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jcarmody

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Posts posted by jcarmody

  1. Who uses LabVIEW Snippets?

    in LabVIEW General

    Posted

    1. Do you use LabVIEW Snippets? Yes, for posting to this (and NIs) forum

    2. How often do you create new snippets? A few times a week

    3. How do you organize your snippets? I don't - the Code Capture Tool puts them in a folder and puts the path onto my clipboard. I never browse to them so I never think about them after posting them.

    Some things you didn't ask:

    • I don't use the native LabVIEW tool
    • I use a quick-drop plugin to open snippets from better browsers than IE
    • The Code Capture Tool will back-save a snippet, so I wrote a RCF plugin to extract a snippet in LV 8.2 and up

  3. Altruism, required for heroics?

    in LAVA Lounge

    Posted

    I read this on my daily news feed: "altruism is praxeologically impossible." - from here and here

    These are two essays written by an Austrian economist. The second link above considers a situation where a grenade is thrown in front of a patrol and five responses are considered. Here's his conclusion regarding the response that has someone throwing his body on the grenade to protect his comrades:

    Case 3, however, might be a little more problematic. In fact, I figure many folks would immediately suggest that our hero was acting with altruism. If he was a "believer" in the rhetoric which suggests that giving one’s life for a cause is a worthy exploit, then of course he would be altruistic, right? No. Anyone who believes that the trade of his life is appropriate in exchange for some higher goal is, by definition, valuing that higher goal more than his life! This is Misesian splendor revealed. He acts, on purpose, to achieve more of what he likes, in exchange for less of what he does not. The trade is in his favor or he would not have taken the action. No other logical assessment is possible, unless he takes the action accidentally, or randomly, or unless we cannot predict that people follow praxeology with all purposeful actions. I agree with Mises.

    I enjoy economics and have studied the Austrian Value Theory but I didn't approach this thread from this angle.

  4. Altruism, required for heroics?

    in LAVA Lounge

    Posted

    Are those that contribute to the "Greater Good" of the LV community by developing and sharing CR code heroes?

    I haven't yet grasped what 'hero" means, but I do feel that the word is overused. Anyway, I'd suggest that there is great reward received by those that develop CR code, LV Wikis and posts on LAVA. I couldn't begin to pay for the code review, tips and suggestions that I've recieved here. Adding three projects to the CR was a small price to pay (not that it was required) compared to the benefit I've received by participating in this community. I don't belong among advanced architects, but I can follow some of the advanced topics discussed here and it seems that everyone is benefiting from the discussions.

    I almost wrote that I don't see anything selfless in these forums, but I really do. When a LabVIEW beginner asks a simple question and receives an answer from an advanced LabVIEW professional, I see something selfless and beautiful. Perhaps your reward is the good feeling you get after doing it, but I think it's more that you're very nice people.

    Prov. 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

    It applies to LabVIEW, too.

    • Like 1

  5. Altruism, required for heroics?

    in LAVA Lounge

    Posted

    I haven't read Atlas Shrugged, but I don't see why the saving one's own children would be considered selfish while saving a stranger is not. Obviously we are more emotionally tied to our children than to strangers, and we will certainly feel much worse about standing around while our children burn than we would about standing around while a stranger burns. In both cases the act of saving the person removes the guilt of not having acted, so are not both actions selfish?

    From that point of view, yes, they are both selfish acts. I don't know if removing the anticipated future guilt is enough of a motivation, though, or even a consideration. I don't believe I would feel guilty for not acting on behalf of strangers; I have my own family (read: selfish interests) to look out for. I would certainly act if the risk was low enough (but that either makes me practical or cowardly, certainly not heroic).

    One premise in Atlas Shrugged is that selfishness, although damned by society, is necessary for achievement.

  7. Altruism, required for heroics?

    in LAVA Lounge

    Posted

    [...] A hero acts for the greater good. Dang socialists! :)

    My comment isn't intended to address the beginning of your post, but the last two sentences made me think of Atlas Shrugged so I extrapolated my thought and merged it with your comment to get this: a man who runs into a burning building to save his children is selfish; the one who does it to save strangers is a hero.

  14. Looking for a LabVIEW mentor

    in LAVA Lounge

    Posted

    This group has been holding LV User Group meetings in Raleigh pretty regularly. I know somebody that used to work there, so I can say that they're a solid company.

    BTW - I'd like to suggest that your LAVA user name is inaccurate; my name is also Jim.

    Also, the semi-official(?) NI user group meetings I think are usually held at G2 in Apex, but they're infrequent -- either that or I just don't know about them laugh.gif.

    They haven't had one for quite a while and the person that used to run them isn't there any more. I'll ask if they're planning to do any more.

    PS - I met you there when you came to explain the JKI SM.

    PPS - I live in Selma and work in Wilson, NC.

  20. Gun Book Review

    in LAVA Lounge

    Posted

    I remember firing one of these at a company gun club phone book shoot-out one saturday afternoon ... about kicked me into next week. :wacko: LOL's all around ... at my expense. :lol:

    One time my shoulder got so sore that I didn't want to finish my round of five shots. I got through them, but it sure is a kicker.

    More importantly, you ride a Honda Shadow Aero? I ride a Shadow ACE.

    Cool. This is my first cruiser; it's a 2007 VT750C that I've ridden for ~32k miles.

  21. Gun Book Review

    in LAVA Lounge

    Posted

    Maybe they behave differently on your side of the country.

    Books are very militaristic over here; very often they march in column formations. Except for the SW Engineering books which can't decide on the best architecture to use.

    War and Peace next?

    Funny, it would be ironic to shoot Tolstoy's work with a Russian Nagant, but I can't bring myself to shoot literature (whether good, bad or boring). I debated whether I should even publicly admit to shooting books, as revered as they are by some people. I decided to go forward because I have a ton of books that nobody wants. I can't give them away, so I'll have a little fun with them.

  24. Wikileaks

    in LAVA Lounge

    Posted

    [...] If one agrees to protect the information as a condition of having access, I don't think that an individual can then just decide not to abide by the law/his contract/etc. [...]

    A contract is a promise and violation of a contract is just plain wrong. [...]

    How 'bout if you enter into a contract with me then find that I've broken the law? Is it reasonable for you to expect, when entering into the non-disclosure arrangement, that you will be bound to keep evidence of illegal activity secret?

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