Jeffrey Shallit on Ken Iverson - 2004

Just thought I'd let you know I've posted Jeffrey Shallit's unbridged talk at Ken Iverson's memorial in Toronto in 2004.

And for the pundits among you... I'll have you know that the full version of the 1974 Origins of APL video has had 3,502 plays to date. Who would have thought!


Jaffrey Shallit @ KEI Memorial

Catherine | MySpace Video

To read more about it see my blog.

APL Insights

At Play With J: 2nd edn.

The second edition of At Play With J, collected from Eugene McDonnell’s columns for Vector, has been published at Lulu.com.

Here in one volume are Eugene McDonnell’s 41 excellent articles published between 1993 and 2006. They form a series of straightforward but profound mathematical investigations which are not only entertaining but expand the mind.

The classical tradition founded by Fermat and Gauss mystifies the mathematical art by concealing the way in which the investigator found the solution in the first place. Trainee researchers will gain reassurance from the fact that the author does not shy away from expressing perplexity and puzzlement along the often rocky road to a solution. As such it constitutes a unique masterclass in how to do mathematical research.

The second edition has been produced by a team of J experts, revising and reworking the examples to correspond to best practice with J 6.02. With prefaces by Roger Hui and Chris Burke.

The first edition reproduced the original Vector articles with only minor amendments. But J evolved over the many years during which McDonnell wrote his column, and in the latest version of J not all the examples work as they were given. The first edition is of largely historical interest.

Kx, Kbd+ User Group Meeting NYC Dec 2009

I had a wonderful time at the Kdb+ User Group Meeting last week in NYC.

Remember this guy? He was there... Simon Garland!

The stories from the trip are still coming out on the blog and the photos are posted in Flickr !

Grammar for pandas

In the latest J-ottings column, just posted to Vector, Norman Thomson mixes it with pandas, shoots and leaves. See Punctuation and rank

Graduation of mortality

Just posted at Vector: Jan Karman starts a series of articles on financial mathematics in q with Graduation of mortality

Combining far faster

In a new article posted at Vector, R.E. Boss harvests new insights from generating combinations faster in J.