Open the champagne, Elenchos!

Stories

Diaries

Polls

Users

Web Adequacy.org

Home

About

Topics

Rejects

Abortions

This is an unofficial archive site only. It is no longer maintained. You can not post comments. You can not make an account. Your email will not be read. Please read this page or the footnote if you have questions.

Open the champagne, Elenchos!

Author:

The Mad Scientist

Topic:

Diaries

Posted:

Mar 31, 2002

Comments:

See here.

More diaries by The Mad Scientist

	Linux Woes
	Cultural Imperialism vs Star Trek
	Skipping ads is stealing, says CEO of Turner Broadcasting
	I am back.
	Microsoft Windows secure and stable

	He gave himself away. (5.00 / 2) (#1)
	by because it isnt on Mon Apr 1st, 2002 at 11:04:19 AM PST

	I was thoroughly convinced while reading that article, until the word "induhviduals" came up. That's like the needle jumping off the record. Listen, kids, if you're going to do something in the style of a news report, write a fucking news report. Don't litter it with "special" keywords like "Lunix" or "PHB" - journalists wouldn't, and neither should you. If you're doing satire, don't even think about adding "clues" that it's satire, just play it straight. People should not be able to guess just from the form of writing that this shouldn't be taken seriously. And finally, for fuck's sake don't write anything satirical or ironic on April Fool's day. adequacy.org -- because it isn't

	heh (none / 0) (#2)
	by PotatoError on Mon Apr 1st, 2002 at 11:22:10 AM PST

	I was throughly convinced too until the third sentence - "the software production scandal gripping the nation" Also it wasnt a very realistic joke. Banning source code distribution? Only allowing "trained" people to write programs? Obviously a joke. <<JUMP! POGO POGO POGO BOUNCE! POGO POGO POGO>>

	Hmm (none / 0) (#5)
	by budlite on Mon Apr 1st, 2002 at 03:08:46 PM PST

	I still want to know if elenchos was joking when he wrote this.

	Of course not (5.00 / 1) (#7)
	by jvance on Mon Apr 1st, 2002 at 11:46:36 PM PST

	Elenchos is the consummate Computer Scientist. Every article - EVERY ARTICLE written for this fine site is meticulously researched, well documented, and deadly serious. What do we have to do, smack you upside the head with a ClueBat? By the way Elenchos, please refresh my memory. What is the big-O for a delete operation on a skew tree? -- Adequacy has turned into a cesspool consisting of ... blubbering, superstitious fools arguing with smug, pseudointellectual assholes. -AR

	Errrrrrr... (none / 0) (#8)
	by budlite on Tue Apr 2nd, 2002 at 07:05:12 AM PST

	EVERY ARTICLE written for this fine site is meticulously researched, well documented Funny, funny stuff! Y'know, I'm almost laughing Keep this up and you might be able to say you can almost afford to say you have a sense of humour.

	And, (none / 0) (#9)
	by because it isnt on Tue Apr 2nd, 2002 at 08:12:43 AM PST

	you can almost afford to say you have a sense of humour. Trust me, if you knew the big-O for a skew tree delete, you'd laugh too. (O(n), n'est pas?) adequacy.org -- because it isn't

	well come on (none / 0) (#11)
	by nathan on Tue Apr 2nd, 2002 at 02:06:30 PM PST

	There's more to computer science than that! Ask anyone, the main qualifications are laughing at Micro$hit WinBLOWS!!! lololol Nathan -- Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

	lololol ferrari (none / 0) (#13)
	by because it isnt on Wed Apr 3rd, 2002 at 05:09:11 AM PST

	There's more to computer science than that! Ask anyone, the main qualifications are laughing at Micro$hit WinBLOWS!!! lololol If you want to compare my computer science to teenage nerds, I shall compare your Christian intellectualism to fundamentalist nutcases. adequacy.org -- because it isn't

	listen, you. (none / 0) (#14)
	by nathan on Wed Apr 3rd, 2002 at 02:52:37 PM PST

	Do you see me mocking you, the refutation machine, or the Russian? Nathan -- Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

	Speak English! (none / 0) (#12)
	by gzt on Tue Apr 2nd, 2002 at 03:49:58 PM PST

	I think you meant to say, "O(n), n'est-ce pas?" (O(n), isn't it?) The way you wrote it reads, "O(n) isn't?" (with a comma in there for no apparent reason) See the difference? It's crucial. Especially for people (ie, me) who don't know enough about skew trees to know which sentence you really meant. Although I doubt your English is always perfect and unambiguous, it's probably easier to understand than your French. Cheers, GZ This post in no way implies that I can actually speak French.

	Icebox is right. (5.00 / 1) (#15)
	by because it isnt on Thu Apr 4th, 2002 at 03:18:39 AM PST

	Although I doubt your English is always perfect and unambiguous, it's probably easier to understand than your French. Icebox is right. Icebox is right. Icebox is right. I shall take this advice to my grave. No longer shall I ponce up my messages with languages I don't truly understand. (Incidentally, a skew tree is a binary tree that only ever branches one way, ie a straight list, hence the worst case is deleting the leaf node in O(n) time) adequacy.org -- because it isn't

	Skew tree? (none / 0) (#10)
	by tkatchev on Tue Apr 2nd, 2002 at 12:18:55 PM PST

	Skew tree? What will those professors think of next! But honestly, the delete operation for any tree is simply O(ln n), just like traversal[1]. If you want to rebalance it in some way after deletetion, you'd have O(ln n) rebalancings. (Offhand, don't care enough to think about this formally.) Each rebalancing should be constant-time. [1] Combine a tree with a hash of node names, and you'll have O(1) access and deletion for the average case! :) -- Peace and much love...

	Get your facts straight before spouting nonsense (none / 0) (#3)
	by jvance on Mon Apr 1st, 2002 at 11:44:17 AM PST

	First, the company is called Microsoft, not Smallsoft. Second, they misspelled "individual." Proof, please? -- Adequacy has turned into a cesspool consisting of ... blubbering, superstitious fools arguing with smug, pseudointellectual assholes. -AR

	Shut up, NAWL [n/t] (5.00 / 2) (#4)
	by Anonymous Reader on Mon Apr 1st, 2002 at 01:31:18 PM PST

	geek jokes (5.00 / 1) (#6)
	by Anonymous Reader on Mon Apr 1st, 2002 at 05:23:56 PM PST

	<sarcasm> Geek jokes have to be really well marked or the social-neanderthals become confused and disoriented. Witness the current slashdot situation. Every story has a gazillion comments moderated to +5 saying "This is a facade folks! They are trying to trick you!" To you and I this isn't new information but most geeks wouldn't know if they didn't read the comments... Truly sad. </sarcasm>

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest ® 2001, 2002, 2003 Adequacy.org. The Adequacy.org name, logo, symbol, and taglines "News for Grown-Ups", "Most Controversial Site on the Internet", "Linux Zealot", and "He just loves Open Source Software", and the RGB color value: D7D7D7 are trademarks of Adequacy.org. No part of this site may be republished or reproduced in whatever form without prior written permission by Adequacy.org and, if and when applicable, prior written permission by the contributing author(s), artist(s), or user(s). Any inquiries are directed to legal@adequacy.org.