Allen July 28th, 2005
Is indistinguishable from a human mind. (With all apologies to Arthur C. Clarke)
Gerard Van der Lun uses a Hipster PDA and came up with a collection of notes that he’s dumped on his blog. One of my favorites:
There is no multi-tasking. There is only the monkey mind jabbering so fast it seems like multi-tasking.
Read It’s in the Cards @ AMERICAN DIGEST for the complete list.
Allen July 25th, 2005
Remove the overlapping edges in this great game: Planarity
[Via Brain Shavings]
Allen July 22nd, 2005
I’m a member of the Association of Computing Machinery (despite the name, I am not a machine). I subscribe to ACM Tech News which sent the following to me today:
"Senators Promise ‘Brain Drain’ Bill"
InternetNews.com (07/21/05); Mark, Roy
U.S. Senators plan to present legislation to replenish the ranks of America’s science and engineering graduates, which many agree are essential to maintaining the country’s leadership in global innovation. "New ideas, the development of new technologies and innovation will lead to a better educated workforce, a higher standard of living in the United States, and a strengthened American economy," declared Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.). Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) said the number of jobs requiring technical training is growing at a rate five times that of other occupations, while the average number of students entering those fields is falling concurrent with the rising age of the American science and engineering workforce. Meanwhile, Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) estimated that America produces an average 50,000 engineering graduates annually, compared to 150,000 from India and 250,000 from China. The lawmakers did not offer a detailed description of the bill they intend to propose next week, although they said it is based on the 2004 National Innovation Initiative Report from the Council on Competitiveness. The report calls for the creation of 5,000 new graduate fellowships underwritten by federal R&D agencies, an overhaul of immigration laws to permit science and engineering students from abroad to reside and find employment in the United States, and the construction of 10 "innovation hot spots" over the next five years.
Four research groups at HP Labs will be dropped as part of Hewlett-Packard’s latest downsizing effort, one of which was headed by renowned computing pioneer Alan Kay. Kay won the ACM’s A.M. Turing Award and the National Academy of Engineering Charles Stark Draper Prize, and was a co-designer of ARPAnet, the Internet’s predecessor. HP Labs’ Dave Berman says Kay’s group dealt with advanced software research, but insists that HP’s research agenda will remain "rich and varied" despite the loss. The other groups eliminated by the downsizing include a pair of Palo Alto labs focusing on consumer applications and emerging technologies, and a Cambridge, Mass., group whose work covered health care and medical issues. Berman cites HP Labs’ continuing quantum computing and nanotechnology research as evidence of the company’s dedication to R&D-supported innovation. "We are trying to refocus our research into the areas of greatest promise and our core strength and those areas which are most important to HP in the medium and long term," Berman says. Analyst Michael Dortch warns that HP could put itself at a disadvantage if it no longer has access to talent of Kay’s caliber. He says, "How many times in a lifetime does a company like HP get access to a mind like Alan Kay’s?"
Click Here to View Full Article
Gee, I wonder if they are related? I wonder why the number of students enrolling in computer science has been dropping the last few years? Surely the two articles have nothing in common with each other! Yeah, most people look at a "geeky" career with high-profile layoffs and say to themselves, "Yeah baby! That’s the life for me!"
And I’m curious how offering 5,000 graduate fellowships is going to entice people who disinterested in science and technology into entering the field. Good news to those already trending that way for a career, but not enough of an enticement for those who are not thinking that way. I think a lot of those who entered the field in the mid to late 90s were interested primarily in the money. Now that the bubble has popped, it doesn’t look so sexy anymore.
And all of this doesn’t oblivate the need for technical people. It’s simply that we are on the rebuilding side of the popped bubble. The demand for technical people will come back someday. With the way things are running, that demand will be supplied by non-US employees. And more the pity for the American way of life and culture.
Allen July 20th, 2005
and nobody hears it, did it fall?
If you write satire and some people don’t get it, is it still satire?
Well, yes, it is. In fact, its all that much better.
I just hope Larry keeps blogging when EvilChimpHitlerMonkeyBushBakedBeansBoy ™ can no longer serve as president. Tying your blog’s name to an particular instance of VastRightWingEvil ™ may not serve Larry’s interests in the long run.
Of course, he can go meta on us. Blame <InsertNameofProminentConservativePoliticianHere>! seems to work well for others. It may not roll off the tongue, but it does seem to work.
Allen July 15th, 2005
Yet Another Killer Internet Application
Google Earth is a desktop application that interfaces with earth.google.com to provide fly-by maps, fly-by directions, searches, etc. Want to fly around the streets of Bagdad without someone taking a potshot at you? No problem!
It is currently in beta mode, but I haven’t found anything to complain about. I highly recommend the free version. A $20 (per year) version is available. I’m going to check it out to see what it offers.
My only complaint is parts of the map are very fuzzy. My grandparent’s home of "Foss, OK" is purple/green/brown splotches. I first noticed it with sections of Disney World in Florida. At first I thought perhaps Disney had paid to "fuzz" out sections, but I seriously doubt anyone in Foss is that worried that someone will have virtual fly-by rights over their house.
Allen July 13th, 2005
Christopher Hitches examines the grievances of those who exploded the bombs in London.
The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won’t abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor’s liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.
Perhaps society as a whole will see this fascism for what it is — the desire to stomp out all forms of existence other than ones own. Or perhaps we won’t.
[Via Baldilocks]
Allen July 12th, 2005
Mystery of Empty Chicken Sex Solved - Yahoo! News.
The link above will no doubt expire at some point, but this is the title of an article in "Space & Astronomy News" in Yahoo. Why "Space & Astronomy", I know not. But you know the title-writer had a somewhat twisted sense of humor.
Hope I didn’t offend anyone. The title of my posting just sprang into my mind. I try to keep this fairly clean, but this was just too tempting.
Allen July 12th, 2005
He bent his will to the task at hand. He had always felt a desire, a burning desire to write a review of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. He didn’t just want to write a review, but the best review possible. To take the essence of his soul and pour it into writing the superlative review that the world would hail from this day forward.
Others had told Allen that writing such a review was impossible. That trying to capture how wooden and stilted Ayn’s prose sounds at times is a folly attempted only by those who are too conceited to recognize their own limitations. But Allen sneered at such worms. He felt that only he could show how Ayn would hammer her characters into the thin sheets of tin. Tin characters who would endlessly spout her philosophy. Only he could bend his will to the surmounting of this task. And when he was finished, only Allen would stand triumphant in the field of literary criticism. Of this fact, Allen was sure.
He smiled slightly as he typed these words. It was a smile of resolution. A smile of a job well done. And done beyond the expectations of mere mortals.
Allen pushed the "Save" button.
Allen July 10th, 2005
On Friday morning, I was an adopted only child. Today, as of last count, I have 2 full-blood siblings and 3 (possibly more) half-blood siblings.
I had always known that I was adopted, but had never pursued a relationship with my "other" family. Not sure if I wasn’t going to raise old wounds or cause grief to someone who would rather have closed that chapter of their life.
My wife received a call from the Deaconess Home on Friday morning. Apparently my aunt and siblings were searching for me and they had some letters that they could deliver if I was so interested. Needless to say, I was interested and received the letters on Saturday morning.
Several phone calls later and I now have brothers and sisters. We’re all still getting to know one another and I look forward to getting to know them.