Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language, has come out of retirement to join the Developer Division at Microsoft.
I decided that retirement was boring and have joined the Developer Division at Microsoft. To do what? Too many options to say! But it’ll make using Python better for sure (and not just on Windows :-). There’s lots of open source here. Watch this space.
Although I’m an Apple enthusiast (no use denying it), I like the way Microsoft is increasingly embracing open technologies. I’m barely a script kiddie when it comes to Python, but it really is a fun language to learn. It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of this collaboration.
The fact that Microsoft, of all companies, is becoming more open-source friendly is not that surprising when you consider the sort of things they’ve been doing recently. But like John Gruber says on Daring Fireball:
Historically speaking, though, it’s unimaginable. If you took a time machine back to 2000 and told a crowd of Python enthusiasts that in 2020 Guido van Rossum would be working at Microsoft, half of them wouldn’t believe you and the other half would pass out.
One of the reasons why I am so keen on documenting the beauty of Oxford is because I hope to inspire in other people the desire, and also the belief, that they too, can make it here. Despite being thousands of miles away from my family, despite being in yet another ‘lockdown’, I consider myself lucky to be able to go for a quick walk in these surroundings.
The setting occasionally reminds me of the movie Sleepy Hollow, especially when I see the gnarly trees, foggy mornings, and mist flowing over the river.
Nature has a way of healing the heart. One wonders if the world would be such a crazy place if more people were closer to nature. Definitely something I need to remind myself to teach my kids when they get here inshaAllah.
Anyway, here are some more pictures from my short walk near the river today.
But in the end, it’s only a passing thing…this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Bottom line: in order to stop (or realistically, suppress) the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to deal with hot spots of transmission a.k.a superspreading.
These days it seems like everyone and their pet wombat has become a COVID-19 expert overnight. I’m including myself in this category of ‘experts’, because in reality, I’m not an epidemiologist or infectious diseases physician. That’s why I’ve largely refrained from writing about COVID-19, apart from sharing important information every now and then such as this article entitled Should I Wear A Mask In Public All The Time? (published in early April this year).
However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to learn about the disease. I strongly believe in educating the public, so that we can make informed decisions about what to do as a society trying to weather a pandemic.
This week, I strongly suggest that you spend a few minutes reading this article on ‘The Science of Superspreading‘. Despite the scary-sounding title, it’s actually really easy to read, and comes with some excellent illustrations in case you’re one of those people who feel faint when confronted with a wall of text.
As shown above, the key takeaway point is that:
Most people don’t infect anyone else. A small percentage of people cause most of the transmission.
For the general public, I think the above point is the most important thing to understand right now. But if you’re a card-carrying member of the Nerd Alert Society, then you might want to start reading about k.
Oh man, we’ve just spent ages trying to understand r, and now you want us to learn a totally different letter of the alphabet?
Err, yeah!
So if R0 (R nought) is the number of people, on average, infected by a single infected person, then k is the measure of dispersion for the disease. It’s a way of asking: does the virus spread in a steady manner or in big bursts? Here’s a really good article by Zeynep Tufekci on how ‘This Overlooked Variable Is the Key to the Pandemic‘.
So what?
If you accept that superspreading is an important feature in COVID-19, then it becomes obvious that we should promote measures that prevent superspreading. This is the rationale for avoiding the three Cs:
Crowds
Close contacts
Closed spaces with poor ventilation
The article also mentions backward contact tracing, but I think that’s more relevant for the authorities. So yeah, that wraps up our lesson for this week. Remember kids, ‘knowing is half the battle’!
Meanwhile…
As I’m writing this, Oxford has just entered Tier 2 of COVID-19 restrictions in the UK. This is probably the least surprising bit of news this week for me, considering the rapid rise in the number of infections here.
I’m not knowledgeable enough to come up with a fool-proof solution for the pandemic, so I don’t envy the authorities who actually have to deal with it. Increasingly though, I see people protesting against the myriad of restrictions imposed on the community. Here’s a picture I took on the 9th of October in the city centre:
Instinctively, I feel like this is not the best response to our current situation (to say the least). But on the other hand, I fully recognise how lucky I am not to have to worry too much about work, health, finances etc. As more and more restrictions come into place, I can’t help but wonder how people will cope psychologically.
So if you’re reading this, I’d like to encourage you to reach out to your loved ones, check on them, make sure they are OK even if you can’t physically be with them. It may not seem like much, but to some people, it may mean the world to them.
Stay safe…
Update:
Thank you Dr Ahmad Munawwar Helmi (over on Facebook) who pointed out this article written by father and daughter team, Dato’ Dr Musa Mohd Nordin and Dr Husna Musa, on the need to think beyond R0 and movement control orders.
Imran Idris 