I recently discovered a C++ technique I haven’t seen recognized before in any books, articles, or mentioned online anywhere (search terms are difficult perhaps). For want of a better name I call it Structural Capture. Consider the following code: #include #include using namespace std; //————————————————————— struct Foo { template Foo(const T& t) { m_outputFunc =… Continue reading An Interesting C++ Technique
The Year in Books
Books I’ve read this year: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Daniel H Pink)I started the year by finishing this book. I was rather late to the party in reading it; it’s practically received wisdom now, especially for managers of knowledge workers. And of course there is a nice RSA Animate video which… Continue reading The Year in Books
How 6-year-olds think about evolution…
Had an interesting conversation with Henry tonight. Can’t quite remember how we started – he was asking something to do with the Ice Age, or the Stone Age. Then he asked, “How did the first person get here?” Now, he’s seen plenty of nature shows; he’s heard of evolution; so I decided to ask him… Continue reading How 6-year-olds think about evolution…
The 4th Amendment and Email
Tonight there was an interesting broadcast of To The Point examining email privacy rights and the 4th amendment, with reference to the recent warrantless FBI investigation resulting in the resignation of David Petraeus as the director of the CIA. The program also featured Declan McCullagh, author of this piece on c|net. The judicial system has… Continue reading The 4th Amendment and Email
Late night stealth
I would like to share with you some things I’ve learned about creeping around stealthily late at night, after the family have gone to bed, in case you find yourself in a similar situation. I’m pretty good at it now. So, obviously to avoid waking anyone up, you want to avoid making any noise, and… Continue reading Late night stealth
The Second Amendment
Why do people support the second amendment? I’m going to try to avoid straw man arguments here. And the first straw man argument to avoid, I think, is: “because it protects us from tyranny: if the government becomes corrupt, we can rise up and overthrow it.” Perhaps I’m being naive, but do people really believe… Continue reading The Second Amendment
A musical interlude
I had piano lessons at around age 5, and again around age 10. I never practised enough or liked my teacher much. As a teenager at university, I went back to the piano to play tunes that I wanted to, and taught myself enough to get by on those. After university, nothing for a long… Continue reading A musical interlude
Merry Xmas
This year it was a fairly quiet affair, seeing as we’d already visited family in late summer and at Thanksgiving. The kids did well as usual. Mini-Elbeno got a Kindle Fire from the grandparents (and has been bound not to buy anything on it without the express permission and help of Mrs Elbeno or myself).… Continue reading Merry Xmas
Our UK Trip
We’ve been in the UK about a week now. Here’s what happened so far: The flight was good because it wasn’t full. There was a spare seat next to us which meant the kids could both stretch out a bit and get some sleep. American Airlines has a new policy (brought on by some overly-litigious… Continue reading Our UK Trip
RIP drm
This week, Dennis M. Ritchie, co-creator of C and Unix, died. His death has not made the front page like Steve Jobs’ did. But although the non-tech world had never heard of him, he was more important than Jobs. I can still remember buying my copy of K&R, that slim volume that was my reference… Continue reading RIP drm