http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog Notes on things I'm thinking and doing Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:21:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I received the 'Eastern Economy Edition' of "Advanced Topics in Types and Programming Languages" last week. It's a well constructed hardcover. The negative points are: - It has an 'inky' smell. - The paper is thinner than usual, so you can see the printing on the other side of the page. Neither is a real ... http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/10/01/books-from-india-update/ I haven't ordered this yet, but www.biblio.com has some tempting deals: http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/09/09/books-from-india-for-the-win/ Emboldened by my previous success, I decided to translate the subject of some Chinese-language spam: 卓越的指引管理让战斗力数倍提升 Apparently this means: "Excellent management guidelines several times to enhance the combat effectiveness" I don't know if the translation is inaccurate or the subject is poorly written. It reminds me of the apocryphal story about the translation ... http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/09/06/google-translate-is-not-always-so-useful/ I finally got around to ordering a new keyboard for my MacBook Pro, to replace the one which lost a few keys on our last Fedex Day. I was a little nonplussed by this response via Paypal: "The seller has provided the following Order Status information for your review: Order Status: 已发货" So much ... http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/09/06/google-translate-to-the-rescue/ A relative of mine has a recent HP Pavillion laptop. (I suggested that she get a Mac, but she was concerned about MS Office compatibility). I was doing some telephone support trying to reattach it to her wireless network tonight. I was ultimately unsuccessful, but I did learn two reasons why ... http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/08/03/laptop-design-stupidity/ Well at least my picture is: Perhaps the Sudbury, Ontario municipal sculptor will use that photo as a reference when they erect a statue honoring Tom Davies... http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/07/29/i-am-on-the-front-page-of-cuil/ http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/07/28/how-to-increase-your-ycombinator-karma-without-really-trying/ I've recently found myself not blogging because I didn't wish to inflict the posts on Planet Atlassian. So now anything non-technical which I don't think is of interest to subscribers to this blog (Hi to both of you!) appears here. http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/07/26/a-new-blog/ Along with some colleagues I entered the ICFP programming contest this year. You can read some more about our experience at Matt's blog. I thought the problem -- guiding a Mars rover to a goal amongst obstacles -- was very well chosen. It was possible to navigate the example maps with very ... http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/07/16/icfp2008-programming-contest/ I'm much happier with the second version: out3 a = let renderGroup g = let ... http://diversions.nfshost.com/blog/2008/07/09/take-two/