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A history of computing - My perspective

Because I can publish shitty drawings, and even shittier text.

And I have no obligation to be accurate.

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ERROR_SUCCESS

ERROR_SUCCESS. This macro would be familiar to all those who have done some programming in WIN32. It is the output of the GetLastError() function to check the thread's last error state when no error has occurred. Weird, isn't it? I mean, if it is a success, then why is it marked as an error in the macro? This is one example of a badly made API. APIs are considered bad when programming in them becomes non-intuitive. Software is said to be bad (or said to suck) when it seems counter-intuitive to the user. There is one very simple example of this. Start notepad. Type in any text. Click on close. The message that you see is: This makes no sense to me as a user. Of course, the programmer follows the approach that he creates a temporary file called Untitled , and in that file he allows the user to make all his changes. But how am I, as a user to understand that? A similar disconnect occurs even between two different programmers. That is why it takes a whole lot of effort to make

On Harry Potter and why I dislike the series

There could not be a better time for this post. There could not have been a worse time for this post. Now that the penultimate movie of the series is out, and my facebook wall filled with people who loved the movie. But this is something I really wanted to say, and I shall say it anyway. Harry Potter is pathetic literature. Now, you must be wondering why I say that. There are many reasons. Firstly, the storyline itself is flawed. When a writer sits down to write anything, he/she must set up some essential rules about what is happening. These rules must remain constant irrespective of how many times he/she changes his/her mind. This is so that the readers are allowed to have some sensibility in what they are reading. In the fourth book, Rowling goes ahead and kills Cedric. Then, at the end of the book, the horseless carriages are there again. Nothing special. We all knew that they are horseless. But then comes the fifth book, and BAM, the horses are actually winged beasts that only thos

An experiment

Experiment: the testing of an idea. This post follows from my post on stats and posting . I do observe a number of pageviews from countries other than my own, and often wonder, how many people are really that free to read up a seemingly random blog? How many actually end up reading more than the first few lines? I have decided to create a blog which I shall not publicise in any way. I shall put up seemingly random posts there, but not post the URL on Buzz, Facebook or Twitter, in other words, not thrust the blog upon my friends. What do I hope to see from this experiment. I suppose that it would give me some idea about the number of people who happen to visit my blog from various sources, those who do not have the blog thrust upon them. As to the question about how many people end up reading more than the first few lines, checking that would be much difficult. Can someone suggest a good method? Why do I wish to do this experiment? Because I am hopelessly jobless. Will I share my