Written by Mike James
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Thursday, 20 August 2020 |
The merge sort is an under-appreciated algorithm - yet it is neat, clever and it still has its uses. With the rise of big data, parallel methods and online processing, you can even argue that it is growing in importance. Let's take a look at how it works and when you should use it.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 20 August 2020 |
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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 21 May 2010 |
We are being offered ever more cores within a single processor as if this was as good as making the machine go faster. What exactly is the change from single to multi-core all about?
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Last Updated on Thursday, 20 May 2010 |
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Written by Harry Fairhead
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Friday, 10 June 2022 |
We take multitasking for granted now but it was a difficult technology to get right - and still is. We take a look at how it all developed and at the variations on the basic idea.
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Last Updated on Friday, 10 June 2022 |
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Written by Editor
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Friday, 28 August 2009 |
Neural networks are useful and might provide a route to an artificial brain.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 19 March 2011 |
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Non-Computable And Other Numbers |
Written by Mike James
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Thursday, 14 March 2019 |
What are the limits to computation? The computer science theory of computation can be intimidating because of its use of logic but taking a programmer's approach makes it seem much simpler. So if you want to know what a non-computable number is - read on.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 16 March 2019 |
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Peer-to-Peer file sharing |
Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 |
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing is both a technology and a legal, if not moral, battle.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 30 October 2010 |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 31 May 2010 |
A quirky look at the power supply. Why do computers need power at all and how do power supplies work. The answers are surprising.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 30 May 2010 |
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Written by Harry Fairhead
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Thursday, 28 January 2021 |
This article is more or less everything that the working programmer should know about operators and their associated expressions and, of course, the use of parentheses.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 28 January 2021 |
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Prime Numbers And Primality Testing |
Written by Mike James
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Thursday, 27 June 2019 |
Testing to see if a number is a prime or not is the basis of many encryption and security methods. It has long been assumed that there is no fast way, i.e no polynomial time method, to determine if a number is prime, but now we know different.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 27 June 2019 |
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Principles Of Execution - The CPU |
Written by Harry Fairhead
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Thursday, 13 October 2022 |
The real complexity of any computer system resides in the processor, but do you know how it works? I mean how it really works? How does the code that you write turn into something that does something? When you know how, it's not magic - just a matter of "fetch" and "execute".
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Last Updated on Thursday, 13 October 2022 |
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Written by Harry Fairhead
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Thursday, 11 May 2017 |
MP3 is just a file format for audio files but judging by the revolution in the way music is listened to since it was introduced you might think it was much more and in a sense it is.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 11 May 2017 |
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Processor Design - RISC,CISC & ROPS |
Written by Harry Fairhead
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Friday, 23 March 2018 |
When it comes to processor architecture we still don’t have a clear agreement on what sort of design philosophies should be followed. How do you make a faster general purpose processor? This is a question about architecture.
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Last Updated on Friday, 23 March 2018 |
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Programmer's Guide To Theory - Error Correction |
Written by Mike James
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Monday, 17 August 2020 |
Error correcting codes are essential to computing and all sorts of communications. At first they seem a bit like magic. How can you possibly not only detect an error but correct it as well? How do they work? In fact it turns out to be very easy to understand the deeper principles.
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Last Updated on Monday, 17 August 2020 |
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Programmer's Guide To Theory - Information Theory |
Written by Mike James
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Monday, 27 July 2020 |
So you know what a bit is – or do you? How much information does a bit carry? What is this "information" stuff anyway? The answers are, unsurprisingly, all contained in the subject called Information Theory, which, surprisingly, was invented by one man, Claude Shannon.
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Last Updated on Monday, 27 July 2020 |
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Programmer's Introduction to XML |
Written by Ian Elliot
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Thursday, 27 January 2022 |
XML is a general purpose markup language that can be used to control the structure of data. Despite the fact that many prefer the simplicity of JSON, it still has many advantages. What makes it so good?
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Last Updated on Friday, 28 January 2022 |
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Written by Mike James
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Thursday, 01 June 2017 |
Public key encryption is vital to the working of the Internet and the commercial web in particular. We look at how it works and explain the RSA system in detail.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 01 June 2017 |
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Written by Mike James
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Friday, 11 August 2017 |
You have probably heard of Quicksort but what about Quick Median? This is another of the many partitioning algorithms that work in clever ways to do things faster. Quick Median is a useful and instructive algorithm and it was invented by C.A.R. Hoare who also invented the Qucksort.
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Last Updated on Friday, 11 August 2017 |
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Written by Mike James
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Thursday, 13 April 2017 |
Recursion is often said to separate real programmers from the pack. What is it that makes it so powerful? What is it that makes it so difficult? What is the "shape" of recursion as a flow of control?
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Last Updated on Thursday, 15 November 2018 |
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Reverse Polish Notation - RPN |
Written by Harry Fairhead
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Thursday, 24 May 2018 |
RPN or Reverse Polish Notation used to be a basic of the computer programmer's world, but today it is not as well known. Hence there may be some perfectly clued up programmers who are still left wondering what the sausage is doing outside of the bun.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 24 May 2018 |
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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 30 April 2010 |
The web would be virtually unusable without effective search engines that allow us to find the information we want.
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Last Updated on Friday, 30 April 2010 |
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