Have you ever played chess? If yes, you already know that the queen is the most important piece and that it can move any number of squares vertically, horizontally or diagonally. If you haven’t, don't worry: today, we'll only learn how to place 8 queens on the chessboard such that no queen is able to move to a square occupied by another queen. In chess jargon, we say that the queens … Read more »
Problem solving is a hard, strenuous activity for which, most of the time, there are no fixed rules. Thus, when a book comes out claiming to provide some sort of script for problem solving, it will inevitably draw a lot of attention. It was so with Polya’s “How to Solve It”, published in 1945. But the book became a huge success–more than one million copies sold world wide–not only … Read more »
This post will tell you everything you need to know to learn how to create computer programs. Beware: it's not easy. We'll start with your mindset. Showing the right attitude maximizes the odds you'll keep making progress, and minimizes the odds you'll give up. After you read this article, you will know how to bootstrap your coding journey. Yes, You Should Learn to Code, Here's … Read more »
Some professional activities have existed for millennia. People understand the body of knowledge that surrounds the words "Physics", "Medicine", and "Law". But computer science, being only a few decades old, hasn't had time to gather its deserved mainstream awareness, besides being one of the top fields of our era. Computer science is the study of how best to solve problems via … Read more »
Our perception of quality is strongly influenced by internet ratings. We look out for Amazon reviews, movie ratings, how many stars that new game has, the reputation of restaurants in Yelp, or the "coolest" touristic attractions on TripAdvisor. Relying on the wisdom of the masses via online rating systems is a part of our internet culture. At some point as a programmer, you're … Read more »
You might have heard of palindromic sentences. You can read the letters in these sentences forwards of backwards, and they'll still form the same words. Try reading these sentences backwards: But there is another word play that is even more impressive: a magic word square. This one was very famous in ancient roman times: It's the latin expression sator arepo tenet opera rotas. … Read more »
