I recently added type annotations to my epyc and epydemic libraries. Making these work while not sacrificing interoperability a wide range of Python versions is quite delicate.

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John Markoff (2005)

Another history of the early days of computing. The goal is to link the rise of personal computing to the rise of the counterculture and (especially) to the psychedelics of the acid tests of the Merry Pranksters. There’s some overlap in individuals, notably Stewart Brand (who makes a brief appearance in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test). But overall it seems something of a stretch: the most influential players at the time (Doug Engelbart, Alan Kay) weren’t especially counter-cultural. But the contrast between the corporate computing world and those of Engelbart and Kay – and for all their differences they share a lot of similarities – is profound, and it’s sad that in many ways the corporate side won: modern software draws on the surface aspects of Kay’s work on Smalltalk, for example, but at a deeper level is more heavily influenced by corporate needs, and that’s become even more pronounced in the years since this book was written.

4/5. Finished Wednesday 9 December, 2020.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Our paper on clustering was accepted into Physical Review E.

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Stephen Fry (2017)

Billed as “Greek myths for the 21st century”, which I think is an accurate description, both good and bad. This is clear, humorous, erudite take on the key stories without giving way to too much modernising, and with the thoughtful and witty asides one would expect from Stephen Fry.

The style does occasionally drift too far into the casual for my tastes, I have to say, but that’s a minor criticism: I certainly intend to read the other books in this series, dealing with heroic myths and the Trojan War.

4/5. Finished Wednesday 2 December, 2020.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

I recently started using git and Github in a more serious way than I’ve done in the past — and promptly started getting horrendously lost in the process.

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