Month: October 2010

  • const

    It took me a long time to understand that the const qualifier in C is overloaded. There was no const when I first learned C. It was introduced in the C90 standard. It was copied from C++, although the meaning of const is subtly different in the two languages. The first meaning of const in…

  • Water

    Today is Blog Action Day and the topic for the year is water. Access to fresh water is an increasing problem around the world as the combination of increasing population and climate change leave more people without it. Many people get their fresh water from glacial runoff or from aquifers, and the one is melting…

  • Proposition 23

    Last summer’s bizarre California ballot initiative was proposition 16, a PG&E funded measure which was fortunately voted down. This season’s appears to be proposition 23. Proposition 23 is admittedly much less crazy than proposition 16: it calls for the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 to be suspended until California’s unemployment rate drops to…

  • China Money 2

    I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the arguments about China’s currency control. Before the financial crisis got going, it was fairly easy to understand. China controlled their currency by investing in U.S. Treasury Bonds, which had the effect of keeping U.S. interest rates low. People in the U.S. borrowed money at low rates…

  • The Facebook Movie

    I really enjoyed The Social Network, although I doubt it had much connection to the real people involved. I don’t doubt the events as such, but I doubt the interpretation. I noticed one thing in particular. One of the motivations of the Mark Zuckerberg character was that he really wanted to get into a Finals…