brainwagon

Many people use computers to exchange email or pictures, to shop, or even to program for a living. I do all that kind of stuff, but one of the most pleasurable things I do with computers is to use them to answer questions or to gain insight into problems which are too difficult for pen-and-paper […]

Today, the hash function has selected The Practice of Programming by Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike. On my shelf you’ll probably find a couple dozen reference books that are written about various programming languages. This book is one of a smaller handful that literally talks about programming: how to write clear, general, reliable programs that […]

Today’s book is Mathematical Recreations by Maurice Kraitchik. As might be evident to long time readers of my blog, I have a lasting interest in what might be called “recreational mathematics”. This is a particularly challenging thing to define, since so much of what we might consider recreational mathematics unveils deep and mysterious things within […]

For whatever reason, I have been finding it difficult to find time to blog. Perhaps it is a combination of increased amount of travel, work, or just the shorter daylight hours, but I’m finding it hard to find the muse. So, for the next little while, I thought I’d scan through my bookshelf and find […]