Yes it's useful to have the concept of "nothing". The issue is that null (or NULL or nil) is a magic value indistinguishable from a normal pointer/reference that code is meant to interpret as "this is not a valid object". If code doesn't check for the magic value before using the pointer/reference it may throw an exception or outright crash. The error may not happen immediately either because null could passed around in return values, parameters, stored in maps/arrays, or written to disk. Those bugs & crashes and the cost of fixing them are what Hoare calls the billion dollar mistake.

More modern languages like Kotlin, Swift and Rust define optional types which can hold something, or nothing. Code must explicitly unwrap the object inside to use it, and the languages have conveniences for mapping values, error propagation etc to encourage proper use & safety. If code still tries to unwrap when there is nothing inside, the code will generate a proper runtime exception.

Some older languages have either acquired Optional types or null coalescing to mitigate the issue a bit. But it doesn't fix legacy code that doesn't use those types and oftentimes it's syntactic sugar or type hinting that can be circumvented.

Which he later described as a billion dollar mistake and even then he's probably underestimating it. Some languages have tried to plug the leak with optional result types but its too late for most of them. Javascript decided null wasn't terrible enough and decided to add undefined in too.

Like a Raspbery Pi, only less popular. The RPi is popular because it has built a community of enthusiasts & 3rd parties around its products. Something that "Arduino" is very unlikely to achieve.

Competitors went out of their way to support open source designs based around affordable, commonly available microcontrollers like the ATmega2560. They're not going to go out of their way to support closed / proprietary designs based around unaffordable, proprietary CPUs that Qualcomm happens to sell pretending to still be Arduino.

The ethos behind Arduino no longer exists and competitors, hobbiests, educators etc will move onto something else like ESP32, or Pico based designs.

The name may still exist but the ethos behind it has evaporated. Have to wonder why Qualcomm even bothered to acquire it.

Don't build the OS installer or images in California and ensure that the pipelines are sufficiently distributed to counter any brain damaged legislation elsewhere in future. And make a big song and dance about how California used to be the home of Linux but is no longer because of stupid unenforceable laws.

Here in British Columbia we just changed our clocks for the last time and will remain on UTC-7 indefinitely. Parts of B.C. (the northeast part) have been UTC-7 all year for a long time. The southeast part has been Mountain time (UTC-7/UTC-6) for a long time. Neither are changing how they do time.

I applaud losing the time change but I'm not crazy about permanent DST. People obviously haven't thought this through, what it's going to feel like come November.

...laura

My own view is to check the journalist to see how credible the information is. If they have a history of knowing things that nobody in intelligence would ever divulge then they're either a patsy or a fabulist. The former because they've been spoon fed bullshit, or the latter because they just don't care what they print if it pays.

My skepticism is based off previous attempts at misdirection. An adversary may concoct a semi plausible story to explain how they pulled off something just to waste time investigating it or to test the opposition's ability to investigate, or to hide the true source. We've seen this countless times, e.g. Britain saying carrots gave their pilots night vision, or more recent examples like the FBI using parallel legal narratives to catch crims so they don't have to disclose stingray in legal documents.

Maybe they hacked the cameras or maybe they just leaked this story to protect the method they actually used. Which could be as simple as having a guy who moved in across the street.

Near-lifelong B.C. resident here...

People have grumbled about time changes as long as I can remember. Pick one. Stick to it. Just do it.

I can't say I agree with their choice. Not so much the crazy late sunset in the summer - we're used to that - but the very late sunrise in the winter. The sun will still set by 5 in December and January. So what?

...laura

Norwegian motoring journalists do EV battery tests in winter and at its worst in extremes like -30C you can expect 50% range drop, though temperature is more likely to be -10C where range might be 20-30% drop. But since chargers are everywhere and people typically aren't driving big road trips (especially in extreme cold) it's just something to be mindful of rather than some "ahah!" thing. I expect new EVs sold in cold countries will offer hybrid sodium / lithium batteries to improve their winter performance.

I may add that gasoline cars also have a range drop in winter because it's just about batteries but also denser air, rolling resistance, even oil friction. Some kinds of ICE vehicle diesel struggle to even start. But much of the US doesn't come anywhere close to -30C in Winter, and some states don't even get freezing conditions at any time of the year and even where it does happen its a weak excuse as Norway demonstrates.

The rest of the world is moving to electric vehicles because they're cleaner and more energy efficient. Meanwhile the US is circling the wagons and sticking with gasoline powered SUVs & trucks. Not only is this horribly inefficient and polluting it's economic suicide. All of the innovations in renewables will happen somewhere else like China because they're investing in the tech and the US is not.

So even a sane president were to take office and reverse what this senile old cunt has done, the impact is already catastrophic. Not just to automakers, but to the climate, and to global stability.

Like "e-waste", or "i-regret"

Uhuh. There's always some idiotic spin on everything isn't there? Maybe we should praise these people leaving the US as martyrs for the sacrifices they're making by leaving.