ckcheng
Joined 16 years ago
Karma
1,280
Submissions
258
Member since
Oct 20
Recent submissions
Comment · 9 days ago
But if AI produces code with 90% fewer vulnerabilities per line, but generates 10 times as much code, the total security exposure remains the same .
Comment · 1 month ago
> but "now" is the collection of events that currently affect us.
Just to see if I understand what you’re saying…
So a hypothetical photon from the big bang (era?) gets observed now means the big bang is happening now?
A dinosaur decays to bones and now gets observed means the dinosaur died just now - not that it died millions of years ago?
(Dinosaur = photon from a star or something. Decay = red shift. Or a real dinosaur— guess it’s the same now.)
Comment · 2 months ago
Looking forward to seeing what the performance is like for a Clojure on “a whole-program optimizing compiler in the Stalin lineage”!
Comment · 3 months ago
Took a few more years to get really bug free.
> Fast forward to 2006. I was shocked to learn that the binary search program that Bentley proved correct and subsequently tested in Chapter 5 of Programming Pearls contains a bug. ... Lest you think I'm picking on Bentley, let me tell you how I discovered the bug: The version of binary search that I wrote for the JDK contained the same bug. It was reported to Sun recently when it broke someone's program, after lying in wait for nine years or so.
https://research.google/blog/extra-extra-read-all-about-it-n...
Comment · 3 months ago
How’s about radicle.dev ? Apparently like GitHub, but decentralized like Git.
Comment · 3 months ago
TCO is surprisingly commonly supported in the real world. TCO is supported in C++ compilers, JavaScript in Safari, Scala, Clojure in a way, etc.!
For instance:
"All current mainstream [C++] compilers perform tail call optimisation fairly well (and have done for more than a decade), even for mutually recursive calls" [1].
"As of July 22, 2023 Safari is the only browser that supports tail call optimization" of JavaScript [2].
"Since Clojure uses the Java calling conventions, it cannot, and does not, make the same tail call optimization guarantees. Instead, it provides the recur special operator, which does constant-space recursive looping" [3].
"The Scala compiler will automatically optimize any truly tail-recursive method. If you annotate a method that you believe is tail-recursive with the @tailrec annotation, then the compiler will warn you if the method is actually not tail-recursive" [4].
[1]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34129
[2]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37224563
Comment · 3 months ago
Yes, I think it’s like a decentralized GitHub?
Comment · 3 months ago
Works over Bluetooth mesh offline and Nostr online.
Relevant discussion yesterday:
> “Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey”
Comment · 3 months ago
Like many countries, China has an unemployment problem especially with new grads.
> demanding jobs and long hours in the private sector, where 12-hour days and weekend shifts are common
But well, there’s the problem right there, right? If they restrict max working hours to like European standards, they’d immediately reduce unemployment to near zero.
Plus the extra time off produces greater domestic demand too.
This solution is too obvious. So why don’t they do it?
Comment · 4 months ago
What’s more funny to me is the set up to that quote:
> Bill Gates had somehow manifested, alone, surrounded by ten Apple employees. … Steve started yelling at Bill, asking him why he violated their agreement.
And what’s more interesting is the conclusion:
> Apple filed a monumental copyright lawsuit against Microsoft in 1988, but they eventually lost on a technicality (the judge ruled that Apple inadvertently gave Microsoft a perpetual license to the Mac user interface in November 1985).
Microsoft didn’t steal Apple’s GUI … Apple gave it to them.
Comment · 4 months ago
Comment · 4 months ago
It’s important not to forget the (work) politics while looking at the work produced. Unfortunately when you get a politically astute Mad Men (for real, from Ogilvy) in the organization, great damage can be done for a very long time without much recourse.
You’ll note Dye was an Ive decision. And you’ll see the successor was not in Dye’s camp. Because (work) politics.
From https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/bad_dye_job
> Gurman reported that Billy Sorrentino, a Dye deputy who has served as a senior director of design at Apple since 2016, is leaving for Meta with Dye.3 I don’t have any other names, but word on the street is that other members of Dye’s inner circle are leaving Apple for Meta with him. But those who remain — or who might remain, if they’d have been offered the promotion to replace Dye — simply can’t be trusted from the perspective of senior leadership, who were apparently blindsided by Dye’s departure for Meta.
> Putting Alan Dye in charge of user interface design was the one big mistake Jony Ive made as Apple’s Chief Design Officer.
> Dye had no background in user interface design... Before joining Apple, he was design director for the fashion brand Kate Spade, and before that worked on branding for the ad agency Ogilvy.
> Alan Dye is not untalented. But his talents at Apple were in politics. His political skill was so profound that it was his decision to leave, despite the fact that his tenure is considered a disaster by actual designers inside and outside the company. He obviously figured out how to please Apple’s senior leadership. His departure today landed as a total surprise because his stature within the company seemed so secure.
Comment · 6 months ago
> Isn't the available learning material better than it has ever been?
Yes, and so’s the available distractions and entertainment.