I realize that the Boston Public Library is facing budget cuts, but in the last couple of months, even very basic services have been off. Three times I've returned books days ahead of their due dates, only to be nailed for fines; this isn't an issue of returning something the evening it's due--I literally mean days. I don't know if this a computer glitch or a lack of staff to register books as returned (even if they're not reshelved). Fellow Bostonians, is this just a run of bad luck, or is anyone else experiencing this?
I like the Boston Public Library. I like it much better when I don't have to argue about books I've returned early.
More like this
This amusing essay is making the rounds on the intertubes (as usual) this year, so I had to share it with you.
Ingredients:
There's a fascinating article using Zillow analysis to figure out the value of food gardens to residential housing.
The biggest nightmare for most people learning Haskell is monads. Monads are the
key to how you can implement IO, state, parallelism, and sequencing (among numerous other things) in Haskell. The trick is wrapping your head around them.
Todays tidbit of torture is a simple little language called [Leszek][leszek], with an implementation available [here][leszek-impl]. Leszek is based on the idea of *iterative string rewriting*, which is actually a useful and valuable concept.
The Chelmsford library, which is part of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium of 40 or so libraries, never charges for overdue books. There is a place to give a donation if one feels guilty. They have no problems, even though hours have been cut back.