More Accurate Speedometer
I’ve been sitting on this idea for at least a year, and I’m not really sure why I haven’t blogged about it yet. It turns out that car speedometers are not very accurate. In fact, they can be on the…
Markov Coincidence
I was chatting with one of my friends recently. He was telling me about a Markov chain program (I think 5th order) that he had just finished. This gave me an interesting idea. Suppose that you were to measure the…
The GNU’s Thumb
Alright, So I’ve been thinking about keeping my home directory in git recently. I have a machine that I can dedicate to storing a ‘master copy’ and I’ve no problem with creating scripts and minor utils to help things along….
Hardware Failure
Hardware fails from time to time. And, unlike software, it can’t be fixed by typing or scriptic incantation. One of the harddrives in my primary computer failed. Fortunately, I set up that machine with 2 500GB drives as a mirrored…
Bounding Problution.
Problutions (noun, pl.): the problems that are an inherent part of solution to a very difficult and complex problem. These problems arise from within the solution itself, and are extrinsic to the original problem. Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit…
Eclectic Tastes in Music
I don’t usually listen to music at all, The only band that I know for sure that I like is Rush (and that’s primarily because they have works inspired by Rand, in addition to a light sprinkling of non-traditional psychedelic…
Graph of the English Language
Dictionaries are really great tools, but they can only go so far. The really good ones (The OED) will give the user a really good ‘feel’ for the word, a sense of the connotations that go beyond the straightforward definition….
Learning to Learn.
It wasn’t until I was actually done with my undergraduate years at college, and had already gotten my self a job, that I learned the most valuable lesson of life: The programmer that wants to advance himself cannot afford to…
Cliff Stoll, another cool dude.
This morning one of my high school friends (Thomas) told me about Clifford Stoll. So I watched his TED conference video. Boy is he animated. Inaddition to having pursued a KGB computer infiltration (an article, book, and NOVA documentary), he…
Dymaxion mapping.
Ok, so I’ve been away awhile. I visited the Maker Faire, and San Deigo Amphib Base (twice). Two days ago I read Benford’s Cosm, start to finish. And learned that the nucleus of heavier elements are ellipsoidal rather than spherical….