February 2008

published: Wed, 13-Feb-2008   |   updated: Fri, 5-Aug-2016

Here are the articles that were published in February 2008.

Red-black trees (part 1)

After my few recent rants, I need to cleanse myself with some hardcore algorithms and data structures. That's what you're here for, right? Read more..

Smackdown! The worst computer book

So, a couple of days ago, when I gravely pronounced Data Structures and Algorithms Using C# by Michael McMillan as the worst computer book I'd ever read (or, more accurately, partially read, for I no longer have the spare neurons to destroy in reading it all), a friend swiftly came back with, are you sure? Well, duh, nitwit, yes I am, didn't you read the three previous posts? He then sent me a PDF of another book, smacked me across the face with a virtual gauntlet, and challenged me. SMACKDOWN! Read more...

Car accident? Or train wreck?

...what's the difference?

Last night I read some more of Data Structures and Algorithms Using C# by Michael McMillan, but this time I wasn't reading in depth, instead just skimming over the material. Through it all, my emotions veered from a horrified awe (the old "look at that car accident" syndrome) to anger. Read more...

Look! Car accident!

Let me apologize in advance, but I just couldn't help it. You know the way traffic slows down to look at the aftermath of an accident in the other lane? Well, that's me with Data Structures and Algorithms in C#: I just had to go read another chapter last night. Well, my reasoning went, that  chapter on basic sorting could have been the exception, not the rule. Surely I should just check another chapter to make sure? It would be the honorable thing to do, right? So, I got my flashlight, made a tent under the bed covers so no one could see me, and started reading. Read more...

C# Algorithms Book Review

This week Amazon delivered to me two new algorithms and data structures books. The first, Purely Functional Data Structures by Chris Okasaki, is going to take some in-depth perusing, because I'm still not very familiar with functional programming (I'm following Dustin Campbell's series on F# avidly, though). But the second, Data Structures and Algorithms Using C# by Michael McMillan is a different kettle of fish: it's in C#, which I know very well — along with the .NET Framework — and it's about some very familiar data structures and algorithms. Read more..

Backup Strategy

Ever since I built my Ultimate Developer Rig (UDR), I've been rethinking my backups: what to do, when to do them, which risks are acceptable and which are not, and so on. In an effort to help others, I thought I'd explain what I've decided on and why. Read more...

Lewis

Last night I finished watching the first series of Lewis, a continuation (or perhaps offshoot) of the Inspector Morse series. It is five years after Morse died and Sergeant Lewis is now an Inspector in his own right and has returned to Oxford to take up his duties again. Read more...

UDR Software Install

One thing I didn't touch on in my previous post was what I installed on my new Ultimate Developer Rig. Read more...

Ultimate Developer Rig

I sometimes joke with friends, when something goes wrong with some arbitrary bit of equipment, that I do software, not hardware. This past weekend I've been putting that axiom to the test, nay, perversely stressing it, by building my own desktop PC. Read more...