Man. I just finished reading that book. I don’t know what to think – on the one hand, I’m worried that a whole generation will give up doing economically useful work and just sell shitty products to stupid people through catalogs to finance their gallivanting around the world. On the other hand, I kind of want to do that.
I mean let’s face it – the guy has a crazily enviable lifestyle. He gets to go get RKC and do MA training, learn languages, travel the world all the time (and I noticed that most of his flickr fans commenting are female..) Officially, yes, I’m completely jealous. All thanks to ... >>
So I’ve spent about 4 days coding in Python. I’ve been writing a likelihood maximizer, which doesn’t sound very interesting (and isn’t, really). What I can do with it will be more interesting. In any case, here’s what I think about Python so far. Please take into consideration that I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to this language.
- Is it just me, or is every line supposed to be a lambda or a list comprehension? It’s not just that they’re useful features of the language – it’s every single line.
- Because of this, I wish that multi-line lambdas were possibl... >>
What a ridiculous framework. 32 function calls deep? Seriously?! That framework is basically a bunch of monkeys patching in a can, and then just stirred up and left overnight for flavor.
This is why I hate Rails:
rails/vendor/plugins/custom/lib/template.rb:24:in `compile'
rails/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/template_handler.rb:11:in `call'
rails/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/renderable.rb:19:in `compiled_source'
rails/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/renderable.rb:70:in `compile!'
rails/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/renderable.rb:61:in `compile'
rails/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action_view/renderable.rb:28:in `rend... >>
So I’ve been having some bizarre Linux issues of late. These essentially involve
bizarre and nonlinear interactions of
- gdm
- X11
- .xsession & .xinitrc files
- alsa (huh?)
I’m not certain how gdm deals with going from running as root to running as
whichever user logged in. But whatever it is, it yields some bizarre results. There
are several different strange behaviors going on, which I have a hunch are all symptoms
of a single underlying misconfiguration on my part, somewhere.
- Firstly, gdm entirely ignores my .xsession & .xinitrc files. I don’t know
it’... >>
At the roots, doing math and writing programs share a lot as human activities. Constructing reasoned arguments that fit an existing model of logical rigor, and fit into an existing framework of arguments is a basic mathematical activity. In programming, we construct fairly rigorous models of logical processes, which must be self-consistent and precise enough that an automaton may understand, and (clearly) fits into a large framework of such models developed by others.
Unfortunately, this is not how mathematics is perceived by most people (including myself, until recently, I’m embarrassed to say). Rather, math is taught from a young age as simply a toolbox of tricks that... >>
Who hasn’t had it? I’ve got writer’s block. I haven’t written anything for the past 3 days I set aside solely to develop a really important presentation that will essentially count for as much as any exam.
Yet somehow, I manage to get on this blog and moan. Who knows why? Gods, I have to get out of my own head! Let me out!
In other news, I took delivery of a sweet Eee PC today, the 1000HE model. It has ridiculous battery life. Approximately 10 seconds after I turned it on, I made the decision to wipe the disgusting crufty Windows XP operating system and install the sexy minimal... >>
Greetings from a mildly chilly London. I’ve arrived back from Malta with a bit of a cold and absolutely no inspiration whatsoever.
I received a rejection yesterday from the University of Edinburgh’s PhD program in Neuroinformatics which was kind of a blow. I thought after the interview that I had approximately a 50% shot of getting in there; and maybe I was right. In any case, this now means that I have no clue what’s going to happen next year.
In some ways, I feel that my hard work this year has not paid off. I don’t know that much more than I did before, and I’m c... >>
Once in a while, when I’m frustrated or uninspired, I go to Steve Pavlina’s blog and read articles there until I feel pumped up again. Or I listen to cool songs like Elvis Costello’s Watching the Detectives .
Personal development blogs are largely a case of ``easier said than done.‘’ The advice is usually excellent – tips like progressively developing one’s abilities, even in more esoteric areas like courage or creativity, or being centered in one’s goals and self-belief rather than being avoidance or approval-motivated.
... >>
Hello from Xlendi, a small town on the isle of Gozo. Gozo is the second-largest island in the nation of Malta, and I’ve spent three luxuriant days on this island (or, more precisely, around it) diving.
Dad and I arrived Saturday evening in Malta. The drive from the airport on the South of the island to the ferry terminal on the northernmostip revealed a singularly ugly developed landscape, out of the ’70s, with flat, dirty buildings rearing short roofs into squalid, polluted air. After approximately 45 minutes, we arrived at the ferry terminal only to watch the ferry raise its drawbridge and cast its lines, leaving us first in li... >>
I spent part of the day today reading Stephane Mallat’s A Wavelet Tour of Signal Processing – time well-spent. This is the first signal processing book I’ve read that I actually like. Along with the Bayesian Choice mentioned earlier, it’s really an enjoyable yet deep way to get into some serious signal processing.
On a lighter note, enjoyed drinks and beer with friends, celebrating Adrien’s 23rd birthday. I discovered that Czech beers are greatly superior (apparently) to Western European, American, Japanese, and South American beers. So a totally unbiased Slovakian told me. That sa... >>