Beckman Meijer Overdrive - Channel 9

The Lambda Calculus, General Term Rewriting and Food Nutrition

Charles — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Brian Beckman and Erik Meijer are back with another episode of BMO!

In this installment, Brian and Erik spend some time explaining the Lambda Calculus and most of the time digging into a real world application of general term rewriting. The Lambda Calculus is a specialized form of term rewriting (so, it's not really general term rewriting). It's OK... Brian will explain all of this (and more) by way of his general term rewriting system for analyzing the accuracy of Food Nutrition Labels (NFL). If you're curious about term rewriting and its practical application outside of theoretical computer science, then you're in luck. Brian and Erik engage the concepts at play here in their usual fun, engaging, brilliant ways.

Tune in. Enjoy. Learn.

What is a database, really?

Charles — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:12:10 GMT

Alice wanders down a rabbit hole one day and finds Erik Meijer and Brian Beckman in the C9 studio. What's going to happen? What does she find? There's a plastic mouse, a hard drive, a hammer, database acid, a whiteboard and a couple geniuses in very rare form.

Erikand Brian explain what a database really is... Erik drinks hard drive acid, takes a hammer to a mouse in search of the database it hides (Brian's brawn is also employed in this endeavor), and Brian paints category theoretic expressions on the whiteboard. This isn't what you think it is, Alice. It's much, much more.

Enjoy. You don't want to miss this one.

LINQ - Composability Guaranteed

Charles — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:03:28 GMT

It's been far too long since we've brought Erik Meijer and Brian Beckman together on Channel 9.

Today marks the end of a drought and the beginning of more regular appearances by the dynamic duo. The band is back together!

Introducing a new Channel 9 series - Beckman Meijer Overdrive.

One of the truly great things about Brian Beckman and Erik Meijer is their natural ability to explain complex subject matter in ways normal people can readily understand, all while engaging and entertaining us. In this new series, Brian and Erik will get together each month to make music in the form of conversational (and improvisational, of course) jazz. Tune in and learn something new from two programming legends and true iconoclasts. It's guaranteed to put your mind into overdrive.

Here, Brian and Erik recap LINQ and dig into the notion that LINQ is composability. What does that mean, exactly? Where does Rx fit into this? What about the cloud? What's so special about LINQ? As you'd expect, other topics emerge naturally from this conversation as Brian and Erik make their case for a LINQ-ruled world.

We're excited and honored to have Brian and Erik back on C9—and excited, too, that this will be a recurring treat. Thank you, Brian and Erik!

Tune in. Enjoy. Learn.