Transforming Heuristics
Many of the real problems in the world are NP. Things like Scheduling, Register Allocation, Routing packages, etc. In solving these really hard problems, we invent heuristics. Typically such heuristics are specific to the problem domain. For example, UPS might…
A New Field: Information Type Flow
In my last post on Information Flow, I noticed that some flows are more informative than others. I used a switch statement for my illustrative example of that observation. But, from my experience as a software developer, I have a…
A Configurable Keyboard
For a long time, I have hated the layout on all keyboards I’ve ever laid hands on. It’s not just that I prefer Dvorak to Qwerty; it’s that the slanting of the rows causes an awkward bending of the left…
Promotion of silver as a form of money
I sent the following letter to Mike Maloney, CEO of GoldSilver and WealthCycles. Let’s see if he answers back. Promotion of silver as a form of money. You and I both share a preference for the GOP candidate Ron Paul,…
Apple and Advertising
In the beginning, Apple Computer was a hobby in Job’s garage, advertised through computer hobby magazines. Dedicated hackers were busy building their community, and Apple was one of the hobby friendly architectures. Key here is the small, but critical, start-up…
Business as an Investment
I finished my reading of Mike Maloney’s Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver, partially to get an idea of how he got started in the business of bullion. He’s actually had several businesses throughout his life, including one where…
Financial Cascade Failure
I’ve been reading quite a bit about the economics of the financial sector, and have come to two interesting conclusions. One is that the fractional reserve and central banking systems are very much akin to a Ponzi scheme; except that…
Abelard to Apple
I heard through the blogosphere about DeMillo’s book Abelard to Apple. I checked it out from the library, because, if I’m to be self-employed as an educator, I thought it would be useful to get an institutional view of the…
Teaching Consultation
A couple weeks back I substituted as the TA for a discussion section. I was recorded on video, which was reviewed by the Teaching, Learning, & Technology Center. Here are some notes about educational techniques that I took during the…
Learning the Abstractions
Since much of programming is about creating and manipulating abstractions, it figures that a large amount of education is going to be about leaning those abstractions. Things like classic data structures, the useful sloppiness of O-notation for algorithm analysis, and…