I decided I needed an hour break from Scala hacking, and I am about halfway finished with Sean Carroll's From Eternity to Here, which goes on at great length about entropy as it relates to time's arrow. So for the fun of it I whipped up a simulation of an Ehrenfest Urn using Processing.js.
Check it out here (requires a browser supporting canvas).
Now that I'm done, there are a couple of things I find amazing about this.
- I felt like I needed a break from being paid to write Scala. As opposed to, like, Visual Basic, Java, C++, or something like that.
- Within an hour I was able to download processing, learn the basics, and hack this animated demo together. And put it on a web page, viewable by pretty much anybody that I care to reach. Back in the early aughts I probably spent fifty or sixty hours just trying to figure out how to step debug javascript.
From eternity to here apparently involves a massive improvement in the state of the programming art. Everything is amazing and nobody's happy.
Tags: Books, Languages, Scala, Science, Software, Web
Posted in Eccentric, Programming | 3 Comments »
What does it take? Influential sources seem to disagree.
On BookTV today is someone who seems to think that It Takes a Parent. Rick Santorum, who appears to actually believe all that “God” business, disagrees. It Takes a Family, he says.
Nauseating carpetbagger Hillary Clinton isn’t content with the scope of her political opponent’s book, and tells us through her ghostwriter that It Takes a Village. But even she has her detractors who think that It Takes a Dog to Raise a Village. And keep the Knights Templar from aiming their radiation beam at your brain, I guess, I don’t know.
Where do I fall in the Great Pap Debate? For the most part I think I side with those who say, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.
Tags: Angry, Books, Religion
Posted in Eccentric | No Comments »
There’s nothing like eight hours in various airports to make you want to try to change the world. Here’s an email I just sent to Gary McBrayer of the Hudson Group. I will post any replies I receive.
Dear Mr. McBrayer:
I was dismayed to see Kevin Trudeau’s “book” entitled “Natural Cures ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About” available at your Hudson News bookstore in the Pittsburgh International Airport. Even worse, it was shelved in the “Hudson Recommends” section.
Mr. Trudeau is not only a charlatan, but a convicted felon. His book is a dangerous fraud and its advice, if followed, could easily be deadly.
I invite you to follow these links for more information about Mr. Trudeau and his book. I am confident that you, properly informed, will remove this book from your shelves.
http://skepdic.com/trudeau.html - Skeptic’s Dictionary entry on Kevin Trudeau.
http://www.randi.org/jr/081905time.html#18 – Mr. Trudeau’s book is removed from Walgreen’s Pharmacies for its irresponsible content.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Trudeau - Wikipedia entry on Kevin Trudeau.
Sincerely,
D. Oscar McKinley
Tags: Angry, Books, Science, Skepticism, Tilting at Windmills
Posted in Eccentric | No Comments »
In no particular order. I’m sure I could think of more than six, but it’s a round number.
- People seem to get worked up about it. Some tend to be ambiguous, trying to take credit for the ideas contained within it in an attempt to sound intelligent or informed.
- It has sparked TV specials endlessly advertised during the only network programming I have watched in the last five years, namely, football and baseball.
- My doctor advised me against participating in crazes. Also: fads, manias, fevers, trends, and rages.
- From what I have heard, all of the fawning over the Golden Ratio, numerology, and other pseudoscientific language would probably get me very annoyed.
- If you walk onto a subway car and more than two people on the same car are reading a book, it is virtually guaranteed that they are “reading TV.” Life is too short to read crap.
- I haven’t made it to the “religion” thing yet, I still haven’t gotten over the digital watches.
Please leave me a note if you believe me to be mistaken.
Tags: Angry, Books, Religion, Science, Skepticism
Posted in Eccentric | 2 Comments »
