ccc @ccc@qoto.org
- Languages
- 🇬🇧 🇿🇦
Joined Nov 2020
Have fun.
I'm not so sure about that. Rumour has it he has a spare cache of naughty-list coal pre-wrapped and can swap out the shipping labels at the last minute if the Black Ops Elves slip him a note about some particularly egregious Naughty behaviour.
The easy response to this is that I do really want the government to guarantee a *minimum* standard of healthcare and a *minimum* wage. So, let's look at UBI. If some form of UBI is implemented, then the simplest option is just to say that everyone in the country gets $X per month.
No questions, no quibbles. You exist, you get $X per month.
Now, there's plenty of argument to be had for what the value of X should be. But let's just say that it's enough to barely cover food costs for the month, and rent if you don't mind splitting a one-room apartment between three people. No more than that. You can live off it, but you don't want to.
Does this cement you into a wage? No. Because you get the $X whether you work or not. Someone wants you to work for them, they're going to need to pay you something extra, *on top* of that $X. (And yes, a huge chunk - but not all - of that extra will be paid into tax, to pay for everyone's $X per month).
As a general solution for this type of puzzle, with two pails:
Label one pail A, and the other B.
Fill up pail A. (point 1) Empty pail A into pail B until either A is empty of B is full. If B is full, empty B. Check how much water is in A and B; see if the answer has been reached. If the answer has been reached, stop. Otherwise, if A is empty, refill A. Go back to (point 1) and continue from there.
If you're looking into messing with C++ - or any new programming language, really - then it might be worth your time to look over advent of code: https://adventofcode.com
It's basically an advent calendar full of little programming puzzles. They start out easy but then get harder...
What are the odds that two of those mystery cables are actually the same cable which just somehow does a U-turn inside the walls?
santa claus is a pirate
Some counterpoints:
- No wooden leg
- No hooked hand
- No known buried treasure(s)
- No known parrot
- And most important of all, no eyepatch!
That's a fair point. Julius and Augustus Caeser kind of messed that up a bit.
Everything from September onwards is named after the Roman words for various numbers, in numerical order.
I'd argue that Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality is *better* than the original Harry Potter series. The guy who wrote it really _knows_ how to write.
Pratchett's brilliant; a master of wordplay and subtle references. Slightly reminiscient of Douglas Adams, actually.
I enjoyed Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Narnia as well; though I'm unfamiliar with The Letter for the King or the Reckoners Series. On the subject of Potter, have you ever come across a story called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality?
Thanks for the welcome!
Well, the collected works of Pratchett are near the top of the list, but by no means all of it. Joan Aiken is a little bit absurdist but still good; Jasper Fforde is *very* absurdist and more than a little metafictional but also still good. Alan Dean Foster did the Spellsinger series, that was fun... and David Edding's Elenium is another example of a good story (mainly due to the characters).
...that's a start, anyhow. What are your favourites?
@ailurocrat @devurandom@cybre.space @xerz @cwebber
The problem here, I feel, is that user interface design is _not_ an easy problem.
Someone - or a group of someones - may put a lot of effort into making a piece of properly free software that does X. Before they can get to that point, they need to have a very good idea of *how* to do X; so they study up on the matter, understand all the ins and outs, and really figure out how to understand X. Then they make the software. Only at that point do they slap on a quick UI; which makes perfect sense to _them_. If they're reasonably good at what they do, then it will also make sense to someone who really understands the ins and outs of X and takes some time to learn that specific interface.
What it does not do is, it does not make sense to a hobbyist who has only the vaguest understanding of X. And thus the user interface gains a reputation for inscrutable interfaces.
(Hopefully, several versions down the line, the dev team manages to create a more newbie-friendly interface; but by this time, they already have the reputation...)
...do you know which variables need to be changed to do X?
Then a text search for that variable name might reveal the function that does X.
And a text search for that function's name through the signal handling bit might reveal which signal triggers it.
...maybe?
Then you have my sympathies.
...my first step when dealing with poorly written C code is to run it through some sort of autoindenter. Makes it _way_ easier to figure out what's up.
Second step generally involves cautious use of text output statements (printf or cout, either will do) to check on values of the variables mid-run.
Is this a situation akin to the Story of Mel, or just poorly written code?
A quantum entangled C++ program?
...run it and see whether or not history changes as a result.
Ah - apologies for the misunderstanding. But yes, this is definitely why Poe's Law exists.
- Languages
- 🇬🇧 🇿🇦
Joined Nov 2020
