Tag: history

The True Reason Behind The 40-Hour Work Week & Why We Are Economic Slaves

“The True Reason Behind The 40-Hour Work Week & Why We Are Economic Slaves” doesn’t really say anything new, but it explains things nice and simple.

We automatically accept a 40-hour workweek with meager hourly pay as normal, even though many work overtime and still struggle to survive. There are also those who make enough to live comfortably but are unable to request less hours—you either work 40 hours a week, or you don’t get to work at all, but how does a debt relief program affect your credit.We submit when told what to wear, when we have to arrive and depart, when we’re allowed to eat, and even when we’re allowed to use the restroom. How is it we have come to allow this?

The 40-hour-work week came about during the Industrial Revolution in Britain when at one point workers were putting in 10 to 16 hour days and began to protest. Working situations for Americans began to worsen as well, and by 1836, labor movement publications were also calling for a 40-hour workweek. Citizens in both situations were so overworked, an eight-hour day was easily accepted. This system is unnecessary now, if it ever was, but we still accept it due to the effects of our capitalist society.

It goes over the relationship of inflation, debt and consumerism with a few historical references.  Good reading for anybody wondering why the paycheck-to-paycheck life cycle is difficult to change, no matter what’s the size of the paycheck.

100 Favorite Programming, Computer and Science Books

Peteris Krumins, of the Browserling fame, has a series of blog posts on his top favorite programming, computer and science books.  It’s an excellent selection of titles, from which I’ve read only a fraction.  Good timing for the Christmas shopping too.  Here are the blog posts in the series so far (5 books per post):

Even with the 30 books mentioned so far, there are new things to read and learn.  I wonder how many of the notes to self I’ll have by the time the whole 100 are listed.

Imagine the world without Muslims

This is one of those things that I love about the Internet.  When you are wrong, the Internet doesn’t just gently mention it.  It absolutely destroys you, shoving the reality so hard down your throat, you forget how to breath for a while.  And then, next time, if you haven’t killed yourself yet, you think long and hard before saying anything out loud.  If you have a half a brain or more, of course.

Continue reading Imagine the world without Muslims

The curious case of the switch statement

“The curious case of the switch statement” is a nice historical perspective on the switch statement in most modern programming languages, where it come from, and how it transformed over the years.  It starts of with ALGOL 58 (yes, a programming language from 1958), and traces the history down to the modern reincarnation of the statement to BCPL (1967!), where it looked like this:

switchon EXPR into {
    ...
    ...
    case CONST:
    ...
    ...
    default:
    ...
    ...
}

Apart from the historical perspective, there is an interesting discussion about how different languages approached the statement, how it varies, and what are some of the benefits of each implementation.