Posts

Must pay attention to the documentation (Erlang Edition)

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Right there, in the documentation for supervisor , it says (emphasis mine) Creates a supervisor process as part of a supervision tree. The function will, among other things, ensure that the supervisor is linked to the calling process (its supervisor). And I know this. Really. It's just that I, apparently, didn't know it for the last 8 hours. So there I am, writing out Common Tests for our system, and in init_per_suite I slap in (basically) the following line supervisor:start_link({local, some_module_sup}, some_module_sup, []). Wonder of wonders, everything craps out.  After an eternity (ok, 8 hours), I figured out that init_per_suite runs will executed in its own dedicated process ( as oh so helpfully stated multiple times in the documentation , and which I not only know, but have expounded on multiple times in the past)   supervisor:start_link/3 links to its calling process, which is right there in the second line of its documentation as show above.  Gra...

Zeus was quite the playa...

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Ilaria Pagin has the definitive Visualization of Zeus's affairs , and we are all better off for it.  From the guide Zeus's Affairs - A God, his Lovers and his Offspring. Reconstruction of Zeus's genealogy as described by different authors, with brief description of each character. Instructions Relationships: Zeus is represented by the wide thick black circles of the scheme. In the inner part of these circles there are all his lovers, which are connected with coloured lines to their children. Crossings between circles and lines represent a relationship. Thin circles, in the central part of the diagram, represent brotherhoods. It is remarkably (and ludicrously) comprehensive - go check it out ! (The image above is just that, an image. Go to the original )

Its Xmas at The Economist!

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In case you haven't been paying attention to the news from Italy, Mario Monti said that he intended to resign , and shortly thereafter, Berlusconi threw his hat into the ring . As the Guardian put it If anyone doubted   Silvio Berlusconi   would launch an inflammatory, divisive election campaign, the three-time Italian prime minister did not disappoint on Tuesday, slamming Germany and the financial markets. In a live phone-in on one of his TV stations, the 76-year-old media mogul said the austerity measures introduced by the technocrat prime minister,   Mario Monti , had dragged   Italy   into recession rather than reinvigorating it and were "German-centric". The spread – which uses the risk premium of Italian bonds over German bonds to measure confidence in Italy's economy – was a mere "trick" that had been used to "bring down" the government he led until November 2011. Mind you, it is Christmas, and Berlusconi is clearly the gift ...

Signs of the Apocalypse - Food edition

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Yes, these are "2 peeled hard boiled eggs " wrapped in plastic, on ice.  What you can't see is the exceedingly suspicious (but clear!) liquid inside the plastic wrapping. About all I can think off is the jars of pickled eggs in bars of a certain minimum age, eggs that have no doubt been sitting in the same jar for lord knows how many years, and which no one in recorded history has every actually been seen consuming. Saints preserve us...

Great moments in Marketing - Marriott Edition

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Spotted at the "Breakfast Bar" at a Marriott in San Jose. Words fail me. Seriously, this needs a ™ ?

A comprehensive fisking of the "Jeb Bush" meme

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Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake have an exceedingly silly article up at the Washington Post entitled " Why the GOP needs Jeb - right now ". I could go on about the sheer ridiculousness of the GOP pining for Yet Another Bush when they have pretty much decided that any mention of anything to do with any previous Bush is heresy punishable by ex-communication and torture by wet-noodle, but as it turns out, Hunter has the perfect fisking of this story up at DailyKos - " Pining for Jeb Bush is the new saddest thing ever ".  I can't quite do justice to this, you'll have to go read it yourself.  A sample below... 2. Organize/headline a series of immigration forums around the country: There is no more pressing electoral problem for Republicans than the party’s seeming inability to make any real inroads in the Hispanic community. Ah, the continuing conundrum: Why do these minority groups continue to vote against people who make "minority groups are co...

Every bomb in the London Blitz - Visualized

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From Bombsight , comes this visualization of the London Blitz showing the location of every bomb dropped.  The images below are just that - images.  For the real thing go here (I've centered around Buckingham palace - it is one of the more recognizable areas :-)) And, FWIW, once you zoom out, the density of the bombing is quite frightening - its when you look at this that you realize the true gulf between the American and British experiences of WWII ...