Pinus

I suppose one could argue that if you are ignoring things like gamma and couour space and falling back on defaults, you are not showing the image correctly. My impression is that PNG takes a more relaxed approach, and considers anything that is in the right ballpark to be correct. For example, before hi-DPI screens ("retina display" and others) most image viewers would just map one image pixel to one display pixel, completely ignoring any "physical size" values, and this was generally considered correct.

Only if they have a cash register with a control unit that can handle offline operation. Without that, they would be committing a crime.

Funny thing is, a good way of making someone hover their finger over that button is to try to deposit any significant amount of cash to your bank account. One part of the system says "Use cash!", another part says "What is this cash? How did you get it? From whom? Did you give them a receipt? Can you prove that?"

If "the electronics" break down, shops usually can't accept any form of payment at all, because that would be illegal with their on-line cash registers being offline...

I remember seeing this machine (or one like it, but how many dual-processor pdp-10’s can there have been?) at Stacken sometime around the mid-90’s. Even then, it was a relic from a bygone era. Strange to think that the computers that were brand new then are now older than this was at the time. Damn, I’m getting old…

Are we looking at the same map? On the one I see, showing western and central Europe, the difference between a great circle and a loxodrome (straight line on a Mercator map) for an intra-European route would be barely visible. And the map is clearly not Mercator — France looks visibly "smashed". Looks like a simple x=longitude, y=latitude projection.

Has the performance of sum on lists of lists in Python been fixed? It used to be pretty abysmal. But I suppose some would say that if you need to consider performance at all, you’re in the wrong language… :)

I suppose a graphite moderator would fit the description.

Something similar is in place in Sweden. For landline numbers, it is of course easy. A number with, say, a Stockholm area code is not suddenly going to be in Nigeria. For mobiles it is trickier, because a Swedish mobile may very well be in Nigeria. Some additional database look-ups had to be added to the already rubegoldbergesque contraption that handles mobile phone calls.

For those HN readers who are not stationery junkies: The “real” Blackwing pencils went out of production... I don’t know when, but it must be at least 15 years ago, probably longer. (I have only been watching this from the outside, so don’t ask me for details. =) ) Those sold now come from a different production line at a different company, even though the maker is trying to make them as close as possible to the original. Ever since they showed up, pencil aficionados have been debating whether they are better, worse, or about the same. Originals seem to sell for over $20 a piece on eBay (actual "sold" prices, not asking prices).

If I remember correctly, a recent Gallup in Sweden indicated that about 25 % do not take calls from any unknown number. I don’t know whether this result has been corrected to take itself into account. :)

According to Zawinski’s law, I expect curl to implement IMAP before long.

(Checks docs)

Oh.

More advanced slide rules typically have a set of “folded” scales, that can sometimes save a calculation from ending up off scale. In theory, these should be offset by half the scale length, i.e. sqrt(10). However, since the folded scales also offer a convenient way to multiply with the offset factor, most slide rules offset them by π instead, since it’s almost the same as sqrt(10), and multiplication by π is a more useful thing to have around.

The slide transition at 6:16 took me by surprise. =)

Chap needs to have his suit jacket fixed, though... that collar gap!