As you can see from the picture, my desk is a mess. Also, I’ve come into possession of a second free copy of Paul Davies’s new book Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe Is Just Right for Life (one is an advance reading copy in trade paper, the other a spiffy new hardback). You can read… Continue reading Pick a Number, Win a Book
Month: April 2007
It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
Eugene Wallingford talks about a great idea for a conference session: At SIGCSE a couple of weeks ago, I attended an interesting pair of complementary panel sessions. I wrote about one, Ten Things I Wish They Would Have Told Me…, in near-real time. Its complement was a panel called “It Seemed Like a Good Idea… Continue reading It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
Changing the Rules
Saturday’s Georgetown- Ohio State game was hyped as featuring a clash of two seven-foot centers, but failed to live up to that billing, as Greg Oden picked up two quick fouls, and sat for most of the first half. Roy Hibbert of Georgetown didn’t fare much better. This has prompted a bunch of pinhead commentators,… Continue reading Changing the Rules
Why I Don’t Write More About String Theory
It’s summed up nicely by the discussion at Cosmic Variance, and spelled out explicitly in comment #125 by Marty Tysanner: Sean coaxingly requested, Come on, string theorists! Make some effort to explain to everyone why this set of lofty speculations is as promising as you know it to be. It won’t hurt too much, really.… Continue reading Why I Don’t Write More About String Theory
Technical Difficulties
As mentioned in passing in the previous post, we’ve been having some DSL issues that prevent me from posting anything from home at the moment. Hopefully, Verizon will get this fixed (Kate spent a long time on the phone with them Sunday morning, and they think it’s a software problem on their end). More importantly,… Continue reading Technical Difficulties
Controls to Indicators
We’ve been having some problems with our DSL service at Chateau Steelypips again, which has gotten me thinking about the design of devices that are annoying to use. It occurs to me that you might use a sort of control to indicator ratio as a measure of how irritating a device is to use. This… Continue reading Controls to Indicators
Jim Butcher, White Night [Library of Babel]
I stopped by to support my local independent bookseller yesterday, and was immediately confronted with a dilemma: A big display of signed copies of White Night by Jim Butcher, the new Dresden Files novel. The signed part has nothing to do with the dilemma– I’m a reader, not a collector– the dilemma was that I… Continue reading Jim Butcher, White Night [Library of Babel]
Basic Concepts: Pick and Roll
Having watched UCLA set offensive basketball back about fifty years in the first half of last night’s game (I didn’t watch the second half, as the outcome wasn’t in doubt, and really, I’d rather stab myself in the eye with a fork), it’s worth taking a few minutes today to discuss one of the most… Continue reading Basic Concepts: Pick and Roll
On the Superiority of String Theory
As we look at science in general, and physics in particular, a clear pattern emerges: the scientific endeavours most worthy of praise and acclaim are the most abstract and mathematical sciences. Physics is of greater worth than biology, theoretical physics is more worthy than experimental physics, and high-energy particle theory is the most fundamental and… Continue reading On the Superiority of String Theory