Click for an updated PDF version of this post. There are no quick WordPress to LaTeX fixes WordPress to LaTeX Over the next three posts I will describe how to convert WordPress’s export XML to LaTeX source code. I know that many of you are looking for a quick WordPress to LaTeX fix; unfortunately there … Continue reading WordPress to LaTeX with Pandoc and J: Prerequisites (Part 1)
Mike Brown Punts Pluto
As a longtime amateur astronomer I appreciate good science writing and Mike Brown's little book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming is a wonderful example of the genre. When Pluto was tossed from the pantheon of planets I didn't care. I knew that in previous centuries, when asteroids were first discovered, … Continue reading Mike Brown Punts Pluto
Blogging off for Christmas
J Christmas Wallpaper I am celebrating Christmas by combining two of my favorite things: the programming language J and the superb image editor Picture Window Pro. The other day the good folks at Digital Light and Color announced 64 bit versions of Picture Window Pro. I was delighted. PWP is my favorite image editor. It's … Continue reading Blogging off for Christmas
The Instagram Metadata Massacre
Instagram Fingers I've been playing around with the iPhone app Instagram. I decided to give this freebie a try after a gaggle of soulless self promoting Apple marketing zombies declared it "imaging app of the year." Instagram, like Hipstamatic, (which incidentally stopped working after the last update), crops iPhone images to squares, applies hokey filters and then offers … Continue reading The Instagram Metadata Massacre
Revenge of the PhD Camera
Hipstamatic water meter Cameras come in two flavors. There are expensive serious cameras used by serious photographers to take serious photographs and then there are PhD, (Push here Dummy), cameras. Serious cameras meet the highest technical standards, lenses are diffraction limited, chromatic aberration approaches zero, pixel counts match Nyquist limits, ISO's exceed retinal sensitivity, auto-focus is instantaneous, color spaces … Continue reading Revenge of the PhD Camera
Old white guys look at the sky!
Last Friday I joined the Saint Louis Astronomical Society (SLAS). In the last twenty years I have been a member of two chapters of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Kingston and Ottawa, the Forth Worth Astronomical Society in Texas, the Minnesota Astronomical Society in Saint Paul and the Orange County Astronomers in southern California. No matter … Continue reading Old white guys look at the sky!
I lose another battle with Gravity
24 Hour Fitness Yesterday I found myself back in Saint Luke's emergency department being asked what day it was. An hour before I had stepped into the shower at 24 Hour Fitness over on Clayton, I had just finished my noon hour workout. I try to force myself to the gym at least four times … Continue reading I lose another battle with Gravity
Iranian Regime Justice is pathetic Sharia Savagery.
Yousef Nadarkhani I rarely comment on the "news" but the planned execution of Yousef Nadarkhani for the make-believe crime of Islamic apostasy has really pissed me off. Once again the Iranian branch of the "religion of peace" shows its primitive, ass-backwards, subhuman side to a stunned world that finds it hard to believe that changing your mind about fictitious religious nonsense is … Continue reading Iranian Regime Justice is pathetic Sharia Savagery.
New Conan not as Philosophical as Old Conan
Bad news philosophers, our preeminent social critic, our font of wisdom, our modern Socrates has succumbed to the malignant Hollywood poisons of reality TV, celebrity whoring, financial ennui and hopeless incompetent governance. Given the forces arrayed against our philosopher king only Vegas bookies on crack would favor his chances. I knew all this when I sat down to view … Continue reading New Conan not as Philosophical as Old Conan
Typesetting UTF8 APL code with the LaTeX lstlisting package
Click here for a PDF version of this post. UTF8 APL characters within a LaTeX lstlisting environment. Click for *.tex source code Typesetting APL source code has always been a pain in the ass! In the dark ages, (the 1970's), you had to fiddle with APL type-balls and live without luxuries like lower case letters. With the … Continue reading Typesetting UTF8 APL code with the LaTeX lstlisting package
Analyze the Data not the Drivel 