Angry with Muni?

Angry with Muni? Let them know. Be sure to catch the bus's number and the driver's number, found on the back of the bus and on the sleeve respectively.

You can probably guess why I'm posting this. Going downtown with Muni is pretty darn good but taking cross-town buses is still a real pain.

Regular Expressions as Assembler

"This month, we [...] look at a technique to use a high-level language to develop a lightweight assembler for an architecture that's not in the mainstream." Writing an assembler in Python.

Watch 'The Elegant Universe' On PBS Online

NOVA :: "Watch The Elegant Universe (3 hours)". Wow, you can watch all three episodes online. Good work, PBS!

'Starship Catan' sucks.

"oh, how we cursed the German love of order and rules."

Ripping Off Wikipedia

An entry on Encyclopedia4U called "Naive Bayesian classification" didn't make any sense to me until I realized that it was a ripoff of this Wikipedia article minus the formulas but with ads plastered all over it.

Yes, this is what I do on Friday nights. And Stacy is here laughing at some poor sucker's blog as he fights his personal struggle against pornography. I guess he feels the needs to protect his Purity of Essence. PoE.

I just want a good article on naive bayesian classifiers.

Building Sleuth

Want to find out about the building your live in? Try the SFVIEWER. My current building was made in 1924. holy cow. My new apartment (oh yeah, I'm moving into a new apartment) seems zoned improperly.

Matz on Orthogonality

"Bill Venners: Dave Thomas also claimed that if I ask you to add a feature that is orthogonal, you won't do it. What you want is something that's harmonious. What does that mean?

Yukihiro Matsumoto: I believe consistency and orthogonality are tools of design, not the primary goal in design.

Bill Venners: What does orthogonality mean in this context?

Yukihiro Matsumoto: An example of orthogonality is allowing any combination of small features or syntax. For example, C++ supports both default parameter values for functions and overloading of function names based on parameters. Both are good features to have in a language, but because they are orthogonal, you can apply both at the same time. The compiler knows how to apply both at the same time. If it's ambiguous, the compiler will flag an error. But if I look at the code, I need to apply the rule with my brain too. I need to guess how the compiler works. If I'm right, and I'm smart enough, it's no problem. But if I'm not smart enough, and I'm really not, it causes confusion. The result will be unexpected for an ordinary person. This is an example of how orthogonality is bad."

[from The Philosophy of Ruby]