Older blog entries for mslicker (starting at number 54)

2 Sep 2003 (updated 2 Sep 2003 at 19:58 UTC) »
Performance

The motivation for high performance software should be obvious. The less computational resources required by software, the cheaper hardware can made to support this software. The cheaper hardware is the more affordable it is to those with less wealth. This is something that completely bypasses the consideration of wealthy people in countries like the United States who enjoy an abundance of computing power. If the Free Software movement has any precepts regarding democracy, it should lower the computational hurdles of its software. An additional benefit to stagnating or decreasing computational needs is that computer hardware will have a longer life, and therefore the environmental impact of largely disposable computers will greatly decrease.

A good way to achieve performance in software is to make things simple. This idea did not originate with me, its echos can heard from the giants of computing. I'm in the process of rewriting my jpeg decoder. Analyzing the common types of images distributed, I was able to simplify the decoder in a way which yielded a 30% increase in performance. I now have less code, and a superior result. With simplicity comes transparency. Any software sympathetic to democracy should be transparent, that is the operation and structure should be as readily apparent as is possible.

I think an emphasis on democracy would be a positive direction for the Free Software movement. However, this would require a large break from the mainstream thought of how software should be created.

15 Jul 2003 (updated 15 Jul 2003 at 21:41 UTC) »
freetype, If my last post seemed to you an emotional reaction to "anti-aliased" fonts, my apology. I have nothing against this technology.

I think we agree it is a matter of aesthetics. I add in case of the implied context (application fonts), that is vanity since it apears there is much investment in the technology for little or no added benefit. Arbitrary scale, for instance, is not needed for general display of information. The only place I've seen it needed is desktop publishing. Desktop publishing can be considered a specical case, and characters for the most part can be treated like any other shape.

Aesthetically I find current user interfaces repulsive. Gnome, KDE, OS X, Windows XP have all taken the same path. Lots of what is called "eye candy" (vanity), little of any actual thought is put into these interfaces. It is not too different from the latest blockbuster movies when you think about it. Perhaps this is something that is intrinsic in our present culture. In any event I'd like to show that a different way is possible.

To raph (and anyone else interested in computer display typography), I sugest you visit Suzan Kare's site, and look through her portfolio. She has a good eye for bitmap fonts, and produces very good results in the medium.

I happen to like bitmap fonts, they are crisp, clear, and very readable. Besides they are dirt simple to display. I think the fuzzy fonts are mostly vanity, if not please point me to a usability study which shows otherwise.

johnnyb That is a rather amusing take on the capitalist social system. What you didn't mention is that the gift that is given in this "gift economy" is a portion of laborer's working day to the capitalist gratis. Somehow in this "gift economy" some indidivuals wind up with unsurpassed ammounts of gifts. Perhaps in this case we can blame the immoral mass of workers for "giving" too much of labor.

Of course socialism would abolish this state things and make all people earn their keep on an equal basis, what you call "forced giving". You're right, socialism provides no means to "excel" like in the "gift economy" you mention.

13 Jun 2003 (updated 13 Jun 2003 at 23:53 UTC) »
sye, This is whishful thinking. XcolorForth is just Chuck Moore's pentium colorForth tweaked to use operating system functions. A Zaurus colorForth could run on Linux/X11, but you need to recode the whole thing in ARM assembley.

I have actually made progress toward a full hardware Zaurus colorForth. Specifically:

  • LCD framebuffer
  • Front light
  • Cross compiler/meta compiler (incomplete)
  • Custom Font
  • touch screen (incomplete)
  • source code display

Finishing this would be a remarkable result, but it would require perhaps more than just me. I'm relectant to make this a full blown open source project, but I'm willing to work with others who show an interest. It would be a great stride toward what I think is the real goal of free software, full mastery of the machines and their software.

Update

sye, The 5600 uses another arm chip called XScale. I don't intend to support the whole Sharp product line, but I imagine once I have a consise working system for the 5500 porting effort will be minimal. If you want talk buisness, give me an email.

Some comments on Paul Graham's latest essay:

I think he is right about the term "Computer Science", it is a misleading term for an agglomeration of activities. The greatest computer scientists: Church, Turing, Godel are all mathematicians. However, people trained in computer science have little to do with the tradition of the these great mathematicians.

Graham is too derisive about mathematical foundations of computing. He equates programmers understanding the theory of computation to painters understanding the chemistry of paint. This analogy is wrong. A more direct analogy to the chemistry of paint is the physical make up of computers. For all intents and purposes, we don't care to understand the physical processes that make computers work. The computer is assumed to be digital, operating in discrete states.

Moreover it is oversimplifying to make direct comparisons to the work of a programmer and the work of painter. Although a great deal may be shared in the creative process, there are great differences in the function of the art. Programming is a precise art form built on logical foundations. There is simply no notion of correctness in painting, where in programming correctness is vitally important.

Graham says "a good programming language should, like oil paint, make it easy to change your mind". What about water color painting? There is little room to change your mind in water color painting. Programs, by fact of being entered interactively, are changeable. Graham connects this to an argument for dynamic typing. Dynamic typing may or may not have merit, whether painting can give us the answer is another question entirely.

Graham call for empathy in programming is welcome.

Overall I think Graham overemphasizes hacking and code in talking about programming as an art. Somehow "hacking" does not conjure up images of an artful process. Programming is about ideas, precisely that is what ties us to all other forms of art. In mathematics or music composition, the symbols are but a representation for the real ideas mathematicians and composers work with. In contrast to Graham, I find myself more and more working out computational ideas in pen and paper. Code, if it is produced, is only the final expression of this process.

tk, Yes, axiomatic systems are not infallible. Godel showed at best higher order logic is either inconsistent or incomplete. Does that mean we throw logic out the window? All Russell is saying in the quotation is that if we value logic, at some point we must rely on axioms and these axioms are necessarilly self evident, known without demonstration. Although ancillary to my point, this quote comes 1911 (The Philosophical Importance of Mathematical Logic), well after Russell discoverd his paradox (1901).

For now I am in agreement with Marx, his analysis of society, yet I have only read a fraction of his works. "Marxism" seems to have taken a life of its own, sometimes contradictory to Marx himself. How the "Marxists" Buried Marx is an interesting discussion of the Marxism phenomenon.

8 Apr 2003 (updated 8 Apr 2003 at 21:14 UTC) »

More nonsense from tk,

Surprising that only mslicker is protesting, even though I blasted several philosophies all at once............
Blasted several philosophies? In what way? Creating programs to spew nonsense? That is more a blast to yourself, the only criticism you can offer is mocking nonsense, others have done far better. I respond, not protest, because you referenced me specifically, perhaps you are just trolling. It is perhaps wise not to repond to such nonsense.
Anyway, mslicker claims that Marxism is the most scientific philosophy in the world,
Where do I say this? I say Marx's method is the scientific method, this is what has distinguished him from other socialists in his day, he put socialism on a scientific basis. He showed in economic terms capitalism was historically limited. The law of the falling rate of profit is particularly felt by capitalists, who have increasingly moved their production to nations where labor is cheap, just to stay in business.
then says that he's not a "quintessential" "Leftist" (but of course, he's still completely scientific! duh).
Comming to Marx's defence makes me the quintessential "Leftist"? By what logic do you arive at that conlusion?
He extols the virtues of self-evident truths, then criticizes people who arrive at their own self-evident truths.
You arive at your own subjective truth and try to pass this off as objective truth, truth for everyone. The fallacy is obvious. Self-evidedent truths are beyond debate, indisputably true.
Not to mention that he didn't seem to see the part that Left/Right is a false dichotomy.
I think it is false. My justifcation is that there so many degrees political thought, there are rarely just two positions to be taken. Libertarians might be thought of as "rightist", yet many of them oppose the war against Iraq. I oppose the war but in no way associate myself with Libertarian thought.
And of course, his reference to Russell was so laughable, especially in the light of Russell's paradox.
Explain, why does Russell's set theoretic discovery make my reference laughable?
Who's bogus, who's not? You be the judge.
I don't know what it means to be bogus. I don't withhold the possibility you may have something worth while to say, but your present examples do not inspire much confidence.
8 Apr 2003 (updated 8 Apr 2003 at 08:27 UTC) »
tk writes:
On a related note, "Leftists"[mslicker] and "Rightists"[Zaitcev] are both bogus. Then again, the "Left"-"Right" dichotomy is itself bogus.
Ha! Acording to tk I'm the quintessential "Leftist" and bogus. Why? Because tk says so. Under tk's religion truth is declared, it is not supported with facts or reasoning. I cease to be amazed by such idiocy.
28 Mar 2003 (updated 28 Mar 2003 at 18:17 UTC) »
XML Can Represent Pretty Well Anything

This is a quote from one of the people behind XML. As an outsider I've always puzled about XML, what is it supposed to solve? It seems like a nothing technology, the product of the extreme intellectual degradation currently plaguing computing. For the creaters of XML it should be noted the digits '1' and '0' have succesfully represented everything for quite some time, and I didn't have read thousands of pages of text to understand this encoding.

XcolorForth

I suppose I should annouce my port of colorForth. It runs in the X windows environment, instead of interfacing the hardware directly. It should be of help for those who have had trouble running the standalone colorForth. Screen shots can be found at my site.

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