actually succeeded
even though they didn't have the help of most of the people in the
group. Symbolics also got off to a successful start, so you had two
competing Lisp machine companies. When Symbolics saw that LMI was not
going to fall flat on its face, they started looking for ways to
destroy it.
Thus, the abandonment of our lab was followed by “war”
in our lab. The abandonment happened when Symbolics hired away all
the hackers, except me and the few who worked at LMI part-time. Then
they invoked a rule and eliminated people who worked part-time
for MIT, so they had to leave entirely, which left only
me. The AI lab was now helpless. And MIT had made a very
foolish arrangement with these two companies. It was a three-way
contract where both companies licensed the use of Lisp machine system
sources. These companies were required to let MIT use
their changes. But it didn't say in the contract that MIT
was entitled to put them into the MIT Lisp machine
systems that both companies had licensed. Nobody had envisioned that
the AI lab's hacker group would be wiped out, but it was.
So Symbolics came up with a plan [4]. They
said to the lab, “We will continue making our changes to the
system available for you to use, but you can't put it into
the MIT Lisp machine system. Instead, we'll give you
access to Symbolics' Lisp machine system, and you can run it, but
that's all you can do.”
This, in effect, meant that they demanded that we had to choose a
side, and use either the MIT version of the system or the
Symbolics version. Whichever choice we made determined which system
our improvements went to. If we worked on and improved the Symbolics
version, we would be supporting Symbolics alone. If we used and
improved the MIT version of the system, we would be doing
work available to both companies, but Symbolics saw that we would be
supporting LMI because we would be helping them continue to exist. So
we were not allowed to be neutral anymore.
Up until that point, I hadn't taken the side of either company,
although it made me miserable to see what had happened to our
community and the software. But now, Symbolics had forced the issue.
So, in an effort to help keep Lisp Machines
Inc. going [5]—I began duplicating all
of the improvements Symbolics had made to the Lisp machine system. I
wrote the equivalent improvements again myself (i.e., the code was my
own).
After a while [6], I came to the conclusion
that it would be best if I didn't even look at their code. When they
made a beta announcement that gave the release notes, I would see what
the features were and then implement them. By the time they had a real
release, I did too.
In this way, for two years, I prevented them from wiping out Lisp
Machines Incorporated, and the two companies went on. But, I didn't
want to spend years and years punishing someone, just thwarting an
evil deed. I figured they had been punished pretty thoroughly because
they were stuck with competition that was not leaving or going to
disappear [7]. Meanwhile, it was time to start
building a new community to replace the one that their actions and
others had wiped out.
The Lisp community in the 70s was not limited to
the MIT AI Lab, and the hackers were not all
at MIT. The war that Symbolics started was what wiped
out MIT, but there were other events going on then. There
were people giving up on cooperation, and together this wiped out the
community and there wasn't much left.
Once I stopped punishing Symbolics, I had to figure out what to do
next. I had to make a free operating system, that was clear—the
only way that people could work together and share was with a free
operating system.
At first, I thought of making a Lisp-based system, but I realized
that wouldn't be a good idea technically. To have something like the
Lisp machine system, you needed special purpose microcode. That's what
made it possible to run programs as fast as other computers would run
their programs and still get the benefit of typechecking. Without
that, you would be reduced to something like the Lisp compilers for
other machines. The programs would be faster, but unstable. Now that's
okay if you're running one program on a timesharing system—if one
program crashes, that's not a disaster, that's something your program
occasionally does. But that didn't make it good for writing the
operating system in, so I rejected the idea of making a system like
the Lisp machine.
I decided instead to make a Unix-like operating system that would
have Lisp implementations to run as user programs. The kernel wouldn't
be written in Lisp, but we'd have Lisp. So the development of that
operating system, the GNU operating system, is what led me to write
the GNU Emacs. In doing this, I aimed to make the absolute minimal
possible Lisp implementation. The size of the programs was a
tremendous concern.
There were people in those days, in 1985, who had one-megabyte
machines without virtual memory. They wanted to be able to use GNU
Emacs. This meant I had to keep the program as small as possible.
For instance, at the time the only looping construct was
while, which was extremely simple. There was no way to
break out of the while statement, you just had to do a
catch and a throw, or test a variable that ran the loop. That shows
how far I was pushing to keep things small. We didn't have
caar and cadr and so on; “squeeze
out everything possible” was the spirit of GNU Emacs, the spirit
of Emacs Lisp, from the beginning.
Obviously, machines are bigger now, and we don't do it that way
any more. We put in caar and cadr and so
on, and we might put in another looping construct one of these
days. We're willing to extend it some now, but we don't want to extend
it to the level of common Lisp. I implemented Common Lisp once on the
Lisp machine, and I'm not all that happy with it. One thing I don't
like terribly much is keyword arguments [8].
They don't seem quite Lispy
to me; I'll do it sometimes but I minimize the times when I do
that.
That was not the end of the GNU projects involved with Lisp. Later
on around 1995, we were looking into starting a graphical desktop
project. It was clear that for the programs on the desktop, we wanted
a programming language to write a lot of it in to make it easily
extensible, like the editor. The question was what it should be.
At the time, TCL
was being pushed heavily for this purpose. I had a very low opinion
of TCL, basically because it wasn't Lisp. It looks
a tiny bit like Lisp, but semantically it isn't, and it's not as
clean. Then someone showed me an ad where Sun was trying to hire
somebody to work on TCL to make it the
“de-facto standard extension language” of the world. And I
thought, “We've got to stop that from happening.” So we
started to make Scheme the standard extensibility language for
GNU. Not Common Lisp, because it was too large. The idea was that we
would have a Scheme interpreter designed to be linked into
applications in the same way TCL was linked into
applications. We would then recommend that as the preferred
extensibility package for all GNU programs.
There's an interesting benefit you can get from using such a
powerful language as a version of Lisp as your primary extensibility
language. You can implement other languages by translating them into
your primary language. If your primary language
is TCL, you can't very easily implement Lisp by
translating it into TCL. But if your primary
language is Lisp, it's not that hard to implement other things by
translating them. Our idea was that if each extensible application
supported Scheme, you could write an implementation
of TCL or Python or Perl in Scheme that translates
that program into Scheme. Then you could load that into any
application and customize it in your favorite language and it would
work with other customizations as well.
As long as the extensibility languages are weak, the users have to
use only the language you provided them. Which means that people who
love any given language have to compete for the choice of the
developers of applications—saying “Please, application
developer, put my language into your application, not his
language.” Then the users get no choices at all—whichever
application they're using comes with one language and they're stuck
with [that language]. But when you have a powerful language that can
implement others by translating into it, then you give the user a
choice of language and we don't have to have a language war
anymore. That's what we're hoping Guile, our scheme
interpreter, will do. We had a person working last summer finishing up
a translator from Python to Scheme. I don't know if it's entirely
finished yet, but for anyone interested in this project, please get in
touch. So that's the plan we have for the future.
I haven't been speaking about free software, but let me briefly
tell you a little bit about what that means. Free software does not
refer to price; it doesn't mean that you get it for free. (You may
have paid for a copy, or gotten a copy gratis.) It means that you have
freedom as a user. The crucial thing is that you are free to run the
program, free to study what it does, free to change it to suit your
needs, free to redistribute the copies of others and free to publish
improved, extended versions. This is what free software means. If you
are using a nonfree program, you have lost crucial freedom, so don't
ever do that.
The purpose of the GNU project is to make it easier for people to
reject freedom-trampling, user-dominating, nonfree software by
providing free software to replace it. For those who don't have the
moral courage to reject the nonfree software, when that means some
practical inconvenience, what we try to do is give a free alternative
so that you can move to freedom with less of a mess and less of a
sacrifice in practical terms. The less sacrifice the better. We want
to make it easier for you to live in freedom, to cooperate.
This is a matter of the freedom to cooperate. We're used to
thinking of freedom and cooperation with society as if they are
opposites. But here they're on the same side. With free software you
are free to cooperate with other people as well as free to help
yourself. With nonfree software, somebody is dominating you and
keeping people divided. You're not allowed to share with them, you're
not free to cooperate or help society, anymore than you're free to
help yourself. Divided and helpless is the state of users using
nonfree software.
We've produced a tremendous range of free software. We've done what
people said we could never do; we have two operating systems of free
software. We have many applications and we obviously have a lot
farther to go. So we need your help. I would like to ask you to
volunteer for the GNU project; help us develop free software for more
jobs. Take a look at gnu.org/help to
find suggestions for how to help. If you want to order things, there's
a link to that from the home page. If you want to read about
philosophical issues, look in /philosophy. If you're looking for free
software to use, look in /directory, which lists about 1900 packages
now (which is a fraction of all the free software out there). Please
write more and contribute to us. My book of essays, “Free
Software and Free Society,” is on sale and can be purchased at
www.gnu.org [9]. Happy hacking!
Footnotes
Guy Steele designed the original symmetrical Emacs
command set; then he and I began implementing Emacs (on top of TECO),
but after one long joint development session, Steele began drifting
away, so I finished Emacs. Others particularly including Eugene
C. Cicciarelli and Mike McMahon contributed substantially later
on.
Bernie Greenberg says that Dan Weinreb's
implementation of Emacs for the Lisp Machine came before Greenberg's
implementation for Multics. I apologize for the mistake.
Greenblatt's plan, as I understood it, was to hire lab
people part time, so that they could continue working at the AI Lab.
Symbolics hired them full time instead, so they stopped working at
MIT.
The background of this plan, which I did not state
explicitly in the talk, is that during an initial period the ex-AI-Lab
hackers, whether at Symbolics or LMI, continued contributing their
changes to the MIT Lisp Machine system—even though the
contract did not require this. Symbolics' plan was to rupture this
cooperation unilaterally.
It was not that I cared particularly about the fate of
LMI, but rather I did not want to let Symbolics gain through its
aggression against the AI Lab.
This statement has been misconstrued as saying that I
never, ever looked at Symbolics' code. Actually it says I did look,
at first. The Symbolics source code was available at MIT, where I was
entitled to read it, and at first that's how I found out about their
changes.
But that meant I had to make a special effort to solve each problem
differently, in order to avoid copying Symbolics code. After a while,
I concluded it was better not to even look. That way I could write
code in whatever way was best, without concern for what might be in
Symbolics' code.
Symbolics at one point protested to MIT that my work,
by thwarting their plan, had cost Symbolics a million dollars.
I don't mind if a very complex and heavyweight
function takes keyword arguments. What bothers me is making simple
basic functions such as “member” use them.
In 2021, this book can be purchased from
GNU Press.
| 2024-11-07T13:51:31 | en | train |
|
67,613 | alaskamiller | 2007-10-14T09:05:34 | California court tilts towards mandating web accessibility | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/14/california_target_web_accessibility/ | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,617 | omarabid | 2007-10-14T09:36:58 | A cool picture code maker and free ! | <a href="http://barcodemaker.freehostia.com" rel="nofollow">http://barcodemaker.freehostia.com</a>
No Need to Purchase Expensive Barcode creator Software when it is Totally Free.<p>Barcodemaker Features : <p>Supports Code 3 of 9
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Microsoft .net FrameWork 2.0: Download here
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67,620 | alaskamiller | 2007-10-14T09:55:17 | SpudWare Cutlery made from potatoes | http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/10/13/spudware-cutlery-made-from-potatoes/ | 3 | 0 | null | null | null | missing_parsing | SpudWare Cutlery made from potatoes | 2007-10-13T16:52:42+00:00 | by Inhabitat |
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| 2024-11-08T18:11:29 | null | train |
|
67,630 | jsmcgd | 2007-10-14T10:43:09 | How do you go about acquiring a parked domain? | I was wondering what the best approach to aquiring a parked domain is. What is a good initial offer? What techniques or tactics are there, if any, etc? I appreciate that the situation can be different for different domains and different vendors but if there is any generally applicable wisdom it would be much appreciated. Cheers. | null | 9 | 17 | [
67653,
67659,
67673,
67658,
67702,
67651,
67780,
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] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,634 | danw | 2007-10-14T10:59:53 | Big Visible Charts | null | http://www.xprogramming.com/xpmag/BigVisibleCharts.htm | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | http_404 | 404 Not Found | null | null |
Server Error
404
Page Not Found
This page either doesn't exist, or it moved somewhere else.
That's what you can do
Reload Page
Back to Previous Page
Home Page
| 2024-11-08T00:53:05 | null | train |
67,635 | mdemare | 2007-10-14T11:12:52 | Implore YC: Refactor My Code (uses Ruby and continuations) | This is a real (if sanitized) problem that my start-up has, ready for refactoring (on refactormycode.com which I love and am unaffiliated with). | http://refactormycode.com/codes/83-combinatorial-explosion-with-continuations | 5 | 5 | [
67752,
67730
] | null | null | no_error | Recent codes - RefactorMyCode.com | null | null |
123
def invite_friends...
Ruby Contoller refactoring
by DG, July 30, 2008 09:35, 2 refactorings
123
#include <math.h>#include <stdio.h>...
C Fastest way to get value of pi
by Chris Jester-Young, July 30, 2008 03:50, No refactoring, tagged with pi, speed, language agnostic
123
def granny_says(str) ...
Ruby Exercise: Deaf Grandma
by houston b-g, July 29, 2008 18:28, 4 refactorings
1234
if @foo.update_attributes(params[:foo]) and @foo.bar.update_attributes(params[:bar]) redirect_to foo_url(@parent) else...
Ruby Saving multiple models in o...
by rafeco, July 29, 2008 15:56, 1 refactoring, tagged with rails, activerecord, controller
JavaScript Handling Keyboard Shortcuts...
by Tien Dung, July 29, 2008 09:30, 2 refactorings
1234
module ThinkingSphinx class Search class << self...
Ruby How to extend a class prope...
by Tien Dung, July 29, 2008 04:09, No refactoring, tagged with ruby metaprogramming
123
+----------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |...
PHP Object with Field names as ...
by Ishkur, July 28, 2008 19:35, 4 refactorings, tagged with php5, field names, database, object
1234
def tab(name, options = {}) if name == controller.controller_name.humanize || root_of_path.humanize == name content_tag :li, link_to("#{name}", options), :class => "active"...
Ruby How to DRY this up
by idlefingers, July 25, 2008 13:30, 4 refactorings, tagged with rails, tabs
1234
require 'win32ole'autoit = WIN32OLE.new('AutoItX3.Control')...
Ruby Easier way to do this?
by tyranarchy.myopenid.com, July 24, 2008 07:08, No refactoring
1234
this.getHttpRequest(identifier).onreadystatechange = function() { try { ajaxChat.handleResponse(identifier);...
JavaScript AJAX makeRequest
by Martindale, July 23, 2008 03:02, 1 refactoring, tagged with ajax
1234
class User < ActiveRecord::Base has_many :orders...
Ruby rails ActiveRecord finder_s...
by jared, July 23, 2008 00:36, 1 refactoring, tagged with rails activerecord finder_sql
1234
%w(er_quantitative pr_quantitative p53_quantitative fish_quantitative oncotype_quantitative).each do |field| class_eval <<-RUBY def #{field}_s...
Ruby Formating a decimal field a...
by jdzak.myopenid.com, July 22, 2008 22:57, No refactoring
Ruby Assignment from array
by jason, July 22, 2008 10:15, 7 refactorings
1234
puts "Yes means No and No means Yes. Delete all files [Y]?"yes, no = "no", "yes"...
Ruby BOFH shell login script
by aaaarg.livejournal.com, July 21, 2008 23:23, 1 refactoring
1234
module DashboardHelper def activity_message_for(object) case object.class.name...
Ruby Dashboard
by Kryckan, July 21, 2008 21:01, 4 refactorings, tagged with rails, helper
PHP PHP5 Database Clas
by Ishkur, July 21, 2008 16:33, 2 refactorings, tagged with php5, database, class
1234
use strict;use warnings;...
Perl MAC Formatting
by mrxinu, July 20, 2008 23:25, 3 refactorings, tagged with mac snmp
1234
def self.find_by_url(url) Source.find :first, :conditions => [ " url = ? OR url = ? OR url = ? OR url = ? ", url, url.gsub("http://", "http://www"), url + "/", url.gsub("http://", "http://www")+"/"] ...
Ruby Find a URL in a database
by julien, July 18, 2008 17:16, 3 refactorings, tagged with find, url
1234
module Enumerable def cluster sort.inject([[]]) do |out, n|...
Ruby Enumerable#cluster
by Erik, July 18, 2008 02:44, 10 refactorings, tagged with cluster, inject, array
1234
def link_to_param(text, param, values) @qs ||= {} if @qs.blank?...
Ruby Horrible method to parse a ...
by Ivan, July 17, 2008 22:45, 2 refactorings, tagged with rails, links, query string
1234
def self.paged_search(query, from, category, locality, page, per_page = 10) query_str = [] query_prms = []...
Ruby Ferret, pagination and mult...
by jboss, July 17, 2008 07:34, No refactoring, tagged with rails, search, find, join, ferret, paginate
1234
class AccountsController < ApplicationController layout 'application'...
Ruby Password update code
by danielharan, July 16, 2008 16:59, 4 refactorings, tagged with rails, restful, authentication
123
-module(endsrename)....
Erlang Nintendo DS roms renamer
by edbond, July 16, 2008 13:00, No refactoring, tagged with erlang, nintendo, ds, nintendo ds, rename, otp
Ruby Showing list of plugins in ...
by DG, July 15, 2008 12:41, No refactoring
Ruby A Set of Monkey Patches for...
by Ollie , July 15, 2008 04:06, No refactoring, tagged with core library, monkeypatch, monkey patch
| 2024-11-08T03:45:16 | en | train |
67,637 | danw | 2007-10-14T11:27:02 | Forward-thinking CSS float-clearing | null | http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2007/09/developers-note.html | 9 | 3 | [
67723,
67786
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,639 | eposts | 2007-10-14T12:42:28 | Nigeria denies Bill Gates visa | http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/stupid/nigeria-asks-if-bill-gates-is-a-mooch-307889.php | 3 | 2 | [
67668,
67672
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,652 | gibsonf1 | 2007-10-14T13:28:33 | 'Lobbyconners' crash tech conferences to schmooze, cut deals | null | http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/14/MNKJSL3GM.DTL | 5 | 2 | [
67692
] | null | null | no_article | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T17:57:08 | null | train |
67,669 | axiom | 2007-10-14T14:28:28 | Why Did Google Buy Jaiku? | http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/19568/?a=f | 6 | 2 | [
67902,
67715
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,670 | axiom | 2007-10-14T14:30:01 | Fearful looks get brain's attention fast | http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1426961020071014?sp=true | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,671 | axiom | 2007-10-14T14:35:01 | TED talk Richard Branson: Life at 30,000 feet | http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/181 | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,674 | markpeterdavis | 2007-10-14T14:45:13 | Why VCs Want To See An Executive Summary | Your first submission to a VC should be an executive summary, not a complete business plan. A complete business plan attempts to tell a VC everything there is to know about your company. At this stage in the process there are too many other plans being submitted; VCs do not have time to learn everything about every company... | http://getventure.typepad.com/markpeterdavis/2007/07/why-an-executiv.html | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | no_article | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T20:53:35 | null | train |
67,683 | omarabid | 2007-10-14T15:22:45 | Open Forum for SQL and Dot Net Programers | Open Forum for SQL and Dot Net Programers | http://sqlwarrior.freehostia.com/forum | 1 | 0 | [
70668
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,689 | iamwil | 2007-10-14T15:46:09 | Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs. - washingtonpost.com | null | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434.html | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | no_error | Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs. | null | By Rick Weiss |
Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month.
"I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."
Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.
"I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said. "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?' "
That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.
Others think they are, well, dragonflies -- an ancient order of insects that even biologists concede look about as robotic as a living creature can look.
No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely.
The robobugs could follow suspects, guide missiles to targets or navigate the crannies of collapsed buildings to find survivors.
The technical challenges of creating robotic insects are daunting, and most experts doubt that fully working models exist yet.
"If you find something, let me know," said Gary Anderson of the Defense Department's Rapid Reaction Technology Office.
But the CIA secretly developed a simple dragonfly snooper as long ago as the 1970s. And given recent advances, even skeptics say there is always a chance that some agency has quietly managed to make something operational.
"America can be pretty sneaky," said Tom Ehrhard, a retired Air Force colonel and expert in unmanned aerial vehicles who is now at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonprofit Washington-based research institute.
| 2024-11-08T11:00:46 | en | train |
67,690 | drm237 | 2007-10-14T15:46:28 | Startups and Kids | Back in the 90s when we were deep in the first Web1.0 boom we worked long hours, played around on our scooters, bought cool aeron chairs, spent millions of dollars, and generally had a great time. In 2005 we are a little wiser, a little more established, a little more responsible (I am embarrassed to take the scooter down to the bathroom), I sit in an inexpensive chair and I am spending my own money | http://www.texasstartupblog.com/2007/10/13/startups-and-kids/ | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,691 | drm237 | 2007-10-14T15:47:56 | The Sustainability of Web 2.0 | Since the inception of the term "Web 2.0", something about it has made me cringe. Even after reading numerous definitions and opinions over the past 2 years, I never seemed to be able to describe exactly what bothered me about it so much (beyond its ambiguity), until now. | http://adamjh.blogspot.com/2007/10/sustainability-of-web-20.html | 3 | 1 | [
67720
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,698 | garbowza | 2007-10-14T16:13:08 | Who Cares About Academic Diversity? | http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/10/reihan_who_cares_about_academi.php | 4 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,700 | moses1400 | 2007-10-14T16:27:42 | Why I'm Not Married Yet - a look into Web 2.0 | http://www.centernetworks.com/wedding-web-2-style | 19 | 4 | [
67749,
67839,
68055,
67747
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,703 | raindoll | 2007-10-14T16:50:27 | 50+ CSS Best Practices and Coding Guidelines | http://reinholdweber.com/ | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,704 | mhartl | 2007-10-14T16:54:44 | Lap dancers earn more when they are most fertile | http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9942043 | 24 | 16 | [
67748,
67751,
67758,
67743,
67915,
67768
] | null | null | missing_parsing | Hidden charms | 2007-10-11T00:00:00.000Z | The Economist | Lap dancers earn more when they are most fertile“BECAUSE academics may be unfamiliar with the gentlemen's club sub-culture, some background may be helpful to understand why this is an ideal setting for understanding real-world attractiveness effects of human female oestrus.”This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Hidden charms”From the October 13th 2007 editionDiscover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition | 2024-11-07T14:49:42 | null | train |
|
67,717 | spking | 2007-10-14T17:51:42 | Let the experience be your brand, not the other way around. | A brief look at how Microsoft foolishly chose branding over the user experience when they designed their "start" button and menu. | http://www.informationarchitects.jp/branding-crimes-4-the-start-button#more-428 | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,719 | nickb | 2007-10-14T17:58:30 | What's so cool about Scheme? | null | http://people.csail.mit.edu/gregs/ll1-discuss-archive-html/msg03277.html | 6 | 0 | null | null | null | no_error | RE: What's so cool about Scheme? | null | null |
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
To: "Guy Steele - Sun Microsystems Labs" <address@hidden>, <address@hidden>
Subject: RE: What's so cool about Scheme?
From: "Anton van Straaten" <address@hidden>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 13:13:21 -0400
Cc: <address@hidden>
Importance: Normal
In-reply-to: <[email protected]>
Sender: address@hidden
Guy Steele wrote:
> Mike Newhall wrote:
> At 08:23 PM 2003.06.03 -0400, Anton van Straaten wrote:
> >I can sort of agree with that, but really, without closures,
> >people will - and do - use all sorts of hacks anyway -
> >objects, for example ;o)
>
> As an aside, although I don't remember the exact argument, Christian
> Queinnec in LISP In Small Pieces made the case that, although
> many people consider objects to be 'poor man's closures', closures
> are in fact poor man's objects (in his opinion).
>
> A closure is an object that supports exactly one method: "apply".
That's true from one perspective, and was what I was thinking of related to
objects being used as hacks to work around lack of closures. A closure's
simplicity can be an asset: classes and interfaces can get in the way of
simple parameterization of behavior. Anyone who's tried functional
programming in Java or C++ has encountered this - it can be done, but it's
more tedious. If all you want to do is e.g. (map somefun mylist), being
able to concisely define executable "objects" (closures), inline if
necessary, is very useful.
But from another perspective, the apply "method" of a closure can be used as
a low-level method dispatch mechanism, so closures can be, and are, used to
implement very effective objects with multiple methods. Oleg Kiselyov has a
short article on the subject:
http://okmij.org/ftp/Scheme/oop-in-fp.txt
Used in this way, closures can be said to be richer than objects because
they can support many more capabilities than just a single language-provided
method dispatch mechanism. With closures seen as a building block with
which to implement objects, it's clear that objects are a poor man's
closures.
But a Smalltalker might say hold on, if you're going to all the trouble to
implement these closure thingies in your language, since they're already a
lot like objects, why not go all the way and make them "real" objects that
can support an arbitrary number of methods, so that a closure is just one
special-case kind of object? If your language only has these restricted
closures, and you're forced to build an object system on top of them, it's
clear that closures are a poor man's objects.
Given this tension between opposites, I maintain that the question of
closures vs. objects should really be a koan. I'll take some koanic license
and combine Norman Adams (alleged source of "objects are a poor man's
closures") and Christian Queinnec ("closures are a poor man's objects") into
a single great Zen language master named Qc Na. I'll also take the
un-humble step of inserting myself as student, since as I mentioned in the
last paragraph of this message:
http://www.ai.mit.edu/~gregs/ll1-discuss-archive-html/msg01488.html
...I believe I did in fact gain some enlightenment from considering these
two apparently opposing positions. Here goes:
* * *
The venerable master Qc Na was walking with his student, Anton. Hoping to
prompt the master into a discussion, Anton said "Master, I have heard that
objects are a very good thing - is this true?" Qc Na looked pityingly at
his student and replied, "Foolish pupil - objects are merely a poor man's
closures."
Chastised, Anton took his leave from his master and returned to his cell,
intent on studying closures. He carefully read the entire "Lambda: The
Ultimate..." series of papers and its cousins, and implemented a small
Scheme interpreter with a closure-based object system. He learned much, and
looked forward to informing his master of his progress.
On his next walk with Qc Na, Anton attempted to impress his master by
saying "Master, I have diligently studied the matter, and now understand
that objects are truly a poor man's closures." Qc Na responded by hitting
Anton with his stick, saying "When will you learn? Closures are a poor man's
object." At that moment, Anton became enlightened.
:)
References:
RE: What's so cool about Scheme?
From: Guy Steele - Sun Microsystems Labs <[email protected]>
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| 2024-11-07T09:58:32 | en | train |
67,721 | ivankirigin | 2007-10-14T18:10:34 | Robot Tribute To Steve Irwin | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCRe6TGZOaU | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,724 | nickb | 2007-10-14T18:15:03 | German man programs "Hello World" into wheat field | null | http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/06/11/german-programmer-programs-hello-world-into-wheat-field | 15 | 3 | [
67973,
68086,
67972
] | null | null | no_error | German man programs “Hello World” into wheat field | 2007-06-11T15:59:00+00:00 | Todd Haselton |
It's one thing to type code that produces a "Hello World" message on your display, but quite another to make the gesture as grandly as one German programmer, who cut a wheat field in Semacode to display the classic message.
I remember my first C++ programming class during my budding years as a computer nerd. The first in-class project was to write code that included iostream.h and output "Hello, World!" to our monitors; it's a common project for beginner programmers as they start to learn a new language, but I've never seen it done quite like this. I'll stop complaining about mowing my yard now.
The German programmer, Ben Hopfeng-Aertner, wrote in Semacode, a type of visual code that contains "machine readable information" that can be used to graphically encode web-links. Since the code is visual, Ben was able to take a picture of his 160 square meter programming artwork from an airplane and have a machine read the code to output the words "Hello, World!"
Ben also created a Google Earth file so that anyone can download his project and see his work in its native landscape. He doesn't mention how long it took him but, judging by pictures that include Winter and Spring shots, it looks like the project took at least a few months to complete. No word on whether he's opening up his own landscape/coding business.
For more information on this project, check out Ben's web site or Flickr page.
Comments are closed. | 2024-11-08T07:44:21 | en | train |
67,725 | nickb | 2007-10-14T18:15:12 | Lisp Machine Manual | null | http://common-lisp.net/project/bknr/static/lmman/frontpage.html | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,726 | nickb | 2007-10-14T18:16:00 | Witnessing Side-Effects | Lambda the Ultimate | null | http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/2480 | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,727 | nickb | 2007-10-14T18:23:39 | Single Line CSS | null | http://orderedlist.com/articles/single-line-css | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,728 | danw | 2007-10-14T18:34:52 | Simple Ways To Help Your Design Suck Less | Found via e1ven: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66871" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66871</a> | http://jimwhimpey.com/blog/2007/simple-ways-to-help-your-design-suck-less-1/ | 7 | 8 | [
67735,
67753,
68184,
67849,
67732
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,731 | danw | 2007-10-14T18:41:08 | Is it Christmas? | http://www.isitchristmas.com/ | 3 | 0 | [
67740
] | null | true | missing_parsing | Is It Christmas? | null | null |
by @konklone
on IFTTT
on XKCD?!
console
| 2024-11-08T17:45:47 | null | train |
|
67,736 | axiom | 2007-10-14T18:49:11 | MIT Digital Drawing Board | null | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df8wAla57PI | 15 | 7 | [
67754,
67910,
67821,
67746,
67765,
67773
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,745 | donna | 2007-10-14T19:46:57 | Essays from Donald Norman on Design | Essays from Donald Norman for engineers to understand how to do design thinking and therefore know how to work constructively with designers (instead of the mutual unintelligibility that now takes place). | http://jnd.org/dn.pubs.html | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,755 | DocSavage | 2007-10-14T20:53:35 | Ruby and ActionScript libraries for new Adobe Share API | http://blogs.adobe.com/collabmethods/2007/10/ruby_library_for_share.html | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,757 | Alex3917 | 2007-10-14T21:01:47 | Animal shelter site features pics of cute puppies... with a clock counting down hours to their death | Headline liberated from Fark | http://590klbj.com/news/article.aspx?id=1248889 | 2 | 1 | [
67759
] | null | null | http_404 | Page not found - KLBJ-AM - Austin, TX | null | null |
404
Ooops.
The page you were looking for couldn't be found.
You can navigate through our menu or use this search bar:
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| 2024-11-08T14:42:36 | null | train |
67,766 | bcater | 2007-10-14T21:52:38 | Ask YC: Anyone use LaTeX? | I use LaTeX a lot, but I couldn't find an online version, so I wrote this one. It's very rough in terms of styling, but basic functionality is there. What else would you like to see it do? | http://scripts.mit.edu/~bcater/webtex/webtex.php | 19 | 27 | [
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] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,767 | falsestprophet | 2007-10-14T21:54:27 | Reddit is down... American sheep, wake up from your slumber! Bush did it. | The Bush Administration is trying to silence reddit for spreading the Truth about 9/11 and the Bible. We need to protest in suits imminently. | 3 | 0 | [
67770
] | null | true | invalid_url | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T16:37:59 | null | train |
|
67,772 | luccastera | 2007-10-14T22:18:58 | Capistrano 2.1 Released | http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2007/10/14/capistrano-2-1 | 3 | 1 | [
67819
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,781 | gibsonf1 | 2007-10-14T22:36:58 | One of the World's Foremost Meteorologists Has Called the Theory That Helped Al Gore Share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" | http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/gore-gets-a-cold-shoulder/2007/10/13/1191696238792.html | 24 | 44 | [
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] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,783 | dpapathanasiou | 2007-10-14T22:57:50 | Beware the Online Collective: Individual Creativity Is Being Replaced by Dangerous Groupthink | http://edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier06/lanier06.2_index.html | 16 | 5 | [
67838,
67951,
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] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,787 | shahper | 2007-10-14T23:25:01 | Zend Framework for web apps. | Is it good to use zend framework for your web app. development? Please discuss in terms of speed, and scalability. | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | invalid_url | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T16:37:59 | null | train |
|
67,793 | nickb | 2007-10-14T23:40:30 | Government spooks helped Microsoft build Vista | null | http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/01/09/government-spooks-helped-microsoft-build-vista | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,798 | DaniFong | 2007-10-14T23:59:34 | Ask YC News: Ever had any luck catching a scam artist? | I'm being solicited to tutor 'someone's son' who is supposedly moving to the Berkeley area. The father is supposedly in Germany. I'm supposed to take payment for an entire month, and then wire the money to a nanny who's taking care of the kid.<p>Neat variation on the classic overpayment scheme. <p><a href="http://www.scambusters.org/overpayment.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.scambusters.org/overpayment.html</a><p>But I want to catch this thief. I haven't lost any money, but since I was counting on the funds until I received more of an indication of this fraud (it's taken a while), I'm kind of in a hard place.<p>Has anyone ever had any luck counter scamming, or catching the scam artist? | 4 | 5 | [
67806,
67820,
67876,
67995
] | null | null | invalid_url | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T16:37:59 | null | train |
|
67,803 | drm237 | 2007-10-15T00:12:14 | Are standardized angel contracts a good idea? | One of the strengths of individually negotiating contract terms is that a court will have little doubt that the bargain was fairly reached. However, in this situation, where you've got hungry entrepreneurs signing something that looks more like the kind agreement you'd sign at a car dealership and perhaps without a lawyer, it might raise some interesting flags | http://www.coderights.com/2007/10/standardized_angel_contracts.html | 3 | 2 | [
67814
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,804 | drm237 | 2007-10-15T00:14:14 | Barnes & Noble turns to Austin startup to create a mobile e-commerce storefront | BlackBerry users can buy books, CDs and DVDs using free Digby software | http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/10/15/1015digby.html | 5 | 2 | [
67822
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,812 | cbetta | 2007-10-15T00:33:55 | 2 Reasons Why All Online Storage Should Scale | Scaling is a hot topic in businesses, especially with startups that expect to become Slashdotted or Digged anytime soon. Google recently announced they would increase the speed at which their Gmail would gain storage capacity, mainly in response to Yahoo! and Microsoft recently upgrading and surpassing Google's storage offerings. | http://fourstarters.com/2007/10/14/2-reasons-why-all-online-storage-should-scale/ | 1 | 1 | [
67896
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,817 | louisadekoya | 2007-10-15T00:53:57 | A Facebook-Yahoo Partnership That Just Might Trouble Google | http://www.ideatagging.com/a-facebook-and-yahoo-partnership-that-could-trouble-google/ | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,818 | louisadekoya | 2007-10-15T00:55:36 | 5 Things That Make Me Believe Nothing Is Impossible | http://www.ideatagging.com/five-things-that-make-me-believe-nothing-is-impossible/ | 1 | 1 | [
67825
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,824 | axiom | 2007-10-15T01:10:34 | The Inner Life of a Cell animation | http://www.studiodaily.com/main/searchlist/6850.html | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,830 | knicks331999 | 2007-10-15T01:28:20 | rVibe launches innovative social networking music download service | null | http://www.myprgenie.com/item/536/ | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,833 | nickb | 2007-10-15T01:32:11 | Top Blogs On Google Reader | null | http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/14/top-blogs-on-google-reader/ | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,847 | moses1400 | 2007-10-15T02:05:14 | When Does a Social Network Become a "Publicity Network"? | http://www.centernetworks.com/social-network-to-publicity-network | 5 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,860 | staunch | 2007-10-15T02:36:48 | Tesla Motors Co-Founder Martin Eberhard Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture [podcast] | null | http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1816 | 4 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,888 | joshwa | 2007-10-15T03:32:50 | Ad dollars flood Web, but will they go far enough? | null | http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071012/wr_nm/advertising_web_dc | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,895 | nickb | 2007-10-15T03:59:40 | New apps put the hate in online networking | null | http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/10/10/new_apps_put_the_hate_in_online_networking/ | 4 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,900 | omouse | 2007-10-15T04:21:38 | Functional Programming In Industry | <i>"Putting my own experiences aside for the now, the focus of this post is functional programming in industry. As an outsider with an interest in the community I often wonder why it is so small and how the situation can be improved. Everyone keeps going on about how beneficial functional programming is over imperative programming: faster development, shorter code, less bug prone and easier to test to name just a few."</i> | http://marco-za.blogspot.com/2007/10/functional-programming-in-industry.html | 12 | 6 | [
68160,
68137
] | null | null | no_error | Functional Programming In Industry | null | null |
Last week attended the International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP Conference). I attended as what some functional programmers would call their enemy, since like most people, I stick to the widely used imperative languages. There's one difference though - I do have an interest in functional programming (see below)!Putting my own experiences aside for the now, the focus of this post is functional programming in industry. As an outsider with an interest in the community I often wonder why it is so small and how the situation can be improved. Everyone keeps going on about how beneficial functional programming is over imperative programming: faster development, shorter code, less bug prone and easier to test to name just a few.So with all this power, where's the massive rush? Most of the successful languages of late have been successful mainly due to their success in industry. Java is a prime example. So a good way to become successful is for functional languages to attract the attention of industry. What's holding industry back though?The problem I fear is a viscous circle that's difficult to slingshot out of. The number of FP programmers is very low. Because of this functional programmers are more likely to work in very small groups or even on their own on major projects. This trend seems to continue in industry, especially when there is a very small number of functional programmers in a company vying for the use of FP on some project within the company.So we have come to the conclusion that FP groups in industry are very small or even solo. But how is this a problem? While the team works on the project all appears to be going very well. What happens when someone leaves though? Someone has to take over his section of the project. This is where the problems are hit! Finding a replacement is a mission in its own right. This is mainly caused by the lack of functional programmers, but also due to the next problem - programming style.Why is programming style a problem? Well, this is an issue with imperative languages as well. Everyone has their own style of programming and when you have a large mass of code it can be very difficult for someone to take over without decent documentation. This is why many software development companies have very strict style guidelines such that all programmers follow and become quickly familiar with the same, well documented style.Where are the style guidelines for functional languages?? This is the crux of an interesting discussion I had with someone at the ICFP Conference last week. All the above leads to this sad conclusion. Style guidelines are seriously underused by functional programmers. And this is one serious problem, because it takes so long for someone to take over a mass of code if it doesn't follow such guidelines. This might sound finicky, but it's true! In the conversation he gave a couple of examples such as one where it took a year to find a replacement Lisp programmer and a year for that replacement to understand the code enough to start maintaining it properly!So I did a quick search for style guides for some common FP langauges and this is what I dug up:Haskell: This style guide comes with an automatic style checker. It appears to be rather rigorous, which is great!OCaml: This covers some aspects, but does not appear to be as thorough as the Haskell guide.Lisp: This is a fairly detailed style guide. It is still, however, in draft phase.Erlang: Appears to be lacking!!So style guides do exist for the major functional languages. But how widely are the adopted? It's difficult for me to say as I'm not in the community, but my general impression is that functional programmers are the type of people that like their own style and stick to it. With such small teams this works in the short term, but fails miserably in the long term.So, back to the beginning of this post. Why aren't people rushing to FP? There are these small success stories in industry, but not very many that have lasted over the long term. I believe that this vicious circle of functional programmers not wanting to let go of their favoured styles and change to a style guide is holding many people back from joining this elite community.Is there anything that can be done to improve the situation? I believe that the community is too full of high quality programmers that the jump is just too far that most people within reach are also the type of people that far prefer following their own style. Gosh, even I prefer following my own style!My functional programming experiences:While I still cannot claim to be able to program in a functional language, the idea has fascinate me for some time. Ever since I've learned Python I have made use of several functional aspects it offers. And I love it! Earlier this year I started perusing through some OCaml tutorials, however the syntax really put me off it. I soon after started looking at Haskell. After sifting through some mediocre tutorials I finally settled on YAHT. I reached chapter 8 after I got sucked into other things that prevented me from progressing any further for some time. So I know a fair amount of the theoretical side of Haskell, although I've had next to zero practical experience.
| 2024-11-08T02:25:21 | en | train |
67,901 | drm237 | 2007-10-15T04:22:09 | The Declining US Dollar: Google and Non-US Startups are the winners | http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/14/the-declining-us-dollar-winners-and-losers/ | 10 | 3 | [
67958,
67979
] | null | null | no_error | The Declining US Dollar: Winners And Losers | TechCrunch | 2007-10-15T03:56:51+00:00 | Contributor | Many within the United States might not have noticed the trend yet, but the rest of the world has: the US dollar is in serious decline. Americans have long made fun of their friends North of the border, but today the Canadian dollar buys $1.02 US dollars making it worth more than the Greenback. It wasn’t that long ago that the US Dollar was at parity with the Euro (December 02), but today it buys 70 Euro cents.Even the Australian Dollar is nearing parity, buying 90cents USD vs 55c in December 2002.
It’s not all doom and gloom however, and there are winners along with losers as the dollar declines.
Winners
Google
(and to a lesser extent Yahoo and Microsoft)
Google is a big winner from the declining US dollar, with its 2nd Quarter financial results indicating that 48% of Google’s income now comes from outside of the United States (3rd qtr results are due this week). Google operates in US dollars so 48% of its income (even if growth was completely static) is now worth more today than it was at the end of the second quarter. Of course it would be a surprising result if Google didn’t grow its overseas business in the 3rd quarter so expect that foreign income will tip over 50% of Google’s earnings for the 3rd quarter.
The flip side of course is that the declining US dollar is actually representative of issues within the US market itself so Google does face the real risk that either now or in the immediate future of seeing ad revenue decline if there is a broader downturn in the US economy. Its international exposure though should outweigh any such decline, and the market knows this, in part its why Google hit $600 a share.
Yahoo and Microsoft will benefit in terms of foreign revenue as well, although neither has the online presence (or marketshare) that Google does.
Non-US Startups
The cost of doing business in the United States continues to slide, helping break down the cost barrier that makes it difficult for non-US startups to compete with the Valley. Everything from travel, branch offices, and even more favorable lending markets helps level the playing field.
There are also ample opportunities for non-US affiliate style programs to strive ahead; a decent program that competes with Google Adsense but pays in Euros would certainly have a much broader appeal than it once would have.
Losers
US Startups
Although many are focused on the US market alone, smart startups know that there are markets beyond the US-Canadian border that provide growth opportunities that may not be available domestically in the highly competitive US market. The cost of opening foreign offices is becoming expensive as the dollar dives, and even basic stuff like outsourcing coding (which many startups do to India) is now becoming more expensive.
Anyone with a US Dollar exposure
Affiliates, bloggers and even coders are seeing income reduced as the value of the US Dollar drops. Much (or most) of the content and coding marketplace is run in US Dollars, which exposes bloggers who rely on programs such as Adsense, through to people writing for blog networks and similar writing positions.
with thanks to Paul Montgomery for the post idea.
| 2024-11-08T17:58:37 | en | train |
|
67,906 | drm237 | 2007-10-15T04:39:14 | All Technology Came from Sticks | http://valleywag.com/tech/douglas-adams/all-technology-came-from-sticks-310520.php | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
|
67,908 | estherschindler | 2007-10-15T04:42:49 | Technologies We're Glad Are Dead | null | http://www.cio.com/article/145853 | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,919 | gibsonf1 | 2007-10-15T05:08:25 | Riastradh's Lisp Style Rules | null | http://mumble.net/%7Ecampbell/scheme/style.txt | 4 | 1 | [
67922
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,923 | terpua | 2007-10-15T05:12:28 | Diminishing Dead-Tree Media and 3 More Ways Bloggers Can Help Save The Planet | null | http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/2490/Diminishing-Dead-Tree-Media-and-3-More-Ways-Bloggers-Can-Help-Save-The-Planet.aspx | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,926 | v3rg3 | 2007-10-15T05:20:33 | Government Databases, EFF, and a Warning | Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) legal director Cindy Cohn submitted a statement to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce with analysis of the risks associated with the Bush administration's data mining and warrantless surveillance programs. | http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071014-eff-warns-house-committee-about-the-privacy-risks-of-government-databases.html | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,928 | v3rg3 | 2007-10-15T05:24:31 | How Does Google Map the World? | Technology Review interviewed engineers at Google and at XDigitalGlobe, the company that supplies Google's satellite photos, and did a little bit of reverse-engineering to figure out how it works. | http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19524/ | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | http_404 | 404 - Page not found | null | null | The latest iteration of a legacyFounded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899, MIT Technology Review is a world-renowned, independent media company whose insight, analysis, reviews, interviews and live events explain the newest technologies and their commercial, social and political impact.Advertise with MIT Technology ReviewElevate your brand to the forefront of conversation around emerging technologies that are radically transforming business. From event sponsorships to custom content to visually arresting video storytelling, advertising with MIT Technology Review creates opportunities for your brand to resonate with an unmatched audience of technology and business elite. | 2024-11-08T06:47:42 | null | train |
67,934 | terpua | 2007-10-15T05:51:12 | HowStuffWorks Acquired by Discovery for $250M | null | http://mashable.com/2007/10/14/howstuffworks-discovery/ | 22 | 9 | [
68166,
68005,
68076,
68073
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,939 | brett | 2007-10-15T06:06:18 | Ask Venture Hacks: What's the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make? | null | http://www.venturehacks.com/articles/biggest-mistake | 9 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,941 | null | 2007-10-15T06:13:18 | null | null | null | null | null | null | [
"true"
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
67,945 | thinkingserious | 2007-10-15T06:18:18 | CSS Equivalent of Prototype? | One of our programmers had the following comment in a recent Subversion commit: "Verified to display correctly with IE6, IE7, FF Ubuntu, FF, Galeon, Konqueror". Sigh... don't you hate when you have to do that? Frameworks like Prototype and Symfony has made development life much easier, but sadly CSS cross browser hell still brings the pain. So I ask, can some brave master-hacker create a Prototype/Symfony like framework for us poor CSS/HTML programmers? | http://www.thinkingserious.com/2007/10/13/css-equivelant-of-prototype/ | 13 | 3 | [
67956,
68009
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
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