Thursday - April 28, 2011

It’s not that kind of code

Back in the long ago days of Once Upon A Time, computer programmers had to deal with systems that had limited computing power and limited working memory area. The languages of those days weren’t object oriented, and data was handled by putting it into some sort of structure. Once in a structure, it could be sorted, moved about, added and deleted, etc. The core part of building any of those structures was the linked list, which was an electronic lifeform (so it seemed sometimes) made out of nodes, where each node was a small encapsulated entity with the ability to point to the next node in the structure. The pointing was done by a little bit of data called a pointer that carried a machine supplied address, and the value of that pointer was the location of the next node. This let the computers put your data wherever it had room to stash them, but you could pull out huge chains of the stuff just by “pulling” on one “string”. Needless to say working with pointers could be a challenge, and the lesser languages did not have automatic housekeeping, which often lead to the dreaded “memory leak”. You did these things right, or the whole system could crash. Things are better these days, because languages like Java allow the programmers to code as if all their data lives in arrays. Arrays are contiguous chunks of memory cut up into data sized pieces called cells, and to get from one cell to the next you simply add or subtract from an index. Put simply, my_array[1] stores info in the chunk of memory right next to my_array[2]. The truth is that Java and the other modern languages store the information wherever the heck they feel like it, but they do all that pointer manipulation behind the scenes so you don’t have to. And they clean up the trash automatically. It makes for much easier and faster programming.

So that’s what a linked list is. A list of links is something entirely different, and Right Wings News has gotten together with Doug Ross and created a new one. Instapundit is one of the original list of links blogs, and now Hawkins and Ross have created Trending Right. It’s purpose is to supply a continually updated list of “happening” links, all of which are of a Conservative bend. But to make it extra special, the stories linked to are the ones that are - right this second - trending on Twitter. [eye roll]

Trending Right shows the most linked conservative stories on Twitter for EACH HOUR. So, if you want to know what’s hot on the Right, RIGHT NOW, then you read Trending Right.

I personally am missing out on the whole Twitter, Facebook, Social Networking experience. I rarely ever even send a text message on my cell phone. I think it’s all crap.

Is Trending Right worth a visit? Sure, if staying on top of the wave is important to you. For the rest of us, the Big Story of the Day or Week will be enough.

Here’s a fast random sample off of their front page ...

Hey, remember when the high price of gas was Bush’s fault? It costs more now, but nobody - not even Nancy Pelosi - is pointing fingers at the White House.

The Founding Fathers ‘Admired Islam?’ The International Movement to ‘Islamize’ Your Knowledge. Like Hell they did. I’m seeing creeping islamization in my daily life, with “allah” and the terms for various arab bits of clothing etc showing up as clues in the local newspaper crossword puzzles. And they can damn well stop that, thank you. Besides, if you can’t make a crossword without the crutch of using words in other languages, you kinda suck.

John Stossel: Government Creates Poverty, Freedom leads to prosperity. No shit, ‘stache. Well done. Now take this here hickory cluebat and go beat that thought into the other ‘stache (Geraldo) until something breaks.

Yee haa! Walmart is back in the gun business! Sure. Everywhere except NY and NJ I bet.

Speaking of Walmart, here’s one from the WTF Files: Man in cow costume steals 26 gallons of milk from Walmart , gives it away for free in parking lot, then skipped away. He was later arrested, and police found the cow costume in his car trunk.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/28/2011 at 03:17 PM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner