As you know, I'm in full favor of HTML5. I like Blogger - it's easier to navigate than Wordpress, which is all I care. Wordpress has a better comments system as of now. Besides that, those who argue for its advantages over Blogger always fail to point out that you need (oft paid) hosting space to reap the said advantages. I am also more concerned about how fast a site loads on a 56K modem than search engine optimization. This, partially, also means that I like my source code to be as short as I can make it; and squeeze all of my CSS/javascript into the same document. The one thing I've not got around doing is to spend time getting rid of the clunky markup that Blogger also forces upon your template whether you like it or not, so long as you're using their layout designer. To get around this, you have to revert to 'classic view', where you build your template entirely up from scratch. Even if you are good with your web design, fetching out how to fetch your posts, comments and other data is a pain in the ass.
To put it simply, I'll be switching over to HTML5, with a change of domain name. I will still use Blogger - because it's free, and easy. So, I won't be updating this blog for some time, because there's some experimenting to do, and designing websites is not my thing.
Lastly, I just want to add a word about another controversy. Why buy a tablet when you can buy ANY laptop? I'd rather have a Lemote Yeeloong than an iPad. Some people have suggested to me that tablets are going to usurp the place of the traditional laptop. Quite the contrary, tablets are actually dying out despite an increase in absolute volume of sales (wrong data to interpret). Comparatively, laptop sales still take a huge market share of total PC sales - one which is expected to exceed that of desktops early this decade. Most of all, laptop sales are growing faster than tablet sales ever since the release of the iPad - and this gap is projected to grow even larger.
Physicsforums, on the prospects of physics PhDs in quantitative finance (a very interesting field indeed, especially in present day):
"Personally, I'm quite interested in differential geometry so I'm looking for excuses to use differential geometry in my work. This involves "selling" differential geometry which is part of the challenge. There is also an educational aspect to this. To be able to sell differential geometry, you have to teach non-math people enough about differential geometry so that when you start talking about covariant vectors, people see $!$$!$$!$."
Tim, on... uhhh what?
"cause if u are naked u run faster so alot of crazy guys running around naked with axes trying to one hit ko u"
I've finally settled down in my new room. I left the wiring in a mess though, because I'll only be staying here for 3 months. (I originally planned to rig the walls with a surround sound system and LED backlights, but it's better to leave that for my college dorm. There's a remote LED chandelier outside though.) Nonetheless, I realized that I can't drift off to sleep in front of the computer anymore, because the lighting is rather glaring as a result of the blinds behind the screens.
Above: Screens. The thing under my left monitor is my organizer/phone.
I mount my other phone on the right of my keyboard (can't see it in the dark).
Below: LEDs on my RAM and router.
LEFT: Blue LEDs on my mouse, Alcatel wireless phone receiver and monitors
RIGHT: LEDs on my keyboard's backlit keys; and my modem, carefully snuck
behind a speaker. (The keyboard's screen is a crystal display.)
From bed height.
While fully lit with high exposure.
While fully lit. The device attached to my laptop is the bluetooth transmitter for my headphones... (it lights up with an LED too, just that it's switched off for now.)
I like this part. Left to right: Remote controller for all the lights in my room; remote controller for the speakers; and transmitter for my wireless mouse (I usually use the razer, which has a wicked blue glow too, but this is convenient when I'm reading from my bed.) I charge my phone from the same USB port behind my keyboard.
On an unrelated topic, I learned recently that many people spend $3000++++ for the bed, frame etc., but only about a sixth of that on the bedding. Personally, I think that the total budget should be divided 2:1 between matress+frame and bedding.
Westin Hotels and Resorts' "heavenly bed" concept gives a pretty good guideline of basic bedding:
Just felt like writing the romaji lyrics for this song. I find it easier to sing... uh... remember the lyrics than the other Japanese songs in my head. (Don't mind the video, I know that I've strange tastes.)
湿った雲が消える shimetta kumo ga kieru
次の季節まで急かして tsugi no kisetsu made sekashi te
しけった顔もサヨナラ shiketta kao mo sayonara
次は待ちこがれた 夏 tsugi wa machikogare ta natsu
go for it! Go for it
黒い雨傘過去にしまって kuroi amagasa kako ni shimatte
洗いたて白いキャミ araitate shiroi kyami
ちょっと誘惑チックに chotto yuuwaku chikku ni
最初で 最後のこの夏に saisho de saigo no kono natsu ni
ホントは少し背伸びumm… honto wa sukoshi senobi ummm...
だけどそう悔いは残さぬよう dakedo sou kui wa nokosa nu you
あなたとわたしいつまでも anata to watashi itsu made mo
思い巡る伝えき れない omoi meguru tsutae kirenai
靴音早めて kutsuoto hayame te
待ちきれぬ夏が始まる machi kire nu natsu ga hajimaru
Google's 2010 keynote was revolutionary. I just have to cover the entire front page of my blog with this. One of the major messages was a continued push for HTML5, which I fully support. Web applications are replacing the traditional functions of most desktop applications - instead of downloading a video straightaway, most of us will go to YouTube first. I'm sure many of you have felt frustration over requiring a download client (e.g. to access Adobe products, music downloads etc.) Those who had used ICQ/mIRC, or even MSN/AOL/Yahoo messenger now, find themselves using Facebook as often. The advantage that desktop applications have over Web applications is the access to your system resources - graphics processing, storage etc. - and HTML5 is designed to bridge this.
What this means is that most that had to be done with Flash will soon be replaced with clever use of APIs, HTML5, CSS3 or simply embedded video using the VP8 codec - which puts a much lighter load on bandwidth (try play around with Hermès or any other boutique brand's site) while giving the look of smooth transitions and all that.
Given that people pay hundreds (which is considered underpriced - since the event sold out very early) to attend the keynote, I certainly recommend you to watch the free video stream on YouTube:
How you can take part:
- YouTube has implemented HTML5. One-click enabling/disabling of beta-testing for HTML5 can be done here.
- Test your browser compatibility with HTML5 here.
Now, about Apple... We know that the Android has lately outsold Apple's OS for smartphone sales; and given that Android is still in its early stages of implementation (Motorola, for example, has yet to implement 2.x) we well know that this gap is going to build further. (Seeing how major industry players like HTC, Sony Ericsson etc. are getting on the boat, I felt the similarities to how Blu-ray killed HD-DVD quite uncanny...)
I bought an Android device on the exact same day I watched this.
At 3:00, Gundotra alludes to Apple's monopolistic practices, which to me, also gives me valid reason to believe in Apple's impending downfall. Now, to clarify two things: I don't mean downfall as in a total wind-up. But I mean downfall in the sense of how Google established itself as the leader in search, advertising and cloud services to kill out Yahoo; and Microsoft, in the sense that Microsoft is now trying to safeguard its products which are now facing Google's competition, and poise bing to compete with Google's search engine. I also imply downfall in the sense of how Google is late to tap into social networking - in the sense of how Facebook is slowly but surely destroying Friendster, myspace etc.
I clarify the second thing: what I mean by "monopolistic practices". Apple's use of iTunes, proprietary software etc. is essentially a tying practice, like how Microsoft used to bundle Internet Explorer with Windows. But Apple doesn't have the firepower of Microsoft. It is trying to do too much with a product that doesn't have the actual edge over its competitors. (Accuse me of making up nonsense, but the way Windows came out as a $99 CONSUMER operating system in an age where computers came as mainframes and continued sustaining its dominant market share is very different from how Macintosh and the iPod can play the game - Cowon, Samsung, Creative etc. have products which are known to produce better sound quality than the iPod; and there are many ways you can set up a PC to perform on many levels better than a Mac). So it's not just with the iPhone. A single phone cannot carry every feature successfully - that's why mobile producers diversify their products to target niches: for the basic user, business, entertainment, connectivity etc. That's partly why Nokia is still the market leader in mobile phone sales worldwide.
I'd say that the rumors that AT&T will lose its exclusivity rights sound credible - and might be a response to the growth of Android carriers.
Now, about my private life: I just moved to a new location, unpacked most of the boxes, and now that I'm getting back into a routine, I'm starting to write again.
I'm nearly done with the first chapter of Contemporary Abstract Algebra, which is simply a rehash of elementary number theory. I liked this part:
"I was interviewed on the Israeli Radio for five minutes and I said that more than 2000 years ago, Euclid proved that there are infinitely many primes. Immediately the host interrupted me and asked: "Are there still infinitely many primes?"
The rest of group theory is starting to scare me... it's not a matter of difficulty but more of a matter of time - of which I have very little; and I'm starting to encounter many proofs which evade me.
I'll be switching my primary browser mail with physicsforums/Windows Live service to Google Mail. The major reason being the major glitches with Windows Live while using Firefox (it doesn't fetch the previous message when replying/forwarding - mysteriously, it always works with IE), slow loading times, inconveniences (drafting, attaching, searching etc. feel just that slightly better with Google).
[Edit: Wonder why I wrote 'major' twice in a sentence like that.. Oh well.]
Can't think of a nice email address to complete ...@ephedyn.com for now.
As I'm writing a philosophy lecture now, I feel like sharing a very important principle. One of the precepts that I've always adhered to is to present an argument that you must accept to be true, and not one which you are convinced to be true. I don't see what's the point of a lecture where I expect the audience to take what I say to be true simply because I'm the lecturer - a few half-truths may evade scrutiny, and I might as well talk about the Pachinko (パチンコ) aliens' conspiracy to conquer the world, because that carries just as much clout. Instead, I like to present things from the position of someone who's only just as qualified as anyone else in the audience, but weave my presentation like an argument structure.
This is especially the case in law or ethics, where the ideal sentence is one which we must accept, whether or not we sympathize with one party. I feel that the same goes with competitions where we feel like the judging was unfair (I did feel unfairly judged at a science fair, but I believe that it's my fault that I didn't rob him of any chance to be unfair towards me.)
Van Cilburn was one excellent example. Younger people like me might not know about him, hence for their benefit, let me quote the Wikipedia article on him:
"Algebra" by Michael Artin is available on Google Books! More about this great book:
Diese ungewöhnliche Einführung in lineare Algebra und Algebra ist über viele Jahre aus den Vorlesungsnotizen des Autors gewachsen und zeichnet sich aus durch einen harmonischen Aufbau des behandelten Stoffes. Als eine Besonderheit umfasst dieser nebst den üblichen Inhalten auch die Betonung spezieller Themen wie Symmetrie, lineare Gruppen und quadratische Zahlkörper. Der Text besticht insbesondere durch eine für den Studenten besonders verständliche Präsentation des Stoffes. Zahlreiche Beispiele und Ãbungsaufgaben erhöhen seinen Wert als studienbegleitende Literatur für die ersten drei bis vier Semester des Studiums der Mathematik und verwandter Gebiete. Dieses sehr lebendig geschriebene Lehrbuch umfasst sowohl lineare Algebra (Matrizen, Vektorräume, lineare Abbildungen und Bilinearformen) als auch Algebra (Gruppen, Ringe, Moduln, Darstellungen von Gruppen und Körpertheorie). Darüberhinaus werden die Themen Symmetrie, lineare Gruppen und quadratische Zahlkörper ausführlicher behandelt. Diese Kapitel illustrieren nicht nur die enge Verbindung zwischen Algebra einerseits und Geometrie bzw. Zahlentheorie andererseits, sie lassen auch besonders viel von der Begeisterung und dem persönlichen Engagement des Autors spüren. Er hat in dieses Buch die Summe der Erfahrungen einfliessen lassen, die er im Laufe vieler Jahre mit Algebravorlesungen gemacht hat. Der Stoff wird sehr verständlich präsentiert und ist mit einer Fülle von Beispielen angereichert, die die abstrakte Begriffsbildungen motivieren und veranschaulichen. Dadurch ist das Buch, das ausserdem zahlreiche Ãbungsaufgaben enthält, auch zum Selbststudium hervorragend geeignet.
The preprint by Defraeye et al discuss plenty of details related to the aerodynamics of bicycles, and has a fantastic list of references recent up to 2010.
Among these references, a 1983 Scientific American article is particularly interesting. (Gross, A.C., Kyle, C.R., Malewicki, D.J., 1983. The aerodynamics of human-powered land vehicles. Scientific American 249 (6), 142-15) This diagram suggests that 60-70% of aerodynamic drag is attributed to the rider's body, and aerodynamic drag is attributed to approximately 90% of the total losses in the system.
I just happened to watch this video... And my first impression was... this looks so racist *lol*. (1/4 of MIT's population is Asian by the way... how this compares to the video is your cue.)
