Thursday, May 3, 2012
Jon Will Turns 40 Today...
...and his father, famous columnist George Will, wrote a beautiful column about him today...
Transit of Venus...
Just a month from now (June 5 or 6, depending on where you are), the planet Venus will move across the face of the sun (as seen from Earth). Astronomers call these events “transits”. This is the last transit of Venus over the sun for over 100 years, so if you want to see one, this would be the time to do it. More information here and here.
Well, Whaddya Know...
An actual news story about how the government's labor statistics are distorted...
Modern Memory Architectures...
Here's a well-done, accessible tutorial on modern computer memory architectures. The great majority of programmers today have no idea of the complexity of today's computer memory (RAM, I'm talking about) systems. When you get to virtual memory systems and the subtle effects of various multi-processor schemes, it's an even larger majority...
It's Not News, Now...
Remember over the last few years how the warmists were crying “Doom! Doom! We're all doomed!” because (they said) the Arctic ice caps were at historically low coverage levels and headed down fast. According to them, our only salvation was to radically cut fossil fuel consumption immediately, and to start spending trillions upon trillions of dollars promoting “renewable” energy use worldwide. Hundreds upon hundreds of news stories pushed this story into our faces from every direction.
Oops.
The ice caps are back to normal total coverage. They've made this swing from low coverage to average coverage to high coverage a few times before. A few thousand times, that is.
After all that doom being forecast the past few years, you'd think that the near-miraculous, totally unexpected recovery of the ice cap coverage would be really big news, something to be splattered all over the news like the original forecasts of doom!, right? Well, don't hold your breath. So far, this news is only being reported in a few science blogs, on the NOAA straight data sites, and (of course) by the global warming skeptics. Nobody else cares. Doesn't fit the narrative, you know. Only doom! does that...
Oops.
The ice caps are back to normal total coverage. They've made this swing from low coverage to average coverage to high coverage a few times before. A few thousand times, that is.
After all that doom being forecast the past few years, you'd think that the near-miraculous, totally unexpected recovery of the ice cap coverage would be really big news, something to be splattered all over the news like the original forecasts of doom!, right? Well, don't hold your breath. So far, this news is only being reported in a few science blogs, on the NOAA straight data sites, and (of course) by the global warming skeptics. Nobody else cares. Doesn't fit the narrative, you know. Only doom! does that...
How Politicians Learn...
“Politicians” and “learn” – seems a little unnatural to see those words together in a sentence, doesn't it?
Here, one hopeful politician (nicknamed “The Sledge”) explains how his competitors learn...
Here, one hopeful politician (nicknamed “The Sledge”) explains how his competitors learn...
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
A Bigger Increment This Time...
I've lost count of how many times, over the years, that I've migrated my development environment to a new machine. My very first development environment (I'm using the term very loosely to describe that environment!) was in a Univac 1230B “mainframe”, back in 1971, over forty years ago. My latest one is in a 17" Macbook Pro laptop.
Generally speaking, the migration puts me into an environment that's incrementally better than the last one. The size of that increment varies, but it's usually not all that large. The last time I can remember the increment being large was way back in the late '70s, when I migrated from a floppy disk based system to one that had a hard drive. That made a huge difference in how my development environment worked.
This past weekend I migrated my development environment from a three year old Macbook Pro to a brand new one. You wouldn't think that would make a huge difference, but it did – but other factors were at work. The biggest other factor was moving from a hard disk to a solid state disk (SSD), a 512 GB model. In addition to that, my new Macbook has a 750 GB conventional hard disk, 16 GB of RAM, and a 2.4 GHz quad core processor. My old Macbook took about 50 seconds from powerup to a functional desktop; my new one is well under 10 seconds. My old Macbook used to run out of usable memory (resulting in thrash and the notorious spinning disk of death) many times a day, especially when running Firefox or VMWare Fusion; my new Macbook handles these with ease. My old Macbook took several minutes to search for arbitrary strings through our entire code base; my new Macbook does this in under a second. I could go on, but you get the idea: this migration was quite a large incremental jump in performance and general usability of my development environment.
Where is this all heading?
Tape is the new trash.
Hard disks are the new tape.
SSDs are the new hard disks.
Cheap RAM and ridiculously fast processors are enablers, both for crappy software and for entirely new possibilities (like useful VMs in a laptop)...
Generally speaking, the migration puts me into an environment that's incrementally better than the last one. The size of that increment varies, but it's usually not all that large. The last time I can remember the increment being large was way back in the late '70s, when I migrated from a floppy disk based system to one that had a hard drive. That made a huge difference in how my development environment worked.
This past weekend I migrated my development environment from a three year old Macbook Pro to a brand new one. You wouldn't think that would make a huge difference, but it did – but other factors were at work. The biggest other factor was moving from a hard disk to a solid state disk (SSD), a 512 GB model. In addition to that, my new Macbook has a 750 GB conventional hard disk, 16 GB of RAM, and a 2.4 GHz quad core processor. My old Macbook took about 50 seconds from powerup to a functional desktop; my new one is well under 10 seconds. My old Macbook used to run out of usable memory (resulting in thrash and the notorious spinning disk of death) many times a day, especially when running Firefox or VMWare Fusion; my new Macbook handles these with ease. My old Macbook took several minutes to search for arbitrary strings through our entire code base; my new Macbook does this in under a second. I could go on, but you get the idea: this migration was quite a large incremental jump in performance and general usability of my development environment.
Where is this all heading?
Tape is the new trash.
Hard disks are the new tape.
SSDs are the new hard disks.
Cheap RAM and ridiculously fast processors are enablers, both for crappy software and for entirely new possibilities (like useful VMs in a laptop)...
Memories: a Consumer Durable...
This little article caught my eye: an economist (Garett Jones) notes that that people make decisions about their vacations in much the same way that they make decisions about durable goods (things like cars and refrigerators). But here's the part that really resonated with me: if your memories are a durable good, then you should “buy” as many of them as you can when you're young – because then you've got your whole life to enjoy them.
I never have actually thought about my memories as a consumer durable :-) However, I certainly have treated them in the way Mr. Jones recommends, and I've taken some heat for this over my life. Debbie and I have (very) freely spent on our vacations, our animals, and other cherished experiences – even when we couldn't really afford to do so. I've never regretted doing that (though I've often been criticized for it), and the main reason why – is precisely the memories Mr. Jones speaks of. We've had a great many adventures in our lives, and the memories of them (and of course the broadening experiences) are priceless to us.
As I write this, I can't help but enumerate some in my mind. The ones that jump out: walking on the rim of an active (and erupting!) volcano in Hawai'i, skydiving, scuba diving in the Philippines, our many companion animals over the years, two weeks on a motorcycle in the back country of Australia, four wheeling in the San Juan Mountains, touring through the Baltic islands of Estonia, four wheeling on Mauna Kea in Hawai'i with my parents and (separately) my mother-in-law, and exploring Costa Rica (especially Mt. Arenal and Monte Verde). Some of these adventures were almost 40 years ago – and Mr. Jones point about the time value of them is spot on...
I never have actually thought about my memories as a consumer durable :-) However, I certainly have treated them in the way Mr. Jones recommends, and I've taken some heat for this over my life. Debbie and I have (very) freely spent on our vacations, our animals, and other cherished experiences – even when we couldn't really afford to do so. I've never regretted doing that (though I've often been criticized for it), and the main reason why – is precisely the memories Mr. Jones speaks of. We've had a great many adventures in our lives, and the memories of them (and of course the broadening experiences) are priceless to us.
As I write this, I can't help but enumerate some in my mind. The ones that jump out: walking on the rim of an active (and erupting!) volcano in Hawai'i, skydiving, scuba diving in the Philippines, our many companion animals over the years, two weeks on a motorcycle in the back country of Australia, four wheeling in the San Juan Mountains, touring through the Baltic islands of Estonia, four wheeling on Mauna Kea in Hawai'i with my parents and (separately) my mother-in-law, and exploring Costa Rica (especially Mt. Arenal and Monte Verde). Some of these adventures were almost 40 years ago – and Mr. Jones point about the time value of them is spot on...
Real Heroes...
...generally don't brag about their feats.
And they certainly don't use them to belittle someone else.
Obama, the most unseemly president...
And they certainly don't use them to belittle someone else.
Obama, the most unseemly president...
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
The Debt Ceiling...
Via my mom (whom I believe knows how she's voting in November):
THE DEBT CEILING
Democrats don't understand THE DEBT CEILING
Republicans don't understand THE DEBT CEILING
Liberals don't understand THE DEBT CEILING
NO ONE understands THE DEBT CEILING
SO - Allow me to explain...
Let's say you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood. Your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings. What do you think you should do? Raise the ceilings or pump out the shit?
Your choice is coming in November. Don't miss the opportunity.
Greatest Sentence Ever?
Bill Whittle has a candidate, and he makes his case. It involves intellectuals running amok, Obama team mocking, skewering of warmists, and Whittle wit on full display. Via reader Doug S.:
Monday, April 30, 2012
Can You Guess What This Is?
Awesome math geekiosity. Sondra Eklund rocks!
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