Print Story You may not like Tate's methods, but you've got to admit she's a real nice kid
Software
By jacob (Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 01:42:27 AM EST) (all tags)
Would anybody mind if I posted an extra PFC? I know it's not my turn or anything, but I came across a really nice problem I think people might want to take a crack at. I know I should just wait my turn but I'm impatient.


New quarter, new classes. I've started taking a computational linguistics class that looks promising -- the professor is a big C++ fan but freely admits he's not very versed in the variety of available PLs and is willing to let my try to convince him that Haskell is a better choice for the sort of algorithm  he wants to write. That's good, I'd much rather spend the quarter learning more about programming in Haskell than reminding myself how to program in C++.

I've also started a denotational semantics/lambda calculus class, finally getting my hands dirty with the nitty gritty details of a subject I've been circling around for years now. Seems a good thing to do.

In a couple hours I'll be going to a networking class, my first formal introduction to the topic (though I've learned a whole lot about it on my own). I really like the professor of that class, so I think it's going to be good, but we'll see.

A friend of mine's father nearly died yesterday morning because he had an allergic reaction to something that caused his whole face to swell up blocking any air from getting to his lungs. Luckily he got to the hospital just in time and they were able to pump him with air and give him something to make the swelling go down. This was all totally out of the blue, and had he been 5 minutes later to the hospital he'd almost certainly be dead. Remember to call the people you love and tell them you love them.

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You may not like Tate's methods, but you've got to admit she's a real nice kid | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
PFC by sL1mB0y (3.00 / 0) #1 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 01:49:50 AM EST
Is good idea, something to actually do at work!

Lemmy loves you




PFC by TPD (6.00 / 1) #2 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 02:01:11 AM EST
POST IT!
POST IT NOW!


Rock Hard Abs are just a sw-sw-swivel away!


duxup by Rogerborg (3.00 / 0) #3 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 02:18:39 AM EST
I love you.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.


PFC by komet (3.00 / 0) #4 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 02:19:57 AM EST
I forget: who's turn is it anyway?

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<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.


I don't remember by jacob (3.00 / 0) #5 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 02:40:04 AM EST
It was a long time ago.

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[ Parent ]

seriously by jacob (3.00 / 0) #6 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 02:43:21 AM EST
I was mainly asking to see what you thought of the matter. I'll only post if you don't mind.

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[ Parent ]

go ahead by komet (3.00 / 0) #7 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 03:07:15 AM EST
FUN is the operative word.

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<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.
[ Parent ]

PFC revival by tmoertel (6.00 / 1) #8 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 04:53:22 AM EST
The once-thriving PFC community mostly dissolved with the K5 exodus, especially since many of the regular PFC contributors left K5.  I also think that overly-complicated challenges were keeping people from participating.  Not everybody has more than a few hours to write up a submission.  Further, the overhead of running a PFC was becoming burdensome.  I know that I spent about ten hours judging the last PFC I organized.

That said, there was a lot of fun in PFC.  If we could factor out the bad parts and focus on the good, we could probably revive it.  Just a bit more organization may be all that's needed:

Anyway, I still have the pfc-announce mailing list, and there are about 60 people signed up.  If a few people here are interested in helping me do some of the organization, let's give the revival a go.  I'll send out an announcement after we finish our initial round of "let's figure out what to do."

 Thoughts?

--
Write Perl code? Check out LectroTest. Write markup-dense XML? Check out PXSL.



it's annoying to have to escape code for posting.. by TPD (3.00 / 0) #9 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 09:49:48 AM EST
if the home was to become Husi, why not just have users post their entries into the file section (with a link) - and would also allow them small bug fixes etc up to end time without tediously long reposts etc.

I agree about the size of task (at least to some extent) though if enough challenges were being posted I would have thought there was still a place for the occasional larger problem in there as well.

Judging... After hosting a PFC I must admit I found this fairly daunting, personally I think this is the place where you need to do some pooling. What exactly is the best way to achieve this I'm not sure. Possibly just have a few people go over different entries and post there thoughts to the judge.

Rock Hard Abs are just a sw-sw-swivel away!
[ Parent ]

Link by komet (3.00 / 0) #10 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 10:15:26 AM EST
would you consider linking to this diary, where the poll shows most people want to invest no more than half an hour in solving the PFC (I don't know whether they mean 30 real minutes or 30 programmer minutes, which as we all know are about 3 hours)

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<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.
[ Parent ]

Done. (no text) by tmoertel (3.00 / 0) #11 Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 11:08:03 AM EST

--
Write Perl code? Check out LectroTest. Write markup-dense XML? Check out PXSL.

[ Parent ]

You may not like Tate's methods, but you've got to admit she's a real nice kid | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback