Links for 2021

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 is here! It took six years, but my favourite little computer has finally been upgraded. It's not as jaw-droppingly cheap as it used to be, but $15 for a quad core Linux server still catches my imagination. Mine is still in transit, more to come when it arrives.

Python version 3.10 is here! It's not a huge release, but solid, building on the new parser introduced last year in 3.9. From that has come my favourite change: the improved syntax error messages, brilliant for those of us teaching kids during a COVID lock-down. The banner feature is structural pattern matching - it's like a switch statement, but more. Much more. Performance has also had a nice bump! About 20% better than 3.9 for a simulation I like to test with.

Auckland is under COVID-19 lock-down, so my home office is infested with children. My nine-year-old just demanded that we edit a video and add a voice-over. We found OpenShot, a simple Open Source editor. She finished her project alone after only a little setup help, leaving me to get back to actual paid work. Well worth a crack.

"I’m pretty sure, I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure if you die, the cancer dies at the same time. That’s not a loss. That’s a draw"
Norm Macdonald (1959-2021)

An Australian gentleman re-creating an astronomical computer from 200 BC is unexpectedly fascinating.