Comment Re:way faster on iphone (Score 1) 26
Also: after the IOS update, no "Hello" screen, no need to do any setup, and it didn't turn BlueTooth back on (I usually have BlueTooth off but updates always turn it on again.)
Comment J R, by William Gaddis (Score 1) 106
That is all
Comment Why Programming is Hard (Score 2) 526
Programming is hard because, just to take three examples:
(a) There are a lot of concepts that must be understood both individually and in all combinations. Learning to program well is very labor intensive.
(b) Programs are large and controlling complexity is difficult. Preventing bugs even in small programs is difficult; preventing them in large programs is extraordinarily difficult.
(c) Programming is highly technical in the same sense as mathematics and physics. This will not make it difficult for all, but it will for most.
"Why are these statements often not accompanied by supporting evidence?" Why do people say ballet is hard without supporting evidence? Because it is self-evident? Are there any excellent programmers who claim it is easy?
"What is the empirical evidence that programming, broadly speaking, is inherently hard, or harder than possible analogs such as calculus in mathematics?" See (a) and (b).
"Even if that evidence exists, what does it mean in practice?" It means that most programmers aren't very good and that great programmers are very hard to find. It means that many people will go into this technical field because salaries are good, only to face bitter disappointment when reality sinks in. It means that most software is horrendously terrible, because people think programming is easy and that their nephew can create the vaccine registration site.
Comment What was the crime? (Score 1) 26
Honest question. Since even the oldest days of HTML, every request contains a referrer string and a user-agent string, so every web site has always known what browser is used and whether the user clicked a link or entered the URL at top-level. The tendency in browsers has been to combine the search and URL bars with lots of auto-complete nonsense and suggestions. If you type in a URL you have to watch what is happening. Brave does not appear to have altered search: if I type "binance.com" unaltered into the Brave search bar it does what I expect: a search on "binance.com". The referrer ID was a visible auto-complete suggestion, and Auto-complete can be disabled altogether in preferences. Aside from possibly offensively sloppy programming, what bad thing was being done here? What information was being given to binance.com that they wouldn't have already simply from the user-agent and referrer strings?
Comment The end of non-commercial space (Score 2) 102
A scooter or bicycle available for rent is essentially a commercial, app-controlled vending machine. Why should it be legal for these things to be left anywhere for rental? If this is permitted, then there is no longer any non-commercial space. Can I set up a rental booth anywhere I like? In Walnut Creek across the Bay, hideous LimeBikes for rent litter nature trails and parks. A boycott seems appropriate if the local governments won't restrict rental areas to something reasonable.
Comment Re:Community College, Diversity and California (Score 1) 336
The local community college district is run by the State.
That might explain it but that oath still seems unusual.
I don't think that many states require this of their employees, but I'm not an expert. I am surprised that nobody seems upset that California does this.
If you are armed, then you are not free from arms. The slogan makes no logical sense.
Either you are thinking this over too hard or not hard enough.
Wrong.
Imagine a gazelle on the savanna, is this animal free? Sure, it can roam far and wide if it chooses. What it is not free from is other gazelles. For the gazelles to get along there must be a hierarchy, which they defend with their horns. If we take away their horns does that free them from horns? Sure. They might still get along but that will be short lived, this peaceful coexistence will be broken when a lion comes. Those horns are not only used to keep the peace among the gazelles but also to defend the gazelles from the lions. The lions would love to see gazelles without horns, if they could take the horns then the gazelles would no longer be free to roam the savanna.
Freeing the gazelles of their horns does not free them of the claws of the lion. The gazelles are free to roam only to the point their horns keep the lions away.
Disarming myself might free me from my own guns but that does not disarm the thugs around me. So long as I stay with my "herd" I'm quite safe. We have a, perhaps informal and unspoken, hierarchy and order we maintain amongst ourselves. This is in part from a desire to be left alone and in part from a, perhaps also unspoken, promise to defend our desire to be left alone with potentially lethal force. The other gazelles know of this, as do the lions.
If the herd is threatened from the outside then I'm only as free as my ability to defend my herd. I might be able to rely on the other "gazelles" in my herd that chose to keep their horns but maybe not. I don't know if those gazelles also chose to "dehorn" themselves since unlike horns on a gazelle the weapons we carry are not as prominent. We can't always see the lions, and the lions cannot always see our horns. That is what keeps us gazelles free, or as free as we could possibly be in any real world.
Does that make sense?
No, but the discussion, while it would be fun, is off topic (topic was community colleges).
Comment Re:Community College, Diversity and California (Score 1) 336
I wasn't clear, sorry. The local community college district is run by the State. This oath is required for all employees of the State of California. I am told that this is state law. No National Guard or national anything else was involved. Hello, California, welcome to the 1950s. We all hope that someday you will grow up and become a real state.
If you are armed, then you are not free from arms. The slogan makes no logical sense.
If you are armed, then you are not free from arms. The slogan makes no logical sense.
Comment Community College, Diversity and California (Score 2) 336
I'm not making this up, but I wish that I were. I'm a computer science Ph.D. with a lot of teaching experience. Recently, a community college in California wanted to hire me to teach a computer literacy class as part of the Year Up program. I was emailed a 203-page pdf of hiring materials. There, buried on page 37, was a loyalty oath that I was required to sign as a condition of employment. It is reproduced below. I refused to sign it and was not hired. Is this the fascist left or the fascist right? California Uber Alles, y'all.
"I, (Print Name) Do solemnly swear, or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter"
"I, (Print Name) Do solemnly swear, or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter"
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