Monthly Archives: May 2011

Boolean Functions

Posted on 2011-05-22 by jcs

Boolean functions are very simple. If B = {FALSE, TRUE } then a Boolean function of n variables has domain Bn and range B; that is f: Bn → B. This limits the number of possible functions. For example, there … Continue reading →

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Huffman Coding

Posted on 2011-05-21 by jcs

Over at Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, Steven Pigeon has a nice post on Huffman codes. He explains how Huffman codes operate and works through a pencil and paper example. Because he doesn’t give a real implementation and because the usual … Continue reading →

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Heaps and Priority Queues

Posted on 2011-05-20 by jcs

In a previous post, I talked about FIFO queues and gave an implementation. Now I want to talk about another type of queue: the priority queue. In these queues every element has a priority and elements are removed from the … Continue reading →

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Sedach on Lisp Macros

Posted on 2011-05-19 by jcs

Via Loper OS, here’s Vladimir Sedach on Lisp macros. He points out that the purpose of programming is automation and that once having realized that the next question is, “How can we automate our programming?” Sedach goes on to argue … Continue reading →

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Cleaning Up My Emacs Environment

Posted on 2011-05-18 by jcs

While I was installing magit the other day, I decided it was a good time to do a little digital house cleaning. I keep all my important file groups—writing, software development, blogging, and personal—in Git repositories. Oddly, given that these … Continue reading →

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Magit

Posted on 2011-05-17 by jcs

One of the first things I did when I started using Emacs was to install the git.el package that interfaces with Git. I chose git.el because it worked the same as the rest of the Emacs source control interfaces. There’s … Continue reading →

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Mean!

Posted on 2011-05-16 by jcs

This is just mean. Mean, but funny. It’s also awe-inspiring in the same disturbing way that someone who memorizes the Boston phone directory is.

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Google Code University

Posted on 2011-05-16 by jcs

Recently, via Hacker News, I came across this link to Google Code University. The University consists of introductions to a variety of subject matter in software development and Web programming. Some are internal courses that Google uses to train their … Continue reading →

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Setting the Babel Evaluate Confirm Status

Posted on 2011-05-15 by jcs

Because Babel provides a facility to execute arbitrary code, it presents a security risk. Code blocks are evaluated when a document is exported as well as when a user explicitly asks for evaluation by typing C-c C-c in the block. … Continue reading →

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Kicking the Hornet’s Nest

Posted on 2011-05-14 by jcs

Bloomberg Businessweek has an article up entitled Sony: The Company That Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. It’s about the break in and Sony’s penchant for suing and prosecuting “hackers.” There’s not much new in the article (although their telling of the … Continue reading →

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