Join Us!

The Geek Book Club has become something of an "unbookclub."   Rather than having assigned readings from specific books, direction is based on the interests and contributions of active members.  Our coffee shop meetings have become a forum to discuss findings, present code and ideas, and discover new areas of interest.  Slackers (you know who you are) can show up when time permits and won't feel left behind.  We are thrilled to have new members!  Anyone with a love for computer science is welcome to join us.

 

The last 5-10 minutes of each meeting are reserved for a quick "scrum" session. In turn, each of us will take a minute to describe what he plans to study before the next meeting. As we go around the table, common themes/articles/code/books should emerge. I'll publish our expectations on the website so that offline members can follow along.

  

Our next meeting is Friday, November 28th, from 7:30am to 8:30am at Panera Bread in Mayfair Mall, Brookfield, WI.

 

We're currently exploring

  • Functional Programming with Scheme and Haskell
  • Python
  • Parallel processing, AI
  • IntellaSys/Forth

By studying

  • "How to Design Programs" by Felleisen et al
  • "Scheme in 48 Hours"
  • "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins
  • SICP Videos
  • ACM articles

 

 

 

 
Past Books/Topics
  • Mind Performance Hacks by Ron Hale-Evans
  • The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
  • QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard P Feynman
  • Investigations by Stuart Kauffman
  • Genetic Programming - evolving Robocode robots using Evolutionary Computing in Java (ECJ)
  • Agile Software Development, Principles, Patterns, and Practices by Robert C. Martin
  • The Art of UNIX Programming by Eric S. Raymond
  • Eric Meyer on CSS by Eric Meyer
  • Component Development for the Java Platform by Stuart D. Halloway
  • How to Open Locks With Improvices Tools... by Hans Conkel
  • Study of JUnit open source code style and technique
  • Programming Ruby by Thomas/Hunt
  • Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperative by Pete McBreen
  • Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson
  • The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
  • Lean Software Development - An Agile Toolkit by Mary Poppendieck & Tom Poppendieck
  • The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky
  • Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler