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GCC Garbage
gcc uses garbage collection internally during the course of a compilation. I wasn’t too involved with gcc at the time that garbage collection was introduced, but I certainly saw the problems that it was trying to solve. Before garbage collection, gcc allocated memory using obstacks. An obstack is a memory allocation pool in which if…
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Raise the Gas Tax
I see that both McCain and Clinton are suggesting that the gas tax should be abolished for the summer. Obama is resisting that, though he voted in favor of a similar proposal back in 2000 as a state senator. Dropping the gas tax would be hideously irresponsible. The U.S. must start weaning itself off of…
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Moving
I just completed my eighth move in nine years, which is why the blog has been neglected. We still have lots of book boxes to unpack, so it may take me a few days to become dependable again. When possible, I prefer to move much of the stuff myself, to have time to put things…
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Mercenaries
In schoolbook accounts of the fall of Rome, one thing that was always mentioned was that the empire started hiring mercenaries to defend its borders, rather than the volunteer army. Those mercenaries were professional soldiers with no strong allegiance to the empire, and they often became a force in the struggles over who would be…
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Cellphone Money
I read about an interesting technique for people to transfer money in less developed countries. Let’s say that you live in the big city, a hundred miles away from your parents. You want to send them some money but there is no bank where they live. Recently, though, somebody in your parent’s village got a…