Yeesh….

…I’d forgotten what a crawling horror C++ is. It would be really, really nice to create a good, portable version of the Objective-C standard library (the Foundation Kit) that would let this become a language of choice for more than just OS X.

But I suppose nowadays everyone wants to code Java instead. Which, I’ll confess, solves some of the problems of C++, but it seems to leave a lot of the basic nonsense intact. As Hans has pointed out: The beauty of Objective-C comes from the fact that almost no “boilerplate” is necessary. Your code simply does the things it needs to do. C++ and Java both require a great deal of code that’s just doing routine tasks like making sure exception handling is working properly. A great deal of repetition, more opportunity for bugs, and code becomes an illegible mess. Ultimately, both of these languages have the feel of early attempts – a lot of radical new ideas (in each), but they really don’t feel like final, production-quality products. Objective-C does. It’s an amazing difference.

Mrph. OK, end of rant.

Published in: on April 22, 2003 at 15:28  Comments (12)  
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In explanation…

The previous post on words came out of a half-dazed idea for a game. (As in, I was half-dazed at the time…) A bunch of Greek words of the sort that can be used in English are written on cards and placed in a hat. Words that can only be used as prefices are marked as such, like “eu-” (“good”), but other words are just given in their full form. (“logos”) Each card has Greek text, English rendering, and possibly notes on meaning.

Then everyone takes turns drawing two cards out of the hat and assembling an interesting word out of them, defining the word and using it in a sentence or telling a short story to illustrate its use and meaning. Bonus points for style. This game should probably be played while drunk.

So the words in the previous post were some imaginings of what might come up under these circumstances.

Published in: on April 22, 2003 at 13:31  Comments (6)  
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Step 1, complete.

First interview (with the HR people) went well. This Thursday: Technical interview.

So now: Going to go pick up the Big Book O’ Algorithms and read through it. And refresh my memory on C++.

*crossing fingers*

Published in: on April 22, 2003 at 11:43  Comments (7)  
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Waiting…

So while I’m waiting for the interview, some random words that popped into my head last night while sleep-deprived:

Cryptoglossia n. Secret speech, conversation in code; e.g. “The blue dog howls at midnight,” or the dialogue of secret in-jokes between lovers.

Eschatolalic adj. n. One who rambles incoherently about the end of the world; the madman on the street shouting that the end is near, or on occasion a politician’s speech.

Ichthyopneia n, infl. form: pl. same as sing. An (intrinsically) nonexistent thing, or a dream-thing; like a box of moonbeams, or a lost city.

…and dammit, I’m really wondering when I’ll get that call back…

Published in: on April 22, 2003 at 11:24  Comments (7)  
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Published in: on April 18, 2003 at 16:40  Enter your password to view comments.  

Your word of the day

This one apparently coined by D. F. Wallace in Infinite Jest, p. 177:

Formication, n., the condition of being infested with ants, in usage typically of the hallucinatory variety. Did I experience yes some ~ in detox? I did. (ibid)

There are some truly wonderful words in the English language.

On an unrelated thought: Just got back from a very nice Passover seder at the house of some friends of the family. Nice people, good food, and a great deal of singing. I do not know nearly enough of the old folk melodies, mostly since I didn’t grow up in a kibbutz where these things were omnipresent.

High point of the evening: Had gadia, one of the standard songs for the evening, complete with an illustrative shadow puppet show. The puppet representations of God and the angel of death were quite interesting, and the sound effects (added by the audience) just made it all work.

Published in: on April 16, 2003 at 22:22  Comments (10)  
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Published in: on April 11, 2003 at 12:54  Enter your password to view comments.  

A question of strategy

A thought that occurred to me during a conversation earlier today.

A popular buzzword lately has been “asymmetric warfare,” describing engagements between combatants with radically different strengths and weaknesses. One classic example is 9/11, but another example that we shouldn’t ignore is the present war in Iraq. In this case, though, it’s asymmetric in the other direction – we chose the manner of engagement to our maximum advantage. The fact that the war has gone as well as it has so far (knock on wood) is really due to the fact that in large part we set it up to play to our strengths.

This brought to mind a point which I don’t think has been discussed enough in relation to wars in general. Asymmetric warfare situations – which appear to now be the norm for war in general, not just terror activities – place an enormous premium on highly aggressive tactics. The basic reason is that the attacker gets to choose the nature of the engagement, and since asymmetric warfare by its nature is about focusing one’s strengths on the enemy’s weaknesses, this gives a much greater premium than it does in more symmetric conflicts.

If this is correct, then tactics and strategy need to be radically changed from the strategies of symmetric conflicts. Defenses need to be more uniform, not presenting any obvious weak points for an enemy to target. The absence of clear lines of engagement makes this even more severe, since the distinction between military and civilian targets has been eroded into invisibility in the past few years. But more importantly, it suggests that the only way to win an asymmetric conflict is by maximally aggressive tactics, continuously searching out enemy capabilities and striking them at their weakest points.

I’m not entirely happy with this thought, because it seems to argue in favor of several policies that I’m rather leery of – “preventive war,” for example. But I’m not certain if there’s any way around this in the context of highly asymmetric threats.

Published in: on April 8, 2003 at 13:37  Comments (21)  
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Your disturbing quote for the day

From a NY Times article about Aeroflot’s attempt at a corporate makeover:

“To some outsiders, it may seem as if Brezhnev were donning lipstick and a blond wig for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue cover.”

*twitch* *twitch*

Published in: on April 7, 2003 at 10:22  Comments (3)  
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OK, I’m bored…

Time to check out my horoscope, as worked out by your friendly neighborhood computer.

Apparently I’ve got the Sun in Scorpio, the Moon in Capricorn, my Ascendant in Leo, Saturn in the First House, Venus in the Third House, Bob in the outhouse, the Sun in the Fourth House, and the Moon in the Fifth House.

(“Gin!”)

An extract from my reading…

Published in: on April 6, 2003 at 21:57  Comments (3)  
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