Before my fall I launched a PIP (Perpetual Impossible Project). PIPs are long-range risky undertakings that cannot be finished. PIPs contradict and subvert the very notion of tightly controlled corporate style projects: hence their manifest appeal to recusants like myself. I won't go into details about my particular PIP. Let's just say it captures every delusional notion I have ever entertained. Part of … Continue reading PIP News: Isabelle is Up!
Category: Reviews
Open Source Hilbert for the Kindle
David Hilbert While searching for free Kindle books I found Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg offers free Kindle books but they also have something better! Would you believe LaTeX source code for some mathematical classics. The best book I've found so far is an English translation of David Hilbert's Foundations of Geometry. Hilbert's Foundations exposed some … Continue reading Open Source Hilbert for the Kindle
A Peculiar Book Club
While holed up in a rehabilitation hospital recovering from a nasty fall a coworker invited me to a noon-hour Bible study group. The group conveniently met in my rehab hospital so I rolled upstairs in my wheelchair and started attending their meetings. When I told my wife about this peculiar book club she thought I was suffering from post … Continue reading A Peculiar Book Club
JOD comes to Linux
For years I have distributed a J Addon called JOD. JOD stands for J Object Dictionary. JOD is a code database for the J programming language. Instead of storing my J programs in text files, like every other programmer in the world, I break them down into the smallest reusable units. In J parlance I … Continue reading JOD comes to Linux
More on that SmugShot Metadata Mess
A few days after posting a J script that fixes EXIF timestamps in SmugShot images SmugMug changed the filename assigned to downloaded SmugShot images. Originally the layout was: SmugMugID_smugshot_SmugShotID.jpg This layout was inconsistent with the way SmugMug normally handles files. Default SmugMug behavior is to leave filenames unchanged. This contrasts with other photo sites, (you … Continue reading More on that SmugShot Metadata Mess
SmugShot Metadata Mess
SmugShot iPhone App Logo While languishing in a series of hospitals and rehab centers recovering from a bad fall I have been amusing myself by taking iPhone pictures and posting them to SmugMug with SmugShot. SmugShot is a nifty little iPhone app that uploads iPhone pictures and videos directly to your SmugMug galleries. SmugShot is … Continue reading SmugShot Metadata Mess
Anathem: Plato’s Parallel World
About the best thing anyone can do for you is to suggest a good book. When I was in my teens my aunt pointed me at Tolkien: a shrewd call. I was at the perfect age for a romp in Middle Earth. In the 1990’s a consulting client introduced me to Neal Stephenson. I started … Continue reading Anathem: Plato’s Parallel World
J 7.01 Now Playing in your Browser
Big changes are afoot for J programmers. With the release of J 7.01 JSOFTWARE has taken the risky step of deprecating two well established user IDE’s and replacing them with brand new GTK and Web browser-based interfaces. As we all know new software is not necessarily better software, (remember that risky bit), but in this … Continue reading J 7.01 Now Playing in your Browser
It’s all over for Broadcast TV
Human beings are worthless lumps of lazy protoplasm. We only change our bad habits when that bitch --- reality --- forces us to reconsider our wayward ways. In this respect the great recession has been a wonderful teacher. It's sat us down and made us stare at the books. And arithmetic, being what it is, … Continue reading It’s all over for Broadcast TV
A Black Swan Song
There’s a lot to like in The Black Swan. To begin, you simply cannot beat the soundtrack! Tchaikovsky delivers a bit stream worthy of high quality digital cinema sound systems. Natalie Portman gives the best performance of her career --- now I see what the young Darth Vader and that creepy V guy saw in … Continue reading A Black Swan Song
Analyze the Data not the Drivel 