I became a bit intimidated and frustrated with my simulation framework so I set it aside for a while. I played a lot of video games and I practiced my piping. I’m bored with the video games, though, and last night I came back to the sim. I’ve got some ideas for making the problemsContinue reading “How to Draw a Line”
Tag Archives: programming
Followup
From the javadoc comments in Math.java: “If the argument is NaN or an infinity or positive zero or negative zero, then the result is the same as the argument.” Let me just point out that Java thinks that NaN (Not a Number), positive zero, negative zero, or either positive or negative infinity are different values, andContinue reading “Followup”
Ars Gratia Artis
So, I came out of retirement to work on a neato project. I’m doing a lot of programming, architecture, release management, project management, and, um, reporting. So, that’s why I’m not doing a whole lot of bagpiping or anything. Because this is fun and important. But nobody cares about that. The interesting thing here isContinue reading “Ars Gratia Artis”
Simulation Distractibility
Yesterday I wrote about solving a problem using SmartThings. Thinking about some of the frustrations I felt during the process has led me back to thinking about the Salamander Simulation Engine. You know what it would be great for? Programming home automation.
SmartThings and the Recirculating Pump
A couple of years ago, we got a recirculating pump to run the hot water line from the master bathroom back to the water heater so we could get actual hot showers. The pump came with a built-in timer so that we could schedule times for it to run. That’s swell if you live byContinue reading “SmartThings and the Recirculating Pump”
License and Registration?
If you read a book about software development or start a repository on github or bitbucket or launchpad, you’ll confront the question of software licensing very early on — likely, before you even get to the question of what development environment you’re going to use. I’ve come to decide that this is not really helpful.Continue reading “License and Registration?”
Software Progress
Over the past few days I have managed to put together enough patches for SifterReader that it is usable for me from my phone. I’ve submitted pull requests to the developer, but until he pulls them in, if you want to try using the app on your phone you will have to build it yourself.Continue reading “Software Progress”
Organizing my Life
Listing saves us. It is a way of exporting intelligence into the environment. Every datum the environment remembers for you is one datum you don’t have to remember. I am absolutely in favor of this, but it gets me into trouble when the systems I use don’t work well together. The smartphone and web servicesContinue reading “Organizing my Life”
Let’s Play a Game
I like to play games. Who doesn’t? But not just any game, I’m actually kind of particular about what games I like. I happen not to like zero-sum games; my favorite games are those where, by careful maneuvering, the players can achieve a win for everyone. I also like games where there’s complexity, because thatContinue reading “Let’s Play a Game”
Next Homework Program: Ratio Exercise
The Badb just had a couple of weeks of reviewing ratios. This was a good limbering-up exercise, since the problem sets were all about converting between different units and manipulating fractions. After all, ratios are just a different way of writing fractions. The general form of the problems wound up being, “Given that the ratioContinue reading “Next Homework Program: Ratio Exercise”