Dialogue in Oracle vs Google, between Judge Alsup and Oracle's lead counsel David Boies: Judge: We heard the testimony of Mr. Bloch. I couldn't have told you the first thing about Java before this problem. I have done, and still do, a significant amount of programming in other languages. I've written blocks of code like… Continue reading Speaking of learning to code
Software Carpentry
Elsewhere on my tour of the north-east, I've been helping out this week at the Software Carpentry boot camp at Newcastle university. These events are aimed mostly at postgraduate research students who need to write software for research. They try to provide just enough training in real-world software development techniques to get people started with… Continue reading Software Carpentry
Phew!
I'm delighted to be able to say I completed the first Marathon of the North in Sunderland yesterday. I hinted at this in my previous post, but midweek before the race I was feeling terrible—I'd had colds and aches; my last training run on Thursday was stereotypically awful, with bad cramps and a sore right… Continue reading Phew!
Tapering
Marathon training programmes, at least for inexpert runners, seem to follow a common pattern. You increase your distances gradually week by week, peaking with long runs of around three-quarters of marathon length. (Why not longer? I suppose it isn't considered worth draining your reserves completely and risking injury.) Then there's a "tapering" period for the… Continue reading Tapering
A Marathon
The reason for all this running—or at least for running such long distances at a time—is that I've entered a marathon. It's the inaugural Marathon of the North in Sunderland on the 5th of May. Although I've lived in London for years, I come from Durham and I'm much looking forward to a run in… Continue reading A Marathon
Breakfast Post on Twitter
Look to https://twitter.com/#!/breakfastpost for updates on this blog. I have abandoned many puns in trying to think of a better title, but Breakfast Post on Twitter it must be. The Twitter feed doesn't do anything (yet?) except radiate links to these blog posts. I seem to have four Twitter accounts now, none of which I… Continue reading Breakfast Post on Twitter
The Breakfast Post 