The Insider News

Lubutu[^]:

One of Common Lisp’s more advanced features is its condition handling system, which is a powerful generalisation of other languages’ exception handling systems. I first became aware of condition handling from Peter Seibel’s Practical Common Lisp, chapter 19. But if I’m honest I’ve only very recently understood what it meant; it seems to assume a higher proficiency with Lisp, and I find the S-expressive examples more of a hindrance than a help. Sorry, Lispers. So instead I’m going to walk through condition handling, with a more thorough explanation of the rationale, and with pseudo-Python examples.

Higher-Order Fun[^]:

Here comes a harsh fact of life: game programming requires mathematics. One could say that programming IS, in a way, math, but you don’t really need to know math to write the vast majority of programs. Games, however, very often rely on mathematics. If you want objects to move across your world realistically, or if you want to draw things on the screen following certain geometric patterns, or if you want to check for collision between certain shapes, you need math. But don’t despair! Even though I say “math”, what you ACTUALLY need is geometry. Luckily for us, geometry is probably the easiest part of mathematics!

Ars Technica[^]:

Lots of new Windows 8 and Windows RT machines were on show at IFA in Berlin this week, many of them being given their first outing in public. Clamshell keyboard docks adorned many of the tablets. These keyboard docks typically included extra ports and extra batteries, and most importantly of all, a hinge, so the screen could be positioned at any angle relative to the keyboard, and so that you can shut them up and use them like laptops. You could call them tablets with keyboard docks, but you'd be forgiven for calling them laptops with tear-off screens.

Jason Fruit[^]:

I've been switching back and forth between Windows and Linux frequently these days, and it's given me a chance to think more deeply about what it means to be user-friendly, and whether that is the most useful way to consider the user experience. There is a sense in which Windows is more user-friendly than Linux, and a sense in which it is not — and both convey useful information. The metaphor of "friendliness" obscures the kinship between them, however; I prefer the idea of "hospitality".

Rob Weir[^]:

A few years ago there came into my possession a curious piece of IBM history, a thin paperback volume of 54 pages, privately printed, entitled “Songs of the IBM, 1937 Edition”. The opening page lays out the context: For thirty-seven years, the gatherings and conventions of our IBM workers have expressed in happy songs the fine spirit of loyal cooperation of good fellowship which has promoted the signal success of our great IBM Corporation in its truly International Service for the betterment of business and benefit to mankind.

Dmitry Fadeyev[^]:

The Gothic craftsman was not satisfied with the abstract, symmetrical look of Byzantine ornament. He broke the symmetry and introduced an element of realism. The leaves curved, but they were kept restrained, lest the style go over the top. The Renaissance craftsman in turn became bored with the Gothic and began to push for more style. His love of curves took over and the leaves began to curl into balls. The leaf that was once lean and strong is now a mass of curves, flamboyant and bloated. It exhibits luxuriance and style but loses its vitality in the process. If you replace the descender of a letter for the leaf, you have much the same critique in what Morris had to say about typeface design as Ruskin did about the degeneration of Gothic ornament during the Renaissance. The lean stroke shows strength and vitality.

justin duke has a web site[^]:

Multi-Armed Bandit is hardly software-exclusive; clinical trials, supply chain management, and political science all grapple with it, amongst many, many others.) It's basically the probabilistic abstraction of trying to make data-driven decisions, balancing two goals: exploration (furthering your knowledge of the given possibilities) and exploitation (taking advantage of what you know.) In this post, we're going to simulate various elementary approaches to MAB in Python. It should be noted, as a huge caveat, that these aren't exactly super-duper approaches; this is meant as an introduction to the two simplest ways to tackle this problem.

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