Welcome to Volume I of the Inexact Journal of Computing. This journal introduces the next big thing in computing. It is software that behave and operates with missing, incomplete or corrupt data.
Humans operate with partial information all the time. It is called thin-slicing. We make decisions without having all of the facts. If we are going to have a machine pass a Touring Test, or make machines behave more like humans, they have to operate with missing or incomplete data.
So lets take tiny steps in getting to inexact computing. In this first blog entry, let's examine how software can small steps forward not to choke on missing data.
The most common cause of programs failing upon missing data, is when a null exception is thrown for a variable that doesn't have a value, but is called upon to produce its value for an operation, calculation or input/output to another step. A null exception throws an ugly error.
One way around this, and the very first step to inexact computing, is to have a variable initialization either in a specific method or at its time of declaration that is near, close or somewhat close to what it should be. That way when the assignment fails to happen (either from a fetched database value, input parameter or whatever), the program doesn't come crashing down and throw an exception. The value may not be right, but don't forget the title. This is the journal of INEXACT computing. Just like us inexact humans. This might not be good for calculating tax returns, but it would work in areas like image recognition in real time where the software is driving a car and a highway marking is partially obliterated. A good guess is really helpful here.
One could even put some intelligence into the variable assignment. A try and catch block would catch the null value, and depending on where it was in the program, it could determine to send it to a variety of inexact assignment functions, depending on the stage of the program. It could even determine the severity level of having inexact data.
The way that I see it, is that each application will have a customized framework attached to a caching layer and a database to directly deal with missing data to supply values to progress with the planar execution of the program. More on the inexact value framework in another article.
So that is the baby-step start to inexact computing. The next article will deal with the guess() function and the what-did-I-use-lasttime() function as well as the most-Probable-Value() function using Bayesian inference. Stay tuned.
Python freaks adhere to their favorite programming language like zombies to a cult. This is going to tick off some Python freaks.
This is quite a common problem. You have an user input table on your html or jsp page and you want to make sure that it is numbers only, has the area code, and is in a consistent format when you put it into the database. I downloaded some javascript to do just that and it worked fine for numbers that you typed in using the numbers on the keyboard. But when you used the numeric keypad on the keyboard, or a USB external keypad, it failed. The keypad, instead of putting numbers, put junk into it.
As one can see, the technical indicators show that the stock is on the down escalator, it is on the handcart to hell, and it is dropping like a song on yesterday's hit parade. Where will it end?
I'm getting tired of human garbage, scumbag webmasters who spam and traffic fake. These people are the lowest classes of internet users, who think that SEO involves being a rectal sphincter on other peoples' sites. They have absolutely no skills at real SEO, and no content worthy of real traffic so they resort to shady, dubious and questionable tactics to try to pathetically generate traffic to their websites. These are cretins of the lowest kind.
I had to look this one up, so I am posting this JSP tip in case anyone else needs help. Here is the scenario. I have a form with a select tag and a bunch of options. The data is stored in a data base. When I read the data back and display the page, I want to set the select of the combo box to display the data value of the variable or the database value. It is very easy with a scriptlet. Just add the following attribute code to your option tag:
Welcome to Volume I of the Inexact Journal of Computing. This journal introduces the next big thing in computing. It is software that behave and operates with missing, incomplete or corrupt data.
How does one clear an html input, when you click on it or it gets focus? I had to look this up, and anything that I have to look up, I reprint to help others find it quickly.
