Talks by Christian Neukirchen

Developing general web frameworks and frameworkless web applications is difficult because lots of different ways to connect to web servers need to be implemented. Since Ruby is popular for writing web applications, we try to address this problem by proposing a lightweight abstraction mapping HTTP requests onto a simple Ruby API. This makes it possible to combine all kinds of web servers with different web applications without further change. Furthermore, our solution enables new functionality by combining and composing web applications, as well as better testability. Talk given at the European Ruby Conference (Euruko) 2007.

A presentation about chemical evolution in German for school. After an introductory question about the beginning of life, the stepwise gain of complexity in organic molecules is analyzed. The ferrite-sulphur world is used as an example of how energy can steadily be available, then the RNA world introduces the concept of auto-catalysis. Microspheres and fatty acids are considered as the first cell membranes. After presenting the Eigen-hypercycle, an outlook at the beginnings of biological evolution encourage further discussion. Includes slides for a 40 minute presentation and an illustrated three page handout.

A presentation about expressing different programming paradigms in Ruby (prototyped-based object-orientation, Erlang-style concurrency, logic programming) with code examples and an overview of the techniques used. Every sublanguage is assessed on what's good, what's bad and what needs to be done better. Talk given at the European Ruby Conference (Euruko) 2006.

The main part of this seminar paper is a 86 page report about pesticides and their bad ramifications, seen from a social and scientific point of view. Also includes slides for a 30 minute presentation, the timesheet we had to keep during the seminar and full LaTeX sources.

A presentation about medical active agents in German for school. After a general introduction and a short history of medicine, Valerian and acetylsalicylic acid are given a closer look. Includes additional material for a 40 minute presentation and a two page handout.

A very basic set of slides about Taylor series in German for school. Features approximation of sin and e. Includes additional material for a 35 minute presentation, and a 5 page handout with diagrams.

A presentation of dynamic scoping and context-oriented programming and explanation of how it can be implemented using method slices. As a bonus, a primitive library for selector namespaces is presented. Talk given at the European Ruby Conference (Euruko) 2005.

A presentation about Bayes' Theorem in German for school. Bayesian spam-filters are used as an example application. Includes additional material for a 45 minute presentation.