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Yup, uninitialised variables isn't just a code smell, it's a stench. I get really picky about it now with my colleagues.
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Around 1983 I wrote a program in Canon BASIC for CPM/86 that managed a weekly magazine's store distribution. It kept a history of the number of magazines sold over the last 4 weeks and the number of returns. It then calculated what the next week's shipments should be. It had a cool onscreen entry form that looked just like their hand-written form.
This dialect of BASIC used line numbering, could call subroutines, and it could chain to other programs, but it did not have the concept of libraries or database tools. I wrote my own indexing routines. They were copied and pasted across many of the chained programs that handled their aspects. There wasn't much in the way of debugging tools. I should also add this was my first major program that was being used for real world stuff.
Program worked great most of the time, but my index would eventually get corrupted, and I would have to reindex. This would happen every month or two.
The problem was this was a dual 8" disk system and doing the reindex took about 8 hours of banging on the drive. Pretty horrible. I don't remember what sort I used but I'm sure it was some variant of a bubble sort. I couldn't find the bug.
We got a 20 MB hard drive in our office, and I started taking the data disk there copying it to the hard disk and reindexing. That only took 2 hours. I couldn't find the bug.
One day I was working with it and had inspiration. I could load those items I'm indexing into an array and do the entire sort in RAM. Yes, I was a rookie in world by myself that it took so long to figure that out. Now indexing took about 20 minutes and didn't abuse the hardware.
But I still couldn't find the bug.
The magazine sold out to another company and now I had about a 50-minute drive one way. And the pressure to fix the bug was higher. I spent several Saturdays onsite staring at code when I found it. There was an incorrect comparison that involved the last item in the index. It didn't get triggered often so it rarely had the opportunity to corrupt. For some reason it was only one program that had it wrong. I suspect that after one of the copy and paste sessions I hit a key accidently and it changed that one comparison.
Problem fixed after about 2 years. I never had to go back. And about six months later they folded that magazine's distribution processes into the minicomputer software they used for their other publications.
I had discovered dBaSe II during that time and wished it was available to me when I created my application originally.
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I had a basic program on an Apple IIe which would fail if I added a comment. Yep presumably non executing code which would cause it to fail. Very repeatable.
One or two years later I read an article that stated the Basic interpreter I was using had a bug that would cause it to incorrectly make a branch (goto?) when it occurred exactly on on a 256 byte boundary. Comments in the interpreter were rendered into a one byte do nothing token. So that was explained.
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 Today was a good day!
Gotta love those impossible bugs that get solved. (It elates me when it happens to me.)
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The most fun I had was with an app that had two threads. It worked perfectly fine - until hyperthreading showed up. There were about five software developers staring at the code for a day or two until someone finally noticed the bug. It's not good to tell the first thread that the second thread is done until it really is.
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You got that right 
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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I feel for you. But there is a certain sense of satisfaction when you do figure it out after so long....
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As google developed over the years, advertising slowly crept into the results page. It was tolerable, because the ads wrapped the data, I could still find what I was searching for... this morning, i'm doing some research, and I have page after page of ads with no end. I went to duckduckgo and boom - found the information I needed. It was not a complex query.
Is it me? Maybe cookies or something?
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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charlieg wrote: Is it me? Maybe cookies or something?
It's not you. Companies will continue to push more and more as we continue to dip into this recession that the TV lies about.
As a side note, if people haven't figured out the establishment does not care about them or their finances... then they're not paying much attention.
Jeremy Falcon
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And Bing has a habit of repeating the same item in a query ... as if there was no (extra) material but it has a "page quota".
I think I said I was "impressed" a few months ago ... I take it back. Ai's appeal in inversely proportional to one's curiosity.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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You must remember that Google is not a search engine. It's an information forager whose byproduct is to show you web search results. As long as you look at them in that order, you shan't be surprised by anything that happens as a result of using their service.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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This is truth. I admit it, I'm an old fart. I thought the best thing since sliced bread was Altavista. Just pure data search. Along came google with their do no evil bs.
I'm fine with some ads, but this is just stupid. Bing now gives me better results, and just saying that made me shudder.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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One hundred, or no piles, arranged for the dead (10)
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Nice! 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Deputising for OG
Oi @Richard-MacCutchan where's the CCC 
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Thanks! (Busy morning)
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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MidJourney images: [^].
The MidJourney prompt was: "photo-realistic large Ottoman ring with a star sapphire."
Compare with Dall-E image in previous thread.
Where's my credit card  ... whoops, don't have one now.
cheers, bill
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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As we both know - in this world, you get what you pay for: Pay peanuts and get monkeys with crayons.
Pay $8 pcm and get an artist with a computer.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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i lose track of how many scars i have, what quantities of tears and sweat and blood, how much money and love lost, from using reductionist generalities 
perhaps i am hoping an an angel will appear ? perhaps MidJourney will realize the immense power of CP MVP influencers ?
a fairer test: would a subscription to OpenAI give higher quality images ?
cheers, bill
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Wordle 739 2/6
🟨🟩🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
lucky first word!
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Wordle 739 4/6
🟨🟩⬛⬛⬛
🟨🟩🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 739 4/6*
🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
That last letter took a lot of head scratching!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Wordle 739 5/6
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Last letter was not easy.
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