Categories
chess conditional random field Harvard log MIT Python Readings

Readings for Jan 14, 2013

Approximation relating lg, ln, and log10 by John Cook
Digits in Power of 2 by John Cook
Rise and Fall of Third Normal Form by John Cook
The Crown Game Affair : Fascinating account on how cheating in chess was detected and caught.
Introduction to Conditional Random Field : Eerily similar to HMM, that’s perhaps why there was many “cute” ideas published on it in the past.
Stuff Harvard People Like by Ed Checn: Entertaining post.  I do know some people from MIT and the study fits to the stereotype I recognize.   For Harvard, not as much,  some are really mellow fellows.   Also, not every one in a school is savvy in computers.   So the samples Ed Chen collected may or may not be representative. (To his credit, he named all his assumptions in his post.)

Arthur

Categories
hours Readings Thought todo list

Readings at Jan 8, 2012

Testing Redux  by Vivek Halder

Comment: I second Vivek,  in a large scale project, having no testing is a project-killing act.  One factor to consider: in real-life, the mythical 100X productive programmer are rarely seen.   Even then, these programmers can make a mistake or two.   Therefore, not having any automatic testing  for a group is a very bad thing. 
On the other, should an individual programmer always follow automatic testing?   Yes and no.  Yes in the sense you should always write a test for your program.  No in the sense that you shouldn’t believe testing will make your program automatically correct.   
Bring back the 40-hour work week by Sara Robinson
Comment: very well said.  I hope this more hours = more work done crap can end soon. 
Todon’t by Jeff Atwood
Comment: I like todo list alot but sometimes it takes me a while to organize them.  They also grow very quickly.  A good suggestions here is that not only you should add to your list, you should always change priorities.  One of the purposes of todo is to record your life but it has nothing to do with how you move forward with your life. 
Arthur