Archive:January, 2009

Blocks: Coming to Objective-C Soon

 

From Mikeash.com:
I’m talking about a new addition to the language being created by Apple which adds anonymous functions to the language.
The uses and implications of this weren’t immediately apparent to me, but my interest was piqued as I continued reading the article.  Mike is quick to point out that anonymous functions would allow developers to [...]

Merry Christmas

 

I’d just like to wish all my readers a safe and relaxing holiday over the next week. Hopefully you will get to spend it with friends and family!
I thank everyone who’s supported this blog over the years. May we enjoy several more!

Ecto 3 Released

 

After what has seemed like years of development, I’d like to congratulate Illuminex software on the release. It’s a polished release and a significant update to the old 2.x version. I’ve been using the beta for roughly 6 months or more and love it, so if you’re looking for a a great way to manage [...]

Genetic Algorithms

 

For the final installment in the Biologically Inspired Computation series, we’ll be taking a look at genetic algorithms.
Theory
From Wikipedia:
A genetic algorithm (GA) is a search technique used in computing to find exact or approximate solutions to optimization and search problems. Genetic algorithms are categorized as global search heuristics. Genetic algorithms are a particular class of evolutionary algorithms (also known as evolutionary computation) that use techniques inspired by evolutionary biology such as inheritance, mutation, selection, and crossover (also called recombination).
I even took [...]

Back Propagation Neural Network

 

For the third installment in the Biologically Inspired Computation series, we take a look at a more complex version of neural networking (as compared to our last installment where we investigated a Hopfield Network).
Theory
Essentially, we are running a network that we can train to recognize data, or solve a problem. We do this by giving [...]