cstorey

We have some systems at work that use the database as a queue. I've been thinking about this a bit. So have other people.

A little Clojure configuration reader

This is a handy bit of code I've written more than once. I thought I'd throw it in here so I can refer back to it later. Basically, it lets you read a config file to produce a Clojure map. The config files themselves can contain one or more forms, each of which can be either a map or a list. Maps are simply merged. Lists correspond to invocations of extension points, which in turn produces a map, which is merged along with everything else.

An Example

Consider the following files:

names.edn

Specialization with method handles

Two canonical examples for specialization:

Function1
Tuple2

`Function1` specialization

Specializing Function1 is a lot easier because functions do not have specialized fields.

Links for essays ref'd in http://blog.fogus.me/2009/03/11/seven-books/

Mathematics: What do grad students in math do all day?

by Yasha Berchenko-Kogan

A lot of math grad school is reading books and papers and trying to understand what's going on. The difficulty is that reading math is not like reading a mystery thriller, and it's not even like reading a history book or a New York Times article.

The main issue is that, by the time you get to the frontiers of math, the words to describe the concepts don't really exist yet. Communicating these ideas is a bit like trying to explain a vacuum cleaner to someone who has never seen one, except you're only allowed to use words that are four letters long or shorter.

What can you say?

	// Boilerplate
	function objectUnion(definer) {
	var defined = 0, length = 0, isDefined = false, definitions, key;

	definitions = definer(function() {
	var names = arguments, fold;
	if(isDefined) {
	throw new TypeError('This objectUnion has already been defined');
	}
	function Ctor() {}

	#!/usr/bin/ruby

	require 'twitter'
	require 'marky_markov'

	def tweets
	block = Twitter.user_timeline("joedamato", count: 200)
	text = block.map(&:text)
	max = block.last.id
	until block.empty?

	Hello scala, my old friend
	I've come to take you home again
	Because a feature slowly creeping
	left me plagued with doubts and weeping
	and the version that was tagged in the repo
	just has to go
	it lacks the signs of soundness

	On sleepless nights I hacked alone
	applying ant and other tools of stone

	// Searching for large ModAux instances can be extremely slow.
	// See this version for a faster solution: https://gist.github.com/4108026

	import shapeless._, Nat._

	trait FizzBuzz[N <: Nat] {
	def steps: List[String]
	def show = println(steps.reverse.mkString("\n"))
	}

	@include handhelds {
	table.responsive {
	width: 100%;
	thead {
	display: none;
	}
	tr {
	display: block;
	}
	td, th {