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I feel like SQL is a bit of a categorically different thing to the others on this list. It's best to have python (or another language) and SQL, if you're going to be in a 'coder' role.

If you're in an analyst type role, with SQL as your primary language, then SQL and Py/R is also a good thing.


Lamy does a really nice (and easy to replace) left-handed medium fountain pen nib.

https://blog.gouletpens.com/2017/09/lamy-oblique-and-left-ha...


Half a yard an hour wins my award for the least intuitive way ever to describe printer throughput.


This other article seems to explain it https://lwn.net/Articles/740157/


I apologise if I've failed a reading comprehension check, but did the article say what the computer was used for?


"The FACOM128B greatly contributed to technological advancements during the period of Japan’s high economic growth from the early 1960s to the early 1970s. The computer was used in the design of camera lenses and the YS-11 plane, Japan’s first passenger aircraft developed after the end of World War II."


I suspect that parent wonders what it does now. Which is likely ~nothing. But I am curious how it compares with current machines. Comparable to an i5 desktop? Or to a smartphone?


Here's a comparison between a RPi Zero and a 1957 Elliott 405 (from the UK): https://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20151129/

On a simple clock comparison, it was about a million times slower than a Raspberry Pi Zero. Computing has come a LONG way


Probably roughly equivalent to the chip equipping your microwave, if it's not too recent. Except that your microwave chip is most probably faster and more reliable.


With 13K of memory[1] I doubt you could compare it to anything modern bigger than the simplest e-toy...

1: http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/heritage/facom128b.html


True, but some of those old machines could do amazing stuff with ~huge datasets. Basically by just doing one ~simple operation per data pass. Read, do something simple, write. Then repeat that as many times as needed, with a different operation. Sort of like executing a program one line at a time.


They did crazy tricks because timesharing wasn't invented and whatever program was running had the full machine to itself. Also, designers of these computers usually built everything around the flow of data so that a CPU would have as little as possible to do to read tapes or cards.


Right. And there wasn't much "full machine" to have.


It's about an Arduino with a 10x slower clock.


An Arduino Uno runs at 16MHz, and averages about 1.5 instructions per clock (estimated by multiplying the best case 1 instruction per clock by 1.5), so about 11M instructions per second.

The FACOM128B is asynchronous, and takes about 0.15s per instruction using the same estimation (1.5x best case), so about 7 instructions per second. See timings at: http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/dawn/0012.html

However, the FACOM128B is 69bit, and the Atmega is only 8bit (it can do some 16bit operations, but those are limited to certain registers and operations, so I'll just assume it's only 8bit). 69 is about 9 times bigger than 8, so I'll assume the FACOM128B can do about 9 times as much work per operation (there is overhead in calculating wider results from narrow operations, but the full width isn't always needed, so this simple estimate seems reasonable to me).

Therefore the FACOM128B is like an Arduino with about a 190000x slower clock.


Nice estimate. And not surprising, given that it uses relays. Not even vacuum tubes.


Would it be possible to correct the name in the sub text?


The practice of offering zero-hours contracts for university lecturing has been very controversial in the UK[1] and other parts of Europe. I think they short-change the students and the lecturers, and represent a long-term risk to the institutions who use them.

[1] https://theconversation.com/zero-hour-contracts-are-turning-...


Thefacebook pitched without a problem slide by showing engagement at a massive level.

https://digiday.com/media/how-eduardo-saverin-sold-facebook-...

Arguably the problem that is implicitly solved is 'how do we reach and target college students and graduates from the high-value Ivy League demographic?'


Also entering an odd number of double quotes in the from line creates an error too.


I was a bit surprised to see FTL not recommended, for example. I would describe it as a very good, very accessible game.


That isn't a "does the author like this game" column. It's a "should you try playing this game on Linux natively" column.


Add "Outside Steam". FTL just works in Steam.


Thanks for clarifying


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