Archive for March, 2010
Python in a Nutshell – Review
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010Python in a Nutshell has been a great addition to my library. This book is clearly meant as a reference rather than something to be read completely through. However, when you look something up, it is well worth the time to read the whole chapter or section on that subject. There is always a concise, [...]
IP – ’tis Broken
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010Few May Start, But Many Will Succeed
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010Wikipedia was started by a handful of people; Linux was started by one person. Both of these projects have become mainstream. They are well accepted by the general populace and everyone knows about them. They succeeded because after a smart founding, a large group of many people supported and helped the project to progress. The [...]
Externalities Are Amazing
Thursday, March 18th, 2010The Internet motivates people with externalities. Ask any economist and he or she will tell you that externalities do not motivate people. Yet, the Internet illustrates that externalities do motivate people; Wikipedia and open-source software being the two best examples. These projects show that externalities motivate because the people who write Wikipedia articles do not [...]
Software Outsourcing – Two Options and They Both Stink
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010There are two kinds of software outsourcing: some or all. Outsourcing the whole project is not smart. Typically, when outsourcing a complete project, the outsourcing company acts as a consultant. This means they write the software, get paid more than they bid for the job, and then leave, never looking at the software again. Because [...]
double math in Java
Sunday, March 14th, 2010I have been programming extensively using doubles and Doubles in Java. Often, I have run into problems where simple mathematical operators will return 0.0. For example: ArrayList<Double> a, b; double temp = (a.get(0) + b.get(0)) * (a.get(0) + b.get(0)); After executing this code, temp would be equal to 0 no matter what values a.get(0) and [...]
Crowd Source Patents
Thursday, March 4th, 2010Disclaimer: I know quite a bit about patents. However, I don’t know everything. If there is already an easy way for people to comment on patents, regard this article as a highlight of my ignorance. People file for crazy patents all the time. Even a simple patent search turns up patents for things like linked [...]
A New Dinosaur
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010Brigham Young University recently found a new long-necked dinosaur in a quarry in Utah. There is a large problem with new dinosaur discoveries: no one really knows if they are correct or not. Scientists have supposedly found “120 known species of sauropods [but], there have been only eight instances in which scientists have been able [...]