Gratitude Day 9: Run-Length Encoding / PackBits
I'm taking this little detour within my gratitude series because I want to explore some of the very basic algorithms that are an essential part of our daily lives, for which we have little awareness, and to which is given little thought or thanks.
Data Compression has always been a …
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Gratitude Day 8: Unsung Heroes, Human and Algorithmic
I was thinking today about some of the algorithms that shape our world today, which are largely unknown and unsung, and some of the people behind them.
Now, I do not have a CompSci degree, so my knowledge of the subject is very limited, but I thought I'd take the …
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Gratitude Day 7: The Art of Translation
A decade ago, I took a graduate course called "The Art and Craft of Translation" that really opened my eyes to just how beautifully messy and interpretive the act of translation actually is.
Like a lot of people, I had very surface, black-and-white preconceptions of what translation is. I thought …
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Gratitude Day 6: Music
I wrote about personal music libraries on Day 2, but I'm just talking about music in general now.
I think music is so commonplace and accessible that we often forget what a strange miracle it is. How would you explain music to a completely alien being that had no concept …
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Gratitude Day 5: Dates
(I mean the fruit)
I know there are all kinds of amazing tropical fruits that I've never had an opportunity to try, but among all of the fruit I have had, I think dates are the most underrated.
Incredibly sweet and just a little chewy, with a vaguely mollasses-like taste …
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Gratitude Day 4: Virtualization / Emulation
I think I first heard about emulation in the early 1990s. Some kind of magical software could make your Mac pretend it was a PC, albeit quite slowly. It was very niche and expensive software, but it allowed folks to run software designed for a completely different architecture. Black magic …
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Gratitude Day 3: Cats!!
Ok, seriously forget that supposed rule about the internet being for, uh, "spicy media." Forget that exploitative nonsense. Seriously. Call me a prude, I don't give a rip.
The Internet is for CATS. I sense that Vint Cerf, Bill Joy, Kirk McCusick, Al Gore, and the other parents of the …
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Gratitude Day 2: Personal Music Libraries
Over the past few years, I've been on a journey of migrating from streaming services to personal music libraries. I haven't yet made the jump from streaming video services to personal video libraries, but it's definitely on my radar.
I got an Apple Music account right about when it first …
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Gratitude Day 1: Text
I wanted to start this month's theme off with something pretty light and easy to write. Indeed, I've written about the beauty of "plain text" at length last year:
Without re-hashing the specifics …
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A September Theme: 30 Days of Gratitude
This morning, I briefly skimmed through a post Robert Birming blog entitled "SepThemeBear - create your own theme."
When I say skimmed, I don't think I read much more than the title, honestly. I was on my phone, and reading on my phone is not an enjoyable experience for me, as …
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