Sunday, July 31, 2005

More Freakonomics...

I've just finished reading Freakonomics and my overall impression is that it could have done with an appendix on statistical analysis, regression analysis in particular. The later chapters appeal to regression analysis a number of times and the one serious lack is an explanation of what that means.

Readers familiar with statistical analysis will not find this a problem, but this is not a book aimed at statisticians and economists. It is (as I see it) a book aimed at the reader of popular science, the reading public. Such an appendix might not have been bigger than the section of notes (some 21 pages), but would be provide a lot more support, in the mind of the casual reader, for the author's arguments and interpretations than the lists of citations, references and sources.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

D-squared Digest -- A slightly overweight thirtysomething without a good word for anyone

D-squared Digest -- A slightly overweight thirtysomething without a good word for anyone via Crooked Timber

An well-written, insightful look at the recent killing of an innocent suspect by police in London from the business school perspective.

Live UI Editing

Some language communities (CommonLisp is probably the largest, most obvious example) are used to incremental development, live updates, online bug-fixing and the many other benefits of a language with a REPL.

Mike Austin is currently working on bringing some of this style of development to the GUI arena with his work on Live UI Editing. Hopefully he'll release a demo in the not too distant future.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

No Thru Road!

I've been playing with hs-plugins, trying to get a version of my generated propositional calculus code working as a dynamically loaded plug-in. I've run into some difficulties with the type signatures of the plug-in API, a concrete plug-in, and the plug-in user.

I've tried using existentially quantified constructors as well as the more usual with class-constrained type variables, but I haven't been able to make any progress. If I can't manage to resolve the problem, it looks like I'll have to find another approach, perhaps by building an executable for each calculus (though that would suck as it'd have to compile everything, from scratch, for each and every calculus to get it to type-check).

Worrying.

If I can get it to work, I'll have an alpha release with support for K out as soon as possible.

Freakonomics

I'm about half-way through reading Freakonomics and, while it hasn't changed my opinion of economics, it has impressed upon me the flexibility of modern statistics. If you're dubious about the status of economics as a science in its own right, I don't think that this book will convince you one way or the other (it hasn't changed my opinion), but it is a fascinating, well written book.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

That [W] is now for "Watching" too

I've just finished watching a wonderful anime series: Someday's Dreamers. The characters are engaging, especially Yume and Angela, and the way that the apparently unrelated incidents come together to drive the last few episodes is very well done. The production values were obviously very high, with good voice acting (the Japanese, I didn't bother listening to the American), good art and animation and a gorgeous soundtrack.

The only thing that disappointed me was Inoue being the object of Angela's desire when I was expecting it to be Yume. Oh well, you can't have everything.

A very nice show. Everyone should give it a try.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Based on some of the fan fiction out there (already), it sounds like Harry winds up with Ginny in book six. It's quite lucky that I've been "spoiled" as I was going to buy it tomorrow and I certainly don't want to waste money on it if that is the direction canon is going.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Dr. Seuss on Parser Monads

Dr. Seuss on Parser Monads

Every time I see this, it strikes me as more and more amusing.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

New Books

I've just bought two new books: Freakonomics and Purely Functional Data Structures.

I'll read PFDS fairly immediately (as I'm hoping it'll help me with my honours project), but I've got a feeling the Freakonomics is going to have to wait a while.

Female Vampire Associates

I'm not sure how recent a development it is, but there certainly seem to be a fair (and growing) number of books out there with female main characters who "associate" with vampires and the supernatural. Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Tanya Huff's Vicki Nelson, Kelley Armstrong's Paige Winterbourne, Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse, the list goes on (though I can't think of any more off hand).

This type of book focuses on a female main character who is dragged into (or perhaps is already a part of) the seedy underworld of the supernatural. Some of these books (the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series for example) have a gritty, realistic edge to them: the more or less human characters are caught up in a whirlwind of violence and death managing to survive only by chance, by the sufferance of monsters, or (by the skin of their teeth) by their own abilities.

Others of this genre (the Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mysteries for example) sport a softer, less harshly-realistic look at the denizens of the night and their associates. Sporting just as many fatalities, these books offer a lighter, more accessible and more palatable read.

I've only read the first two Sookie Stackhouse books, but I found them more enjoyable, if slightly less intense, than the Anita Blake books. If you like the Hamilton, Huff or Armstrong's books, you'll probably enjoy Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mysteries.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Pietà by Haruno Nanane

Download a scanlation or go find it [yourself] on Amazon Japan.

I love Lililicious. They have done translations of some great manga and Pieta is, in my opinion, one of the best of those. If you are looking for a nice (if a little angsty) shoujo-ai story, Pieta might be worth a download.