And now for some more programming advice. Today I spent a long time trying to track down a bug in my circular buffer implementation. These were the conditions:

• The bug manifested as a buffer entry apparently being 1 number larger than it should be (when writing consecutive integers into the buffer);
  
• It only showed up when the producer and consumer ( Read more... )

Is the hierarchical classification scheme for organisms really useful any more, or are people just doing it for fun?

Finchley Central is a non-game described by Anatole Beck and David Fowler in Manifold:

Two players alternate naming the stations on the London Underground. The first to say 'Finchley Central' wins. It is clear that the 'best' time to say 'Finchley Central' is exactly before your opponent does. Failing that, it is good that he should be considering ( Read more... )

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I don't know much about banking, but I know what I like, and one thing I like is the Swedish model. During crises, more economists should consider the Swedish model. Cast your eyes upon the Swedish model and have a personal revelation! About banking. (I just thought I'd get these out of the way early ( Read more... )

Driving to Sydney, I passed a sign saying "Sydney 90". Some time later, I passed another sign saying "Sydney 91". When driving my mind tends to wander a little, so perhaps that's why my first thought was "Crud! I've gone back in time. Now how am I going to get home by 5 ( Read more... )

I read a lot of RSS feeds! Many of them are nerdy or quite specialised, but there are also a few general ones. Here are a few which I think you will like. penelly, now it's your turn! :)

Idle Words: Maciej Ceglowski's writing has, in the past, covered Argentine culinary tradition, the tango, the Polish police force, bedbugs, and the sublime mundanity of ( Read more... )

I had a blog post half-written about a "paper" (scare quotes because the referencing is really poor) recently put out by the Centre for Independent Studies. It proposes that people be allowed to declare themselves immune to "nanny state" (their term) laws such as being required to wear helmets when cycling, in exchange for having to pay for any ( Read more... )

...is that it refers to its victims as "chumps".

My experience with victims of vampire attack is mainly of the Anne Rice / delicate maiden / skin pure as alabaster / her exposed neck so slender and vulnerable school, a set that I can't really reconcile with the word "chump".

(Disclaimer: yet another programming ramble. I'm sorry.)

Okay, there is definitely something cultural, if that is the word I'm after, about the Ruby world's delight in giving things poetic, yet essentially meaningless and distracting, names. I think this enforced cuteness is basically because everyone is trying to copy Why's (Poignant) Guide to ( Read more... )