Dark Matter is here!

I’d not heard that dark matter is right here with us, but Brent VanDevender says it is: https://pods-of-science.simplecast.com/episodes/how-to-build-a-quantum-computer-that-works 20:52: “Our galaxy is not special; we also live in a halo of this dark matter. It’s everywhere. It’s right here with us.” 21:36: “It’s not just, like, out there in the cosmos, though. It’s right here;… Continue reading Dark Matter is here!

The “lie-to-children” concept

Here’s an interesting concept: the lie-to-children: “A lie-to-children is a statement that is false, but which nevertheless leads the child’s mind towards a more accurate explanation, one that the child will only be able to appreciate if it has been primed with the lie.” Thinking of a user program being sequential execution of steps seems… Continue reading The “lie-to-children” concept

Hats off to the CME Developers

Oil futures went negative on the CME’s exchange this week, and it seems that the exchange software handled it flawlessly. Of course we expect it to, and languages handle that fine, but still I’d say it’s not certain that it would have, unless their people designed for it and tested it. If it wouldn’t have,… Continue reading Hats off to the CME Developers

Java no longer free

Java will require a commercial license after January, 2019. Except for personal use. Wow. I wonder what this will do to the competition between it an its competitors (like python)? Will it impact the Minecraft community?  

G++ 5.3 Bug

I was just thinking to myself recently that I haven’t found a compiler bug in a while. It’s because I’m doing so much in Python, and I’ve never found a bug in Python (the language). But I’ve never worked with a C++ compiler where I didn’t find a bug. And sure enough, just came across one,… Continue reading G++ 5.3 Bug

Read the drawings

Repeat it to yourself until you believe it: “We’re engineers. We read the drawings.”

11th-Hour Surprise

This morning, 10:01AM, our regional electric company sends: Introducing the newly redesigned [redacted] page — an even easier and faster way to refer your friends … This morning, 10:44AM: UPDATE: The launch of the page is currently delayed. We apologize for this inconvenience and will contact you via email when the new page is ready. That… Continue reading 11th-Hour Surprise

Wireshark is going Qt

Wireshark is moving their user interface away from GTK+ to Qt. Making such a large change wasn’t an easy decision. It means rewriting thousands of lines of code and requires a lot of careful design. We might be the largest standalone application to make this transition (feel free to correct me below). However, I think… Continue reading Wireshark is going Qt