This section lists all blog posts, regardless of topic.
PhotosynthJuly 21, 2007
I've checked out Photosynth before, but I've never seen it presented so well. Checkout this
TED talk by a researcher at Microsoft demonstrating this fantastic technology.
Rapberry jamJuly 21, 2007
When I was 10 I had the opportunity of staying with my grandma and grandpa Bigham for a week or two while my parents vacationed in Florida. I remember that my dear grandmother would always have the kitchen tidy and the breakfast table set before bed. The next morning, we would gather at the little round table, often covered with a colourful table cloth, for breakfast. My grandma Bigham's jams were a delight. Her tart, sweet, raspberry freezer jam was my favorite.
So this weekend, while Meredith was away in Ottawa, I decided I'd make some raspberry jam for the first time. I grabbed my back pack, a couple 1-pint cartons, and headed off on my bike to
Nauman's.
It was a perfect day for picking, and I enjoyed the peace and quiet of the raspberry patch for half an hour, sometimes standing bent over, other times sitting in the grass peering into the foliage to see if there were any berries I had missed. A couple times I bumped my carton and I imagined how horrified you'd be if you knocked it over. On the other side of the row was a elderly couple that reminded me of my grandparents... it's pretty neat to be blessed with so many fond memories.
Bjarne StroustrupJuly 18, 2007
Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to hear a talk at uwaterloo by none other than
Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of the C++ programming language. Hey, cool... he's the top search result on Google if you search for "Bjarne" :) Because C++ is one of the premier programming languages on the planet, used by most large software companies, and favored by many proficient developers, Bjarne's impact on the software world has been pretty huge to say the least. His talk was on C++0x, the next revision of C++, due out hopefully by '09.
As a would be programming language designer, it was utterly fascinating for me to sit there and hear this guy talk about the challenges of revising C++. Frankly, it sounded painful: Wanting to improve the language, but having to be meticulous about not breaking existing code. Talk about hand cuffs. After his talk he took questions, and mine was essentially "As you've said, revising C++ is very difficult because you have to be very careful not to break existing code. Do you think you'll ever invent a new language where you wouldn't be limited by these restrictions"? His answer, not surprisingly, was "No". I have to respect the man: You get the sense that he really does want to do what's best for the community, and in his case, that is improving C++, not starting from scratch and making something new.
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