pontiff | March 26, 2008Well, after the Great Debate, I decided to take the plunge and get....Yep, a MacBook Pro with a top clock speed and a ton of RAM (what you can't infer those later things from the picture?) So far things are so good, although I must say, the "it just works," MacMantra is just a plain lie. Getting LaTeXiT, Leopard, Linkback plugin, and Keynote to play nice together was certainly not something I'd want to force upon most people. However, I guess if your trying to use LaTeX in Keynote, then you're probably up to the task.
pontiff | March 25, 2008From the bits blog at the New York Times, a list of technology famous quotes which may or may not have been said. Two of which I believe I've used before (doh!):
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." This quotation is attributed to Bill Gates, but Mr. Shapiro suspects that it is apocryphal, and is seeking the person who either said it or first attributed it to Mr. Gates.
...
"I think there is a world market for about five computers." This is a attributed to Thomas J. Watson, Jr., but Mr. Shapiro suspects it of being apocryphal and is seeking the person who either said it or first attributed…
pontiff | March 24, 2008I always knew that T-Rex was a vegetarian:
"Trying to teach children not to believe everything they see." Shouldn't they add "and believe in everything they don't see?"
Update: I should have known Pharnygula would have posted this before me. Note to self: always check with PZ before posting something about creationism :)
pontiff | March 24, 2008Over at Emergent Chaos I found an article which throws down the gauntlet over quantum computers. And there isn't anything I cherish more than gauntlets thrown down!
Note: I should preface this by saying that I don't consider myself a over the top hyper of quantum computers in the sense attacked by the author. I find quantum computers fascinating, would really like to see if one can be built, but find the hyperbole that accompanies any small advance in the field a bit over the top. However I also think the article misses a lot of important points (and insinuates that people haven't…
pontiff | March 22, 2008I always thought that I was special because I have, in my short life, been kicked into a night club. But now, comes word of an even more spectacular event: scienceblogs' own PZ Myers was expelled from seeing the creationist propoganda film "Expelled!" Adding to the irony, noted biologist/athiest Richard Dawkins, who is famous enough to appear as a character on "Southpark" and who was PZ's guest, was allowed to view the movie! Holy craptacular convergence of ironies, batman!
For those who haven't been following the story, "Expelled!" is a creationist propoganda film narrated by Ben Stein.…
pontiff | March 21, 2008Greetings from SMF! Home to the slowest baggage claim in the west (not that I was crazy enough to check a bag.)
Even from beyond the grave Feynman gives string theory no love:
pontiff | March 20, 2008In high school, we had software which would simulate dynamics of different shaped objects. I used to set up part of the screen as a "hoop" and then try to design the crazies way for a ball to bounce off all sorts of shapes set with different initial velocities and into the hoop. It was kind of cool how Rube Goldburg you could get with this physics simulation, and it was, I'll admit, both quite fun, and absolutely geeky. Now, via Slate, I find that someone has made this into a game:
pontiff | March 20, 2008Dear Digg, no, this article and press release do not mean that Scientists Invent Room Temperature Superconducting Material. It means that scientists have put molecular silane under hundreds of giga-Pascals presures (for comparison, atmospheric pressure is 100 kilo-Pascals) at a temperature of around 20 Kelvin, and gotten it to superconduct. While this is certainly cool, it is not "room temperature" as far as I can tell.
One day I was driving down the road and listening to AM radio when Paul Harvey came on and did his schtick ("and now you know, the rest of the story.") At one point in the…
pontiff | March 20, 2008A New York Times article has appeared about a study on the effects of excessive beer drinking on scientific productivity. The study, (Tomas Grim, "A possible role of social activity to explain differences in publication output among ecologists." Oikos 117 (4), 484-487) done by the aptly named ecologist, Dr. Thomas Grim, claimed that scientific productivity among Czech avian ecologists and behavioral ecologists (as measured by number of publications, citation rate per paper, etc.) dropped according to how many beers the ecologists drank.
Now first of all, I find it kind of annoying that the…
pontiff | March 19, 2008Last year, Google announced a set of resource to help students and faculty with CS education. They've revamped the set of resources and redesigned the web page and all the jazzy stuff to produce: Google Code University. Marty Stepp, whose courses are featured in the Google code university, has his office just down the hall from me. His name plate says "Marty Stepp++"
Being someone who teaches (pay no attention to the "research assistant professor" title), I often wonder about how the web and technology is going to change our educational system. While I certainly am sympathetic to the…
pontiff | March 19, 2008Since my laptop was stolen, it's time for me to think about getting a replacement. My last laptop was a tablet PC, a Toshiba M400 Portege, which was "Vista capable," which I'm pretty sure means that it was "just barely Vista capable." I loved having a tablet PC, but the Toshiba wasn't exactly behaving great under Vista (slow, slow, slow.) So now the question is what should my next laptop be. In particular I am almost tempted to (close you ears Seattlites)....buy a Mac.
Tablet PC benefits:
All my notes are on my tablet for the last few years. This is very convenient. Unfortunately the…
pontiff | March 18, 2008Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author, predictor of the future, and inspirer of at least one little kid from rural Northern California, is dead at age 90.
Although I learned to cringe at some of Clarke's writing as I grew older, I have very distinct and fond memories of reading "Childhood's End" and "Rendezvous with Rama." (Like all such memories, I dread rereading these for fear of losing my even now foggy recollections of the joy these books brought me.)
And then, of course, there are Clarke's Three Laws:
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he…
pontiff | March 18, 2008To the jerk, or jerks, who broke into my car and stole my laptop and passport while parked in downtown Vancouver. Pfffft! You stink! And just what do you think you're going to do with all those LaTeX files? Maybe you should try to sell them to D-wave! (For the humor impaired: that's a joke.)
pontiff | March 16, 2008Seeker by Jack McDevitt, Newton's Wake: A Space Opera by Ken MacLeod, and Eater by Gregory Benford. Seems I am on a science fiction kick. That must be a sign that I'm looking for new ideas to work on.
Seeker by Jack McDevitt. Science fiction with an archeology/mystery bent. Lost civilizations, mysterious artifacts, make for an enjoyable quick read. A good book to read in one sitting.
Newton's Wake: A Space Opera by Ken MacLeod. A post-singularity novel. So post singularity that the artificial intellgences that went through the singularity have gone away. Started good, but by the…
pontiff | March 15, 2008As noted by Lance, the new journal ACM Transactions on Computation Theory is now accepting papers. Note for quantum computing theorists:ACM Transactions on Computation Theory will cover theoretical computer science complementing the scope of the ACM Transactions on Algorithms and the ACM Transactions on Computational Logic including, but not limited to, computational complexity, foundations of cryptography, randomness in computing, coding theory, models of computation including parallel, distributed and quantum and other emerging models, computational learning theory, theoretical computer…
pontiff | March 15, 2008A favorite quote of mine from Vincent van Gogh: "For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." Especially when I can access them through my web browser. Here in Seattle this is greatly needed, since there are vast portions of the winter when the night sky is hidden behind puffy clouds. I mean I need to be reminded every once in a while that I'm a little little speck in a big big universe.
First one to spot a Dyson sphere wins.
pontiff | March 14, 2008Paul Krugman proves that not only is a bad ass economist, but that he is also a pretty cool guy:Thirty years ago I was an oppressed assistant professor, caught up in the academic rat race. To cheer myself up I wrote -- well, see for yourself. Joshua Gans of the University of Melbourne scanned a copy of the thing I wrote -- back then academics did their work with typewriters, abacuses, and stone axes -- and was good enough to send me a copy. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Theory of Interstellar Trade.
I wonder what the equivalent of that paper is for quantum computing? Oh, wait, ALL…
pontiff | March 14, 2008Happy Talk like a physicist day, Happy Pi day, and Happy birthday dear uncle Albert.
So how does one talk like a physicist? I mean its hard for me to say, because I'm a physicist (or was, or am, or was molded into who I am by physicists.) But one can certainly sing like a physicist! Here is a song from grad school:Schrödinger's cat, is getting rather fat
He wants to play, must way for radon decay
Why is he trapped in that box (clap, clap, clap)
He would rather be alive than dead
Schrödinger's kitten, stuck their sittin'
Stuck in a superposition, a quantum mechanical prison
Why is she…
pontiff | March 13, 2008An interesting summer school for computer scientists interested in probabilistic techniques to be held in Bristol, UK (you know the school that had a chalkboard with the statement that quantum computers could efficiently solve NP-complete problems :) ) Deadline fast approaching. Details below.
From the summer school webpage:The purpose of this school is to provide a graduate-level introduction to probabilistic methods in modern theoretical computer science, and to the mathematics underlying these methods. The school is primarily aimed at research students, postdocs and early career…