Software engineering, programming methodology, languages, verification, general technology, publication culture, and more
A 1949 book I just bought* has the following printer’s label, hand-glued on the title page: Because of a change in pagination, you will need to add the digit 9 [actually, the number, not the digit] to references to page numbers between 1 and 114, and the digit 8 to those between 116 and the … Read more
Vous souvenez-vous de ce discours ? Françaises, Français, mes chers compatriotes, Je voulais vous parler hier mais on m’a dit que l’expression “appel du 18 juin” était déjà prise et j’ai décidé d’attendre jusqu’aujourd’hui, 19 juin 2020. Un jour ne devrait pas faire une grande différence. Mon message à toutes et à tous est simple … Read more
What can you do to or with an algorithm? In other words, what is a good verb to substitute for the hyphen in “— the algorithm”? You can learn an algorithm. Discovering classical algorithms is a large part of the Bildungsroman of a computer scientist. Sorting algorithms, graph algorithms, parsing algorithms, numerical algorithms, matrix algorithms, graphical … Read more
No one seems until now [1] to have identified a key element of any scientific article being submitted or revised for publication. It is guaranteed to increase, if not the quality of your articles, at least their chances of publication, which after all is what counts. We are told to include a “related work” section, … Read more
The Schaffhausen Institute of Technology (SIT) is holding a Webinar tomorrow with a set of three talks by: Serguei Beloussov, founder of Acronis and president of SIT; Michael Widenius, CTO of MariaDB and creator of MySQL Server; and Mauro Pezzè, my colleague at SIT, who will present the new master program that we have just … Read more
I recently read the autobiography [1] of the great mathematician André Weil and came across the following comment (slightly abridged): Any mathematician worthy of the name has known such states of lucid exaltation, when ideas magically fall into place. Poincaré, in a famous passage, described how he experienced such a moment when he discovered … Read more
Another completely unexpected gem from the Viaje de Turquia (see the previous article on this blog): a 16-th century statement of the Dunning-Kruger effect! An effect, of course, which has never been more visible than today (just watch the news). Against Pedro, who narrates his travels and travails, the dialog sets two other characters, friends … Read more
At this gloomy moment it is good to find a gem in an unexpected place. I am reading (in translation) the Viaje de Turquia, or Turkish Voyage — literaly, Voyage of Turkey — a 16th-century epic dialog, whose authorship is disputed. It is a precious source of information on the period and rings throughout like a … Read more
In the current state of the pandemic and for many more months until a vaccine is found, there is exactly one way to fight the coronavirus, protecting yourself and protecting others. It is not a mask. It is two masks. You wear a mask, I wear a mask. Many people still believe that they can … Read more