Some completely useless fun with the logistic map

From time to time, I get absorbed by questions for no clear reason. This is one of these times – you have been warned.

So here is the question: can I use a logistic map to encode an arbitrary list of 1s and 0s into a single float, and generate back the series by applying the logistic map? I don’t think there is a clear theoretical or practical interest in this question, but for some reason I couldn’t shake it off, and had to do it.

Just to clarify a bit what I have in mind, here is the expression for the logistic map:

x(n+1) = alpha * x(n) * (1-x(n))

More F# Tourism: Europa F# 2014

Well, last year’s F# tour was so much fun, I figured I would try to do it again, in Europe this time. I am becoming quite fond of F# tourism: after all, what better way to discover a place than going there and meeting locals who happen to have at least one common interest – and spread the F# love in the process?

Anyways, if everything goes according to plan, I should be visiting F# communities in 7 different countries in 6 weeks :) As an aside, if you are running a meetup/user group that is somewhat on my way, have a couch I can crash on, and would like me to stop by, ping me on twitter. I can’t make promises (obviously the schedule is a bit tight already), but if can, I will.

F# Coding Breakfasts and Lunches: let's code together!

If you have ever come across my blog before, it will probably come as no surprise if I tell you that I enjoy coding with F# tremendously. However, there is another reason why I enjoy F#, and that is the Community aspect. One thing we have been trying to do in San Francisco is to build a group that is inclusive, and focused on learning together.

This is why we started the coding dojos a while back: one of our members mentioned that while he was convinced from talks that F# was a good language, presentations were not quite enough to help him get over the hump and feel comfortable coding, so we started sessions completely focused on writing code in groups to solve fun problems. This has been an amazingly fun experience.

fsibot, now 100% more Enterprise!

Let’s face it, @fsibot in its initial release came with a couple flaws undocumented features. One aspect that was particularly annoying was the mild Tourette’s syndrom that affected the bot; on a fairly regular basis, it would pick up the same message, and send the same answer over and over again to the brave soul that tried to engage in a constructive discussion.

Coding in the Age of Mobility: @fsibot 0.1 is out!

My recollection of how this all started is somewhat fuzzy at that point. I remember talking to @tomaspetricek about the recent “A pleasant round of golf” with @relentlessdev event in London. The idea of Code Golf is to write code that fits in as few characters as possible – a terrible idea in most cases, but an interesting one if you want to force your brain into unknown territory. Also, a very fun idea, with lots of possibilities. If I recall correctly, the discussion soon drifted to the conclusion that if you do it right (so to speak), your code should fit in a tweet. Tweet, or GTFO, as the kids would say (or so I hear).