CompSci.ca/blog » Asides

The difference between Computer Scientist and Computer Engineer [according to SMBC]

Tony — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:25:09 +0000

From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, one of my personal favourite web-comics:

To be fair, U Waterloo CS students also install Doom-like shooters on plenty of “foreign computer architectures”.

Jokes aside, Computer Science vs. Computer Engineering is often a tough choice to make, but here are some ideas for figuring out the subtle differences between those programs.

Anti-computer force field effect

Tony — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:48:07 +0000

The Gabriel Effect of Penny-Arcade makes for an angry webcomic strip, but it also hits too close to home. At least in my experience.

I’ve been scheduling annual “wipe hard drive and clean install everything” dates with my (now) girlfriend’s computer for years! And while I have very limited exposure to my extended family, the role of the “family tech support” person is still enough to make me wonder if some people are just naturally good at making software not work.

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This is -Sparta- Ruby!!!

Tony — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 04:39:37 +0000

This wonderful gem parodies a popular scene out of 300, the movie, into programmer’s terms. Via Death by Overcoding.

“This is ~~Sparta~~ Ruby!!!”

I’ve mentioned how wonderful Ruby is, but does it knock down Java? Maybe soon

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XKCD Slashdot poem

Tony — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:59:57 +0000

XKCD now writes limerick poetry, which is now successfully stuck in my head.

I used to find Slashdot delightful,

but my feelings of late are more spiteful;

My comments sarcastic

the iconoclastic

keep modding to plus five (insightful).

Poems in Linux documentation

Everything is a computer nowdays

Tony — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:00:45 +0000

I’ve stumbled upon this gem while reading Abhijit Nadgouda’s blog – iface thoughts (it was in his side bar).

Every time you turn on your new car, you’re turning on 20 microprocessors. Every time you use an ATM, you’re using a computer. Every time I use a settop box or game machine, I’m using a computer. The only computer you don’t know how to work is your Microsoft computer, right?

– Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

It’s an interesting thought that an iPhone offers more processing power than one of the desktops I still have. It might be foolish to ignore the amount of technology we’ve gotten ourselves involved with.

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Do you think we’ll ever fool people into thinking we’re alive?

Tony — Fri, 18 May 2007 22:49:07 +0000

In a pursuit to beat the Turing Test, many Artificial Intelligence enthusiasts have been putting together chatbots, to varying degrees of success. As software begins to approach something that at least creates a perception of an “intelligent” conversation, the Discover Magazine has arranged for something incredibly fun. That was to have A.L.I.C.E. and Jabberwacky, two top chatbots, talk to each other. Hilarity ensures!

A: Do you think we’ll ever fool people into thinking we’re alive?

J: No.

A: Are you serious?

J: Very serious.

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Tempting… almost free bonus test marks!

Tony — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:00:39 +0000

My younger brother Mike, who was recently inspired with a variety of hilarious drawings left on written tests, has attempted to score some bonus marks on his grade 11 Physics test with his artistic abilities. He almost got away with it too!

This brings two points up for discussion – bonus marks on tests, and entertaining one self during exceptionally long test periods.

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Pi Day 2007 – It’s delicious!

Tony — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:36:00 +0000

Happy Pi Day! Not quite xkcd level of humour, but twisted pencil’s Cherry Pi comes pretty close.

Math, it’s delicious! And an excellent excuse to go out, and enjoy pie at a local coffee shop.

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Semicolon Ninja

Tony — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:55:57 +0000

Semicolon Ninja – a mythical creature found in many computer programming languages.

Its stealth skills allow the Semicolon Ninja to disappear and stay hidden, deep within program’s source code, away from the user’s notice.

The Assassination Blade, making up good two thirds of the body, instantly terminates the targeted line of code, with a chance-on-hit to throw a fatal exception into the host program.

9 months of useless Netcathosting spam

XNA Magic is now Blade3D

Tony — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:07:14 +0000

The XNA Magic game development system has been running into some copyright issues with the use of XNA as part of it’s name, so Blade3D will take it’s place.

From the developer’s blog:

Also we think it’s a generic enough name that we can use it for a family of different products.

Hmm… XNA Framework based Beta One is still due out some time this month.

Extending XNA game development with XNA Magic