The other day I saw a lecture on space travel technology. The speaker was talking about how fast various kinds of propulsion systems (existing and potentially possible within the next 30-50 years) could get a vessel going, and how long that vessel would take to get to the nearby stars. That got me thinking aboutContinue reading “Pigs in Space”
Category Archives: Intellectual Curiosity
Thug History
I’ve been listening to a lot of history books, courses, and podcasts and here’s what I have learned about the Roman state, both republic and empire: it was run purely on the basis of raw power. That’s a nice family you have there — yeah, I’ll take it. Whatever I can do is what isContinue reading “Thug History”
Data Representation
I’m currently working on a suite of programs (which sounds a hell of a lot fancier than, “a couple of apps and a database,” — word to the wise, &c.) that deals with people. A person record has, as an option, a birthdate. You never know, someone, somewhere, might like to commemorate great-great-great-uncle Ralph’s birthdayContinue reading “Data Representation”
Type Safety
If you don’t care about programming languages, feel free to skip this entry.
Vacation Nerdsnipe
We bought into Disney Vacation Club some years ago, because having a timeshare would mean we’d have this incentive to take vacations. We are bad at taking vacations. There’s always stuff to be doing, after all. But if you don’t use your timeshare, that’s effectively money you just gave away to be burned. So…take aContinue reading “Vacation Nerdsnipe”
Sturgeon’s Law
My Audible subscription just renewed and I got all enthusiastic. Back when Netflix was DVD only, we had a, “go ahead and try it,” policy: stick whatever recommendations in the queue, and when they showed up, pop ’em in and hit play. If the movie wasn’t compelling after the first 15 minutes, we’d put itContinue reading “Sturgeon’s Law”
Insightful Or Obvious?
A friend just passed this interview along, and it got me thinking. Every so often, this sort of thing pops up on my radar: lone individual / tiny group doing things on their own rather than using the commonly available mass-produced thing, and they’re doing it for Reasons. I find something seductive in these stories.Continue reading “Insightful Or Obvious?”
Concurrency, Closures, and SwiftUI on Mac OS X
Puzzlin’ Code
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.
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.