Carry on…

The transparent_union type attribute enables you to specify atransparent_union type, that is, a union data type qualified with__attribute__((transparent_union))__.

This is an actual example of some real documentation from ARM’s RealView Compiler Toolkit – used to build high-performance ARM binaries.

What this roughly translates to is this:

A transparent_union type is a type with a transparent_union attribute.

Well, no shit, Sherlock!  What the fuck does the attribute do to the type or the handling thereof?

To contrast, here’s what GCC’s manual says in the first sentence:

This attribute, attached to a union type definition, indicates that any function parameter having that union type causes calls to that function to be treated in a special way.

This is somewhat better – with one sentence of (not wasted space), I already know that the transparent_union attribute has something to do with function parameters, and, additionally, causes some special handling thereof.

That said, I’m still not clear (in one sentence) what this attribute does, but GCC is certainly off to a better start.

ARM, work on your documentation please.

Noam Chomsky lays into Israel, and the US, as terror-states, doling out terrorism far advanced from the alleged terrorism they’re fighting in Gaza.  It’s looking more and more like a new Holocaust, with Israeli troops slaughtering Gazan civilians to “educate” them – a policy that is tacitly condoned by both European and our own government – similar to the “education” of Grozny (See “Second Chechen War”), or the “education” of bin Laden’s 9/11 attacks on our civilian population.  How is it any different? Well, there is one main difference: technology.  Instead of passenger air craft, Israel is using White Phosphorus shells, and aerial bombs to destroy civilian infrastructure in order to cause the civilians to exert pressure on their governments to rein it in.

Quote of the day:

U.S. arms and military training played a role in 20 of the world’s 27 major wars in 2007.

74% of the world’s major wars in 2007 had our stamp of approval on them.  Does that worry anyone?

Read the article here.  It’s long, but it’s smart, and truly worth it if you’re at all concerned about civil rights, terrorism, international law, and a new world war.

I listed my place on Craigslist, and have received 11 separate calls today alone, all from different numbers.

Originally, my landlord made it sound like it was a simple, painless process. “yea, just send them our way, fill out an application, pay the credit check fee, and if they pass, they’re in.” Coupled with a few “we do this all the time”s.

Now, a prospective tenant calls me and says they turned her away from the office, being very frustrated, and having said things like “we don’t have to do this, we’re doing him a favor, and he’s sending too many people our way.” And also, “I’ll rent you a unit right now for $1500, but we don’t have to do anything for him.”

I’m sorry, but aren’t the landlords in a better position to determine what kind of tenant you want than I am? You’re the ones running the credit checks; I can’t do that.

So, instead of doing the right thing, and calling me up and saying “wtf, you’re sending like 15 people?!? zomg!” They’re getting irate at tenants?!? Who are these people?

btw: this is the 666th post, apparently.

from Tony Coll <tonycoll07 @gmail.com>
to Ryan <removed>
date Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 2:54 PM
subject Re: Couch & Love Seat – $1500

Hello Ryan,
I appreciate your response to my inquiry. I am interested in buying it from you. I would love to come and check it myself but I just got married and am presently on an honeymoon trip to Hawaii with my wife. I would love a surprise change of furniture in our home on our return. Pls do withdraw , the listing from Web as i dont mind adding $50 for you to do that, so i can be rest assured that the item is held for me. I should believe it is in excellent condition as stated. I will be making the payment via a Certified Check, which my secretary will mail across to you. I’ll be picking the item from you with the aid of my mover. My Mover will be coming to pick it from you once the Certified Check has been cashed. Pls I will need both your full name and physical address along with your phone number to issue out the payment.
I await your response.

Thank You,
Tony.

Sorry, cash in hand only. If you can get a certified check, you can get cash.

That leaves me plenty of time to work on day-job stuff.

Here’s the rundown:

• Former mayor of an Alaskan town of 1000 people – no foreign policy experience.
• She (yes, she) wants to overturn Roe v. Wade – the supreme court case that said that women have the right to choose. How can anyone, let alone a woman, think that they can decide what all other women can and cannot do with their own bodies.
• Her husband works for British Petroleum.  Good one, there…
• She wants to fight against calling Polar Bears an endangered species.
• Sarah Palin is under investigation by the Alaska state legislature.  Wow!
• And, to top it off, she wants to teach Creationism in school … as in the Bible.  Don’t get me wrong, I was raised religious, but intelligent people know that they are allegories, and not to be taken strictly literally.  Also, has any Republican ever heard of a little term I like to call Separation of Church and State?  I’m pretty sure it’s in this little-heard-of-by-republicans document called the Constitution of The United States.  Read it, bitches.

</rant>

A: Because “I can debug a kernel panic in someone else’s driver with no source information, only assembly code and my knowledge of HowShitWorks(TM),” was too long.

By that definition, those programmable remotes all ship bricked – they don’t perform any useful function until you program them for your TV. Clearly, however, they are not bricked.  They still work, all you have to do is program them.  

Similarly, by this definition, any device that requires battery power, but has no batteries is bricked.  But those devices aren’t bricked – add batteries again, and you’re back in business.

Bricked is a special term, not to be used lightly, or without understanding its meaning.

A little education goes a long way.

Definition: Bricked – Adjective.  Bricked means the device will no longer power on, due to some irreparably misconfigured hardware or firmware or a fried (e.g., permanently destroyed) internal component. Bricked is only slightly different than destroyed (e.g., physically smashed with a sledge hammer), in that is is theoretically possible to ressurect the device, but you god damned better have a JTAG device or soldering iron or other hardware debugging device to load new firmware/components back on it (and even then, it’s really only a 50/50 chance you’ll ever see it boot up again).  

Usage: “I’m sorry, Bob, the firmware flash for your embedded device failed halfway through, and now it wont even boot up.  The damn things bricked, and without a JTAG board to restore the bits, it’ll never function again.”

Basically, if you’ve never had an electrical engineering class, or developed embedded firmware, you probably shouldn’t be using the word “bricked” in casual conversation.

If your iPhone doesn’t let you use it without activating, that is not bricked.   

That’s locked.

That’s you (or AT&T) being an idiot.

Unless you’re flashing firmware on a device, and it never boots up again, don’t say your device is bricked.