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 Joe Marshall
Why vibe code in Lisp?
I’ve been asked twice now: if the generated code doesn't matter—if the AI is doing the heavy lifting of writing the syntax—why do I vibe code in Common Lisp? Why not target Python, TypeScript, or Java? These are mainstream languages with massive training sets. The models can generate code in them with a high degree of statistical accuracy. So why do I choose to target a niche language like Common Lisp for code generation?
Abstract Heresies
I was wondering what it would look like if a large language model were part of your programming language. I'm not talking about calling the model as an API, but rather embedding it as a language construct. I came up with this idea as a first cut. The pseudo macro allows you to embed pseudocode expressions in your Common Lisp code. It takes a string description and uses an LLM to expand it into an s-expression. You can use pseudo anywhere an expression would be expected.
Everything locals need to know about Austin hosting MLS All-Star Week
The Major League Soccer (MLS) All-Star game against Mexico’s Liga MX is fast approaching. Where is an interested Austinite to go for all the events, players, and pub watch parties? Right here of course! Consider this your guide to everything MLS for the All-Star game, with an especial focus on all the hometown heroes taking part in the festivities.
Management = Bullshit
The more I have to deal with management, the more I have to deal with bullshit. The higher up in the management chain, the denser the bullshit. Now I'm not going to tell you that all management is useless, but there is a lot more problem generation than problem solving. Lately I've been exploring the potentials of LLMs as a tool in my day-to-day work. They have a number of technical limitations, but some things they excel at.
Why I Program in Lisp
Lisp is not the most popular language. It never was. Other general purpose languages are more popular and ultimately can do everything that Lisp can (if Church and Turing are correct). They have more libraries and a larger user community than Lisp does. They are more likely to be installed on a machine than Lisp is. Yet I prefer to program in Lisp. I keep a Lisp REPL open at all times, and I write prototypes and exploratory code in Lisp. Why do I do this?
Blacksmithing and Lisp
One of my hobbies is blacksmithing (not ferrier work). Mild steel is an amazingly versatile material. It's very strong and hard at room temperature and it gets soft and easily workable when you heat it up. You use a hammer to move the metal once it is hot. You don't have to hit it very hard, just firmly. Hot metal is a very forgiving medium. If you make a mistake, simply heat the work up and try again. You rarely encounter mistakes you cannot recover from and you have to throw your work away.
fold-… and monoids
Suppose you satisfy these axioms: you have a binary function • and a set that • is closed over (i.e. for all x, y in the set, x•y is in the set) • is associative, ((a • b) • c) = (a • (b • c)) There is an an identity element I: a • I = I • a = a Then • is called a semigroup or “monoid”. Monoids come from abstract algebra, but they are ubiquitous in computer science.
Pony League Baseball: Crest Hill Sports Huddle scores 10-0 shutout for league title
At Crest Hill’s Marshall Field on Sunday, Crest Hill Sports Huddle defeated St. Joes’ Frakas Funeral Home 10-0 for the DuPage River Pony League title. Crest Hill starting pitcher Nate Tunt struck out the side in the top of the first inning . In the bottom of the first inning, Tunt led off with a walk off St. Joe’s starting pitcher Vinnie Dresden, stole second and scored the first run of the game on a double by John Studer.
What Happens When Earth’s Magnetic Poles Flip?
During the time leading up to and throughout the flip we could see a significant increase cancer rates due to the higher exposure to the solar wind. With a weaker magnetic field, more high energy particles from the Sun would reach the Earth’s surface increasing the risk of genetic mutations in all animals. This is an issue which might increase in severity over time as the ozone layer becomes damaged and less effective without the aid of the magnetic field.
Opinion | Students should turn on their cameras in online classes
By Joe Marshall, Chief Proof-reader Dialling in to a Zoom or Blackboard Collaborate session to be greeted with a sea of black screens, bar the seminar tutor, isn’t the stuff of university prospectuses, but that’s become the reality of term two for many of us. Unlike last term, almost all of us are now learning exclusively online.
HOW 'BOUT THEM DAWGS?
In Jacksonville's Gator Bowl last Saturday, Georgia was leading Florida 20-18 early in the fourth quarter when the P.A. announcer added a new element of drama to the already exciting game. "Here's a halftime score," he said. "Georgia Tech 3, Notre Dame..." And there he paused, playing the moment for all it was worth while the crowd of 68,528 held its breath in anticipation.
Opinion | Asking for fee reductions is unreasonable
By Joe Marshall, Opinion Subeditor With universities restarting teaching over the last few weeks, public discussion has reignited over the issue of whether students are truly getting value for money in ‘blended’ or fully virtual teaching, and whether fees should be reduced as a result. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of lower fees sounds good – but it’d be unfair for you and I to expect it.
Uncle Sam’s Fable
White people discovering that America was built on systemic racism are like toddlers learning that Santa Claus isn’t real … To read more, go to The Bridge at www.wibridgedc.com.
TRIUMPH AND TURMOIL IN THE PAN-AM GAMES
The VIII Pan-American Games were of unprecedented size and splendor—and, for the United States, humiliation. Oh, we won the most medals; we always do. U.S. track athletes were magnificent, the boxers astonishing, the young basketball players marvelous. But the triumphs were stained by the gross incivility of the basketball coach, a reminder that the American the hemisphere despises—arrogant and insensitive—is by no means extinct.
BACK WHERE THE GAMES BELONG
The Olympic mantle fell again last week—at long last—upon the peaceful Adirondack Mountain village of Lake Placid. The International Olympic Committee, assembled in Vienna in its traditional setting of splendor and quasi-royal indifference, selected the unpretentious upstate New York town to stage the XIII Winter Games in 1980. The choice was not unexpected.
No Place in the Shade
In the language of jazz, the word "gig" is an evening of work; sometimes sweet, sometimes sour, take the gig as it comes, for who knows when the next will be. It means bread and butter first, but a whole lot of things have always seemed to ride with the word: drifting blue light, the bouquet from leftover drinks, spells of odd dialogue, and most of all a sense of pain and limbo.
Shows
Written by Joe Marshall Directed by Bree Pavey LOFT CABARET Hosted by Ben Rawls Next Show is TBD / Tickets $5 THE GAYEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER LoveSick The Assistants Princes' Charming What Doesn't Kill You Defending Medusa Luci's Thoughts on Empathy Macbeth The Last Day Closer Butterflies What Happened In Mayville III?
February 25, 1974 Issue Viewer
Ben Jipcho had no trouble understanding a cardinal principle of pro track—the more races you win the more money you make. He had no trouble with the opposition either, taking four events in two nights
Clyde, Laughing Cavalier
The night brought back memories. The 19,694 in Madison Square Garden, the first capacity crowd since the Knicks' championship year of 1973, worked itself into a lather as the game seesawed through the fourth quarter and into overtime. Then, right on cue, Walt Frazier—"Clyde"—did his patented last-minute clutch number, just as he so often had.
The Golden State of Rick Barry
On the court his facial expressions range from pure Buster Keaton to the tortured look of an opera buff at an Alice Cooper gig, and they all serve to disguise the fact that this is the happiest of all his nine pro basketball seasons for Rick Barry of the Golden State Warriors. Of course, things have never been quite what they seemed with Barry, the 6'7½" forward with radar-accurate shooting skill.
Meet Danny Twosport
At the age of 20, Danny Ainge is living a life that others might fantasize about—that of a Frank Merriwell excelling at whatever he does. "I always dreamed about being a college basketball player and I always dreamed about being a professional athlete," says Ainge. "But I never dreamed of playing two sports like this. Never at the same time." Nevertheless, Ainge is doing precisely that.
Pittsburgh Steelers win Super Bowl XIV over Los Angeles Rams
It was an emotional Super Bowl and easily the best of the XIV played so far. It was the way Super Bowls are supposed to be played, but haven't been. The score changed hands six times before it ended Pittsburgh 31, Los Angeles 19, but only the guys who laid the 11 points with the bookies read it as a 12-point Steeler win. The Rams made it that close.
FANCY PASSING WAS NOT A PASSING FANCY
Too often he is viewed as little more than a track man in football togs, an affront to all the Too Means and the Big Foots and the Mansters in the NFL. In fact, he is the most potent weapon in his team's game plan. And the most feared. His name is Deep Threat. He is a speed freak who can outdrag Mario Andretti's Lotus for 50 yards, and he has more good shake-'em-up moves than the entire cast of Saturday Night Fever.
WHEELIN' AWAY OUT WEST
One member of theinfield is an outfielder turned third baseman turned first baseman. Another,the shortstop, was a part-time outfielder only 16 months ago. The catcher beganthis season with fewer than 50 games of big-league experience under his chestprotector, and the second baseman is a 27-year-old rookie who blows bubbles.The third baseman is young and raw, too, playing a position where so manybefore him have come and gone. Quickly.
THE SPREADING SCANDAL IN JAI ALAI
Kevin Kane, a special prosecutor in the office of Austin McGuigan, the Chief State's Attorney for Connecticut, last week obtained warrants to arrest a player and three gamblers on charges of rigging and conspiring to rig games in 1977 at the Milford Jai Alai fronton. Kane acted after Superior Court Judge Eugene Kelly, who has been sitting and will continue to sit in Hartford as a special one-man grand jury, heard testimony on widespread corruption in the sport.
REALLY MAKING TRACKS
The fastest indoor running track in the world is in San Diego, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Pocatello, Houston, College Park, Philadelphia, New York, Cambridge, Boston, Milan, Genoa and Turin.
Steelers smash Oilers to reach Super Bowl
It was billed as the AFC championship, but Sunday's showdown between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Oilers could have been called the Soup Bowl. Played in Three Rivers Stadium, it might as well have been played in the three rivers themselves. Still, not rain nor sleet—both of which fell continuously—nor Earl Campbell or even Dan Pastorini's bulletproof flak jacket could stay the Steelers from a Super Bowl date with Dallas.
The Greatest Goal I Ever Saw: David Ginola For Newcastle Against Ferencvaros
It was the last glory days of the UEFA Cup, a two-legged knock-out tournament comprised of the runners-up of Europe's top leagues. A proper competition that included no silly group stages, no Champions League teams “parachuting” in and some quality clubs taking part. Newcastle qualified thanks to throwing away a 12 point lead and finishing 2nd in the Premiership to Manchester United the previous season.
End of the Glorious Ordeal
Henry Aaron's ordeal ended at 9:07 p.m. Monday. It ended in a carnival atmosphere that would have been more congenial to the man he surpassed as baseball's alltime home-run champion. But it ended.
DON'T KICK SAND IN HIS FACE
I feel like I have played in a very rough football game with no hitting above the waist. —ALAN PAGE—3:57:39 Grandma's Marathon start reads the banner strung from two birch trees and flapping over Old Highway 61, which follows Lake Superior southwest to Duluth, Minn. No buildings are to be seen, only birch trees and pine, on this particular stretch of Old 61, which happens to be 26 miles and 385 yards from Grandma's Saloon & Deli.
Road Show With An All-Star Cast The 15-kilometer Midland Run in lush New Jersey horse country attracted the finest road-racing field in history. Henry Rono's arrival was a classic of suspense, but it was Herb Lindsay's finish that really drew the raves -
by Joe Marshall Originally Posted: May 12, 1980 Not all of New Jersey looks like the back of an old radio. It onlyseems that way. Take Far Hills, for instance. That's horse country.The pastures are green and rolling, the fences are split rail, thehorses are thoroughbreds, and the horsepower is mostlyMercedes-Benz. Jackie O. lives there. Get the picture? At this timeof year a lot of the locals have departed for the Kentucky Derby,but last Sunday Far Hills played host to a thoroughbred race of itsown.
SHOWING UP THE GUYS AT THE DOWNS
They came dashing out through the portal leading from the box seats and through the old wooden clubhouse, holding on to each other and looking like Bonnie and Clyde leaving the racetrack money room. What they had actually just lifted, in broad daylight and from under the noses of 131,859 customers at Churchill Downs, was one sensational Kentucky Derby. Bert and Diana Firestone had waited too long for this occasion to let the winner's circle go unattended. So off they went.
He has reached the Gola
Throughout his career, it has been the misfortune of Michael Brooks to perform in the shadow of players whose extraordinary skills have almost made them candidates for deification. Despite the fact that he set a bunch of records at West Catholic High in the Philadelphia Catholic League, college recruiters and fans flocked around his childhood teammate and friend Gene Banks, now a star at Duke.
THE STOLEN SIGNALS CAPER
Question: What doyou do when your best runner, passer and catcher are out of action because ofinjuries? Answer: You playdefense and try to win that way. Some joke, huh?The Houston Oilers are minus Earl Campbell and Dan Pastorini and, for most ofthe game, Kenny Burrough, and now they're going to win it on defense? Againstthe San Diego Chargers, the passingest team in football, with a quarterbackwho's thrown for more yards in a single season than anyone in history?
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 Joe
Contact Joe, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack