Manipulation of dates & times has always been a thorny problem in programming, one that gets trickier the closer you examine it. Thus it's not surprising that programming languages don't always get it right first time. Take Java, for instance. The original Date class from java.util, had numerous issues. The Calendar class added to that package in version 1.1 offered some improvements while bringing its own problems, such as a confusing API. Things didn't improve further (in the standard lib...

I meant to finish writing this up nearer to the start of academic year. As it is, we are nearly at the end of the first term of teaching. Yet I still feel moved to write about some of the changes I've recently made to my workflow. Previously, I had settled on a disparate collection of tools to help me with various aspects of preparing and delivering teaching: Google Slides for lecture materials; Sphinx, then later Hugo, for generating websites of exercises or other supplementary material; and t...

I wrote previously about my successful effort to revive an old MacBook Pro by putting Linux Mint on it, but one thing I didn't mention in that post was the fact that this machine was also a victim of the infamous 'Staingate' issue, wherein the screen's anti-glare coating delaminates and wears away. The opportunity to get the screen replaced for free by Apple lapsed years ago, before the damage had become noticeable, and paying a hefty sum for a new screen on this very old machine made no sense ...

I have an old MacBook Pro. I forget exactly how old, but I think I got it 11 or maybe 12 years ago. Anyway, it made way for an M1 MacBook Air a few years back, after which my use of it rapidly dwindled. It might have remained on a shelf in my study, gathering dust, but for the demise of my ancient Linux desktop PC. To give you an idea of just how old this machine was, it originally ran Windows Vista (remember that?) before it was repurposed to run various releases of Ubuntu over the years. When...

I've been a voracious reader since childhood, but lately I've experienced lengthy periods where I've struggled to find the motivation to start a new book, or to finish one I've already started. The rate of consumption has fallen below the rate of acquisition, with the result that the virtual pile of unread titles has been steadily growing in size. The other day I decided to make a concerted effort to shrink that pile, starting with Josiah Bancroft's The Hexologists. I devoured it in just 3 days...

My previous post talked about a bug that I'd discovered in Kotlin's new K2 compiler. I dutifully filed a bug report in the Kotlin issue tracker, and the bug is now under active investigation as issue KT-68521. Unsurprisingly, the issue has been given a priority of Major, and it looks like a fix has been targeted for version 2.0.10. That sounds like it could be some way off, if all of those intermediate point releases 2.0.1 through 2.0.9 are to be public releases. Perhaps some of them will be in...

A few years ago, I gave programming language Kotlin a try, liked what I saw, even taught it for a short period as part of a course on Android mobile app development. Then, for various reasons, I put it to one side. The recent release of Kotlin 2.0.0, with its brand-new K2 compiler, prompted me to revisit the language and get reacquainted with it. But it seems I may have uncovered a bug in that shiny new compiler. The issue concerns properties in classes. A property is essentially an abstractio...

I've been a fan of Canadian rock band Rush since my early teens. Some older die-hard fans get a bit snooty about the band's very keyboard-driven mid-period, but I'm not one of those people. I'm especially fond of their 1985 album Power Windows, and, in particular, the track "Territories". Recently, I found myself thinking once again about this track, specifically about its lyrics. In these very uncertain times, blighted by horrific conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, drummer & lyricist Neil Pear...

Blogging and I have had an off-and-on relationship. I tried Blogger for a while, back in the day, and later on the more minimalist Silvrback. I even dallied with self-hosting a little, experimenting with the static site generators Pelican and then Hugo on my own website. For whatever reason, none of it stuck. I'm not so naïve as to think that the reasons for this are merely technological. They obviously have a lot to do with motivation, state of mind, etc. On the other hand, I find myself us...