So here I am again. Sitting in a computer lab waiting for my lab partner to show up. On Tuesday night we have to turn in another programming assignment. I have to say though, I love this functional programming thing. It is a very different way of building code and it requires a lot more thought behind it. On the other hand there is nothing better than using a short instruction and have it do very complex things automatically. In more common programming languages it would take pages of code to do some of the things I do in a couple of lines of Haskell.
Still I wish I weren't spending my saturday here.
lördag 5 december 2009
fredag 4 december 2009
Walk the streets of Pompeii, without leaving your home.
Sometimes I look around me and realize that we have essentially caught up to science fiction. Sure we don't have big interstellar spaceships or teleportation, but we have the next best thing. Today, right this minute, you can click this link and instantly find yourself walking around the ancient ruins of Pompeii, Italy. For free! How mind blowing is that?
This is the reason why net neutrality is so important. The big media corporations hate the internet and want to turn it into interactive Cable TV. If they have their way things like this would never see the light of day. And if it did we'd be paying through the nose for it. Lets face it. The internet is no longer a fun little project for geeks. It is no longer a glorified mail service. The internet has expanded the human experience. The amount of knowledge and experiences we have access to at any time is staggering.
For the first time in history it is possible for a brittish mother to teach history to australian enthusiasts without leaving her home or day job, or a south african kid to learn to program using the same resources that the professionals use, or for you to quicly look up a topic you have been thinking of and educate yourself instead of carrying missconceptions. In short the internet is an extension of ourselves. Today we don't speak of online and offline as separate worlds. It is all one world. One world united without borders.
Governments and corporations cant stand this. It cuts into their business. They suddenly have to compete with the common man writing a blog or starting a new online service. And for the first time in history their millions of dollars cant drown out the competition. So they want to start making deals with ISP's in order to shape traffic and make it harder to find and access the common mans blog or service. This is why we have to stand up against them. Help our governments (Who through their institutions helped build the internet) see that they have to keep it open. That the big media companies (Who are mostly Johnny-come-latelies because they thought they could ignore the internet) are trying to take control and turn the internet into a closed one way communication channel again.
This turned into a rant very quickly. Sometimes we get to experience something that opens our minds and helps us see the big picture. Today I walked the streets of Pompeii without leaving my home.
This is the reason why net neutrality is so important. The big media corporations hate the internet and want to turn it into interactive Cable TV. If they have their way things like this would never see the light of day. And if it did we'd be paying through the nose for it. Lets face it. The internet is no longer a fun little project for geeks. It is no longer a glorified mail service. The internet has expanded the human experience. The amount of knowledge and experiences we have access to at any time is staggering.
For the first time in history it is possible for a brittish mother to teach history to australian enthusiasts without leaving her home or day job, or a south african kid to learn to program using the same resources that the professionals use, or for you to quicly look up a topic you have been thinking of and educate yourself instead of carrying missconceptions. In short the internet is an extension of ourselves. Today we don't speak of online and offline as separate worlds. It is all one world. One world united without borders.
Governments and corporations cant stand this. It cuts into their business. They suddenly have to compete with the common man writing a blog or starting a new online service. And for the first time in history their millions of dollars cant drown out the competition. So they want to start making deals with ISP's in order to shape traffic and make it harder to find and access the common mans blog or service. This is why we have to stand up against them. Help our governments (Who through their institutions helped build the internet) see that they have to keep it open. That the big media companies (Who are mostly Johnny-come-latelies because they thought they could ignore the internet) are trying to take control and turn the internet into a closed one way communication channel again.
This turned into a rant very quickly. Sometimes we get to experience something that opens our minds and helps us see the big picture. Today I walked the streets of Pompeii without leaving my home.
onsdag 25 november 2009
Roughly one and a half years later...
I was sitting here looking out at the terrible weather when suddenly remembered that I used to have a blog. It seems I got so preoccupied with a certain someone that I completely forgot to write.
(I'm sad to report that it didn't work out and that I'm single since about a year.) So here I am again. I'm back in school since about a year and doing ok. I've rediscovered programming in this last year or so. Functional programming in particular. There is something in the elegance of a well built function that just makes it so much more fun than the hodge-podge of code that is Java or .Net. Of course it requires quite a different way of thinking. I find it stimulating though. Anyway I'm off to school again to finish up a lab exercise. Hopefully I'll write again soon.
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