Blog
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As a programmer, I’ve written a line or two of code that includes the modulus operator (i.e. “return x % 2“). But, never have I paused to think: “How does the underlying system carry out this operation?” In this post, I limit “underneath the hood” to the lowest level (human readable) programming language: assembly. So, I’ll take…
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A wide grin formed on my face, after successfully completing an exercise (from Computer Systems a Programmer’s perspective) that required me to write C code, based off a sequence of a six assembly instructions: void decode1(long *xp, long *yp, long *zp) { /* xp stored in %rdi, yp in %rsi, zp in %rdx) decode1: movq (%rdi),…
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Like a huge swath of other millennial, I dibbled and dabbled in building websites —writing in html, css, and javascript—during my youth, but these days, I primarily code (as a living) in favorite programming language: Python. I once considered Python as one of the lower level programming languages (to a certain degree, it is) but as a I…
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How many page table entries are required given a virtual address size and page size? I was confronted with this question when reading Computer Systems from a programmer’s perspective on virtual memory management (VMM) which forced me to reread the chapter, over and over. It wasn’t until I forced myself to close the book, step away from the…
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Every day for the past two weeks, my friend’s stream of Facebook posts poured onto my timeline, engulfing my entire newsfeed with photos of him and his latest girlfriend, having such a comical time together. They can’t get enough of each other. They really can’t. They are glued at the hips. They must share every dish of food. Pictures…
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I’m pursuing a master’s degree in computer science and most of the schools I’m applying to— Seattle University, University of Washington, University of Southern California — require that I take the general GRE (graduate record examination). Although I don’t necessarily agree with standarized tests, especially the GRE, I recognize the necessity to establish some sort of bar for…
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Working the normal nine to five job leaves little time for personal reading, which is why every morning, as soon as I situate myself on the bus, I immediately rip out a book from my backpack and read. I guard this meager time like a gambler and his poker chips. Without these short thirty minute rides to and from work, I…
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My plan on completing Data Structures and Algorithms in Java by December 31st, 2016, requires changing my reading strategy. Reading technical books cover to cover, like a novel, is rewarding but inefficient and impractical. How about a different approach ? I’m applying active reading principles from How to read a book[1] and A mind for numbers: active reading by questioning author’s intention, indentifying questions author…
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I’m an early bird. I find that I’m the most productive with a little extra time in the morning, which I devote to personal development — meditating, reading, and writing. I wake, usually, to the sound of the alarm; today, though, I woke up naturally. Or so I thought. I glanced at my watch. 05:30AM. I gave…
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I’m slowly working through “Computer Systems from a programmer’s perspective” [1] , struggling every bit of the way. I stopped beating myself up about it, though. The code snippets below are in C. The first function, inplace_swap, swaps two integers. The code itself looks lacks intent but I promise you, it swaps two integers. The…