http://uwmike.com Hacker, Engineer, Dancer, Gentleman Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:54:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://uwmike.com/articles/2009/06/06/t9-words/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2009/06/06/t9-words/#comments Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:54:36 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/?p=568 http://uwmike.com/articles/2009/06/06/t9-words/feed/ 2 http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/01/22/browser-data-push/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/01/22/browser-data-push/#comments Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:38:39 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/01/22/browser-data-push/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/01/22/browser-data-push/feed/ 6 http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/07/08/open-social-network/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/07/08/open-social-network/#comments Sun, 08 Jul 2007 20:15:34 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/07/08/open-social-network/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/07/08/open-social-network/feed/ 6 http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/06/10/conch-shell-clock/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/06/10/conch-shell-clock/#comments Sun, 10 Jun 2007 08:39:03 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/06/10/conch-shell-clock/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/06/10/conch-shell-clock/feed/ 3 http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/03/22/prettify-bookmarklet/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/03/22/prettify-bookmarklet/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:45:29 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/03/22/prettify-bookmarklet/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/03/22/prettify-bookmarklet/feed/ 0 http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/02/14/parallelism/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/02/14/parallelism/#comments Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:18:58 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/02/14/parallelism/ All that said, I don't know what the next major conceptual shift will be, but I bet that it will somehow be related to the management of concurrency. As programmers, we have been notoriously bad at thinking about lots of things happening simultaneously, and soon our everyday computers will have 32 cores. From a recent interview in Technology Review, [part 1](http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=17831) and [part 2](http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=17868). In contrast ...]]> http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/02/14/parallelism/feed/ 0 http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/01/08/javascript-visualization/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/01/08/javascript-visualization/#comments Tue, 09 Jan 2007 03:40:51 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/01/08/javascript-visualization/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/01/08/javascript-visualization/feed/ 4 http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/25/elevators/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/25/elevators/#comments Wed, 25 Oct 2006 17:26:30 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/25/elevators/ It's a really interesting question, though. Legend has it that [SimTower](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimTower) had its origins as an elevator simulation, but then the SimTower elevator cars have that bizarre property that they can pass each other in a single shaft. I've heard explanations that each "shaft" represents a 15-deep bank of elevators, but that would require each condo and office to also be a group of 15, which in turn messes with all the other money- and people-scales in the game; ultimately, I think it's easier to treat the elevators as fantastic and the game rules as highly abstract.]]> http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/25/elevators/feed/ 0 http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/17/co-dependent-parts/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/17/co-dependent-parts/#comments Tue, 17 Oct 2006 06:46:47 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/17/co-dependent-parts/ Think about the overall goal, then **start by writing the smallest subset of it that does anything useful**. If it's a subset, you'll have to write it anyway, so in the worst case you won't be wasting your time. But more likely you'll find that implementing a working subset is both good for morale and helps you see more clearly what the rest should do. I found this interesting simply because it has been my strategy for tackling our Realtime Operating Systems project this term. No individual piece of the project is particularly difficult, but it *is* a little tricky to map out a plan for incrementally developing it. It's obvious that certain auxiliary things can be bolted on later, but the majority of the assignment has to be in place before it does much of anything at all. My approach? Get the major bits running in entirely separate, proof-of-concept programs. One group member is implementing a simple text parser, another the IRQ system, and I'm working with the final person on the switching stuff. There will still be an awkward moment when these parts have to be glued together, but at least each component will be known to function correctly on its own.]]> http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/17/co-dependent-parts/feed/ 0 http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/04/empyrean/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/04/empyrean/#comments Wed, 04 Oct 2006 19:23:37 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/04/empyrean/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/04/empyrean/feed/ 0