When I was in middle school, I got a TI81. On those things, the only way to transfer a program was to manually copy it. After copying a few, I got an idea about the language/syntax and starting coding my own. Friends wanted me to copy my programs to their calculators and by the time the "cabled" calculators came out, I was a being asked for games I had written by strangers in HS. While it's not Lisp/Java/C, TI Basic gave me a love of programming (creating things!) that got me through university with a CS degree and I'm typing this from a senior level engineering position in silicon valley a couple decades later.

But without that calculator? Who knows. Coding while in algebra through differential equations classes in grade school/high school was also a great way to look like I was "paying attention";)

From the tutorial:
----
static struct buffer *buffer_alloc(unsigned long size)
{
        struct buffer *buf;
        buf = kzalloc(sizeof(*buf), GFP_KERNEL);
        if (unlikely(!buf))
                goto out;
----
I haven't seen a tutorial written where "goto" was recommended...ever. When I was taught C back in the late 20th century, we weren't taught how to use goto or when. Now that I'm older and wiser, the instruction has its place -- especially in code where performance is paramount -- but it can also be less confusing than other control structures in the right situation. (I'm still uncomfortable using it myself.)

Any wise old vets want to chime in about when to use "goto" and when not to?

Have you read the qur'an and hadith, and the writings of islamic scholars who have studied islamic scripture?

I have! In fact, you're supposed to inform people about Islam and give them a chance to repent before killing them. Compare this to Abrahamic religion 1.0, where you were simply slaughtered for being unable to pronounce the word "Shiboleth". Progress indeed! Some Christians weren't terribly fond of this approach, of course, and came up with the more egalitarian "Kill them all and let God know his own" in response during the middle ages.

In most deistic religions, there is evil and that evil must periodically personified in the infidel and "cleansed". There only difference between a crusade and a jihad* is the creed of the slaughtered innocents.

[And that "jihad" may be translated as either an internal or external struggle.]

No mod points today, but parent is spot-on.

Linus is quite polite until you prove yourself an idiot -- then not so much. He didn't build a community of thousands of contributers by spewing insults at anyone and everyone.

I love John Lassester (Pixar, including Toy Story and Bug's Life ).

From your link:
On June 22, 2007, management of DisneyToon Studios was turned over to the control of Ed Catmull and John Lasseter under the banner of renamed Feature Animation studio, now called Walt Disney Animation Studios. As chief creative officer, Lasseter called for the cancellation of all future films in production or development at DisneyToon Studios that weren't connected to a Disney Consumer Products franchise. As a result, planned or in-progress sequels to Dumbo, Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons and The Aristocats were all cancelled, among other projects.[1][9] A few days later, it was announced that DisneyToon Studios would no longer produce future sequels to Disney animated films, but will instead focus on spin-offs and original films.[10]

Ronald Reagan's first election was leader of a labor union (Screen Actors Guild).

Gosh, screen actors and professional athletes get paid well. I sure it must their union...er...I'm sorry Mr. Reagan, I meant the "free market".

intellectual masturbation.

The one thing you can't find on pornhub!

San Franscisco is the 2nd most walkable city in America (after NYC). Only idiots drive here.

So said Publilius Syrus in 43 AD. ...but seriously screw "libertarianism". It's the "creation science" of economics where we simply ignore the rigorous mathematical models (including the idea that deflation is bad) and gain the unshakable trust in the "confidence fairy" who blesses the economies who believe in the true currency (gold! bitcoin!).

And unlike "young earth creationism", the backers of "libertarian economics" are supporting an economic system which was developed by the rich with the sole purpose of finding a reason to lower their taxes. And if you're last name is Koch, you can describe this as "charity" or "philanthropy".

Another way to think about infinity (discretely).

How many round numbers above 0 are there? Well, 1,2,3,4,...10000000...infinity right? Let's call that group "natural numbers".

How many odd numbers are there above 0? Also infinity. Let's call that group "positive odds".

While both numbers are infinite, I can say with reasonable precision that there are twice as many natural numbers as there are positive odd numbers and that every positive odd number is also a natural number.

If you agree to that proposition, you'd have to agree that all infinities aren't equal.

"Notice how many TV shows are about Law Enforcement these days?"

We've always had shows about law enforcement, what's changed is perspective from the 70/80's to the 90/2000's.

The former were about largely about innocent people accused of crime who got exonerated (Matlock, Murder She Wrote, Perry Mason, Diagnosis Murder) or plain old bad detectives (Get Smart, Inspector Gadget, The Pink Panther).

In the modern era, the cops always find the right bad guy who may get off due to technicalities (Cold Case, Law and Order, CIS, Special Victims Unit, 24, Cops).

When the cops are always moral and their accused guilty, our justice system eventually has laws passed to conform to our notions of pop culture.

I'm guessing you're white?

I lived in Houston for 8 years. And Texas is indeed rascist -- not even Anise Parker has the power to change Rick Perry's laws. Look at imprisonment statistics, the capitol case involving a man sentences to death who didn't kill anybody (...but the law of parties is wonderful!) or the black man dragged behind the back of a pickup (which was in Weider [sic] IIRC).

You can say "I didn't see any bigotry". The KKK guy who slaughtered Jewish folk inside a synagogue was "Nice to other white people" according to its mayor.

Yahoo is the largest email provider on the planet and messenger is much more popular outside the US, much like Ali Baba.

Can't make a better product? Try FUD (TM) for all your business needs!

Unfortunately, IBM or Microsoft probably have a business method patent on it.

*ducks to avoid flying chair*

Please note, that our continental nomenclature since before we had tectonic theory and they don't really agree.

There's at least 3 issues with thinking "plates" have anything to do with "continents":
* First of all there's at least 12 continents.
* Siberia is part of North America
* India isn't part of Asia.