Took two deliveries at work today for my belated Christmas pressies (that I actually have to pay for myself). First one — all the way from the United Kingdom:
It’s Real World Haskell by Bryan O’Sullivan, Don Stewart, and John Goerzen. It was released in November 2008 by O’Reilly, which you can actually read the soft copy online. I actually have been waiting for this book to come out for a while, and would much prefer to sit down reading the dead tree version than reading on the flashy screen. I ordered it from The Book Depository from UK, which is the cheapest price I can find. For cheap books, give Booko a try — best book price comparison engine for the Aussies.
Last time I touched Haskell must have been over 10 years ago when I was still at uni. For the last 2 years I have been learning OCaml and was a little bit put off by its syntax. One new year resolution for me in 2009 is — pick up Haskell again and make something useful from it.
My second pressie is delivered from not that far away actually — Parramatta.
It’s a Nokia E71, which I ordered from MobileCiti. My 3 Skypephone is going to retire soon, and looks like Android based Kogan Agora just won’t cut it.
I have just taken it out for a full recharge on my desk. More reviews coming soon.
But WHY?!
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=ghc&lang2=gcc
If performance is all that matters, everyone would be coding in ASM and nothing else :) (Argh! This WordPress blog is coded in PHP and is soooooo slow!!!)
I used to code in Haskell (like 10+ years ago) because I had to do tuts on it at uni, and Miranda before that. I am just trying to re-pickup a beautiful language.
Some people (particularly UNSW grads) might not share that very last sentiment =)
Haskell, brings back memories … I think I might still have a textbook at my parents …
Woooooo E71! Do update us on how well mobile internet works! If possible, see how well it functions as a modem for laptop!
People still use Haskell? I hardly remember how to code them any more….
Hehe. There are *lots* of people using Haskell and I was quite disappointed to learn that you no longer learn a FP in UNSW CSE. What a shame…
And peeking through my crystal ball I can see that FP is going to be *hot* in 2009. There will be more people coming back to Haskell, OCaml, Erlang and F# — we’ll see.
As of E71, it works brilliantly. Got my sim today (turned out the parcel did not address to me so my colleague just gave it to the techies), and is online in a few minutes. Haven’t tested it as modem though, but from what I’ve read it should be trivial.
Does the Exetel sim give you a GSM-network mobile number? Or is it data only?
Yes. With the service I get
(1) a mobile number (0466) from Optus
(2) a VoIP number (0280) from Exetel
You’ll be able to get my mobile number from Facebook :)
So both Optus number and VoIP number comes with the $5 a month subscription fee? That sounds almost too cheap! (not to mention the data deal is great too)
Congrats on the E71!
Interested to see your thoughts once it has had some bedding in.
I understand your logic in choice over the Agora – hence me owning an E61i at the moment. I ‘spose that gives me the flexibility to try out the Agora and then fall back to the older Nokia?
I will post my thoughts on the Agora once it arrives!
Cheers.
@Michael — I guess you would not be able to try out Agora when Kogan has put it on indefinite delay :(
hi scotty,
congratulation on ur new phone. I’m actually thinking to get one as well to replace my old phone.
i’m just wondering, how much you bought it?
I saw a lot seller on ebay sell it with cheaper price then retail price, but it looks like its unlocked phone from vodafone, which i reckon still got pre installed carrier software. Not sure it will be a problem or not to grab this unlocked phone. with pre installed carrier software.
@michael — I bought mine from MobiCiti — a generic stock, not with Vodafone logo. I know the Vodafone ones are cheaper but you would not be able to get the latest firmware unless Vodafone allows it. You could modify the product code but I am not willing to risk voiding the warranty…