Tag: Hackers
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Coming soon: RISCYFORTH
When I was much younger FORTH fascinated me as an alternative interpreted language for the Z80 eight-bit processor machines I was typically using. Compared to BASIC – the language that the Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and Spectrum came with – FORTH was reputedly lightening fast and very powerful. My brother and I even obtained a tape…
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Trying to work out why some people think Kevin Mitnick is a hero
For the last six months I have been spending a fair bit of time in the gym – I am getting older and I need to lose weight and increase fitness. In truth, I quite enjoy it in general, but there are moments when I want to stop just because running on the same spot…
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No (well, not much) kernel hacking on a Sunday
These days it is possible to host the Linux kernel on GitHub and their tools reveal some interesting things about the pattern of kernel hacking (or at least of kernel committing.) The “punchcard” tool shows what times commits are made. And here it is for the Linux kernel: It seems that kernel hacking is pretty…
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Breadboard 81
Not everything about computing is on the internet. Sometime around this point thirty years ago my brother and I went to a computer exhibition in London – “Breadboard 81” There are a couple of references to it findable through Google. But not much. It was a fantastic experience – but perhaps also the end of…
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Coming up… the lambda calculus
Another thing that The Annotated Turing taught me is what all those lambdas that I have seen over the last 25 years were about, or at least it introduced me to what they were about. So I have just ordered a copy of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: and I can guess that some…
cartesian product ... stuff about computing mostly 