IronPython cometh

Jim Hugunin, the daddy of both IronPython (Python for the .NET CLR) and Jython (Python for the Java JVM) demos IronPython.

You need a dynamic programming language. You work in both .NET and JVM environments. You want to learn one bag of tricks and use it in both. BUT you want to know that you can step out of the box and access the .NET environment in its entirity (GUIs, .NET libs etc) and the Java environment (Swing, Beans and what not) in their entirity when you need to.

One word: Python.

Randomness is just an illusion created by a point of view...

and its antipode: 'order is just an illusion created by a point of view', both spring to mind looking at this number spiral of the prime numbers. [Via Information Aesthetics].

Math isn't really my bag but I dig patterns. Figure 5 is spooky. Many many moons ago I was in Chicago, writing 8086 assembly languge routines to overlay number spirals onto time series of financial futures price data. I thought it was nuts at the time. It probably still is nuts but now it is nuts two levels further up the concept chain than I was operating at, at the time.

Nailing jellyfish to bicycles

"Pinning down the terms/phrases we want to agree on is like nailing jellyfish to bicycles. It is difficult to do, provokes strong reactions and leads to some pretty surreal moments. Our putative shared understanding is like a flotilla of wine bottle corks, bobbing on the turbulent seas. Sometimes we see them clearly, other times they disappear from view. Who knows where they have moved to now?" -- In the Beginning was the Naming Convention

Invisible spaghetti and the joy of taking things apart

Two audio versions of two previous ITWorld articles.

Also a gadget confession (short MP3).