Disaster Management for Web-Hosted Data

(Technology Infrastructure Series)

In case you’re taking seriously guarantees about uptime, reliability, or backups advertised by website hosting companies, you should know that most guarantees of service are an idealized concept, especially if you use a low-cost web hosting service. Now, this doesn’t mean you should avoid low-cost web hosts. What you should do [...]

Professional Grade Typesetting with LaTeX / TeX

(Mathematical Toolset Series: TeX & LaTeX, Part 1 of 3)

If symbols, formulas, and equations comprise a large portion of your professional communication, then becoming familiar with the LaTeX / TeX platform should be high on your to-do list. With the right tools and a little practice, the relative ease of creating beautiful documents with [...]

An Open Source LaTeX / TeX Platform for Windows

(Mathematical Toolset Series: TeX & LaTeX, Part 2 of 3)

LaTeX / TeX on Windows has had the rather unfortunate reputation of being difficult to install and use. But with the quality of today’s open source tools and references, this is no longer the case, and should not be a reason to deter you from [...]

Writing Modular TeX Documents

(Mathematical Toolset Series: TeX & LaTeX, Part 3 of 3)

If you write frequently, it is likely that you have certain stock or administrative material that is included in each of your documents. You also likely spend a substantial portion of your overall effort re-writing, editing, or re-arranging material. In this situation, one of [...]

Assembly Language and Embedded Systems Development

On the Value of Assembly Language, and Resources to get you started in Digital Logic, Computer Architecture, and Assembly Language programming.

Despite advances in programming technologies since the 1970s, there are still reasons to understand and learn assembly language programming. Contrary to what one may imagine, Assembly Language is not a relic of the past, [...]

Maxima for Symbolic Computation

…By virtue of its unbeatable low cost (free), ready availability for all three major operating systems, and its raw power in all areas of mathematics and analytic engineering, Maxima is a mathematical computing package that ought to be in the toolbelt of every programmer, engineering, scientist, and mathematician.

From garden-variety algebraic simplification, polynomials, calculus, [...]

Bare Metal Programming: The C Language

…for Embedded and Low-Level Systems Development

C provides the convenience of learning one language (a significant efficiency over assembly language), while retaining the ability to target a variety of platforms — from modern operating systems (Linux, Windows, Mac) to real-time operating systems, systems-on-a-chip, and a host of microcontrollers for embedded development. And whenever you have [...]

Mathematics Toolset

…For industry or research.

Over the coming months, I’ll be posting articles as part of a series on setting up a toolset for Mathematics work in industry or research.

I’ll be emphasizing open source software. Though the primary target is the Windows PC platform (dominant in industry), I will list alternatives for Linux/Unix.

Hurling Boulders: Assembly Language Programming

… An Overview of Assembly Language Programming

Assembly language programming often evokes images of a time when real programmers hurled boulders the size of small UNIVACs. The mystique is there for those whose computer science training is primarily in higher level languages.

But programming is programming, and one language shouldn’t be much harder to pick up [...]

An Open Source Assembly Language Toolset

… for Assembly Language Programming

To get started with assembly language on your x86 box, here is a set of open source (free) toolchain elements that play well together when host and target platforms are an x86 PC running a Windows (or Linux) operating system…