February « 2004 « Sub Ubi

What they don’t tell you

By matt, on February 25th, 2004%

Via Wired News

Dinh: There has been a lot of hue and cry regarding specific provisions with USA Patriot Act that is predicated upon a misunderstanding. Once we engage in this national conversation that the president has called for, all the facts will come out, and we will see that the fears are unfounded.

…

WN: Is there anything . . . → Read More: What they don’t tell you

Lidl Pear Nectar is Good

By matt, on February 25th, 2004%

This is a pure-rant post for me, and not much of a rant at that.

“[Our kids deserve] the very best teachers that money can buy.”

This statement just made me cringe. First, it brought to mind the old joke where the punchline is, “Madam, I belive we’ve established what you are. Now we’re just haggling over . . . → Read More: Lidl Pear Nectar is Good

Grand Theft Auto 3 : Vice City

By matt, on February 21st, 2004%

The series Grand Theft Auto may be notorious for its violence, but there is one feature about the game that I think is just excellent: the music.

The point of the game is to become the baddest drug dealer in town, and along the way you steal (and crash) cars constantly. That’s the predominant game mechanic: walk . . . → Read More: Grand Theft Auto 3 : Vice City

New reading material

By matt, on February 17th, 2004%

I discovered Holly Henry-Pilkington’s weblog after she left a comment on mine. I must admit, anyone who swoops in and leaves a substantial comment (still waiting for it’s reply) that ties in educational theory and IT, linking back to a weblog reflecting on objectivism and constructivism is quick to make my “interesting read” list.

Perhaps I’m . . . → Read More: New reading material

Scheme and occam

By matt, on February 17th, 2004%

Scheme is a relatively small language with strong ties to the lambda calculus, an algebra developed by Alonzo Church for describing the application of functions to their arguments.

occam is a small language with strong ties to CSP (communicating sequential processes), an algebra originally devised by Professor Sir Tony Hoare for describing synchronous message passing in concurrent . . . → Read More: Scheme and occam

Culling old posts, for the sake of Google

By matt, on February 14th, 2004%

I had a post about… well, a grant fund that I wanted to investigate further. I posted it on the 2nd of December, 2003.

I just received this comment on that post:

I am intersted in MSC Conservation at UCL. kindly tell me that can am I eligible for this funding/grant. Moreover wahta is the amount of . . . → Read More: Culling old posts, for the sake of Google

Brit Quiz

By matt, on February 13th, 2004%

Well, I had to answer honestly to a bunch of them; I mean, truly, I tend to have a Coke instead of tea. But I do think a trip to Calais is a great chance to stock up on cheap beer…

I am 32.5% British, just likeMadonnaJust as happy in LA or London. Aren’t the narrow . . . → Read More: Brit Quiz

One day compilers

By matt, on February 12th, 2004%

http://www.venge.net/graydon/talks/mkc/html/index.html

For some other day. Time . . . → Read More: One day compilers

An simple problem with syntax highlighting

By matt, on February 11th, 2004%

This is an example. An anecdote. But it is illustrative of a problem, and illustrates a hole in our understanding of the novice’s programming process.

The following are three snippets of Java code:

Snippet One:

public void setFoo() {
. . .
}

Snippet Two:

public int getBar() {
. . .
}

Snippet Three:

public String getGeeWhiz() {
. . .
}

The difference between each of these has . . . → Read More: An simple problem with syntax highlighting

Lisp on the LEGO

By matt, on February 11th, 2004%

A recent email from Ralph Hempel sent me cruising the web regarding LEGO Mindstorms. I had no idea that someone (Taiichi Yuasa) had a LISP running on the LEGO. Our Scheme (PDF) targeted pbForth, so wasn’t a native implementation, and had enough fiddly bits that we never made it available.

Hm. From this report, it looks . . . → Read More: Lisp on the LEGO

Sub Ubi