Two Bites of Data Science in K : Here are two digestible examples of data analysis using [K][]. Both cases are afternoon-scale projects I've done in the last few weeks. [K]: https://wiki.k-language.dev/wiki/Main_Page| blog.zdsmith.com
Il Bridge Sardo : In my documentation of [Mariglia](/pages/mariglia.html) I noted, somewhat in passing, that it's sometimes called _il bridge sardo_---Sardinian Bridge. Seen from above, Mariglia is a trick-taking game consisting of 2 teams of 2 players| blog.zdsmith.com
In late 2019, [I wrote about](three-shorthands.html) a new shorthand system I was designing. [Less than six months later](a-curriculum-of-current-phonetic-shorthand.html) it was in the bin,...| Subset Park
Combinatory Programming : In [Combinatory Programming](./combinatory-programming.html), we attempt to provide motivating examples for the various combinators identified as useful to everyday programmers.| blog.zdsmith.com
Combinatory Programming : ## To The Programmer A combinator is a kind of function. Specifically, it's a function that applies its arguments---and only its arguments---to each other in a particular shape| blog.zdsmith.com
Culture-Games : Every so often, someone who knows I'm avid card-player says, "Oh, I've always wanted to learn bridge!" I generally feel that I've got to dissuade them, or at least prepare them for what's ahead: bridge, despite its prominence in| blog.zdsmith.com
Culture-Games : We are now fifteen days into the year of Ulti. For the calendar year, we will play and discuss Ulti to the near-exclusion of other card games. The point, at the highest level, is twofold:| blog.zdsmith.com
An Algebraic Sketch of Poetic Form : Let's take a standard, classical haiku: > furu ike ya > kawazu tobikomu| blog.zdsmith.com
Culture-Games : I'll tell you about my plan for 2023: I want to embark on a year-long media campaign to plant the seeds of a new card game in Anglophone culture. [Previously](./on-culture-games.html) I spoke about my ambivalence towards| blog.zdsmith.com
Abba : My first major project at [Hacker School][hs] is called [Abba](http://github.com/subsetpark/abba), the Abbreviation Engine. In order to understand why Abba exists I need to backtrack a little.| blog.zdsmith.com
Designing Tie Knots by Random Walks : I'm a fan of [85 Ways to Tie a Tie][85], by Thomas Fink and Young Mao. It's an exploration of a mathematical model for necktie knots. I'll let them [explain][designing]:| blog.zdsmith.com
Mitaines : In French Canada, according to [Pagat.com][1], there's a game called [*Mitaines*][2], which means "Mittens" in French. I'm not sure when I first heard about this game, but it stuck with me. I couldn't fathom, judging from| blog.zdsmith.com
Git Patch Mode and Working With Git in Python : Today I deployed [gitp](https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/gitp), my first [Sublime Text][ST] plugin. ## Git| blog.zdsmith.com
The Rodeo Clown Theory of Personal Development : ## Prelude A year ago I didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up. I had been in the workforce since I came back to New York in 2005. I had never, blessedly, been out of a job for more than a few months, having worked as a temp, then an administrative assistant, before putting in seven years as a computer repair technician. But even within those seven years in a stable job that required at least a modicum of skill, I knew it wasn't what I ...| blog.zdsmith.com
Posical, the Positivist Calendar for Python : Let's begin 225 years ago. In the year 1789 of the conventional [Gregorian calendar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar), widespread crisis and dissent forced the Estates-General to convene in France for the first time| blog.zdsmith.com
Comparing Dates and Datetimes in the Django ORM : ## The issue at hand When working in Django, one often finds oneself with the following sort of question: *How many records were created (or updated, or posted) today (or yesterday, or last Monday)?*| blog.zdsmith.com
Thoughts on| blog.zdsmith.com
The Dark Path, or, What if I Don't Want to Quit My Job? : [Uncle Bob][], noted programming pundit, has written a strange [blog post](http://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/2017/01/11/TheDarkPath.html). It's a litany against, as near as I can tell, a certain attitude around static typing:| blog.zdsmith.com
Nim for Python Programmers : I've been spending a lot of time with the [Nim][] programming language recently. It's a great language: its principles, roughly, are to achieve the efficiency and speed of C with a much greater level of safety and| blog.zdsmith.com
Unit Testing in Nim : ## Unit Testing in Nim and Python Here's a snippet of a unittest test case that I wrote in Python some years ago: ```py| blog.zdsmith.com
Compile-Time Sort in Nim : ## Compile-Time Sort in D Michael Parker recently wrote a blog post showing how to implement a [compile-time quicksort in D][D] after Björn Fahller recently wrote a blog post showing how to implement a [compile-time quicksort in C++17][C]. It's a skillful demonstration that employs D's powerful compile-time programming capabilities to write code that, while not always useful, is quite concise. [D]: https://dlang.org/blog/2017/06/05/compile-time-sort-in-d/| blog.zdsmith.com
Digital Minimalism for the Working Hacker : Effectively speaking, I've always been a Vim user. When I got my first shell account, I started with Vim (In the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic ages of `vi`, `vim` and `neovim`, I came of age somewhere in the late Jurassic): my| blog.zdsmith.com
Sketches of Elixir : Friends, I am now at least in this respect a rare breed: an Elixir programmer who has never written Ruby. I was never a professional Erlang programmer. I cut my teeth on Python| blog.zdsmith.com
Three Shorthands : ## I The New Abbreviations Thus far I've designed and used three shorthands. The first was an alphabetic, orthographic shorthand, which I've written about in more| blog.zdsmith.com
A Curriculum of Current Phonetic Shorthand : Henry Sweet's [Current Shorthand][current][^1] is a historical curiosity twice over: once because very few people today need to learn shorthand at all or even know what it is; twice because as shorthands go, it's| blog.zdsmith.com
The Card Player's Guide to Lockdown : Card-playing, as a pastime, depends on the ability of people to gather freely, in close quarters, and handle the same objects in turn. It is not, however, utterly reliant. Playing cards together can migrate to Zoom;| blog.zdsmith.com
Some Preliminary Thoughts About a New Card Game Website : For the past month and a half or so, I've been working on a new software system for playing card games online. If you'd like to follow along it's being hosted on [sourcehut](https://sr.ht/~subsetpark/tamerlane/).| blog.zdsmith.com
A Regular Simplification of Offenbacher Schrift :  Above is a sample of *Offenbacher Schrift*, a style of handwriting designed by the type designer (and, regrettably, enthusiastic German| blog.zdsmith.com
Bagatto, a New Static Site Generator : The last few weeks I've been in a bit of a ferment of inspiration. The output of my fermentation has been [Bagatto][bag], a static site generator written in the Lisp [Janet][janet].| blog.zdsmith.com
Algorithms I'm Proud Of: Fill : > Array logic operates by a `fill` algorithm. Fill the ds with the > smaller rank to the be the same shape as the ds with the larger. I recently released---so to speak---a new project that has occupied| blog.zdsmith.com
A Specification of a Note-Taking Program : I recently watched Conrad Barski's [video introducing zek][zek], a program he wrote to take Zettelkasten-style notes on the command line. [zek]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W_m176PIdU| blog.zdsmith.com