Comments:"fogus: The best things and stuff of 2013"
URL:http://blog.fogus.me/2013/12/27/the-best-things-and-stuff-of-2013/
Great things and people that I discovered, learned, read, met, etc. in 2013. No particular ordering is implied. Not everything is new.
also: see the lists from 2012, 2011 and 2010
Join in on the Hacker News discussion.
Great blog posts read
Most viewed blog posts by me (20K+ viewers)
10 Technical Papers Every Programmer Should Read (At Least Twice) — My most popular post of 2011 was also my most popular of 2012 and also of 2013 — go figure. FP vs. OO, from the trenches — Really just an anecdote about where I’ve found functional programming useful over object-orientation and vice versa. For some reason it was popular for a few days — or at least controversial. Fun.js — My announcement of my book “Functional JavaScript” made the Internet rounds. Plus the whole Fun.js series as a whole garnered a crap-ton of views and some discussion. C.S. on the Cheap — My idea for a Dover-like publication run of computer science books. Scala: Sharp and Gets Things Cut — Kind of a rant about the way that Scala is marketed that came off more critical than I wanted. Enfield: a programming language designed for pedagogy — A description of a the perfect programming language for exploration. Computerists — A bit of cynicism on my part about computer “science.”Favorite technical books discovered (and read)
Favorite non-technical books read
Earth Abides by George Stewart — My favorite entry in the family of global-pandemic-centric science fiction novels.
The Invention of Morel— A beautifully written book about an island of … I can’t say without giving away too much.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley — What can I add about this books that hasn’t been said 1000 times already. A fascinating life.
Grooks— Wonderful, poems… no… aphorisms… no… sketches… no… Grooks by Piet Hein
A Gamut of Games by Sid Sackson — The book that really kicked my recent obsession with games into high-gear.
Number of books read
Number of books published
1 (with another due early 2014), plus a newsletter about Lispiness.
Number of books written
2
Number of papers read
≈ 20 (a very slow year for me in the paper department, sadly)
Number of papers read deeply
3
Language zoo additions
Favorite musicians discovered
Om, Alien Sex Fiend, The Fiery Furnaces
Favorite games discovered
I’ve discovered gaming at a late age. That’s not to say that I never played games. In fact, I’ve played my share of Chess, Checkers, Go, Risk, Gin Rummy, Hearts and Uno, but for one reason or another I never expanded much further than those staple games. However, now that my kids are getting older their drive to experience games and gaming is growing… and so goes mine. Therefore, below I’ll list my favorite games found in this year of discovery.
Board games
Cannon (PDF) — A wonderful board game with simple rules and deep complexities. A 150-year game.4
Mate— 20 cards. Perfect information. Mind games. Fun. I’m looking for people to play with via email; interested?
Hive— A game of bug-tile placement. A 150-year game.
Volcano— Not only great fun, but a beautiful game to boot. My current favorite Looney Pyramids game.
Homeworlds— An abstract game a intergalactic conquest. A 150-year game. I’m looking for people to play with via email; interested?
Card games
Super Nova— An abandoned CCG that tried to gain players at the wrong time. Reading over the rules hints at a very fun game that might one day work as a LCG.
Magic: The Gathering— As a child of RPGs and LARPs, I’m ashamed to admit that I was a snob about Magic for many years, but I’ve come to discover a very deep and fun game 20-years later. I’m a very casual player without a drive to spend spend spend and thankfully there are movements in the MtG community to support such players.
Haggis— The best two-player card game since Gin Rummy.
Favorite TV series about zombies
The Walking Dead
Favorite programming languages (or related)
Clojure, ClojureScript, Haskell, Datalog, Frink, Pure, Racket, T
Programming languages used for projects both professional and not
Clojure, ClojureScript, Haskell, Java, JavaScript, SQL, Bash, make, Datalog, Zeder
Favorite papers discovered (and read)
Still haven’t read…
Snow Crash, Spook Country, A Fire upon the Deep, Programmer avec Scheme, Norwegian Wood, The Contortionists Handbook and a boat-load of scifi
Favorite conference attended
Favorite code read
Life changing technology discovered
State of plans from 2012
Pescetarianism (redux) — huge fail (again)
Ariadne (the super-secret project) — eventually became my production rules system Zeder. Huge personal success!
More concatenative — year number two of huge failure.
Participate in the PLT Games— I was only able to participate once before Zeder took over my life.
No talks unless I have code to show — I consider this a rousing success as the few talks that I gave were code-heavy and about real projects that I was working on. I will continue this principle moving forward.
Plans for 2014
Goodbye
To my friend and colleague, whom I worked with for many years and learned so much of what I know about the art of programming — you will be missed. Rest in peace.
:F