Sunday, February 22, 2015
Geek: what does this regular expression do?
Geek: what does this regular expression do?
(?:[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:\.[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+)*|"(?:[\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x21\x23-\x5b\x5d-\x7f]|\\[\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x7f])*")@(?:(?:[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?\.)+[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?|\[(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?|[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]:(?:[\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x21-\x5a\x53-\x7f]|\\[\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x7f])+)\])It validates email addresses, of course! But only 99.9% of the time :)
10 Signs You're and Old Geek...
10 Signs You're an Old Geek... I spotted this article on Fox News, and clicked over to read it. It was so depressing. The 10 alleged signs:
- You still say “dial” the phone. Check. Yup, I do that.
- You remember when state-of-the-art chips had dozens of transistors. Well, yes, I do remember that. But I also remember when there were no chips at all – and when transistors were rare and expensive beasties. We relied on exotic devices called “vacuum tubes” – and I laugh out loud at the audio tweekies who are paying premium prices today for the awful distorted sound those primitive things produced.
- You still consider “geek” to be an insult. Well, no, I don't. But I do remember when the word referred to sleazy performers in a carnival acts, like the one who bit the head off a chicken. It's a mystery to me how it came to refer to technology buffs,
- You know a third meaning for the word “brick.” Check. I owned one of those bricks.
- You had a slide rule. Yup, I owned a slide rule. Several. And today I have about 2,200 of them (I collect them). But I didn't have a slide rule because calculators were too expensive – I had one because there were no calculators. They hadn't been invented yet!
- You owned a $5 digital watch. Check. What's your point?
- You reveled in the epic Steve Jobs – Bill Gates interview from the 2007 D5 conference. I only vaguely recall this interview. It seems like recent history to me, not something I'd have to be old to note. What is this author calling “old”, anyway? 30?
- You were so sure we’d have a domed city on Mars by now. Uh, no. I was pretty darned sure there would be no such thing – the challenges are far from our ability to overcome them, even today. A real geek would know this, I think.
- You used punch cards. Check. But – I also remember when punch cards seemed like the bleeding edge of technology, replacing that old clunker punched paper tape. I'll call your geek and raise you one.
- You remember when: bubble memories, home computers, superconductivity, pen computing, PDAs, Betamax, heads-up displays and Gallium Arsenide were all going to be the next big thing. And you probably played with Tinker Toys, Erector Sets and wooden blocks growing up and you still spin vinyl in your basement when nobody’s around. Well, yes to all that. But I also remember wire recorders, portable vacuum-tube record players, lacquer 78 RPM records, and 7 transistor radios.
Lost and Found Beagle, part 2...
Saturday, February 21, 2015
This is going to revolutionize optics...
This is going to revolutionize optics... The first applications mentioned are for cameras, but there's much, much more potential. Any optical device that uses lenses today will be lighter and cheaper using these meta-materials. Because they're made using silicon, the manufacturing techniques developed for integrated circuits apply – and that means they can be cheaply mass-manufactured. There are obvious applications not only in cameras, but in telescopes, binoculars, microscopes, and so on. Furthermore, the light weight enables some further applications, including (especially) in stabilization: light-weight lenses are much easier to move quickly, which is at the core of how image stabilization systems work.
I'd be willing to bet that this development transforms the world of optics as fundamentally as digital cameras have transformed photography...
I'd be willing to bet that this development transforms the world of optics as fundamentally as digital cameras have transformed photography...
Quote of the day...
Quote of the day... From Conor Friedersdorf, writing at The Atlantic:
The power to require permits is the power to prevent something from ever existing.That short, simple sentence beautifully sums up the prosperity-sapping friction of one kind of government regulation: building permits. Once the form is defined, one can easily coin the equivalent for any regulatory process. For instance, my take on professional licensing:
The power to require professional licenses is the power to prevent someone from ever pursuing their chosen career.Do go read Mr. Friedersdorf's entire piece – it's a peach...
Friday, February 20, 2015
One of the few things I do miss about California...
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Obama's characterization of Islamic terrorists...
Obama's characterization of Islamic terrorists... This has been a big flap over the past few days, and several readers have asked what I think about it. The answer is complicated, and I struggled to put it into words even for myself. Fortunately for me, Ann Althouse has done a great job of it – I find very little in there to disagree with. And it is complicated :)
Ten years ago today...
Ten years ago today ... I wrote the very first post on JamulBlog. This post is the 11,327th post I've written since then – an average of over three posts per day.
I can scarcely believe I did that!
To the 12 or so people who regularly read this little blog: thanks for sticking with me!
I can scarcely believe I did that!
To the 12 or so people who regularly read this little blog: thanks for sticking with me!
Mumbling = phonetic reduction...
Mumbling = phonetic reduction... And that's a form of data compression...
If you're old enough...
If you're old enough ... then you'll remember that not so very long ago the biggest problems facing humanity in most of the world were starvation and disease. Now a big problem everywhere is ... obesity. I'm 62, and almost every day I read or see something that reminds me just how much the world has changed within my lifetime...
Five years of Solar Dynamics Observatory data...
When I first got interested in astronomy, back in the '60s, the Kitt Peak solar observatory was the pinnacle of solar astronomical tools. It was hampered by all the usual problems of having an instrument under a blanket of obstructing atmosphere, plus it was completely dependent of silver halide photographic film, drastically limiting the wavelengths it could observe. Now, 50 years later, the great solar observatories are all in space. They have a completely unobstructed view of the sun, 24 hours a day. They use electronic imaging sensors to observe at wavelengths stretching from HF radio all they way up to X-rays. The difference in the quality (and quantity!) of the scientific data is almost unimaginably large. The closest equivalent to this video that could be had in the '60s were a few grainy, noise-filled, low resolution sequences of filtered visible-light images taken a few seconds apart. It's like the difference between daguerreotypes and a modern 4K TV image, only even more so!
Meet the new Bush, same as the old Bush...
Quote of the day...
Quote of the day... This time from Rudy Giuliani:
I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America.I hadn't quite voiced it to myself like that, but I do believe Rudy is right...
Interesting Martian rocks...
We live in a very quiet part of the country...
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