This will be a bit of an introductory article on memory, written in part for my wife and for anyone else who may find such an introduction useful. In The Beginning… In the beginning there was RAM, random access memory. A microprocessor which could execute instructions would be attached to that RAM, which could be [...]
The other day I had to hook up some code via JSON. Having no idea what JSON is, I looked on Wikipedia. Basic data types, examples, syntax, and a link to RFC 4627 later, and I was set. Cool! I wanted to implement a hash map, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do [...]
Every computer language has what I would call an “entry point”: a set of things which you need to ‘grok’ in order to understand that computer language. They’re fundamental assumptions made about the shape of the universe which is just “off” enough that you’ll forever be confused if you don’t get them. (Or at least [...]
Security authentication relies upon three factors: what you know, what you are, and what you have. What you know: the canonical example of this is a password. It’s something you know: something you’ve memorized and, when asked, you can repeat it. This is a PIN number on an ATM card, or the answer to things [...]
I blog for a variety of reasons. To practice my writing and communications skills. To vent frustration in a safe place. For public intellectual exhibitionism. Today I blog to remember something I had forgotten. A design pattern, generally speaking, is a common pattern that we use to solve a problem. Unfortunately that observation has been [...]