Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Ben Aaronson
Incoming HAA president is looking at the job from a global perspective
Alice Hill ’81, Ph.D. ’91, will succeed Margaret Wang ’09 as president of the Harvard Alumni Association for 2019–2020. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer Incoming HAA president seeks to deepen engagement with worldwide alumni community Meeting alumni where they are has been a priority for every Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) president since John Quincy Adams led the organization upon its founding in 1840.
Harvard Club of Seattle sponsors field trip to Cambridge for ninth-graders
Harvard Club of Seattle program brings ninth-graders to campus for a crash course in higher education When Lenora Fuaga got called to the office at Highline High School in Burien, Wash., she was worried she was in trouble (she wasn’t). And when she found out the real reason, she thought it was a joke (it wasn’t).
Harvard alumni discuss pathways to public service
“We see public service as the fulfillment of the civic purpose of higher education ...” said Travis Lovett, director of the Center for Public Interest Careers. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer Alumni discuss pathways to public service work in advance of Public Interested Conference Doing well by doing good can be considered the highest purpose of higher education, and Travis Lovett wants to make sure Harvard students know it’s an option that’s open to everybody.
Harvard’s midyear graduates share lessons learned
When first-year students enter the gates of the Yard, most expect to walk out four years later as graduates. But, of course, life doesn’t always go as expected. Plans change as unforeseen challenges and opportunities arise. For many of the 117 students honored at Friday’s Midyear Graduates Recognition Ceremony, unexpected circumstances meant taking off a semester or more from Harvard before returning to finish their studies, while others were graduating early due to advanced standing.
Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance summit to be ‘transformational event’
The 6,000 members of the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance (H4A) represent different ethnicities, live and work in different areas, and span different Harvard Schools and class years. But, like the members of all of the Harvard Alumni Association’s volunteer-run Shared Interest Groups (SIGs), what brings this diverse cross-section of alumni together is what they have in common — their shared experiences, passions, and bond with Harvard.
Midyear graduates saluted in celebratory send-off
The pomp and pageantry of Commencement may still be months away, but on a crisp December afternoon less than a mile from Tercentenary Theatre, the newest graduates of Harvard College were celebrated at the Midyear Graduates Recognition Ceremony.
Six seniors inducted into armed forces at Harvard
Standing on the steps of Memorial Church, near walls inscribed with the names of Harvard’s war dead, six graduating seniors swore allegiance to the Constitution on Wednesday and received their first salutes as officers in the armed forces.
Incoming Harvard Alumni Association president aims to continue people-centered leadership of predecessor
For Martin J. “Marty” Grasso Jr. ’78, what truly sets Harvard apart are the exceptional people. Speaking to graduating seniors at Class Day a year ago as the incoming president of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA), Grasso reflected on the vibrant and long-lasting relationships he has enjoyed during his more than 40-year association with the University.
Working in the service of others
Nearly 150 Harvard alumni shared their experience and expertise at the sixth annual Public Interested Conference at the Science Center last Saturday, serving as both inspiring role models and enthusiastic mentors to students and fellow alumni interested in exploring a career in public service.
Charting a different course
Most Harvard College graduates can trace a fairly straight line from Opening Days in their freshman fall to Commencement in their senior spring. But for some, there were unexpected twists and turns along the way. Faced with opportunities or obstacles, they chose a different path. Reylon Yount ’16-’17 was one of 100 students to be honored last Friday at the Midyear Graduates Recognition Ceremony in the Student Organization Center at Hilles.
Voting rights, unsettled
As the highly charged presidential election nears on Nov. 8, voters in some states may find it more difficult to cast their ballots. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 14 states will have new voting restrictions in place, ranging from photo ID requirements to early voting cutbacks to registration restrictions.
Equals method for a class representing an origin and destination
You have a bit of repetition between your methods. Since no instance is equal to , you can replace your entire overridden method with: If the is not an , this will just pass in a which will then return false. At a pinch, XOR is a passable way of combining hash-codes. But it has collision issues: So of those it's likely to be the second, if any, which is of concern in this particular case.
Create new object or reset every property?
You should definitely prefer creating a new object in the vast majority of cases. Problems with reassigning all properties: Requires public setters on all properties, which drastically limits the level of encapsulation you can provide Knowing whether you have any additional use for the old instance means you need to know everywhere that the old instance is being used.
java - Are "plus" and "minus" appropriate method names? - Programmers Stack Exchange
The only reason I can think of is that dates are immutable objects, so by calling plusDays you're not adding days to the original object but creating a new one with new properties, but that's very vary subtle. This is exactly the reason. Imagine you had some kind of api for manipulating ranges of dates for scheduling purposes.
Are *plus()* and *minus()* appropriate method's names?
The only reason I can think of is that dates are immutable objects, so by calling plusDays you're not adding days to the original object but creating a new one with new properties, but that's very vary subtle. This is exactly the reason. Imagine you had some kind of api for manipulating ranges of dates for scheduling purposes.
Clean Code comments vs class documentation
As others have said, there's a difference between api documenting comments and in-line comments. From my perspective, the main difference is that an in-line comment is read alongside the code, whereas a documentation comment is read alongside the signature of whatever you're commenting. Given this, we can apply the same DRY principle. Is the comment saying the same thing as the signature? Let's look at your example: This part just repeats what we already see from the name .
Using recursion to count substrings (with exceptions to the rule) in Java
I am going through the CodingBat exercises for Java. Here is the one I have just finished: Given a string, compute recursively the number of times lowercase appears in the string, however do not count that have an immedately before them. And here is my code: This is the first in a recursion exercise which I have needed to change the base case to accommodate how the rest of the code works.
Model interval inclusiveness in C#
Do you need at all? already has useful methods for working with paramterized times. The disadvantage that using a raw has is that you have no compile-time guarantee that you won't get an invalid (e.g. one with a component above 0). However, you can get the best of both worlds by having your class wrap a : Now you get all the advantages of the rich functionality of , along with the guarantees provided by your original class. Regarding your original , the names aren't great.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Ben
Contact Ben, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack