Superb tips in VIM

From this indispensable thread on vim.org.

More superb tips: hit g before a direction key to move by screen line rather than actual line; use f then a letter to move to the next instance (; repeats the command, like n does for /); plenty more are here.

At some point I should also pick up MacVim - like GVIM for Carbon. Server seems to be down at the moment.

Posted at 2004-01-22 15:17:40 by Richard • Link to Superb tips in VIM

Read this, right now

The funniest thing this evening. Examples:

I never bet against the moon, except in bets like "I bet the moon is larger than Jupiter," in which case I bet on Jupiter. I would give really bad odds to the moon on that one.

And this wasn't enough for her. She further claimed that, get this, white people were a minority throughout the United States. Which made me chuckle, because "75.1%" doesn't really equal "minority" unless you're not very good at math or maybe use some weird sort of alien number and I'm working really hard not to make a timecube.com joke here.

But seriously, I think I'm developing an eating disorder...the pizza delivery boy comes, and I say "I'll eat dis order!!!" AHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAA and then I make myself puke it up.

Then Stone Cold Steve Austin will be like "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE 3:16?" and he'll hurl your dad's corvette at the moon with the force of 316 men.

Posted at 2004-01-22 14:38:15 by Richard • Link to Read this, right n…

NADD

NADD is something I'm sure a lot of computer people will recognise.

The presence of NADD in your friends is equally detectable. Here's a simple test. Ask to sit down at THEIR computer and start mucking with stuff on their desktop. Move an icon here... adjust a window size there.

If your friend calmly watches as you tinker away, they're probably NADD-free, for now. However, if your friend is anxiously rubbing their forehead and/or climbing out of their skin when you move that icon 12 PIXELS TO THE RIGHT, there's NADD in the house. BACK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER.

Posted at 2004-01-22 11:09:11 by Richard • Link to NADD

Ingredients for Serious Thought

This chap lists some of the conditions which he needs to prove theorems. A lot of them I agree with:

• Adequate sleep the night before
• Hours and hours of concentration with no end in sight. I've never been able to set aside (say) two hours for serious work, in between other commitments. That's why I work at night.
• Lack of awareness of how much time has elapsed with no new ideas. Before starting to work I take off my watch and hide the Windows taskbar so I can't see the little clock in the corner.
• No tempting distractions. Train rides are good: plenty of room to spread out papers and a laptop, but no Internet access (something I hope doesn't change soon).
• Colleagues to talk to. People able to shoot down wrong proofs are ideal, but even "write-only black boxes" are invaluable as sounding boards. Of course I try to reciprocate both services.
• A problem that I consider "mine" -- either because I posed the problem, I've had recent successes on subproblems or related problems, the problem is important for one of my research goals (or even better, two goals), or I'm (rightly or wrongly) seen as the world expert on the problem.
• A problem that others are eager to see solved. It's easier to let myself down than to let others down.
• Conference deadlines. They motivate me to work, but then if I miss them (as I do), my "research GPA" doesn't suffer: there's always the next conference.

I should probably try to figure out what will help me do better research...

Posted at 2004-01-22 10:57:13 by Richard • Link to Ingredients for Se…