Okay, here’s some SwiftUI code: Why, why, do I need to prefix tipPercentages with ‘self.‘ once we’re in the third closure but not inside the second or even the first? What’s magical about this situation? I know there’s something, but nobody is saying what.
Author Archives: pirateguillermo
Specify Your Dream
I keep wanting to be able to write native apps for my devices, and it keeps being true that I can’t wrap my brain around The Way You’re Supposed To Do It. I’ve taken Coursera and Udemy courses on iOS and macOS programming, and I’ve even shipped a couple of toy apps to the AppContinue reading “Specify Your Dream”
San José, City of Murderous Douchebags
We went over the hill to visit the dentist today. Yesterday, the governor signed a law requiring people to wear masks in public. We took two of the dogs, because our hygienist appointments were an hour apart and there’s a park a couple of blocks from the dentist. You see where this is going? TheContinue reading “San José, City of Murderous Douchebags”
Rats Got the Baby
Last year, I gave in to the family, admitted that we live in the woods, on top of a mountain, and we have a persistent need to haul large volumes of stuff from there to here and back again. We bought a pickup truck. Problem is, we live in the woods, on top of aContinue reading “Rats Got the Baby”
Age of Corporations
In 2017, Charlie Stross talked about corporations as slow AI, and he identified some ways in which they have supplanted humans as first-class citizens. I remember reading, as a teenager in the early 1980s, a story about a world where humans were not citizens of nations but employees of companies and the whole thing wasContinue reading “Age of Corporations”
Harbinger, Party of Some
A friend pointed out this paper about, “harbinger ZIP codes.” It is fascinating! Geography as destiny, and the likelihood is that cranks live near each other. Wow.
Right Thing, Wrong Time
Cryptocurrency, quantum supremacy, imminent death of the Internet. So, Google recently announced that they’d achieved quantum supremacy. One of the things that quantum computers are supposed to be really good at is cracking crypto really fast. The past couple of years have seen an explosion of cryptocurrencies, which are one application of blockchain, which reliesContinue reading “Right Thing, Wrong Time”
Well, duh
So, Iran has reconnected to the Internet, and there’s this quote way down in the Washington Post article about it: “Why did (the Americans) get angry after we cut off the internet? Because the internet is the channel through which Americans wanted to perform their evil and vicious acts,” Fadavi said. I’d say that this,Continue reading “Well, duh”
Regression
I’ve been ignoring Facebook for a few months, now, and my engagement with Twitter has mostly been retweets and likes. Yesterday, a friend who takes what other people say more seriously than I do decided he needed to back way off and go back to writing blog posts instead of tweets. Frankly, I would way ratherContinue reading “Regression”
Why Monoculture
At some point, I don’t remember exactly when, I told my family that since I didn’t use Windows in a professional capacity and I didn’t use it personally, there was no way I was going to go to the effort of becoming and staying smart about Windows, and if they wanted me to do techContinue reading “Why Monoculture”