Blog Archives

A new pseudo-random number generator for Haskell

I just released version 0.3.3 of the Haskell statistics library, which contains a very fast pseudo-random number generator. The generator is an implementation of George Marsaglia’s MWC256 multiply-with-carry PRNG, which has a period of 28222 (for this reason, it’s sometimes
Posted in haskell, open source, science

Lazy functional yak shaving in Haskell

A few weeks ago, I decided that I'd like to focus for a while on getting a 1.0 release of the Haskell text library ready. That work has gone fairly well so far. I've focused on making sure that I
Posted in haskell, open source, science

BLDGBLOG interviews Kim Stanley Robinson

Here is an absolute treat: a long, lively interview with Kim Stanley Robinson, conducted on one of my favourite blogs, BLDGBLOG. At its best (the Three Californias trilogy, Antarctica), Robinson’s writing is at once haunting and beautifully evocative of a

Posted in reading, science

The obsessionally perfect news story

Local scientists, ancient reptiles, volcanic eruptions, and Antarctica! All in one story! Really, this article was written precisely and exactly for me. In brief, a paleontologist from Berkeley (across the Bay from me) was involved in a spectacular find: an
Posted in reading, science

Book review: Doug Macdougall, “Frozen Earth”

Some time ago, I read a Nature review (subscription required) of Doug Macdougall’s “Frozen Earth“. As is the way of such things, after I ordered my copy, the book suffered several months of neglect before I finally had a chance
Posted in reading, science