"To an optimist the glass is half full.
To a pessimist the glass is half empty.
To a programmer the glass is twice as big as it needs to be."
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Creator of FORTRAN Died 03/17/07
This posting will be a break from the usual silliness and semi-seriousness.
John Backus, the creator of the FORTRAN computer programming language, died Saturday, 3/17/07, at the age of 82.
FORTRAN was the first widely-used high-level programming language (i.e. normal people could read & understand the source code), invented in the 1950's by John Backus and his team at IBM, and has been in continuous use ever since. The language is well-suited for scientific and engineering computer applications like computational chemistry or climate modeling, or applications involving complex numbers.
When I was in college I took two or three semesters for FORTRAN. Out in the real world I've mainly used COBOL, but then I've mainly worked in the business world where COBOL is used extensively.
Here's the obituary article at the New York Times. A different (permanent) link to the same article.
John Backus, the creator of the FORTRAN computer programming language, died Saturday, 3/17/07, at the age of 82.
FORTRAN was the first widely-used high-level programming language (i.e. normal people could read & understand the source code), invented in the 1950's by John Backus and his team at IBM, and has been in continuous use ever since. The language is well-suited for scientific and engineering computer applications like computational chemistry or climate modeling, or applications involving complex numbers.
When I was in college I took two or three semesters for FORTRAN. Out in the real world I've mainly used COBOL, but then I've mainly worked in the business world where COBOL is used extensively.
Here's the obituary article at the New York Times. A different (permanent) link to the same article.
Friday, March 16, 2007
I Can See Our Yard
An amazing thing happened this week. I could see our yard!
You see, since early this year when the snows first came, our yard had effectively disappeared under a layer of ice and snow. And pine needles. Due to the warm weather we've had this week, it's pretty much all gone. Including the massive snow & ice pile that had been at one corner of our driveway (built for us by our friendly neighbor snow plow trucks). And with the vernal equinox coming soon, I don't think we'll get much more snow. But I hope we do. I like snow. And winter, the best season of them all.
You see, since early this year when the snows first came, our yard had effectively disappeared under a layer of ice and snow. And pine needles. Due to the warm weather we've had this week, it's pretty much all gone. Including the massive snow & ice pile that had been at one corner of our driveway (built for us by our friendly neighbor snow plow trucks). And with the vernal equinox coming soon, I don't think we'll get much more snow. But I hope we do. I like snow. And winter, the best season of them all.
Monday, March 12, 2007
The Arrival of Georgie
About a month ago we added a new creature to our family, Georgie, to orange cat. This is a picture of him sleeping. Isn't he cute!"Meow!"
Um, the cat just said "hello".
We now have four cats, three adults (Blackie, TJ and Chubbie) and the kitten. Chubbie, the only adult "male" cat, has gotten a long really well with Georgie. When the kitten is in one of his active periods, we'll often find the two of them wrestling.
Backyard Lake
We have backyard lake now!To the right ( --> ) is a photo of our backyard lake. Our backyard turns into a lake a few times every spring, and a few times every autumn.
Don't you wish you had a backyard lake?
Most of the year, we actually have a peninsula that'd been carved out by a creek. In this photo, taken today, the creek is about 1.5 - 2 feet above its normal level. It's so high because we've had a bit of warm weather (it got up to 52 today!) that's melting all our snow.
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