August 2020
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Although Java dominates the webservices world, there are gains to be made by considering the use of lower-level lanaguages like C, particularly in a containerized, microservice architecture. This article describes one way to implement a webservice for Red Hat OpenShift, and similar systems, using C and an ultra-lightweight container base image.
Categories: software development, OpenShift
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The Hamming bound is an important metric in the evaluation of information coding schemes. It sets an upper limit on the number of distinct codewords that an error-correcting block code can provide, for a given block length. The Hamming bound is a benchmark for the evaluation of error correction schemes used in digital data storage and communication -- a scheme that meets the Hamming bound is described as perfect. In this article I try to describe, from first principles, how the Hamming bound is calculated.
Categories: mathematics, general computing
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This article describes how to do arithmetic in a small finite (prime) field. Being able to do this is essential for the implementation of cryptography, among other things. The arithmetic isn't particularly difficult -- particularly if we use software that specifically supports such operations. However, it's illustrative to do it manually, at least for a small field. I will demonstrate simple arithmetic in the field GF(5), by solving a quadratic equation.
Categories: mathematics, general computing
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Creating stop-motion animated movies using a DSLR camera and some basic Linux tools. It won't rival Pixar, but it's something to do with your kids on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Categories: science and technology, Linux