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The conflict in Ukraine

Here is a list of interesting links (articles, videos etc.) with relevance to the current (as of March 2022) conflict in Ukraine:

George Friedman on 'Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe' (video, ~1hr10), with some interesting analysis of the geopolitical situation in Ukraine, during the last ~10 mins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-8KV_GurLY

Robert H. Wade of (but not on behalf of) the LSE explains 'Why the US and Nato have long wanted Russia to attack Ukraine':
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2022/03/30/why-the-us-and-nato-have-long-wanted-russia-to-attack-ukraine/

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Reinforcement Learning (RL)

On this page we pull together some key links on the topic of Reinforcement Learning (RL), which is a particular technique within the wider fields of Machine Learning (ML) or Artificial Intelligence (AI).

RL educational resources

Here is 'Reinforcement Learning with Matlab and Simulink'. It is produced by Mathworks, the company which produces the software products mentioned in the title. There are some videos (narrated by Brian Douglas) and an ebook, which all do a good job of explaining how RL might be used to control robots, navigate gridworlds, and other examples:
https://uk.mathworks.com/campaigns/offers/reinforcement-learning-with-matlab-ebook.html

Gym from OpenAI is a toolkit for developing and comparing Reinforcement Learning algorithms. It supports teaching RL 'agents' everything from walking to playing games like Pong or Pinball:
https://gym.openai.com/

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Matchbox Machine-Learning

On this page are provided some links to the Reinforcement Learning (RL) form of 'Artificial Intelligence' (AI) using 'Matchbox' machines, as originally pioneered by Donald Michie in 1960, later publicised by Martin Gardner, and (more recently) further popularised as a 'STEM' topic by others such as Matt Scroggs, Matt Parker and Oliver Child. For more information about RL in general, including tutorials and potential real-world applications, see the following Gist:
https://gist.github.com/deebs67/936ffcacbf299ac20a6edfd44dbb832c

MENACE: the 'Machine-Educable Noughts And Crosses Engine'

Here is Matt Parker presenting a Manchester Science Festival demo of 'MENACE', the 'Matchbox Machine' which plays noughts-and-crosses (a.k.a. Tic-Tac-Toe), as invented by Donald Michie (video, ~14 mins):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9c-_neaxeU

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The Julia programming language

On this page is provided a curated (and git-clonable) list of links to useful Julia resources. Julia is a programming language/runtime which looks to be combining the best aspects of many other languages such as:

i) Python - e.g. first-class functions and lambda expressions, closures, Jupyter notebooks, open-source, 'pythonic' etc.
ii) Matlab/Octave - e.g. compact vector/matrix notation for Linear Algebra
iii) Lisp - e.g. REPL, code introspection, metaprogramming macros etc., and
iv) C/Fortran - fast, even for tight nested loops

whilst Julia claims to combine these nice features all into one package:

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COVID-19

On this page is provided a curated (and git-clonable) list of useful Covid-19 links...

Covid-19 facts and figures

U.K. Covid-19 statistics (confirmed cases, deaths etc.), continuously updated:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
...and original source of U.K. Government Covid-19 data:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
...and weekly deaths registered in England and Wales, compared with previous years (shows a significant spike related to Covid-19):

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PICO-8

PICO-8 is a 'fantasy' virtual console emulator, costing 15USD for a personal multi-platform license. In essence it is a cross-platform IDE for creating 1980s-style low-res 8-bit games, including both sound and graphics. The game scripting is done in the Lua programming language. The games can be run either within the PICO-8 IDE itself, or as a web-based game (for non-subscribers) in a modern browser. The web browser needs to be on a desktop machine (e.g. Windows, Mac, Linux inc. Raspberry Pi) using a keyboard and/or USB game controller. The games can be saved in pseudo-cartridges (or 'carts') either in text files or within PNG files.

Main website: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

Some PICO-8 resources

Resources page: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php?page=resources
Wiki site: https://pico-8.fandom.com/wiki/Pico-8_Wikia

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Microbit Earthquake Jenga

Hannah's Microsoft Blocks code (named 'Hannahs Earthquake Jenga'):
https://makecode.microbit.org/_dz200ELfPdVc

Kitronik Microbit breakout board pinout:
https://www.kitronik.co.uk/pdf/5601b_built_edge_connector_breakout_board_for_the_bbc_microbit_datasheet_v1_1.pdf

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Git notes

This is a gist to capture useful notes on using git.

N.B. There's a good Github tutorial on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKg7e37bQE

Some git commands which I have found to be useful are:
git branch # To find what branch you are on
git branch -a # To list all branches
git status

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ARMlite simulator

The ARMlite simulator is a web-based simulator of a 32-bit 'ARM-like' processor and Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), developed by Peter Higginson and Richard Pawson for teaching Computer Science (CS) principles and Assembly Language. It is targetted particularly towards the AQA A-level computing syllabus. It is exceptionally user-friendly and fast, and great fun to experiment with!

Free online student textbook on the topic:
[1] Richard Pawson (with Peter Higginson), Computer Science from the Metal Up - Assembly Language Programming, v1.0.0, 2020
https://peterhigginson.co.uk/ARMlite/Assembly%20Language%20-%20Student%20version.pdf

Online simulator for the ARMlite ISA here:
https://www.peterhigginson.co.uk/ARMlite/

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The Little Man Computer (LMC)

Information about the LMC can be found at these links:

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_man_computer
Peter Higginson: https://peterhigginson.co.uk/LMC/help.html
Futurelearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/how-computers-work/0/steps/49285
101 Computing: https://www.101computing.net/fibonacci-sequence-using-lmc/

Video tutorials:

Andy Dolinski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCyyZI1GgsQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEFnRDgkaWA