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  The roots of Lisp

(I wrote this article to help myself understand exactly what McCarthy discovered. You don't need to know this stuff to program in Lisp, but it should be helpful to anyone who wants to understand the essence of Lisp-- both in the sense of its origins and its semantic core. The fact that it has such a core is one of Lisp's distinguishing features, and the reason why, unlike other languages, Lisp has dialects.)In 1960, John McCarthy published a remarkable paper in which he did for programming somet...

   Lips,Root,McCarthy,AI,Artificial Intelligence     2011-10-25 10:35:13

  Automate Everything

Performing manual, repetitive tasks enrages me. I used to think this was a corollary of being a programmer, but I’ve come to suspect (or hope) that this behaviour is inherent in being human. But being able to hack together scripts simply makes it much easier to go from a state of rage to a basic solution in a very small amount of time. As a side point, this is one of the reasons that teaching the basics of programming in schools is so important. It’s hard to think of any j...

   Automate,Email,Repeative     2012-02-07 06:21:19

  The Cognitive Benefits Of Chewing Gum

Why do people chew gum? If an anthropologist from Mars ever visited a typical supermarket, they’d be confounded by those shelves near the checkout aisle that display dozens of flavored gum options. Chewing without eating seems like such a ridiculous habit, the oral equivalent of running on a treadmill. And yet, people have been chewing gum for thousands of years, ever since the ancient Greeks began popping wads of mastic tree resin in their mouth to sweeten the breath. Socrates pr...

   Pressure,Gum,Release,Benefits     2011-11-30 11:37:26

  Comex, the Hacker Behind JailbreakMe.com, Hired as Apple Intern

Comex, the hacker behind JailbreakMe.com, is joining Apple as an intern. JailbreakMe.com made it extremely easy for iOS users to jailbreak their devices simply by visiting a website. He announced the hiring on Twitter: It's been really, really fun, but it's also been a while and I've been getting bored. So, the week after next I will be starting an internship with Apple. Forbes unmasked Comex as Nicholas Allegra, a 19-year old Brown University student from Chappaqua, NY, by Forbes. In that arti...

   Apple,Comex,Jailbrealme,Intern,Leak,Hack     2011-08-26 02:35:57

  How To Write A Good Programming Test

I’ve taken and marked a lot of programming tests in the past. I love doing them as it’s always good to see what challenges different programmers have come up with when designing them. Unfortunately, however, most of them aren’t very good. Below is a list of general ideas to help increase the quality of programmer tests. 1. Keep it relevant Too many of the tests have questions on content that simply isn’t relevant to the job. The whole idea behind a programming test i...

   Programming test,Interview,Questions,Pro     2011-08-26 02:46:44

  4 types of programmers

Not every one who writes code is a programmer. Programmers are people who live with programming. There are 4 types of programmers: scientist, coder, expert and artisan.Scientist, they are more like mathematicians rather than programmers. They invented various theories, algorithms and terminologies. Proofs and calculations in textbooks are all from these people. Moreover other programmers more or less benefit from their work. Sometimes one paper published by them can change the way of thinking of...

   Programmer,Coder,Expert     2013-07-13 09:19:03

  How to forcibly eject a CD/DVD from a MacBook Air USB SuperDrive

So you've got a DVD stuck in the external USB SuperDrive that connects to the MacBook Air? And you've tried hitting the magic Eject button on the keyboard to no avail?And you've tried drutil tray eject at the command-line? And you've tried booting with Option held down and clicking eject? And you've tried plugging the drive into other machines (Macs, Windows PCs, Linux machines) to no avail?What do you do?Clearly you hit the physical eject button, right? Every DVD drive has one of those. On the ...

   Apple,Macbook,USB Drive,Ejection     2011-11-17 08:39:56

  Making Computer Science a Requirement?

This US News article points out a growing interest among colleges and universities to make basic computer science a required course for all students. Georgia Tech already does this. The article points out that universities not normally considered to be science/technology-heavy are leaning this way too: Every student at Montclair State University in New Jersey must complete a computer science in order to graduate. For most students, that course is Introduction for Computer Appl...

   Computer science,Requirement,CS     2012-04-05 11:33:04

  Leaving comments in real life

As a programmer I like to write comments because I know that some future person (often me) is going to need to know something about my code that won't be immediately obvious from reading it. Here's a recent example from my homebrew display's code:// protocol_init: Set up a newly powered-on string of lights.  The lights are arranged// in an array wired diagonally starting from the bottom left.  For ease of programming// it's better if they are given numbers which correspond to coor...

   Comment,Programming,Style,Format,Coding standard     2011-11-15 11:42:19

  Australian software engineer got asked algorithm question when entering US

The whole world knows that security and background checks get tighten for people to enter US since Donald Trump took office. But have you ever heard about getting algorithm question asked during the immigration check interview while entering United States? Recently an Australian software engineer David Thornton had such an experience when he tried to enter US. (Image from kaytlentravels.wordpress.com) David is a software engineer from Sydney and he is a 24-year-old studied computer sci...

   NEWS,DONALD TRUMP,UNITED STATES     2017-03-04 12:07:54

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