inverse function
in [Lisp]
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From: Norbert_Paul on 22 Feb 2010 08:59 Don't forget corporate officials: Excel and Powerpoint. Tim Bradshaw wrote: > On 2010-02-22 11:37:01 +0000, Pascal J. Bourguignon said: > >> Well, not if you believe the universe is simulation in a computer, >> what's more, written in Lisp! :-) > > This depends on who you ask I think. > Mathemeticians probably think it's written in some pure functional > language. > Theoretical physicists think it is written in Common Lisp (specifically > not any other Lisp dialect). > Expermintal physicists think it is FORTRAN (specificlly FORTRAN 66) > Biologists think it is Perl using some statistics package > Chemists COBOL
From: Tim Bradshaw on 22 Feb 2010 09:22 On 2010-02-22 13:59:24 +0000, Norbert_Paul said: > Don't forget corporate officials: Excel and Powerpoint. Actually, of course, the secret truth is that the banking crisis is largely due to people using Excel as a database. --tim (It terrifies me that this might be true)
From: Norbert_Paul on 22 Feb 2010 10:29 I have even been told of an applicant who wasn't hired as software developper because he refused to accept that Excel is a DBMS. However, what you said might be a secret, but it is not a truth. Using real men DBMS would have increased their efficiency in running us into an even deeper crisis. Norbert Tim Bradshaw wrote: > On 2010-02-22 13:59:24 +0000, Norbert_Paul said: > >> Don't forget corporate officials: Excel and Powerpoint. > > Actually, of course, the secret truth is that the banking crisis is > largely due to people using Excel as a database. > > --tim > > (It terrifies me that this might be true) >
From: Ron Garret on 22 Feb 2010 12:43 In article <hlts3c$1om$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Tim Bradshaw <tfb(a)tfeb.org> wrote: > On 2010-02-22 11:37:01 +0000, Pascal J. Bourguignon said: > > > Well, not if you believe the universe is simulation in a computer, > > what's more, written in Lisp! :-) > > This depends on who you ask I think. > Mathemeticians probably think it's written in some pure functional language. > Theoretical physicists think it is written in Common Lisp (specifically > not any other Lisp dialect). > Expermintal physicists think it is FORTRAN (specificlly FORTRAN 66) > Biologists think it is Perl using some statistics package > Chemists COBOL > > --tim The universe is written in QLisp (quantum Lisp), the fundamental construct of which is QLambda, which binds quantum wave functions and performs unitary transformations on them. QCONS is also known as entanglement. QCAR and QCDR are EPR "measurements". I have the manual around here somewhere if anyone is interested. ;-) rg
From: Ron Garret on 22 Feb 2010 12:52
In article <hlu3vo$7tm$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Tim Bradshaw <tfb(a)tfeb.org> wrote: > On 2010-02-22 13:59:24 +0000, Norbert_Paul said: > > > Don't forget corporate officials: Excel and Powerpoint. > > Actually, of course, the secret truth is that the banking crisis is > largely due to people using Excel as a database. > > --tim > > (It terrifies me that this might be true) I have bad news for you. I once worked as a consultant for someone who is a serious dude in the financial world. Very famous. Manages billions of dollars. His primary model was an Excel spreadsheet. Not only that, but it was the most horrible mess that you can imagine, an unspeakable monstrosity. Dozens of separate sheets, many tens of thousands of cells, many of which led off into dead ends that never affected the final result. And in the middle of it all were a set of arbitrary fudge factors that he tweaked according to his intuition, so that the end result was basically just a wild guess. I really think that the vast majority of the people on Wall Street really are completely clueless. The only question in my mind is whether they are *all* completely clueless, or if at the core there are a few guys who actually understand what's going on and keep things humming along. rg |