My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-4-18) -
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
After reading Are you one of the 10% of programmers who can write a binary search?, I decided to find out if I was. Here’s my submission (written in about 30 minutes in python):
# the list to be searched
data = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
# what we're searching for
search = 7
# we could do this recursively, but without tail
# call optimization we'd just reach a stack overflow
# shortly - lame - so we'll go iterative
found = False
while not found:
# did we run out of data?
if len(data) == 0: break
# partition the list (take advantage of default
# integer division in 2.6)
p = len(data) / 2
# proceed based on data at partition
if data[p] == search:
found = True
break
elif data[p] > search:
data = data[:p]
else:
data = data[p+1:]
if found:
print "Found it!"
else:
print "Not found."
I had a bit of an easier time thanks to python’s arbitrary length integers, and list splicing notation. This algorithm would have been a lot more error prone in C/Java style language.
[video]
“The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.” — John Carmack (via reddit)
Why I won't buy an iPad (and think you shouldn't, either) -
Thank goodness for Cory Doctorow and his frank discussion of our increasingly restricted technology platforms. I am almost finished reading Makers and I too am frustrated with a world with more iPads and less Apple IIs.
Moon8 -
Dark Side of the Moon + NES = Pure Awesome.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-21) -
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-14) -
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Thursday March 18th at 7:30 I’ll be playing transition pieces for a science themed poetry reading at the Creole Gallery in Old Town. I’ll be doing my best to add a nice old school Sci-Fi vibe. $3 donation. Open Mic readings after the show ends. Hope to see you there!
If you ever used BBSes or the early internet you’ve got to check out this game - even if you didn’t - definitely worth a look. Brings me back to my Apple II days.
I realized that I own 11 guitars but only have 4 stands. So, I guess I need one of these - or maybe I should get rid of a few guitars…
I finally got my Peavey DDL-3 Digital Delay working tonight. If you tweak it just right, it doesn’t develop the odd percussive sound most delays experience when set to infinite feedback. Some soldering this weekend should fix it for good.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-7) -
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
The latest bike building project begins to take shape. Hopefully under 20lbs. when fully built.
So, what should I happen to find this morning, but Drawing on Eve’s first attempt at recording our first album. It’s raw, and noisy, and it’s wonderful. I listened to the whole thing - hilariously on a tape titled “Olivia Newton John’s Greatest Hits”. What’s amazing is that most of the songs changed very little between this rough first recording and our official first album. Some of the more interesting differences:
If there’s any interest - like if there’s still one DoE fan out there who actually is curious - and the other guys don’t mind, I’ll digitize the tape and post it.