The Japanese HSR system actually takes this approach, but it mostly works because the trains are so incredibly and consistently on-time (as in, the average deviation between scheduled and actual arrival times is less than 30 seconds). I have trouble believing that a Californian HSR system could manage the same kind of punctuality, at least at first.

That only solves one of the many problems you described here, though.

also agreed on the fencing masks. the whole time they were fencing i was like aah aah aaaah.

- i like boyd a lot (more than agent whatshisface). i’m really curious about his background too.

- i don’t hate topher. i think i would dislike him more if i didn’t think that he was written to be this ridiculous and over-the-top stereotype.. but i’m pretty sure it was intentional so i kind of like it. then again, i don’t think his character is unpleasant either.

- one of the main reasons i was disgusted with the show for the first few episodes was that the main conflict was something like:
dollhouse: “here is this crazy memory technology that we want you, the viewers, to accept as a premise” viewers: “okay, sure”
dollhouse: “oh wait, nevermind, this technology is actually faulty”
viewers: “what the fuck, that’s not how this is supposed to work”

I’ve used 3GLs like C, C++, C#, Pascal, SQL for about 13 years now and I’ve found lisp a breath of fresh air. One can do all of the things that one would do in the above languages in lisp but with less code and more generality.

The thing I really like about lisp are :-
I can be dynamic and static as I feel the need (and I can still get good speed).
Code is data is code is very powerful (ie. macros are quite powerful)
I can be high level and low level at the same time. I can be very flexible with things in lisp, more so than I’ve found in languages like C#.
I can use types if I need them, but only if I need them.

Also, there are some new books out. Practical Common Lisp is a great read for a beginner (written in the last few years).
Paradigms of artificial intelligence programming is an amazing book that teaches a lot more than just AI (last few years).
ANSI Common LISP, by Paul Graham was my second lisp read, I found it excellent (published early ’90s).

There is also a great deal of good design in lisp from about 50 years of pretty good research and experience. Just about anything you’d want to do in lisp can be done in less code than the usual 3GLs. We often spurn things that are ‘old’, but in this case I would call lisp mature. I think computing languages can be a bit of a fashion show, with everyone showing off their new features. I think just about any feature you’d care to name could be built into lisp or it’s already there (as you mentioned)… It’s amazing to think that lisp invented the if then else concept.

That said… one can indeed do most common computing tasks in the ‘modern’ languages (but can your code create code at runtime?). It is indeed a bit of a mind bend to learn lisp, but so far it has enhanced my understanding of other languages. I’m in the process of writing some lisp to generate the boring scripts that I use at my work. I feel like I’ve only just started and there’s so much more to learn, whereas looking at something like C#, it looks like more of the same 3GL.

Good luck learning.
Hope it becomes enjoyable.
DC

also, your layout changed. nice.