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Exception Destruction
Languages that support exceptions need to support destructors or they need to support a try/finally construct. Otherwise using exceptions is too difficult, because if you have some local state to clean up in a function, you have to catch and rethrow every exception. The goal of exceptions in C++ is that code which does not…
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CD-ROM drives
I had an interesting experience this weekend. I bought some Fedora 9 CDs in order to easily upgrade a new laptop. Since I had them, I decided to upgrade one of my desktops from a CD rather than over the net (I usually install over the net, but, sadly but understandably, installing from CD tends…
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Kuttner and Moore
I’ve been reading some old science fiction short stories recently, and I was reminded of just how good Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore were writing together after they got married. Writing separately they were notable. Moore in particular wrote the Northwest Smith series of stories in the 1930s, which were pulp stories but nevertheless vivid…
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Hedge Gates
My current understanding of the typical hedge fund is that there are certain dates when you are permitted to request a redemption. The hedge fund must then give you your money back within six to eight weeks. Some hedge funds have gates, which are limits on the amount of money you are permitted to withdraw.…
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Dwarf Pluto
At the Chabot Space and Science Museum this weekend, I saw the first tangible result I’ve seen of the demotion of Pluto: a ruler in the gift shop had the eight planets plus the asteroid belt, but no mention of Pluto. The Tour of the Planets does still mention Pluto, though.