You know those people who say things to the effect of, “One in two people has below average intelligence,” with a really smug look on their face? The satisfaction they seem to get from flaunting their fundamental misunderstanding of statistics makes it pretty clear which side of average their intelligence falls on.
Author Archive
You haven’t made it
I saw a guy driving a Porsche 911 Carrera S with roof racks. Now firstly, it looks pretty silly. Because there isn’t much roof length, the racks were comically close together. The curvature of the roof meant the rear rack needed to be taller than the front one to get them to roughly the same […]
Not how it works
Goldman Sachs and UBS both seem to have had algorithmic trading code stolen and/or leaked recently. I haven’t seen an official statement from UBS, but a PR person from Goldman said something to the effect of, “Since the algorithms integrate with a large, proprietary system, we aren’t worried about this.” I realise that this person […]
Illiteracy
The Age (the popular broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne) has sunk to the level of Slashdot. From Peter Martin’s article entitled “Choice considers Grocery Choice suit” published today: First, a costumer enters a postcode, then selects the most convenient nearby shops and then enters the quantities, weights and brands of the products they want. That isn’t […]
Maybe next year
It still isn’t the year of Desktop Linux. People may be ready to move away from Windows, but Linux still isn’t ready for them. Let me tell you about my recent operating system experiences. It all started when my venerable Pentium III died. (Well it didn’t quite die outright, but the power supply became unreliable.) The […]
I’m cheering
I’m really glad Nick D’Arcy has been dumped by Swimming Australia. Athletes should be held to a high standard of behaviour, being in the public eye as they are. Other sporting bodies should take note. What I’m not impressed by are the idiotic media statements made by D’Arcy’s supporters. Here’s a sample of what his […]
Generated Copy Constructors Considered Evil
Sometimes I really hate C++. Not just dislike it, but really, really hate it. This week, one of the most horrible language “features” got me again: the generated copy constructor. I understand why they exist — they’re necessary to allow C structures to be passed by value no extra effort. However, their behaviour causes a […]
Books
Who exactly thought this sign was a good idea? After careful consideration, I think it means a book will set you back $35, but you must pay with exactly one $5 note, one $10 note and one $20 note — other combinations will be rejected. Literacy really is on the decline. Also, what’s with the […]
Spam for Spam
My comment spam filter has picked up a couple of spam comments of a new breed recently: spam comments advertising comment spamming services. It’s a bit odd on a number of fronts. First of all, why waste resources you could be using to push out spam for your clients? Or has the economic downturn affected […]
Slurpee Crisis
It’s undeniable that this week has been hot in Melbourne. Temperatures were in the mid 40s (over 110°F for the Celsius challenged). You don’t want to go outside, and there are three bushfires burning in the state. On top of that, Melbourne’s infrastructure doesn’t seem to be built for summer. There were over 200 cancelled […]