The statement:

if (i = 1) {

is equivalent to:

i = i;
if (i) { // Always true because i = 1 and i != 0

myke

I agree, but

if (i = 1) {

is a perfectly valid "C" (and Java) statement - there was no intention of putting an assignment in a conditional statement.

Modern compilers now issue warnings on statements like this, but at the time nothing was returned.

myke

I can't remember the exact code sequence, but in a loop, I had the statement:

if (i = 1) {

Where "i" was the loop counter.

Most of the time, the code would work properly as other conditions would take program execution but every once in a while the loop would continue indefinitely.

I finally decided to look at the assembly code and discovered that in the conditional statement, I was setting the loop counter to 1 which was keeping it from executing.

I'm proud to say that my solution to preventing this from happening is to never place a literal last in a condition, instead it always goes first like:

if (1 = i) {

So the compiler can flag the error.

I'm still amazed at how rarely this trick is not taught in programming classes and how many programmers it still trips up.

myke

I find it kind of amazing that there isn't a law in place defining how personal data is stored in North Carolina. Now, having said that, I have no idea what kind of laws are in place for other jurisdictions. Are there any lawyers out there that can comment?

Hopefully, the people responsible for the design and sign off of the server data architecture were in the 2M plus people who's information was compromised.

myke

I know. Next thing you know, they will expect a ride to and from school, even though we had to walk through three miles of snow pulling a sledge with our younger siblings on it and, to make it even harder, it was uphill both ways!

And then when we got to school, we had to warm up our quills over a whale oil stove that smoked so badly that half the class succumbed to carbon monoxide poisening and those that didn't, coughed small pox, diptheria and polio all over the other kids.

They got it easy these days - and you know what makes it worse? They don't believe a word you say what it was like when you were their age.

myke

(apologies to Monty Python)

My daughter is 17 and in the same boat you are and would have liked to use a PC for her Calculus/Functions but I pushed her back to the calculator (with the help of her teacher).

This isn't a new question; I was in the last year of high school where slide rules were taught - everything you are asking about using a PC program instead of a calculator was given by us for using a calculator instead of a slide rule. I suspect that centuries ago, students complained about having to use an abacus and wanted to use a slide rule instead.

I don't like the TI-8x (here in Ontario, they use the 83+) for a number of reasons, but:
1. The Textbooks reference the TI gonkulator and show examples for the calculator.
2. Teachers are familiar with it. Don't expect your teacher to be very helpful if you come back and ask something like, "I'm graphing 2sin(x + 45) on xxx under Ubuntu but the zeros don't show up where I think they should - can you help me?" Chances are the teacher will either be unwilling or unable to help you.
3. You could bring in a Linux pad or netbook, but I doubt you'll be allowed to bring it into tests for reasons discussed in point 2. Teachers are suspicious of things that can possibly do more than the tools they expect.
4. Calculators are incredibly useful tools. It's often easier to pull one out on your desk to test values than bring up a calc program on the PC (especially if you only have one display AND it can be a problem finding real estate on two screens sometimes). They're good things to be familiar with.

Good luck, it's an interesting question and I'm looking forward to how other people answer,

myke

Wouldn't solar panels on houses become potential, sharp edged frisbees? I'm making this question from looking at many local solar power installations where there is some distance between the structure and the solar panel where the wind could get a foothold or they're free standing and could be blown around by the wind.

While some homes would continue to have power, I would think that a large fraction would find that their solar panels have either been damaged or torn away.

I do agree that putting power out on poles is not a great idea, but doesn't it make more sense to bury the lines underground?

myke

Never thought about the usefulness of this for intelligence.

I guess the only way to beat this would be to literally record this in a cave with a battery powered camcorder.

Very good.

myke

Interesting seeing the different ways people come up with "spoofing" this evidence - I don't know if this is a function of the people on this site or if we've seen too many movies with criminal geniuses.

I'm sure that the video source could be tampered with to "prove" something but I don't know if this makes sense in the real world.

Wouldn't the video (with hum) evidence be provided by the police as proof that the accused committed the crime? In that case, rather than the prosecution proving that evidence provided was false the prosecution would have to just provide the chain of custody for the recordings and if there was any concern wouldn't it be up to the defense to verify the validity of the recordings?

I would think that with the hum information, this could be done fairly cheaply and quickly which would be a good thing for all concerned.

myke

Good point.

myke

Insightful post and brings up a lot of interesting points.

While not part of the "Facebook generation" (ie I don't share every thing that I think of, experience, desire, am angry at, etc.), I do allow Eclipse to upload my usage, help itunes with maintaining it's database and allow Amazon.com to send me recommendations of what it thinks I might like (all of which I guess RMS would be apoplectic over).

It's a question of what is right for the individual user and I guess this is another case where RMS represents one extreme of the continuum.

myke

Seriously.

Where are the great programmer's calculators? My HP-16C allows me to work through essentially all the arithmetic binary operations (in decimal, hex & binary) and has been invaluable as a debug tool when the numbers just don't seem to be right.

Along with that are great feeling of keys (I hate my daughter's TI-83+ mushy keys) and nice solid plastic body. Oh, did I mention it takes 3x LR44 batteries that last 8+ YEARS?

In other news, kids have been told to get off my lawn, but the quality of my code has never been better,

myke