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WEEK 12 2008

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Saturday 22 March 2008

S
aturday - It's the first day of spring. Here is a webcam shot from San Francisco:

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Sunrise over the Bay Bridge.

In other news, Amazon.com has another book suggestion for me.

weird amazon.com book suggestion

I'm not quite sure how Amazon makes these bizarre connections. Cholera isn't passed by hugging (touch), rather it is a water born parasite. And, since the new book won't be released for a couple of weeks (April 1st) the "have also purchased" comment is a lie. Apparently it's just a random linkage.

I particularly like how they don't even do a mail-merge with my name, ie: Dear Ed, but rather have a hyperlink back to themselves as a salutation. It's the little personal touches that make these communiques so special.

These recommendations could become a regular feature here.



In other news, my Dad saw a Lion Cut on a local cat today. Cool. I've heard of them but never actually seen one myself.



In other other news Dad won a quarter from me today, when the Giants (in the cellar) beat the Brewers (#3 in the west). Down 25 cents and it's still pre-season. This isn't looking good...

Friday 21 March 2008

Friday - I'd posted on Nvidia's graphic card parallel processor (GPU, for Graphics Processing Unit) before, Tesla. I didn't realize that they also let you use their standard graphics cards in the same manner, using the Cuda interface. Neat. Though an 8800GTS costs about $400, if it can operate in the range of hundreds of gigaflops it would be worth it. Well, perhaps, if I was still in the computational fluid dynamics racket it would be. I couldn't actually find a price in $US for the Tesla, oddly enough, but at the current exchange rate, the British £370,00 for the Tesla card would be about $740, double the cost of the 8800GTS.

Crayon Physics. Pretty neat. Just a foretaste of what will eventually happen with simulations.

The weather on Mount Washington. Wow.

Welcome to Kansas
. Funny. I see this in California a lot, but these days what bothers me most are the people doing 80-90 MPH in the #3 or #4 slow lane, taking advantage of the gaps between semi-trucks to pass on the right. Dangerous as heck - you aren't looking for them and suddenly they are, zipping in from the right, squeezing their thirteen foot car into a fifteen foot gap between you and a truck. Nasty.

Thursday 20 March  2008

Thursday - up north. Beautiful weather. Okay drive.



Interesting: Google Sky. I thought of something like this years ago, including the different spectral bands. Never did anything about it of course. I imagine it's a pretty common idea, a virtual sky. Actually I envisioned it as a globe of many (virtual) layers. I wonder if Google Sky can operate in that 3D mode.

Apropos of that: I wonder how Google makes money? Not enough to look it up, but I have to wonder - how can you make money with a search engine and email and coolish, free, web applications?

Maybe you can't. Maybe it's all a scam. After all, DadHacker says that any company with a 'campus' is doomed. But you have to take that with a grain of salt: he progams in Emacs as opposed to the one true editor: vi.

Wednesday 19 March 2008

Wednesday - keeping busy. Since my help is taking the rest of the week off I thought I'd do the same. Get a jump on traffic up to the bay area. So I'll take off Thursday and Friday.

Stupidly I didn't pack before heading out east of Fillmore for work, so I had to drive west all the way back to Ventura to get my stuff, about 25 miles, then east again. So about an extra two and a half gallons of gas, at $3.50 or so, and an hours commute time. But it did let me skip the worst of rush hour traffic. I took a shower, cleaned up the room, ate, downloaded some data, and so on.

Tuesday 18 March 2008

Tuesday - back at work, gorgeous weather. It's nice to be outside in such balmy conditions. It's nice to start the day with a cup of hot coffee and buttered bagel - I feel almost human by the time work starts. Almost. I was out east of Santa Paula now, in the orchards.



I see that Arthur C. Clarke has died. Damm. He was a favorite. Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke were the "Big 3" of science fiction, and they are all gone now. Of the second tier, Dickson's gone, as are Anderson and Norton. Pournelle is sick. So it goes, I suppose.

I recall that in 'Tales from the White Hart' he had a story about noise cancellation. I was going to bring that up in connection with my noise canceling headphones that I got for Christmas, but I don't think I did. That would have been the Harry Purvis story 'Silence Please', I'm guessing.

 Monday 17 March 2008

Monday - thinking about the picture of the week. It occurs to me that I start work before the field laborers, and quit work long after they've gone home.

Back at work. I unloaded everything Sunday night but the desk myself, and even installed the carpet. Sadly it's 1"" short in the 10' direction. Not that I care that much. In the evening my friend Tim helped me lug the beast of a desk into the house. It's small, only 5' long, but made of steel.

Sunday 16 March 2008

Sunday - tomorrow is my sixth blogiverary. I started everything off with a post about my cat. The rap on bloggers is, of course, that the write incessantly about their cats while sitting in pajama's, and there's a germ of truth in that.

Today - as then - it is windy and cold. Riley is outside, chasing the leaves as they blow across the yard. Phoebe is lurking about, looking for a particularly unwary or slow bird - hope springs eternal in a cats mind. Each occasionally runs inside, frightened by some noise or just to get warm. I'm blogging, sipping a cup of coffee, wearing my warm slippers, though not pajama's.



I've cut the carpet to size,  actually about an inch short in each direction. It was 12x12, I needed 10x11, I cut it short because of moldings and such. Folded over it fits in the Explorer (barely). Along with the desk and rest of the gear it makes quite a load.

It's down to Ventura tonight, I want to unload as much as possible before work tomorrow.


Picture of the Week
strawberry field in saticoy, befre dawn
Photo NotesStrawberry field before sunrise.

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