January 31, 2009
From Space
In case you missed it, this is a satellite image of Barack Obama's inauguration.
Click on pic for larger version.
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January 30, 2009
there
there, there in the depths
echoes of light flicker-danced
burst in halo shouts
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January 29, 2009
Obama Thing
Get your free sticker!
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xkcd Advice
Must remember to factor this in
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January 28, 2009
Happens
As far as the project goes, I have been taking a break from it. Not that I’ve been idling away — I’ve been working on that Facebook application I mentioned before. I like coding, and this is rather light fare; I’m a little exhausted from thinking so deeply I reach the threshold of pain. I’ll get back to it when I don’t feel so very very tired at the idea of it. But as far as the Facebook app, it’s been fun, so far, setting up the database, playing around with PHP and HTML/CSS. I really do like just getting down and building stuff. I think it is in my nature to do so, ever since I got my first Apple ][+ clone at age 13. So anyway, I’ll probably have something working, as far as that app, in a month or so, just playing around in my spare time. Funny how things can so easily get done when there are no great unknowns.
In other news, I am still having drama associated with my operation. Got a check from Blue Cross for $7,000 for a $21,000 bill from the surgeon (a separate bill). I called them and they just said to send everything over, and they’d file an appeal, etc., etc. I think it’ll end up OK, but then again, I’ve been an optimist for quite some time now. Of course, the bright side is that these days I am feeling physically great, remembering the time before going to the hospital that I always had this lingering almost queazy feeling that always seemed to stay with me, though I couldn’t quite put a finger on it back then. So it goes, so it goes, so it goes.
So, I guess I have pretty much a full “Einstein” coin collection. The new one, posted below, of his birth place & time; 1905 Swiss franc (and also bought a copper rappen for that year too), his “miracle year” when he was a patent clerk there; and several pennies from 1955, where he died in New Jersey. I guess I reserve the right to buy something more from the last date, if I think that just wheat cents won’t cut it. And as for the gold coin I was selling on eBay, luck would have it that gold prices jumped up during the time it was on auction. Heh. Though you know, I’d rather be good than lucky, any day. That’s part of my code of honor; yes, I have one. Though it’s still rough, and I’m still working on it every once in a while.... Yeah, about everything, I really can’t complain.
In which I still have that feeling like something’s going to happen.
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January 27, 2009
The Obameter
Obama made ~500 promises in his campaign. Here's where to keep track of them.
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Funny T-Shirt
Mass Quantities of Code
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January 26, 2009
I Couldn't Resist
1879 20 mark coin, Germany: time & place of Einstein's birth.
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January 25, 2009
Future Past
The year 2000 as envisioned in 1910
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Interesting
Check out the alchemical symbols
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January 24, 2009
Quote
The scientist who lives laborious days in the disinterested pursuit of truth, the artist who will starve in a garret if only he may express the beauty he has seen, the martyr who will obey God in the scorn of consequence, are all religious men or, at least, are men who illustrate that principle which lies behind religion. Truth, Beauty, Goodness — these are sacred, the object of man's true love and reverence. He to whom nothing is sacred, all questions are open, and the distinction between right and wrong is blurred, is an enslaved, not an emancipated, spirit.
– Nathaniel Micklem
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January 23, 2009
Google Day #1
Why Google Employees Quit
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Google Day #2
How Google Is Making Us Smarter
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January 22, 2009
Need the Cash
Yes, I'm selling off this coin.
Click the image to go to the auction.
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January 21, 2009
sitting
my life is not so full of tragedy
but there is a sadness there
i have much more traveling ahead
but i cannot rise from this seat
not right now, too busy scribbling
the unimportant blather: i obsess
wondering so long where time went
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January 20, 2009
Cosmology Day #1
Our world may be a giant hologram
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Cosmology Day #2
Did dark energy give us our cosmos?
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January 19, 2009
Solved
I think I have solved the problem of intelligence, which is to say, I think I have the fundamental organization principle by which such a thing as artificial intelligence is possible. In my own shorthand, it follows like this:
- Satisfy a simpler pattern if one exists: this satisfaction is a pattern (one level of metadepth) [1/13/09]
- Given a pattern, that which satisfies the pattern satisfies what the pattern satisfies [12/9/08]
The idea is basically 1. introspection: how it understands can then be understood; 2. implication: if a thing is true, what is related needs be followed. I’ve been kicking it around in my head for several days now, and it has so far withstood my attempts at shaking it. I am building out from these two premises, and should have something working soon. Wish me luck.
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January 18, 2009
Games Day #1
Jolt reviving Zork as browser-MMO — awesome
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Games Day #2
Automatic game design — a future in this?
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January 17, 2009
Obamanized
Click the image to make one of your own.
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January 16, 2009
Quote
O God, Who hast ordained that whatever is to be desired, should be sought by labor, and Who, by Thy blessing, bringest honest labor to good effect; look with mercy upon my studies and endeavors. Grant me, O Lord, to design only what is lawful and right, and afford me calmness of mind, and steadiness of purpose, that I may so do Thy will in this short life, as to obtain happiness in the world to come, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
– Samuel Johnson
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January 15, 2009
Sneaky
Encode a data file in ASCII art
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Albert
Pictures of Einstein through the years
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January 14, 2009
Time(s)
I have gone over a conceptual hill, I feel. It is strange. This culmination of 7+ years’ sweat: I feel a little queazy, right now. I have to wonder, naturally, if this is an illusion of some sort. One thing I have realized, and perhaps this is something to do with the feeling I have: I don’t have to have everything figured out to make something work. I will always be finding something else out. All I need is enough, and perhaps this is it. A threshold breached. And perhaps in the past they were not illusions, when I had thought I had made some breakthrough; but necessary stops in the process. I have until the end of January, I have told myself. Let’s see if I can actually do this.
In other news, being now completely addicted to Facebook, I got an idea for my own Facebook application; it came to me at about 4am Sunday morning. Everyone I told so far thinks it’s a winner, though my brother thought that it still needed a little work. But then again, he’s used very few Facebook applications himself; I think I actually know the landscape better than he, even though he’s been on longer. He’s not the one addicted. Email me if you want to know what the idea is. Not that I’ll think anyone will steal it from here (from any of the 5 of you who visit), but I get excited when I tell anyone what came to me early that morning. Anyway, I’m really addicted to one of the games there, called Metropolis, which is like a lame version of SimCity. We’ll see what all of this amounts to.
In still other news, I have another set-up date on Saturday. She’s a post-doc, living around the Columbia Med. Center. At least I don’t have to go that far — we’re meeting at Josephina, which is only a couple minutes walk from my apartment. The hopes are not high. (On a side note, I keep thinking about Eun Hye, these days, I don’t know why. I hope she’s doing OK.) And for something completely different, let me just ask, “What the heck happened to 2008?!?” I have like one memory of this whole year: being down in my apartment, working. (Yeah, and maybe going to Korea in November and my gallbladder operation.) That’s it. We could have gone from 2007 to 2009 and I wouldn’t have noticed. Man, I gotta get the project in some kind of done state and get out more. Seriously.
In which time can be disbelieved, but can’t be stopped.
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January 13, 2009
It's a Lego World
This proves it. Sort of an art form in itself, no?
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The Danger of "Reply All"
Apparently, a "reply all" storm crashed the servers of the State Department. Awesome.
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January 12, 2009
Doodads
Doodads before me at all times: top: spider in amber; middle: 1905 Swiss franc, 1988 British pound, "tribute penny" var. 1, "tribute penny" var. 2, 2005 nickel, 2004 Thomas Edison commemorative silver dollar; bottom: Israeli 1970 commemorative 10 Lirot, Mark Antony legionary denarius. The 10 Lirot is going to be a present. And yes, I have two variations of the tribute penny.
Click on pic for larger version.
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January 11, 2009
Heh
xkcd on Windows 7 (& Vista)
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Fluff or Stuff
Google Rolls Out New Favicon — I like it
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January 10, 2009
brokin
brokin wirds meen thyngs
unimajynibel fayt
haangin bi thayr thredd
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January 9, 2009
Could It Be So?
Faster than the Speed of Light? A New Theory Says, "Yes"
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History
Army puts collection of Korean War photos, videos online
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January 8, 2009
TV on My Mac
EyeTV lets me watch digital cable on one of my screens. Heh.
Click on pic for larger version.
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January 7, 2009
Quote
[Leaders of the anarchist movement in Amsterdam] call their public demonstrations "Happenings." These paintings, these poems, and these demonstrations... are the expression of men who are struggling with their appalling lostness. Dare we laugh at such things? Dare we feel superior when we view their tortured expressions in their art? Christians should stop laughing and take such men seriously. Then we shall have the right to speak again to our generation. These men are dying while they live, yet where is our compassion for them? There is nothing more ugly than an orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion.
– Francis A. Schaeffer
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January 6, 2009
Definitely
101 MORE things we've learned from games
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For Fans Like Me
Top 25 Simpsons supporting characters
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January 5, 2009
Plans
I still have great hope. I am discovering something fundamental about the nature of things, a mathematics of meta. And at least now, I have (more or less) a plan for implementation, rather than just a desire. We’ll see how far I get till the process breaks down again, and I am left scratching my head for the umpteenth time. Along these lines, I realize I might want to sell my best coin (gold stater from the time of Alexander the Great). If I did, it would fund me for the greater part of another month. I believe I’ll wait until I hear from the people who might want me for iPhone development, to see if they’d pay me and in efficient fashion. I do have some money in stock, but AAPL’s not to any point where that would be a profitable recourse. Let us see what the rest of this month has in store.
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January 4, 2009
Kiwi Fun
Build a squid! (Site from New Zealand, ∴ Kiwi.)
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Are You Guilty?
The 500 worst passwords of all time
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January 3, 2009
That's Ubuntu, Baby!
Honest to goodness Linux running on my OLPC.
Click on pic for larger version.
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January 2, 2009
believe
i have not suffered
for pain is an illusion
believe what you will
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January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!
Take a gander at the celebration panoramas from around the world!
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What Everyone Needs Right Now
About.com's guide on how to cure a hangover.
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