Spreading the gospel of Python
On this episode: Al Sweigart is a software developer, developer advocate, and author of ten Python books. He tells Ben and Ryan why he’s such a fan of the language, why it’s a great programming language for beginners, and how it became the default for so many data science and
Read moreChris Corner: Platforms and Tools
Late last year Google made this showcase microsite The Web Can Do What!?. It’s nicely done! I like how it talks about various somewhat-recently unlocked use cases, while itself being a showcase for other rather impressive things you can do on a website (cool usage of sticky sections, view transitions,
Read moreWhy do only a small percentage of GenAI projects actually make it into production?
Only about 5% of GenAI projects lead to significant monetization of new product offerings.
Read moreApproximation by prime powers
The well-known Weierstrass approximation theorem says that polynomials are dense in C [0, 1]. That is, given any continuous function f on the unit interval, and any ε > 0, you can find a polynomial P such that f and P are never more than ε apart. This means that linear
Read moreLogarithm approximation curiosity
I’ve written before about three simple approximations for logarithms, for base 10 log10(x) ≈ (x – 1)/(x + 1) base e, loge(x) ≈ 2(x – 1)/(x + 1) and base 2 log2(x) ≈ 3(x – 1)/(x + 1). These can be used to mentally approximate logarithms to moderate accuracy, accurate
Read moreIterated Mersenne primes
A Mersenne number is a number of the form 2k − 1. A Mersenne prime is a Mersenne number which is also a prime. It turns out that if 2k − 1 is prime then k must be prime, so Mersenne numbers have the form 2p − 1 is prime.
Read moreSmall probabilities add, big ones don’t
A video has been making the rounds in which a well-known professor [1] says that if something has a 20% probability of happening in one attempt, then it has a 40% chance of happening in two attempts, a 60% chance in happening in three attempts, etc. This is wrong, but
Read moreBetween hyper-focus and burnout: Developing with ADHD
Eira and Ryan talk with Chris Ferdinandi, a front-end developer and ADHD advocate, about his diagnosis experience, the importance of accommodations for neurodivergent folks, and some advice for devs looking for the best tools and tactics for managing ADHD at work.
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