pillbug88's comments

pillbug88 | 14 years ago | on: Why the NFL bans iPads (and other technology)

It's to lessen the potential impact of a breach. a) you have a chance to recover from a hack in that two hours, b) it can reduce the speed with which leaked data gets to the opposition, and c) it reduces the likelihood of a hack getting valuable data.

And these are just a few reasons I can think of. There's nothing but benefits to this policy and very small negatives.

It's analogous to filling the moat before a battle. It's just a defense intended to slow an enemy. Try to remember that these guys are some seriously strategic thinkers, they're not morons and they're not technophobes.

pillbug88 | 14 years ago | on: Never create Ruby strings longer than 23 characters

isn't that the definition of the small string optimization?

This is how the dinkumware implementation of std::string has behaved for years. The basic form of the structure is a buffer and a pointer. If the pointer is filled in, it points to a heap string and follows cow semantics. Otherwise, the buffer is used, accomplishing the small string optimization.

I suppose I should have elaborated more. It just feels like the OP is "discovering" the wheel.

pillbug88 | 14 years ago | on: Never create Ruby strings longer than 23 characters

Isn't this just the small string optimization with copy on write?

pillbug88 | 14 years ago | on: Dear Internet: It's no Longer OK Not to Know How Congress Works

It's funny cos before Obama was elected I told my friends that under this administration the internet would become regulated.

This is in stark contrast to the laissez-faire approach the Bush administration took towards the internet.

You can argue whatever else you want about him, but it is undeniable that more legislation regarding the internet has passed under the current administration than under Bush -- he even fought off the UN's (read: china/russia) attempt at taking over ICANN.

pillbug88 | 14 years ago | on: Understanding lvalues and rvalues in C and C++

I find the standard to be very clear and concise regarding lvalue/xvalue/prvalue [2011 3.10.1].

I wonder if teaching from the standard is a better way of approaching this, ie: start with the standard, then just explain what it means.

pillbug88 | 14 years ago | on: Vim: revisited

"vim has two main modes, normal mode ... and the insert mode"

i stopped reading here because i knew what was coming next. the omen was fulfilled by the next line:

"in insert mode, now you type text as your normally would. Pressing <Esc> exits back to normal mode."

its command mode vs insert mode. any vi user should know that.. it's the very first thing vi bludgeons you with.