Revfad Blog

Author: David Faden

  • Calandrinia (Cistanthe grandiflora) aka Rock purslane

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    David Faden
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    This morning I heard a kid ask their mom, “What’s that flower?”, pointing to blooms like these near the street. I have looked up the name a couple times myself but didn’t have it mind. I’m writing this now to try to cement it in my memory. Cistanthe grandiflora is native to Chile. It was…

  • Touch grass

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    David Faden
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    Here are some of the types of grass (family Poaceae) I’m trying to grow around our yard. Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis) is my current favorite — I just like the way it looks: I’ve had pretty good luck growing it from seed. I’ve contributed a few plants grown from seed to the local school. It…

  • “C++ Brain Teasers”

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    David Faden
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    A fun book I finished Sunday: “C++ Brain Teasers” by Anders Schau Knatten. The book site includes a few sample chapters. The acknowledgments point to https://cppquiz.org/. I enjoyed it a lot. Having lessons in bite-sized chunks in a challenge-answer format is a nice way to learn. I also appreciated the expert (but not overly long)…

  • Eating Claytonia perfoliota

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    David Faden
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    I’ve heard for a while that Claytonia perfoliata is edible, but only got my hands on enough for a salad this last weekend. A local gardener was planning on clearing some from a bed and offered to let me share in the bounty. Thank you, Diana! Here are a few individual stems + leaves +…

  • Fourleaf manyseed?

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    David Faden
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    Suddenly, I’m seeing a lot of this weed in our yard: Seek identifies it as Fourleaf Manyseed (Polycarpon tetraphyllum). (Interesting how close the common name is to the botanical one: “Carpon” is a “seed” or “fruit”, from Greek, so “Polycarpon” could be translated “many seed” and “tetraphyllum” just means “four leaves”.) It does look pretty…

  • “How to stick with your projects, even when they’re janky”

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    David Faden
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    There’s a lot to reflect on from this 2025 talk from Jeaye Wilkerson, creator of jank, a Clojure dialect targeting C++ interop: “How to stick with your projects, even when they’re janky”: I’ve not really done his talk full justice, but in the spirit of focusing on shipping, I’m publishing this as is. 🙂

  • Are all useful models true within +-eps?

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    David Faden
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    I like the phrase “All models are wrong, but some are useful”, attributed to George E. P. Box. It encourages humility and pragmatism, encourages us to watch out for when our models aren’t useful, to not be too attached to them. However, I also wonder if this is true: Are all models that are “useful”…

  • Starting the new year with a little gardening

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    David Faden
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    There was a break in the rain on New Year’s Day so I headed over to the school. I carried a couple plants with me that had been growing in pots on our patio for a while: California Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense), cultivated from overflow from our yard, and goldenrod (probably Solidago velutina ssp. californica), salvaged…

  • Relay teams vs individuals

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    David Faden
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    I’ve been wondering occasionally how we should describe group actions. What determines what the group can accomplish vs the individuals acting independently? One particular example of this is a relay race vs individual runners. We could think of the task as requiring getting a token across a certain distance, the shorter the time, the better.…

  • Pittosporum tobira’s sticky seeds

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    David Faden
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    Back in April, I wrote about Pittosporum tobira, hoping to put a few facts into my memory. One thing that “stuck” with me a little: that the genus name refers to them having sticky seeds. Now that the seed pods are popping open, the source of the name seems clearer: Seed pods popping open on…