Software development

Mixing objects of different types in a Boost.python list

Demonstration Code–mixing objects of different types in a Boost.python list In Python, a list is allowed to contain objects of various types. Using Python’s introspection capabilities, it’s easy to process a mixed list because you can just test each list member to see what kind it is, using isinstance(objectA, TypeB). This creates a problem when …

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USPTO tries peer review for software patents

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has launched a trial program to subject software patents to peer review online.  Naturally, the big software companies aren’t exactly publicizing this.  We all know that a lot of stupid patents get issued.  Well, stop complaining and start reviewing!  Let’s make this trial successful!

“Ubuntu” actually means “eats your config files”

The Dapper-to-Edgy upgrade was surprisingly smooth, once I figured out how to do it. Unfortunately, the new version overwrote my “/boot/grub/menu.lst” so I could not boot Windows. I have enough experience with Linux that this was a five-minute fix, but it could be pretty scary for an inexperienced person. Who knows what else got over-written …

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