A New Jersey court has recognized the Second Amendment, and overturned a gun forfeiture law.
Go To: Heaven
John Backus, the inventor of FORTRAN, has written his last line of code.
FORTRAN wasn’t my first language. When I started engineering school in Ann Arbor, they told me I had to learn a programming language, but they didn’t say which one, so I took a CS course in which we were inducted into the programming world with ALGOL. I used it to write a simulation of heat transfer, with no problems, though the engineering professor didn’t know the language. But I had to take a graduate course in numeric analysis, in which one had to write in FORTRAN, to be able to interact with the instructor’s subroutines, so I went to a few free lectures on it that he held at night for the general student population (and in fact public). After learning how to program in a structured language, I was appalled at DO loops and gotos, and their potential for spaghetti. I’ve used it quite a bit since, but still try to use as much structure as whatever version allows. Still, as the article notes, it was a huge breakthrough in making computers practical.
And here, courtesy of wikipedia, are a few FORTRAN jokes:
* “GOD is REAL unless declared INTEGER.”
* Joke, circa 1980 (following the standardization of FORTRAN 77): “Q: What will the scientific programming language of the year 2000 look like? … A: Nobody knows, but its name will be FORTRAN.”
* A good FORTRAN programmer can write FORTRAN code in any language.
* Computer Science without FORTRAN and COBOL is like birthday cake without ketchup and mustard.
I Didn’t Think It Was Possible
My disgust with Congress has found new depths. They’re buying votes for a troop withdrawal with pork.
[Update a few minutes later]
As Glenn’s emailer says, I guess we can now call them the coalition of the bribed.
[Update at noon eastern]
Porkbusters is on the case.
I Didn’t Think It Was Possible
My disgust with Congress has found new depths. They’re buying votes for a troop withdrawal with pork.
[Update a few minutes later]
As Glenn’s emailer says, I guess we can now call them the coalition of the bribed.
[Update at noon eastern]
Porkbusters is on the case.
I Didn’t Think It Was Possible
My disgust with Congress has found new depths. They’re buying votes for a troop withdrawal with pork.
[Update a few minutes later]
As Glenn’s emailer says, I guess we can now call them the coalition of the bribed.
[Update at noon eastern]
Porkbusters is on the case.
Death Of A Blogger Lioness
Based on Maia’s comment to this latest post on Cathy’s blog, by Lewis Fein, it sounds like the end is very near. Much of the blogosphere, even those who disagreed with her politically, is mourning already (happily, I only saw one mean-spirited tribute). She will leave a hole in it, and in Los Angeles journalism, that won’t be filled soon, or perhaps at all.
For those who didn’t know her, and want to get a sense of her, read Amy Alkon’s post:
At the party at Debbie and Morgan Gundel’s to celebrate her remission, she announced, “I just want to let everyone know having cancer hasn’t made me a better person.”
She also has a link roundup.
She
SpaceX Should Be Launching In Less Than Half An Hour
Unfortunately, Windows Media is demanding that I download a new version to view it, which generally involves a reboot, which I’m loathe to do right now, so I don’t know what’s going on. According to the latest reading from Clark, it’s still on.
[Update a little after 7 PM Eastern]
Apparently the scheduled launch was aborted due to a telemetry issue.
Could still go tonight, though.
[Update at 8:34 PM EDT]
OK, apparently not. Maybe tomorrow. Fortunately, my commenters are more on top of the situation than I am. Well, I’ve never attempted to be the site for breaking space news, unless I’m live blogging an event.
Influenced By Escher?
Here are some fascinating and beautiful computer graphics.
[Update a few minutes later]
A commenter says they’re not computer generated, that they’re paintings. Either way, very interesting.
Who Chooses?
This post by Ron Bailey on whether or not parents might do things to help ensure that their offspring are straight reminds me of this post of mine from a while back:
Suppose we find that there is something different about the brains of gay men and women (a proposition for which there’s already abundant and growing evidence). If we can come up with an affordable, painless therapy that “fixes” this and converts them from “gay” to “straight,” should we a) allow them to take advantage of it, or b) forbid them from doing so, or c) require them to? And should “straight” (i.e., exclusively heterosexual) people be allowed to become gay, or bi?
These are the kinds of issues that separate me from conservatives.
Rocketplanes In The News
Jane Skinner just did an interview with Granger Whitelaw on the Rocket Racing League. Cool video simulations of the rockets played in the background throughout.
The giggle factor continues to dissipate.