rp's New Writeups

Turning into traffic (place)

2006-09-25T21:30:37Z

SharQ may even be underestimating the danger of this situation: in my experience, not only the drunk or numb cause accidents like this.

I have been in three serious driving accidents, all three in the Netherlands, where driving is on the right; two of them happened in this situation. In both, the sun was high in the sky, with hardly a cloud in sight; perfect visibility.

In the first accident, my mother was driving on a very busy provincial road. We needed to turn left, so she put out the indicator, slowed down, came to a stop at the crossing, and waited for oncoming traffic to pass. Three or four cars had already queued up behind her when she turned. Then she saw a car overtaking the queue behind her at great speed; a crash was unavoidable, but she managed to steer back just enough to make the cars collide side by side, minimizing the impact. Both cars darted off the road, but quickly came to a standstill, and everybody got out unharmed, after which the other driver started venting…

preprocessor (thing)

2006-05-19T19:09:16Z

A preprocessor is a tool to process something in preparation for the execution of another, given processor.

In the context of software systems, preprocessing is a very common technique. It is used to extend the power or range of applications of an existing data processing system - without having to modify that system.

This is a big deal. Software is abstract and complex stuff. Usually, it is easy enough to describe what individual functions or features are supposed to do; the challenge is to have a system in which it is still clear how exactly all of its those functions and features work in arbitrary combination. The number of combinations is of course much bigger than the number of features (combinatorial explosion), which doesn't hurt if they are independent, but often there are all kinds of subtle dependencies between them. This can make it extremely hard to understand how the system works in full detail.

Not ending up with a mess is important to the users, but also…

process algebra (idea)

2006-05-12T21:44:32Z

A process algebra is an algebra for describing processes, or more accurately, discrete systems. Being an algebra, it consists of a set of operations, and equivalence rules on constructions that can be built from those operations. A simple example: let's have the following three operations:


  a | b
  a ; b
  a^*

We can build expressions with them, e.g. (a | b)^* or b^*(a ; b^*)^*.

Now let's interpret these expressions as follows.

| means 'or'
; means 'and then'
^* means 'zero or more times'

So we're interpreting the operations as ways in which a bigger process can be composed of smaller processes, and ultimately, elementary steps.

For instance, (a | b)^* means: zero or more times either a or b. Or, if you wish, an arbitrary sequence of a…

MyBase and other VB.NET concepts designed to make you feel like a five year old (idea)

2005-04-20T18:55:47Z

While I agree with pretty much everything prole writes, my overall assessment is very different: I love VB.NET. This is mostly because most of what in the writeup looks like a criticism of VB.NET is neither a bad thing nor specific to VB.NET. Some examples.

MyBase designed to make you feel like a five-year old?: As prole clearly states, the concepts of MyBase and Me are not specific to VB.NET; they are common to most object-oriented languages, including Java, and their common predecessor, Smalltalk (1975), which knew them as self and super. Now Smalltalk was in fact designed to be a programming system that five-year olds can use, so MyBase is indeed a concept in VB.NET designed for use by a five-year old. The unstated assumption, however, is that this would be a reason to shun VB.NET and prefer Java instead. Java has the exact same concept. It just uses a different name for it.
How Microsoft convinced so many people that Yo

…

Hawk (person)

2004-12-15T08:48:55Z

Just a clarification of Webster's entry here.

The British hawk (Latin name accipiter) is very falcon-like in appearance and behaviour; with pointy wings and a long, narrow tail, it catches its prey in flight, using its speed.
The British buzzard (Latin name buteo) is a small eagle in appearance and behaviour; with large, broad wings and a short, wide, rounded tail, it slowly flaps or hovers, and circles at great height in search for small animals on the ground.

In America, on the other hand, "hawk" is a general word for a bird of prey, but usually refers to buteo birds, of which there are many species there.

Mille regretz (thing)

2004-07-16T23:16:12Z

  Mille regretz de vous abandonner
  Et d'eslonger vostre face amoureuse 
  J'ay si grand dueil et paine douloureuse
  Qu'on me verra brief mes jours deffiner

or in English:

  A thousand sorrows from leaving you
  and no longer seeing your loving face
  I have such great sorrow and aching pain
  that my days will soon be seen to end

The four-part setting of this love song written by Josquin des Prez, published by Pierre Atteignant in Paris in 1533, was among the most popular and revered songs of the century, and still is. In those days they didn't work with record sales, but the song appeared everywhere: just to mention one example, Cristobal de Morales, no mean composer in his own right, and certainly working in a different country, wrote a holy mass around this theme.

This song is said to have been much loved by of the emperor Charles V, probably the most powerful man of his age, and no doubt did a lot to elevate…