Teach yourself programming... in 10 years

That's all it takes: norvig.com/21-days.html

Turing's Cathedral

Really it should be called Von Neumann's Cathedral, especially as Turing himself only makes a small appearance. Recommend it for the history of computer science and as a near biography of Von Neumann. Dyson has the occasional unfortunate foray into speculation about the singularity which is mostly fine but occasionally overblown. Overall, a good history of the early days of computers in post-war America. 

For a nice summary of the book (uncredited), check out the summary for this Dyson talk at the LongNow.

Lean from the Trenches

I think the best use for this blog is as a place for reviews of software related books I am reading. With that in mind, here's a quick overview of a Pragmatic Programmers book I finished recently:

This book serves as an excellent introduction to Lean and Kanban through a practical report on its implementation on a large software project. Author writes very accessibly and, more importantly, without laying down large axioms from the evidence. Very much: this worked for us, it might work for you. Also, its short and to the point-- like this review!

JK Ensemble Drinking Game!

Here's one for the holiday season. My favourite radio show is The JK Ensemble on RTE LyricFM. I regularly listen to John Kelly's great selection of music, even though I can only hear it over the internet for years. So, for all his fans, I present the JK Ensemble drinking game. Whenever you hear the following, you can take a drink!

1. John says "Classical Stylee"
2. Dick Gaughan's version of Ruby Tuesday
3. Anything by Bartok
4. That cool Norwegian song Calmly
5. Igor Stravinsky's Rites of Spring
6. The infamous Gamelan Lyric Jingle

Any other suggestions? Please add to the comments below.

Python games

Here's a neat book I've started reading: Making Games with Python and Pygame

I'm not dead yet

Been doing other stuff:

Coursera.org https://www.coursera.org/user/i/051d0e20d5380138369dc1bac055b002

Kahn Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/profile/RonanOD/

Reading http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4822244-ronan-o-driscoll

Kobo: the movie!

Actually, the title should be "Kobo: the custom case" but that's not nearly as exciting.* As promised in a previous post, I have a couple of things I would like to share about the Kobo, e-reader. Today's topic is a DIY case for the eReader using a DVD case.
Kobo doesn't come with a case and the options at the store were ridiculously pricey. So I took a DVD case for a Power Rangers movie and removed the raised ring with a snips pliers. This picture shows off my handiwork better:

The benefit of using a transparent case is that you can read through it, even in the bath! Well, maybe I'll work more on that one but it does stop the Kobo getting scratched in my bag. Plus, its nice to show off your current book as the screen shows its cover when switched off. And yet no drain to the battery!


* I can't imagine actually running a movie on an eInk device but maybe it would look something like this.