A book titled The Digital Polycrisis by Cha’Von Clarke-Joell is aiming to equip readers “with the tools and knowledge needed to thrive in the digital age.” A spokesperson said, “In an era of rapid technological change, professionals face unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Job security, career development, and continuous learning are more critical than ever. The […]

Jonathan Land Evans released “Flies in Amber: Selected Stories” on Lulu on-line bookshop, featuring 33 stories and a 15% discount until Friday. The author said, “I’ve also now just released [again via the Lulu.com on-line bookshop] ‘Flies in Amber: Selected Stories’, which gathers together 33 short stories chosen by me from my several short-fiction collections […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Dara Alizadeh has reflected on his rowing journey, from a 13-year-old who began competing for fun to becoming a two-times Olympian. Alizadeh closed the curtain on his Olympic campaign in Paris today [August 2], finishing fourth in the men’s single sculls E final at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium to place 28th […]

Joy Eve competed in the IFBB 2023 Hurricane Bay Championships in St. Petersburg, Florida. Eve finished 16th competing in the figure masters 40+ division, and also finished 14th in the figure masters 50+ division. Related Stories Caribbean Grand Prix Pro Qualifier Postponed Lightbourne & Dears Receive Anti-Doping Bans Bodybuilding & Fitness Extravaganza Results CAC Bodybuilding […]

The John Paul DeJoria vessel is visiting the island, stopping in the East End. According to the Neptune’s Pirates website, “The John Paul DeJoria is a 72-meter former Scottish Fisheries Patrol vessel equipped to stop whaling vessels in the high seas using modern technology and a passionate and committed crew.” Related Stories Photos: 31 Abandoned […]

Warwick Academy’s Year 3 Jabour and Vallis recently had a live Skype lesson courtesy of the Catlin Education outreach programme, which offered the opportunity for students to speak to a member of the Catlin Seaview Survey expedition in the Southeast Asian “Coral Triangle” via Skype in the classroom. Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop and members of the Catlin Seaview Survey […]

Bermuda-based Catlin Group has joined forces with the Natural History Museum in London to present a major exhibition, which opens today [Mar 27], that explores the importance and beauty of the world’s coral reefs. The exhibition, ‘Coral Reefs: Secret Cities of the Sea’, includes 250 specimens from the Natural History Museum’s coral, fish and marine invertebrate collection. […]

The MoonGate Group announced the arrival of Dr. Peter Chipeta on its medical team as specialist in internal medicine and general practice. A spokesperson said, “The MoonGate Group is pleased to announce the arrival of Dr. Peter Chipeta BSC, MD, MMED to the medical team as specialist in internal medicine and general practice. Dr. Chipeta’s […]

BE Solar’s Director of Sales Joanna Frith has obtained the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners [NABCEP] PV Associate Certificate, with the company noting that she is the first woman in Bermuda to accomplish this. A spokesperson said, “BE Solar’s Director of Sales, Joanna Frith is the first woman in Bermuda to obtain the NABCEP […]

Bermuda College Technical Education Instructor Joseph Weeks has been awarded a National Energy Global Award by the international group, Energy Globe Foundation. The award comes as a result of his work and leadership on the College’s solar-powered Aquaponics Greenhouse Project, launched nearly three years ago. The project was among more than 2,500 projects from 180 […]

[Updated with video & audio] A man attempting to travel from Miami to Bermuda in a bubble that allows him to run on water was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard today [Oct 4], after reportedly being found floating in the bubble, disoriented and asking for directions to Bermuda. Athlete Reza Baluchi had planned to […]

Camiko Smith has once again qualified for the PGA Butterfield Bermuda Championship, after winning the Butterfield Bermuda Championship Local Qualifier at the Port Royal Golf Course. Eric West and Nicholas Jones also qualified for the prestigious event. Smith took a four stroke lead into the second round and shot a 2-over par 73 to finish […]

The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Owen Darrell extended his congratulations to Camiko Smith, Nick Jones and Eric West, the three Bermudians who recently qualified for the upcoming Butterfield Bermuda Championship. The Minister — who attended the qualifying event at the Port Royal Golf Course — said he was ecstatic that three talented Bermudians […]

Nicholas Jones, who recently secured his spot in the PGA Butterfield Bermuda Championships, teed off in the inaugural APGA Farmers Insurance Fall Series event at the Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx, New York. Jones carded a 6-over par 77 in the opening round, placing him in a tie for 31st. His […]

The APGA Farmers Insurance Fall Series concluded at the Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx, the first-ever event in the heart of New York City. Nicholas Jones — who just qualified for the PGA Butterfield Bermuda Championships — was back in action. Jones carded a second-round 8-over par 79, which included two […]

Day one of the 2024 Johnnie Walker Golf Classic is in the books, with Zane DeSilva, Will Hardrell, Nicholas Jones, and Camiko Smith all Division Leaders. Smith and Jones are the current leaders of the professional division after opening rounds of 2-under par 68’s. Hardrell is the open division leader after shooting an even par […]

The final day of the 2024 Johnnie Walker Golf Classic was held this weekend at the Ocean View Golf Course, with Zane DeSilva, Damian Palanyandi, and Camiko Smith all crowned division champions. Smith claimed victory in the professional division after his second round of 4-under par 66, to finish at 6-under par. Nicholas Jones was […]

Ravoshia Whaley, a Bermudian musical artist who launched her singing career in 2014, is enjoying global recognition with her new song Fashion Killa being played on popular radio stations in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The singer’s father, Devoe Whaley, said, “Currently, Ravoshia is achieving massive success and is now getting recognition with her […]

Bermudian Joanne Ball-Burgess – also known as Jo-1 – who rose to fame through East African dance show Sakata, has released a new single entitled Boom Boom Bow. The video’s description says, “What is the sound that thunder makes during a dark and stormy night? If there was a sound for a passionate, electric love, […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Bermudian motorcycle racer Aeziah Divine has signed for top British development team Microlise Cresswell Racing. The 14-year-old will debut in the R&G British Talent Cup Moto3 class in the premier national championship, the Bennetts British Superbikes [BSB]. Divine met team owner John Cresswell last week to discuss future plans, including opportunities […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Bermudian motorcycle racer Aeziah Divine said he learned plenty from his experience racing as a guest rider for Sencat Talent Team – Mortimer Racing in the R&G Talent Cup at the iconic Brands Hatch in Kent, England, at the weekend. The 14-year-old stood in for injured rider Alexander Rowan in the […]

Joseph Cechini finished 3rd in the 2024 Georgetown Prep Cross Country Classic in West Virginia. Representing Mercersburg Academy, Cechini crossed the line in a time of 17:59, he finished 37 seconds behind the winner Jefferson Regitz from Rockville who clocked 19:22, and his Mercersburg Academy teammate Ryan Du Plessis who crossed the line second in […]

Joseph Cechini and his Mercersburg Academy boy’s cross country teammates competed in the Mercersburg Cross Country Invitational. Cechini finished 3rd in the boy’s varsity 5K race clocking a time of 17:23.7. The Mercersburg Academy boy’s finished second with a combined time of 1:31:01.5. Related Stories Prunty Claims Victory At AXA Man On The Run Schindel […]

Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Sport Owen Darrell, joined the community on Saturday evening to pay tribute to one of Bermuda’s greatest musicians and educators, Professor Eddie Ming, at the Drum School’s Vegan Jazz & Percussion Gathering. A Government spokesperson said, “The event, hosted at Professor Ming’s renowned Drum School in St. Georges, showcased the […]

Former Premier of Bermuda Dr. Ewart Brown paid tribute to the late Quincy Jones, recalling that the celebrated musician and producer “loved Bermuda.” Dr. Brown said, “Meeting Quincy Jones and spending time with him was awesome. When I lived in Los Angeles, every single person I met who was in the entertainment industry recognized him […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Aspiring model Nalia Mitchell had the experience of a lifetime strutting down the catwalk at the recent New York Fashion Week Festival. Mitchell was among a handful of Bermudians who successfully applied for the Model Experience, which allowed participants to walk the runway, connect with brands and designers, share the stage […]

[Written by Stephen Wright] Asia Smith has described her experience on the runway at the recent New York Fashion Week Festival as a “breathtaking” experience. Ms Smith was among several Bermudians who successfully applied for the Model Experience, allowing participants to walk the runway, share the stage with A-List talent, connect with brands and designers, […]

25-year-old Maurice Jones has been jailed for 30 years in the UK after being convicted of murdering a father while he was pushing his young son. A statement from the Wiltshire Police said, “Maurice Jones, 25, of Gainsborough Close, Bemerton Heath, was convicted of murder and possession of a bladed article following a two-week trial […]

Port Royal Golf Course, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, made time to allow their staff to receive training organized by the Bermuda Tourism Authority. A spokesperson said, “AnchorBDA is City & Guilds certified and was created by the Bermuda Tourism Authority [BTA] to establish our own industry-recognised designation to empower residents. This designation is […]

Sloppy Joes are a go to meal around our home when we are looking for a simple, fast meal. You can take a cheat and use a product like Manwich … But that’s not really saving you all that much work as this is a simple dish. So, here is our recipe for a simple …

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So Apple isn't fighting for diversity. They're doing exactly what they appear to be doing: they're trying to keep wages down and keep their workers compliant by importing labor from abroad.This isn't about diversity. It's about exploitation. It always is Continue reading →

This ruling class of administrative state, big tech, corporations: all of these people think that they can get rid of Trump and we'll go back to normal. They're wedded to a broken system that has sold out the American people. And now they're going to try to sell out the American people and the middle class especially. They're not going to fix immigration; they're not going to fix trade deals; they're not going to break up big tech; they're not going to do any of these things. Continue reading →

FBI CIA NSA are not only spying on American citizens but also are illegally unmasking their identities to journalists who support our fascist government Continue reading →

The government deregulated the airline industry in 1978. Since that time, the basic pricing in the industry, as well as airline fortunes, have been more or less continuously on the downward slope. It has been a very long trip down.

The industry may be heading up again, though. In the third quarter of 2010, the average domestic airfare was 11% higher than a year earlier. Profits returned to the industry in 2010 behind higher prices. In some part, these higher prices were the result of the additional fees that most of the domestic carriers charged passengers for checked baggage, better seating, rerouting and so forth. Still, the industry was able to hold its higher prices.

These prices are holding because the major industry players are less enamored of discounted flying. All of the big airlines are finding ways to extract prices from industry customers. Now that airline capacity utilization is high, the industry is more careful about capacity additions. Higher prices are here to stay.

The consumer still is far ahead. Even at these higher prices, ticket prices are a bargain. In fact, ticket prices, adjusted for inflation, are 20% below the levels of 1995. The industry has continuously stripped benefits from the base product in order to save costs. In 2010, the industry added back a few of those benefits (for example, economy plus seating) for an additional charge. We may see more of that over the next few years.

1. Trailer: "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy"  Dark Horizons
2. Trailer for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy released  The Guardian
3. ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’ Trailer: Renée Zellweger Falls for Leo Woodall in Final Installment of Rom-Com Franchise  Variety
4. What's happening in entertainment news today  TODAY Show
5. ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy’ Trailer Released By Peacock  Forbes

John Pesutto chalks up a first-time victory over Jacinta Allan in latest Resolve poll  The AgeView Full coverage on Google News

1. Elon Musk’s job as Trump’s bureaucracy buster could be just the start  The Australian Financial Review
2. Elon Musk tapped for ‘government efficiency’ role by Donald Trump  Sydney Morning Herald
3. Evening News Bulletin 13 November 2024  SBS News
4. Donald Trump wants Elon Musk to slash regulations as he reveals his role  ABC News

According to the news on my radio today there are calls to make the wearing of military decorations that have not been legitimately earned punishable by imprisonment and/or a fine. Of course we must treat our old soldiers with dignity and respect their awards, but is this really a sensible use of the scarce and costly prison system?

Since I joined the Bench in 1985 the prison population has soared to its current 85,000 or so. Posing as a decorated old soldier is more sad than evil, and there is no tangible victim involved. Expose the perpetrators in their local paper for the pathetic poseurs that they are, but prison? No.

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft launched today aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Perseverance faces a hard climb, but New Horizons proves it’s worth going the distance.

It's no secret that I'm an aficionado of Lisp. It's my go to language, especially when I don't know what I'm doing. I call it research and prototyping, but it's really just playing around until something works.

We had a need for some auditing of some of our databases at work. They ought to agree with each other and with what GitHub and CircleCI think. It took a couple of weeks part time to prototype a solution in Common Lisp. It showed that the databases were in 99% agreement and found the few points of disagreement and anomalies that we ought to fix or look out for.

I want to integrate this information into a dashboard on one of our tools. I prototyped this by spinning up a Common Lisp microservice that returns the information in JSON format.

But management prefers that new services are written in golang. It would be easier for me to rewrite the service in golang than to try to persuade others to use Common Lisp. It also gives me the opportunity to compare the two languages head to head on a real world problem.

No, this is not a fair comparison. When I wrote the Lisp code I was exploring the problem space and prototyping. I'm much more experienced with Lisp than with golang. The golang version has the advantage that I know what I want to do and how to do it. In theory, I can just translate the Common Lisp code into golang. But then again, this is a “second system” which is not a prototype and has slightly larger scope and fuller requirements. So this cannot be a true head to head comparison.

The first point of comparison is macros (or lack thereof). I generally don't use a lot of macros in Common Lisp, but they come in handy when I do use them. One macro I wrote is called audit-step, which you can wrap around any expresion and it prints out a message before and after the expression is evaluated. The steps are numbered in sequence, and nested steps get nested numbers (like step 2.3.1). If you wrap the major function bodies with this macro, you get a nice trace of the call sequence in the log.

Golang doesn't have macros, but it has first class functions. It's easy enough to write a function that takes a function as an argument and wraps it to output the trace messages. In fact, the macro version in Common Lisp just rewrites the form into such a function call. But the macro version hides a level of indentation and a lambda. In golang, my major functions all start with

func MajorFunction (args) int {
        return AuditStep("MajorFunction", "aux message", func() int {
                // body of MajorFunction
                // Actual code goes here.
        })    
}

The bodies of all my major functions are indented by 16 spaces, which is a little much.

I like higher order functions. I can write one higher order function and parameterize it with functions that handle the specific cases. In my auditing code, one such workhorse function is called collate. It takes a list of objects and creates a table that maps values to all objects in the list that contain that value. To give an example, imaging you have a list of objects that all have a field called foo. The foo field is a string. The collate function can return a table that maps strings to all objects that have that string in the foo field.

collate is very general. It takes a list of objects and four keyword arguments. The :key argument is a function that extracts the value to collate on. The :test argument is a function that compares two keys (it defaults to eql if not specified). The :merger argument is a function to add the mapped object to its appropriate collection in the table (it defaults to adjoin). The :default argument specifies the initial value of a collection in the table (it defaults to nil).

The :merger function is the most interesting. It takes the key and the object and the current value of the table at that key. It returns the new value of the table at that key. The default merger function is adjoin, which adds the object to the collection at the key if it is not already there. But you can specify a different merger function. For example, if you want to count the number of objects at each key, you can specify a merger function that increments a counter.

The functional arguments to the collate function are often the results of other higher order functions. For example, the :key argument is often the result of composing selector functions. The :merger argument is often the result of composing a binary merge function with a unary transformer function. The transformer function is often the result of composing a number of primitive selectors and transformers.

In Common Lisp, it is quite easy to write these higher order functions. We can compose two unary functions with the compose2 function:

(defun compose2 (f g)
  (lambda (x) (funcall f (funcall g x)))

and then compose as many functions as we like by fold-left of compose2 starting with the identity function:

(defun compose (&rest fs)
  (fold-left #'compose2 #'identity fs))

We can compose a binary function with a unary function in three ways: we can pipe the output of the binary function into the unary function, or we can pipe the output of the unary function into one or the other of the inputs of the binary function.

(defun binary-compose-output (f g)
  (lambda (x y) (funcall f (funcall g x y))))

(defun binary-compose-left (f g)
  (lambda (x y) (funcall f (funcall g x) y)))

(defun binary-compose-right (f g)
  (lambda (x y) (funcall f x (funcall g y))))

The collate function can now assume that a lot of the work is done by the :key and :merger functions that are passed in. It simply builds a hash table and fills it:

(defun collate (item &key (key #'identity) (test #'eql) (merger (merge-adjoin #'eql)) (default nil))
  (let ((table (make-hash-table :test test)))
    (dolist (item items table)
      (let ((k (funcall key item)))
        (setf (gethash k table) (funcall merger (gethash k table default) item))))))

(defun merge-adjoin (test)
  (lambda (collection item)
    (adjoin item collection :test test)))

So suppose, for example, that we have a list of records. Each record is a three element list. The third element is a struct that contains a string. We want a table mapping strings to the two element lists you get when you strip out the struct. This is easily done with collate:

(collate records
  :key (compose #'get-string #'third)
  :test #'equal      ; or #'string= if you prefer
  :merger (binary-compose-right (merge-adjoin #'equal) #'butlast))

The audit code reads lists of records from the database and from GitHub and from CircleCI and uses collate to build hash tables we can use to quickly walk and validate the data.

Translating this into golang isn't quite so easy. Golang has first class function, true, but golang is a statically typed language. This causes two problems. First, the signature of the higher order functions includes the types of the arguments and the return value. This means you cannot just slap on the lambda symbol, you have to annotate each argument and the return value. This is far more verbose. Second, higher order functions map onto parameterized (generic) types. Generic type systems come with their own little constraint language so that the computer can figure out what concrete types can correctly match the generic types. This makes higher order functions fairly unweildy.

Consider compose2. The functions f and g each have an input and output type, but the output type of g is the input type of f so only three types are involved

func Compose2[T any, U any, V any](f func(U) V, g func(T) U) func(T) V {
	return func(x T) V {
		return f(g(x))
	}
}

If want to compose three functions, we can write this:

func Compose3[T any, U any, V any, W any](f func(V) W, g func(U) V, h func(T) U) func(T) W {
	return func(x T) W {
		return f(g(h(x)))
	}
}

I don't see a way to write an n-ary compose function. It would have to be dynamically parameterized by the intermediate types of all the functions it was composing.

For the collate function, we can write this:

func Collate[R any, K comparable, V any](
	list *Cons[R],
	keyfunc func(R) K,
	merger func(V, R) V,
	defaultValue V) map[K]V {
	answer := make(map[K]V)
	for list != nil {
		key := keyfunc(list.Car)
		probe, ok := answer[key]
		if !ok {
			probe = defaultValue
		}
		answer[key] = merger(probe, list.Car)
		list = list.Cdr
	}
	return answer
}

We have three types to parameterize over: the type of the list elements (i.e. the record type) R, the type of the key K, and the type of the value V. The key type is needs to be constrained to be a valid key in a map, so we use the comparable constraint. Now that we have the types, we can annotate the arguments and return value. The list we are collating is a list of R elements. The key function takes an R and returns a K. The merger takes an existing value of type V and the record of type R and returns a new value of type V.

The magic of type inference means that I do not have to annotate all the variables in the body of the function, but the compiler cannot read my mind and infer the types of the arguments and return value. Golang forces you to think about the types of arguments and return values at every step of the way. Yes, one should be aware of what types are being passed around, but it is a burden to have to formally specify them at every step. I could write the Common Lisp code without worrying too much about types. Of couse the types would have to be consistent at runtime, but I could write the code just by considering what was connected to what. In golang, the types are in your face at every function definition. You not only have to think about what is connected to what, you have to think about what sort of thing is passed through the connection.

I'm sure that many would argue that type safety is worth the trouble of annotation. I don't want to argue that it isn't. But the type system is cumbersome, awkward, and unweildy, especially when you are trying to write higher order functions.

It is taking me longer to write the golang version of the audit service than it did to write the Common Lisp version. There are several reasons. First, I am more experienced with Common Lisp than golang, so the right Common Lisp idioms just come to mind. I have to look up many of the golang idioms. Second, the golang code is trying to do more than the Common Lisp code. But third, golang itself introduces more friction than Common Lisp. Programs have to do more than express the algorithm, they have to satisfy the type system.

There are more points of comparison between the two languages. When I get frustrated enough, I'll probably write another post.

A comment on my previous post said,

The most difficult thing when coming to a different language is to leave the other language behind. The kind of friction experienced here is common when transliterating ideas from one language to another. Go (in this case) is telling you it just doesn't like to work like this.

Try writing simple Go, instead of reaching for Lisp idioms. Then find the ways that work for Go to express the concepts you find.

That's not at all how I approach programming.

A friend of mine once paid me a high compliment. He said, “Even your C code looks like Lisp.”

When I write code, I don't think in terms of the language I'm using, I think in terms of the problem I'm solving. I'm a mostly functional programmer, so I like to think in terms of functions and abstractions. I mostly reason about my code informally, but I draw upon the formal framework of Lambda Calculus. Lambda Calculus is a simple, but powerful (and universal) model of computation.

Programming therefore becomes a matter of expressing the solution to a problem with the syntax and idioms of the language I'm using. Lisp was inspired by Lambda Calculus, so there is little friction in expressing computations in Lisp. Lisp is extensible and customizable, so I can add new syntax and idioms as desired.

Other languages are less accommodating. Some computations are not easily expressable in the syntax of the language, or the semantics of the language are quirky and inconsistent. Essentially, every general purpose fourth generation programming language can be viewed as a poorly-specified, half-assed, incomplete, bug-ridden implementation of half of Common Lisp. The friction comes from working around the limitations of the language.