On the Fate of Solaris

[Update: 5 Apr 2009: I see that the IBM and SUN talks have collapsed. I wonder who took this post most to heart ... ]
If IBM does acquire SUN, and the rumors on the street suggest that it will, what will IBM do about Solaris?
IBM will acquire a very skilled set of world-class [...]

Python is a subset of SETL. SETL is an extension of Python

Until an hour or so ago I thought that all that was needed to build a SETL compiler was to add “syntactic sugar” to support of the SETL operators “exists” and “forall.”
Then I realized this is not needed to write readable SETL programs, though it would be a useful extension.
Consider:

def exists(iterator, condition)
[...]

On the Difficulty of Building a SETL Compiler From Scratch

I had my first — and hopefully not last — phone conversation yesterday with Guido von Rossum, the creator of Python.
I said during the call that I was going to write a SETL compiler from scratch, and that I hoped I to finish the project by the end of this summer.
Guido said he thought it [...]

How to Build Your Own SETL Ubuntu 8.10 Linux Desktop Computer for About $250

[ First published as How to Build Your Own SETL Ubuntu 8.10 Linux Desktop Computer for About $250 on April 3, 2009]
It is recommended, but not required, that you do your work on the SETL project using a computer that you have built yourself.
See Building your own Linux Ubuntu computer using the ECS GeForce [...]

Ask For The Gift Of A Name

To a first approximation, the lower someone’s social and economic class, the more names they know.
For a proof, you need only pay attention the next time you are in a diner, a Dunkin ‘D or other coffee shop that is not Starbucks, or stop to buy food on the street, and so forth.
You will [...]

Protect and Serve

Yesterday I approached several individuals who I know wore badges as part of their work. Four work at the Federal Courhouse in White Plains, New York.[1] The others work for the Chappaqua Police Department.
After introducing myself, I said to them

Thank you for your service.

Just five words. No more, no less.
I suggest each and every one [...]