And the fine summary states that the messages were from a private mailing list. Doesn't that mean anything to anyone? If a conversation is private then it's not news. We respect privacy in the US because sometimes, in order to come to a prudent solution, you must ask imprudent questions, and that can only happen if you have a guarantee of privacy. The messages were private, therefore the story is someone violated someone else's privacy.

Nothing to see here.

I find it fun to look up the papers that my colleagues and/or college professors have published. It's especially fun to read some of those really old ones, too.

One time my boss was telling me about how when he was in high school he got to work with a professor on a research project as a (very junior) participant. I was able to find the paper that resulted from that project in the ACM DL and printed it out for him.

The SUV/bicycle comparison is also useful in how the rider views the road. When I am on my bicycle I must be more aware of and avoid things like gravel, potholes and puddles, which are farm more dangerous to my ride. As such I look like I'm being reckless and unlawful as I avoid things which could pop my tire or send me careening, those things which, if I were in my car, I could completely ignore.

My suggestion to everyone is to assume that everyone on the road is an idiot -- including yourself -- and act accordingly; you will not be disappointed.

Just remember: It's okay to be a monopoly, it's not okay to act monopolistically. Basically, you can be the only one on the market to sell widgets, but if you act to prevent another company from entering the widget market you are breaking the law.

Or at least, that's how I understand it.

It's also good to remember that C was not designed for general application writing; it was designed to write low-level controllers and operating systems and to be a portable assembly language. This is what most people forget when they laud or lament C.

What I see as the most problematic aspect of C is the refusal of the ISO committee from keeping up with hardware changes. We still, as you have noted, do not have standardized SIMD primitives or access to common SIMD operations (fuse-multiply-add, for example). They finally added the __thread (a valid hardware/OS construct) attribute but only years after all the compilers had it and developers were using it. Unfortunately that same committee also decided to add a threading model to C on which Poul-Henning Kamp wrote a scathing report.

So to wrap up, remember the purpose of C and keep it doing that purpose.

Back in the day there was a product from VentureCom that added a real-time HAL to Windows NT. It used a green screen of death to differentiate between crashes due to Windows and those due to RTX.

My interest is piqued.

Saccromyces pastorianus (aka "effing lager yeast") IS a bottom-fermenting yeast. It was discovered by brewers who put their casks of beer in cold mountain caves, in the days before refrigeration.

Learn something on the subject, beer-snob wannabe.

I think Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer said it best when confronted about books vs. computers:

Jenny Calendar: Honestly, what is it about [computers] that bothers you so much?

Giles: The smell.

Jenny Calendar: Computers don't smell, Rupert.

Giles: I know. Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower, or a-a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell musty and-and-and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is a - it, uh, it has no-no texture, no-no context. It's-it's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then-then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um, smelly.

Chewing the manioc doesn't trigger fermentation; the saliva and maceration triggers the conversion of starches into sugars. It is the yeast (and bacteria) in the environment (especially the skin of the vegetable) which ferments the resulting sugars into alcohol.

..without the consent or knowledge of the consumer.

Why should it be illegal for an ISP to provide a network in which non-real time transfers (eg. streaming video, VOIP) are not allowed and optimizes its network for offline or bulk transfers?

General rule of thumb for any career path: Figure out what math you need for that career and go one step further.

Your career needs only algebra? Take Pre-calc.

Your career needs only single-variable calc? Take multivariable-calc.

The experience you'll get from working with what is required in a grander scheme will help you to appreciate what you are doing and give you greater insight of how to go from point A to point C without necessarily going through point B. For the work that I do discrete math was the maximum of what I needed but taking that course in fractal analysis has been crucial in shaping the way I vew problems.

A thread-local variable resolves to a single instruction on x86 and 3 instructions each on ARM and PPC. Using the pthread thread-specific API requires a function call (at the minimum, potentially an OS call at worst case) and all save/restore instructions that this implies. In an application that is vulnerable to performance issues and one has to make multiple references to function-global, thread-specific variables then using pthread thread-specific data is murder on timing characteristics. Your general Windows/Linux/MacOS application may not need this level of performance but an embedded, real-time app requires this level of detail.

The Iranian government has outlawed independent thought. All citizens will be required to only think the phrase, "There is only one god and his prophet is Muhammed," repeatedly during the day.

I agree that biking to work is a great way to wake up in the morning and the endorphins and adrenalin from riding home is a great stress reliever in the evening (you can also use it as an excuse if you don't want to stay late in the day for a meeting if you don't want to drive home in the dark).

Additionally I've started doing push-ups every hour on the hour that I'm at work; it's a good complement to the bike riding (works your upper body), it gets you off your butt for a minute or two and exercises the core muscles.