Re: Horrible Travesty of BASIC @Billy Bob Gascan
There is everything right with interpreted code.
Premature compilation is the root of all inflexibility. It is also an historical accident because machines used to be small and weak.
16005 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2008
But as a language, it was strongly disliked by students.
Frankly, this is still the case these days. And judging from cow-orkers, the people who go into computers would like to be able to write working programs with the same attention and care as they put in writing tweets. Frankly, they are in the wrong domain.
The whole compile thing compared to just running it seemed wrong to them.
Of course, and this is why REPL-supporting languages are good.
jake, is that you?
I am so glad that I learned C instead of BASIC and that my exposure to it was limited because it sucked.
Your passport to leet elitism, sir. Valet parking included!
Ok, so anyone owned the
Power C compiler or any other C compiler fitting into the 64KiB (or 32 Kib) of RAM of those times?
"Due to the limited memory available in the C-64, the compiler may not be able to handle some very large source files. It is unlikely that the Power C 128 compiler will run into insufficient memory problems and not be able to handle the large source files"
Also, fail for not alluding to Bill's Butthurt Missive about people copying his precioussss paper tapessss of Basic.
Already back then, the "YOU BE STEALING MUH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY" meme was prevalent.
A good sci-fictionary read in the spirit of Stanislaw Lem from back then (i.e. 1986). It might even appeal to Mr Bong.
The Wager by Christopher Cherniak
Abstract
The Portrait Programs Project grew out of hyperinterdisciplinarianism of the famed Gigabase Sculpture Group, in turn stimulated by recent cutbacks in government support for the arts. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation had jointly funded the Gigabase Sculpture Project to foster the literary/musical genre of composing genetic codes for novel organisms. Later, artists trained in recombinant DNA technology designed massive Brancusi-esque statues of living cytoplasmic jelly. However, Art For Art's Sake objectives of these giblet sculptors were compromised by precautions necessary after discovery of the "Gogol's-Theorem Bomb" that threatened to get loose and jam all DNA replication in the biosphere; not even viruses would have survived.
No. Quantum computers are good for the following:
1) Factoring large numbers
2) Rapid searching in databases
3) Simulation of quantum processes
Otherwise they are mostly useless for any calculation of importance in the macro world.
"True AI" is anyway fucking bullshit. It's like saying that you will finally attain "a true combustion engine".
Musk now clearly enters the house that one wants to indiscriminately see the pox on, and then confortably installs himself on the living room couch.
This action is all glued together by the thin logic that the Russian Minister in Charge of Rocketry is on the "you gonna get it in the arse" list that the US FedGov randomly drew up because it is so extremely butthurt over the factregrets that it cannot pull another "color revolution" and have Putin just roll over and play dead as his most valued assets in defense and defense industry start to orbit the EU/NATO attractosphere.
Enforcing Mercantilism by riding on the coattails of "the law" and "revolutions" emerging out american embassies? Distasteful in the extreme.
By Mark Thornton
Wednesday, April 30th, 2014
The latest GDP report for the first quarter can be reviewed here. GDP grew by only 1/10 of 1% in the first quarter [Must be Uncle Sam's superduper money printing still]. There were big negative reversals in both exports and equipment purchases from the 4th quarter of last year. The accumulation of inventories also was reduced, but is still accumulating rapidly indicating less of a need to add inventory in future quarters. Consumption grew at a 3% rate, but this was largely driven by a nearly 10% jump in health care spending, that was probably driven by the Affordable Care Act. The saving rate is also reported to be “unusually low.” The only bright spot in the report was that government spending was down for the quarter.
Meanwhile, Tony's back in the news. I was getting worried.
Demented Tony Blair recites the Saudis' creed in his latest speech
"constant growth the holy grail of capitalism"
You are pretty much totally fucking off the mark.
"*Positive* growth" is the holy growth of humanity because it means that next year just might suck less than this one.
" Come on, you can't expect indefinite growth"
There sure is still lots of room.
Meanwhile, the Government-WallStreet mafia will try to make you believe as long as possibly that "growth" is an end in itself and that you better hurry and give them your votes and your increasingly worthless funny money lest you lose out on their next super-duper scheme of unadulterated goodness (which interestingly and increasingly often may include wars; no I don't get that either.)
...Meaningless GDP numbers which conveniently include everything that goes onto the national credit card (debt which we luckily "owe to ourselves", phew!) are analyzed and discussed ad infinitum.
..."Everyone shall have prizes" schemes like Obamacare, irrealistic promises for pensions and low, low retirement ages and wages in no relation to productivity are sold and put into law by master snake oil salesmen. Like we are really super rich and everything can be fixed by that final, small, additional tax increase. Which will only hit someone else, promise!
...Malinvestments are sustained and kept alive by money printing and bailouts. Keynesian Hail Marys are heard from the churchlike buildings of the central banks while the the futzed interest rate gives people the impression that "money is cheap now, so hurry".
...The rising stock market is touted as a sign of rude economic health as opposed to the consequence of the fact that all the money sloshing around does not go to productive enterprises that promote real growth (these are rare because establishing them needs time and quite a lot of the existing capital infrastructure has been dragooned into the production tree of warfare goods anyway) but into speculative venues kept alive by illusion of future profits.
This will result in enormous pain (and possibly a dictator or two) down the road but immediate riches to politicians, their cronies and assorted hanger-ons. Any problems then get lazily blamed on "capitalism" and taxfeeding ivory tower denizens like Picketty then get rich bestselling meaningless drivel.
The end of the road is now approaching fast and might well be there by the end of the year. Twitter is just another dying canary.
selling someone a fridge with built in obsolescence
Oh, the never-dying superfridge made of unobtanium which exists somewhere where people actually want to pay for it ... yet again. Carry on.
The Accelerating Momo Reversal: Crashing Like Its 2000 All Over Again
by Wolf Richter • April 28, 2014
The debacle has become part of the public debate even on NPR, which is a terrible sign. And KQED, one of our radio stations in San Francisco – a city that had been particularly impacted by the implosion of the dotcom bubble and isn’t naive about it – aired a one-hour show Friday morning, titled, “Are we in another Tech Bubble?” The discussion between the host and the guests didn’t leave much room for the title’s question mark.
The Fly posted some of the biggest losers that once had been among “2013′s favorite stocks.” Biotech company Exelixis tops the list, down 61% from its 52-week high. It’s also down 93% from its all-time high shortly after its IPO in early 2000. In second place on the list: another Biotech outfit, Halozyme, down 60% from its all-time high in early January. It’s back where it was in mid-2013. Imperva, a Big Data security products maker, crashed 64% from its peak last year. And so on.
This sort of wholesale destruction makes the biggies look practically tame: Twitter is down only 44% from its high late last year, Amazon 26% from earlier this year. Amazon has the dubious distinction of having been an early warning signal during the blowup of the dotcom bubble. It started crashing in early December 1999 and was down 40% six weeks later. The bubble officially burst in early March 2000, after which Amazon continued to eviscerate traders and investors alike. Unlike many of its brethren, however, it survived and a decade later made new highs.
Internet-radio miracle Pandora has plunged 42% in six weeks, taking it back to where it had been in September. This is the nature of momentum stocks that get unhinged from reality and soar without even the sky being the limit. When the hot air hisses out of them, they plunge at three or five times the speed. Escalator up, elevator down.