Alys Brooks

Now, that’s what I call Static Typing!

Wednesday, December 15, 2021 By Alys S.Brooks

Just to be clear, this is not a complete history of static typing, nor a complete introduction to the topic. It’s an explanation for why I, a programmer who likes some highly dynamic langauges (Clojure and Python), have been partly persuaded of the merits of static typing.

A complete …
read more
Review: A Short Hike (2019)

Friday, January 01, 2021 By Alys S.Brooks

Many games promise a world, and some even deliver¹. A Short Hike definitely delivers, but its world is the size of a single (marvelous, gorgeous, detailed) island.

You play as Claire, a bird who’s visiting her Aunt May, a park ranger. Claire’s expecting an important call but …
read more
Job Shortages are the Norm

Monday, August 24, 2020 By Alys S.Brooks

Since the pandemic began, there aren’t enough jobs to go around. You might be thinking that this is obvious, but many people either forget this fact or leave it out of their analysis. The graph above of the ratio of unemployed people to job openings actually shows that jobseekers …
read more
2019 Year of Freelancing in Review

Tuesday, February 11, 2020 By Alys S.Brooks

In 2019, I covered far-right extremists, spoke to LGBT activists in Puerto Rico, sold my first piece of fiction, and looked at states that actually added abortion clinics in the 2010s. The previous year of freelancing involved a lot of dusting off my reporting skills; 2019 was much more about …
read more
Analyzing Wisconsin’s Record Midterm Turnout

Friday, May 10, 2019 By Alys S.Brooks

2018 was a high water mark for midterm voter turnout in Wisconsin—almost 60 percent turned out. While that’s still lower than most presidential elections, it’s the highest midterm since at least 1948.

There’s a fairly big range between the highest turnout counties and the lowest ones …
read more
Using Graal on a Small-But-Real Clojure Application

Monday, December 31, 2018 By Alys S.Brooks

Start up delays are a drag, so I’ve been excited about Graal’s ability to compile JVM bytecode since I heard about it eightish months ago. It hasn’t helped that my language wanderlust has been pulling me toward Common Lisp and Rust, two very different languages that both …
read more
Disappointed

Sunday, November 13, 2016 By Alys S.Brooks

Reflecting on the outcome of the election, one emotion stands out.

I’m disappointed.

I’m disappointed that my country is even more divided than before.

I’m disappointed that, apparently, the best candidate the Republicans could nominate was nakedly bigoted, dishonest, and the least popular candidate for president on …
read more
What I dislike about Python

Sunday, May 22, 2016 By Alys S.Brooks

try: assert Python == great

Python is my favorite programming language. It’s easy for beginners without limiting experts, it’s fun to use, and there’s a great community of people working on it. However, no language is perfect, and occasionally I get frustrated by its limits.

Quite a few …
read more
Todoist: The Unexplained Parts

Monday, December 14, 2015 By Alys S.Brooks

I keep track of tasks using Todoist, a cross-platform to-do list tool. It’s flexible without making simple things hard, which I appreciate¹. For example, adding a task with a deadline and a tag is as simple as clicking the plus button and typing “Call landlord @telephone today”.

Since …
read more
Review: Melancholia (2014)

Saturday, September 12, 2015 By Alys S.Brooks

Note: minor spoilers for Melancholia.

In movies, Apocalypse tends to be a gritty affair. Not in Melancholia. Lars von Trier’s film about two sisters’ last days on Earth is as composed and beautiful as a movie about apocalypse could be.

In contrast to the shoestring special effects of a …
read more

Page 1 / 2 »