benkant

> Perhaps a mathematical model of computation might help, of computable functions and Kolomogorov/Solomonoff program length to compute them. Using this model, the search space of functions increases exponentially with program length - but at what rate would the number of "interesting" computable functions increase? And with what density (with respect to the search space, i.e. how hard they are to find)?

Like AIXI?

http://www.hutter1.net/ai/aixigentle.htm

Make sure you give RocketPants a look:

https://github.com/filtersquad/rocket_pants

Ah, finally. I found that site a while ago, didn't bookmark it and couldn't find it again.

Thanks.

Any others that are similar?

> Do you have plans to incorporate recurring charges as well?

Yep.

K&R is the bible. It's short and sweet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language

Statistics and probability don't directly relate to anything in TADM from what I can recall. There's not much to the maths beyond high school stuff. Some discrete maths will help though. Graphs theory, trees and functions especially. Schaum's Outline of Discrete Mathematics is decent.

Obviously Skiena's book is in C- so be somewhat familiar with it. Again no need to go crazy deep into C before you start. You can learn as you go.

I'd recommend just diving in and using other resources as references if you come across anything you don't know, rather than spending too much time working though "pre-requisites".

Stay in school, it's not much time in the scheme of things.

> People could care less

I love to be that guy, and I think you mean "couldn't care less".

Interesting. Which department/group are you doing this in? It doesn't seem like the type of PhD you'd usually do in CS.

s/programmer/web developer

And even then it's a stretch.

I currently recommend "Python the Hard Way". I learnt using the MicroSoft BASIC manual that was around circa 1986 and I turned out ok.

There's a decent collection of resources at Google Code University:

http://code.google.com/edu/parallel/index.html

Thanks for pointing that out. I figured there was some sort of visa concession as a result of the FTA but didn't know what it was. You made my day.

Savitch's Absolute Java is reasonable, if a bit expensive.

I found it a tad verbose and slow, but there's many worse. There's a joke in there somewhere.

The motherboard was inside with the fan sticking out a hole I cut in the top. The PSU and disks were sitting naked on top.

Yes, it happens. Though I'm probably not the best example- I can't say I ever really had much use for shiny.

For the longest time I had a crappy K5 based system with 64Mb of RAM running Slackware when all my friends had Pentium 2's and whatever OS ran Quake at the time.

Oh, and I used a pizza box for the "case".

Whatever works for what you're doing.

I will admit though, I lusted over an SGI O2.

I just sent something to them regarding this as a student. I planned on using github this semester but I'm worried about having my code copied. I'm assuming they provide private repos for students? I'm not sure how successful I'd be getting professors to use github if they already have their own process. But I'd like my code in source control even if I end up submitting the final product some other way.

> The source would be great for the people looking for evidence of who wrote it and what their intentions were, but that is about it.

I think that's more the point than attempting to use it, which like you say, is not really feasible or even useful.

You probably should have asked that question rather than the one you did.

Why do you say that?

I just finished The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov which is a similarly sobering take on the effects of social media and technology in general on authoritarian governments.

I can't summarise it anywhere as well as this link can:

http://www.amazon.com/Net-Delusion-Dark-Internet-Freedom/dp/...

If you believe that technology is inherently ethically neutral or that the use of social networks will necessarily produce a net-increase in democracy or freedom, perhaps it's worth reading for some balance.

Don't read everything you believe.

I had to unfollow a bunch of people on Twitter because they kept posting articles and blogs about how technology was being used to "help the plight of the Egyptians". You know, rather than articles about the plight itself.

At a guess I'd say that's what happens when you click 'more' on a page that's too old for 'more' to mean anything in that context.

Off-topic but why do you have a donate link on your site that goes to PayPal? What are you offering?

It's "The Mythical Man-Month".

Which makes sense given the content of the book.

My problem is not a dearth of maths books, it's a dearth in effort of reading the ones I have.

Definitely. Down here in Australia, even before the mining industry boom, there was always a shortage of GIS developers.

I did ArcGIS development for a few years, and some other ESRI development before ArcGIS was a twinkle in MapObjects and ArcIMS's eye. I've never seen anyone skilled in those technologies wanting for work.

Plenty of contracts to, which can be quite lucrative once you've got some experience under your belt.

I could go on...

I read this wondering why it's news. I'm certain this has been done numerous times before. Unfortunately I don't have any links to back that up.

That'd be... because he's a vagrant.

It's in both the book and the movie.

I watch the movie often.

+1 for Screenflick. It's great.