Thomas Sutton

• 2013-05-08

  Programming […] has two essential parts: a technology and its scientific foundation. The technology consists of tools, practical techniques, and standards, allowing us to do programming. The science consists of a broad and deep theory with predictive power, allowing us to understand programming.

  If either part is left out, we are no longer doing programming. Without the technology, we are doing pure mathematics. Without the science, we are doing a craft, i.e., we lack deep understanding.

  — Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming by Peter van Roy and Seif Haridi

• 2013-05-04

  

  Went north of Sydney harbour for the first time this morning.

• 2013-02-24

  First Sunday in Sydney

  Today was my first Sunday in Sydney (or the first I won’t be “going home” after). I spent most of the day looking at rental properties though I couldn’t actually inspect anything. I do have a bunch of phone calls to make in the mining, though.

• 2013-02-23

  Arrived in Sydney

  A week ago I finished up working at Bouncing Orange and the last seven days have been spent disposing of furniture, shipping things I want to keep (mostly books) and finalising my lease in Perth.

  This morning at 6:30 AM or do I arrived in Sydney. I hung out at the airport until it was late enough to phone the backpacker hostel I’d booked and confirm that they did actually have a bed for me. It’s not quite what I’m used to in YHA hotels but should serve well enough for the week I’ve booked.

  In the morning I walked to Glebe to inspect a few apartments available got lease. I quite liked what I saw of the area but the properties themselves where less than inspiring: one was pleasant enough but absolutely tiny and the other gave me an impression of ill-maintained squalor in the two minutes I saw it.

  I’ve emailed a bunch of estate agents to try to organise viewings of more properties, but I’m starting think it’ll take me longer to get established here than I’d expected. Crap!

• 2012-01-09

  My Goodreads profile

  I’ve just signed up for Goodreads in the hope that their recommendations will be better than I get from Amazon. Given their general cloudiness and the adequacy of their iPhone app (the barcode scanning, in particular, is merely adequate) I think I’ll be using this now instead of Delicious Library 2.

• 2011-12-03

  Sometimes I start to believe the utopian vision of the future proposed by some technologists and futurists. Sometimes brainwashing gets a toehold and the “wisdom of the crowd ” or “democratisation of publishing” start to be more than just ridiculous mantras.

  When this happens I pop over to YouTube or a newspaper web-site and read a few comments. Cure effected.

• →

  Pascal’s Wager

  If Pascal’s Wager is best interpreted as a guide to action — the expected payoff of belief in X warrants acting to obtain belief in X — then it’s a singularly unhelpful one: many religions make claims that must be characterised as infinite payoffs so their respective expected payoffs must also be infinite and thus equivalent. So the wager provides no basis for distinguishing which choice to make but, at best, winnows the pool a little by rejecting those religions which offer more modest bribes.

• 2011-09-06

  

  Sitting on the “Urban Orchard” reading until it’s time to head to the office.

• 2011-09-01

  

  Wondering what the green thing is supposed to be?

• 2011-08-26

  

  My new place.