RIP Dennis Ritchie (1941-2011)

Computer programming and operating system pioneer, Dennis Ritchie passed away from our world on 12 October 2011.

I’m a little disappointed at the relative silence in the mainstream media about this, compared to the passing of Steve Jobs (no disrespect to Jobs, whose accolades were fully deserved). Ritchie’s work has influenced absolutely everybody who has used post-1980 computer technology. IT would not be where it is today without the contributions of Ritchie and his colleagues, Brian Kernighan and Ken Thompson.

I’ll read my copy of The C Programming Language with a bit more respect from now on, knowing that we stand on shoulders of such greats as these.

JRuby is Fast!

Following up on my previous blog post about Fibonacci numbers and prime-number tests using Python and Ruby (click to read), I thought I’d give the same code a bit of whirl on my new laptop, and throw in the latest 1.6.0 release of JRuby in the mix.

Python and Ruby – Fibonacci Numbers and Trial Division

I haven’t posted anything on here for a while, and thought I might do something. Recently, I picked up a book called Visual Quickstart Guide to Ruby. It’s a nice book which feeds bits of Ruby in bite-sized chunks. But that’s not what this post is for. One bit of the book mentioned Fibonacci numbers, and I thought perhaps I should write a program to generate the nth fibonacci number in Ruby, having already created one in Python long ago.

Python Challenge – Level 3

After a long break, I’ve returned with another Python Challenge solution. This one is for Level 3, which can be found at http://www.pythonchallenge.com/pc/def/equality.html.

Python Challenge – Level 2

Yet another instalment of the Python Challenge answers. This one is for Level 2, at http://www.pythonchallenge.com/pc/def/ocr.html.

Python Challenge – Level 1

Here’s the next solution in the Python Challenge. This is Level 1, an alphabet translation problem.

Python Challenge – Level 0

Year ago, I tried the Python Challenge series of programming puzzles. It was an interesting way to learn about the Python programming language, and I’ve been keen to do it again to take some rust off my programming and Python skills. The only problem seems to be that the site doesn’t remember your results. So why not blog the solutions?

Australian Internet filtering — the debate continues

Australia introduced compulsory ISP filtering early this year, much to the chagrin of some ISPs and civil liberties groups. The row has died down somewhat from last year, but the debate still continues.

Linuxquestions.org Member Choice Awards 2009 Results

The results were released last month, but it’s better late than never. Arguably the biggest and most comprehensive Linux community awards delivers the usual and the unexpected.

MS suggests Internet Tax

Read the source article here.

The idea of an Internet Tax doesn’t surprise me. After all, taxes drive public services, and the provision of telecommunications easily fits into that category. What is surprising is the idea that there should be a general tax on Internet usage to clean up infected computers, when in fact, the vast majority of infected computers happen to run Microsoft Windows.