Is GMail Snooze basically building Mind Traffic Control into your email client? Well, it’s about time Google did something radical to improve GMail. There’s still so much untapped potential in the mail-box. And at least email is an open protocol that we should defend against moving to walled rivers like Facebook and Slack etc.
Author Archives: synaesmedia
Working with the file system is too verbose. Let’s make it more like JQuery!
Working with the file system in Python is too verbose. Seriously. Every time I want to do something with files I need to remember whether it’s the `os` or `sys` library that I need to import. I need to remember or look up half a dozen other functions to grab particular bits of metadata from […]
A Replacement for PHP
I asked Quora for ideas for how a replacement PHP might look. On the whole people are not enthusiastic. Alexander Tchitchigin had an interesting answer, but which focused on the basic theme of “once we move away from PHP’s weaknesses, we might as well use any language. Which prompted me to write this comment elaborating […]
August is Patterning Month
August is Patterning month again. I’m back to work on the Patterning library. And, in particular, getting it working properly in the ClojureScript, in-browser version. I’m going to be using devcards, figwheel, spec and other good tools in the Clojure community. I’ll be revamping the site and new versions of the code. Watch this space […]
Expression in Programming Languages
Source: My Quora Answer : If Clojure is so expressive, and is basically Lisp, hasn’t there been any progress in expressivity in the last 50 years? Well, as Paul Graham put it quite well, Lisp started as a kind of maths. That’s why it doesn’t go out of date. Or not in the short term. […]
Logic Programming is Overrated
An interesting argument that logic programming is overrated The reason why logic programming is so rarely useful is that, essentially, core.logic is just a complex DSL for doing exhaustive search. Clojure already has an elegant, compact DSL for doing exhaustive search — it is called the for comprehension.
Could the internet disappear within 20 years?
From a Quora answer I just made : The protocol will still exist. But there is now a real danger that “the internet” will have been successfully enclosed by private corporations. What will that look like? 1. the end of net neutrality means that the phone companies / network providers can choose to prioritise packets […]
Languages for 2018
Bit early. But I answered a question on Quora about languages to learn for 2018. Here’s what’s interesting me for 2018 : I want to continue getting more experienced and better with Clojure. No language is perfect, but for me Clojure is the best language I’ve ever used. And I want to use it for […]
The Storage Situation
I’m back working on Android apps. And one thing that’s a pain is understanding storage on Android. But I’ve found a fantastic series of blogposts that explain the situation more clearly than anything else I’ve read. Start with Internal Storage and then follow the links at the bottom of the article.
Suzanne Sadedin's answer on Quora
Just go read Suzanne Sadedin’s answer to “What do scientists think about the biological claims made in the anti-diversity document written by a Google employee in August 2017?” It says most of what you need to know.