#PDF #ebook scan of Sagan’s 1994 draft of his 1995 "The demon-haunted world", with the invisible garage dragon example. #epistemology
#6502 #asm opcode listing with timings and encodings
#6502 #asm opcode listing with timings and encodings
the Eudaemons built #6502 computers with radio links into their shoes to win US$10000 in Las Vegas in 01978
a collection of learning resources such as textbooks. “humanity's universal learning map”
#CNC building tips, including jacquesm’s hard-won knowledge about steppers missing steps
#art #history article on primary-color pigments in paint #materials
debate about #estimates in software project management; interesting points of view in the comments include, “other disciplines that focus on creating and improving designs (like writing, painting, architecture, 3D modeling), but it’s not like they’re reliable or predictable either”, “when I find myself working with people who manage to, by way of treating “estimates” as “quotes”, make it so demoralizing to plan anything--as it will be “used against you” later (which they do even if they were adamant they wouldn’t)--that everyone does everything they can to discourage and sabotage any attempt at planning, because planning is valuable,” “trying to estimate a software project is a bit like trying to estimate how long it will take to prove a new theorem in mathematics,” “more often than not and under normal project scenarios, unexpected problems usually do derail the entire software engineering plan,” “It isn’t unheard of to double the cost of the [custom] house on seemingly minor upgrades,” “I need to know what the stock market is going to do next week. Otherwise, how am I going to become a billionaire? My broker’s refusal to tell me literally costs much more than all the returns he’s ever generated,” “Estimation is a useful forcing exercise for thinking through what something takes, identifying risks and hard parts and deciding upfront what to do about them,” “engineers will generally correctly estimate the part they are best at, but will either neglect or under-estimate other work,” “Microsoft Word was a staggering failure in terms of actual time and cost to implement versus its estimates. It then went on to be among the most lucrative ($ billions) pieces of software ever created,” “A programmer can accurately estimate the schedule for only the repeated and the redundant,” “Software is invention and construction. The construction part is pretty easy to estimate. The invention part is ... very very hard. I’d like to say it’s impossible," "It’s engineering Numberwang," “Gently begin a discussion of how much uncertainty is tolerable, do they want to know the number we are 50% likely to hit? 80%? If you get emotional pushback to discussing uncertainty, they are looking for a promise,” “the interviewer said they don’t do estimates because there’s never been a time where something productive came out of one,” “Don’t do an estimate... seriously... build a prototype. And then throw it out. And THEN do an estimate. It will probably be pretty accurate,”