Thursday, January 29, 2004

I like this reply from Don Wagner in rec.martial-arts when asked "If you have been practicing since your teens, what motivates you to continue?": It's what I do. I like to learn new things and teach what I know to others. I like to see my students teach others and learn from different teachers. I like to hit others with sticks and stab them with knives. 11:19:38 PM

Bill Clementson has a posting about the sizes of various Lisp projects. There's some interesting sounding projects there and lots of good stuff about various Lisp projects. 10:56:09 PM

From Steve Dekorte: A programming language from Stanford University called Indie. The Indie language is an effort to provide the runtime features of modern languages, including type safety and garbage collection, without the overhead of a runtime executable like the Java Virtual Machine. The hope is this will let us use Indie in lower-level system code and other areas where (today) only C is prevalent. Some of the features are: Strict static type checking A powerful generic type system Garbage collection without a language runtime, including support for pluggable garbage collectors Integrated component interface support as a method of mitigating complexity and enforcing design patterns Multiple dispatch on method parameters Built-in constructs for pre- and post-conditions for static program verification and runtime debugging 10:51:37 PM

From Steve Dekorte: A Smalltalk for the PIC microcontroller - PIC/Smalltalk. Having recently got a PIC programmer kit this should be fun to play with. 10:44:57 PM

I was sad to hear recently that Keith Anderson, one of the hosts of the Mountain House in Taranaki, New Zealand, passed away last year. Sarah and I used to stay at Andersons Alpine Lodge regularly and Keith was the host. It is an incredible place, sitting at the base of Mt Taranaki (also known as Mt Egmont). Keith was an awesome host, always going out of his way to make sure we were comfortable. Not to mention putting up with our animals we brought with us on our trips (two cats and two rats usually). Keith was also an accomplished artist and we have a number of his paintings of the mountain and surrounding areas gracing our walls. Taranaki and Mt Taranaki was the area where The Last Samurai was filmed. 10:31:57 PM

Massive Software have been awarded with a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy Awards board of Governers for the Massive software used to generate the battle sequences in Lord of the Rings. The New Zealand Meda Design School has more details. Well done Stephen Regelous and Massive Software! 11:06:00 AM

Also, as announced at the Media Design School website, Massive Software have relocated from Wellington to Auckland and in conjunction with the school are providing a 'Massive Certification Program'. 10:47:20 AM