4 July 2011

Independence Day (United States)

Thurman's Freedom Quote Giver

4th of July ASCII Art by Joan Stark Anatomy of a Firework by PBS.org

[04 July 2011 (it's gonna be a hot one; 83° at 6:04am) top]

04 July 2011

[2011.07.03] Charlie Munger says "patience combined with opportunity is a great thing to have." I agree with Charlie but only if patience & opportunity produce a continuous stream of free cash flow.

   Charlie Munger's Thoughts on the World: Part 1 
   http://t.co/VAUhJ7I via Fool.com

[2011.07.03] Started watching "X the Unknown" thinking it was a movie about algebra, but it wasn't. "X the Unknown" is about a blob of radioactive "mud" that has an insatiable hunger for radioactive materials. You have wait 57 minutes into the movie before actually seeing X. The melting people scenes are well done. My favorite line from the movie is Dr. Royston saying, "How do you kill mud?" {Wikipedia.org::X the Unknown}

[2011.07.02] Just came in from doing an hour of yard work. 109 degrees with a dew point of 56. Near the end of my weed whacking session I found myself singing... Macho, macho man... I gotta be a macho man...

[2011.07.02] I read today that when the bidding for Nortel's patents hit $3 billion, Google entered a bid of $Pi billion.

   RT @Iprogrammerinfo Google bid what for Nortel patents! 
   http://bit.ly/l8Zx1m

[2011.07.01] I'm no innovator, but I understand what Bezos means when he says... "To do disruptive innovation, you have to be willing to be misunderstood for a very long time."

[2011.07.01] Craig Newmark was added to my Computing DreamTeam during Summer Break 02009. {Wired.com::Guest Column: The Singularity We Live In...}

[2011.06.30] I never got invited to join Google+, but I guess those who did sent out so many Google+ invites that that invite mechanism had to be disabled. Vic Gundotra, Senior VP of Social for Google, posted to his Google+ account that the invite feature suffered from "insane demand." {GoogleBlog.Blogspot.com::Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web}

   Larry Page, Google's CEO, is giving Google+ a test drive... 
   https://plus.google.com/106189723444098348646/posts

[02011.06.30] "The three golden rules to ensure computer security are: do not own a computer; do not power it on; and do not use it." ~ Robert Morris {I've learned via Twitter that Robert Morris has died at the age of 78. Morris was a cryptographer and he helped create the Unix system.}

   RT @crunchgear Robert Morris, Computer Security Expert, Dead At 78 
   http://bit.ly/jl10dZ

   I just got done adding Morris to my Computing DeadTeam: 
   http://shell.deru.com/~gdt/deadteam/#morris

[02011.06.30] Three of the "roughly 530 colleges" are in Arizona... {Money.CNN.com::Uncle Sam calls out steepest college tuition hikes}

[02011.06.29] "When I Paint My Masterpiece" is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. These days my "masterpiece" will be that perfect road picture. {RoadHacker::Road Pictures From June 2011}

[02011.06.29] Yesterday (6/28 or Two Pi Day), Googler @Arubin tweeted... There are now over 500,000 Android devices activated every day, and it's growing at 4.4% w/w

   Speaking of phones... Today (6/29) @ThinkGeek tweeted: Today in 
   Geek History: In 2007, the 1st iPhone went on sale for $499.

[2011.06.28] Mastercard's website is under attack. Sophos asked the following question on their FB: "Are the hacktivists winning the security fight?" I made the following comment: They are cracktivists, not hacktivists. They are crackers, not hackers. Systems are cracked, not hacked.

[2011.06.28] 1.8 Zettabytes sounds like a lot of bytes. {DataCenterKnowledge.com::"Digital Universe" to Add 1.8 Zettabytes in 2011}

   Infographic: How Much Data Will The World Create This Year? 
   The Daily Feed | Minyanville.com http://t.co/yCsuiM8

[2011.06.27] Quote of the Day: "I think we should leave that up to government." -- Jillian Wunderlich, Miss Indiana, on whether evolution should be taught in schools.

[2011.06.27] Duh! "Mark Zuckerberg didn't create Facebook for people with kids and mortgages." -- Daniel Wilson. I enjoyed watching the video clip about NYC's "virtual senior center program." {Online.WSJ.com::The Terrifying Truth About New Technology}

   Daniel H. Wilson has a B.S. in Computer Science; a M.S. in Robotics 
   and a M.S. in Machine Learning; and a Ph.D. in Robotics. Wilson just 
   turned 33 and he wrote: "I'm just getting old, dammit."

[2011.06.25] $500,000,000 is nice way to "jumpstart" an "Advanced Manufacturing Partnership," but these days--especially when investing in info-, bio-, nano-, robo- technologies--$500 million is petty cash. {Whitehouse.gov::President Obama Launches Advanced Manufacturing Partnership}

   $70 million for "next-generation" robotics. Again, this is a "jumpstart."

   Wow... "The universities initially involved in the AMP will be the 
   Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, 
   Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University 
   of California-Berkeley, and University of Michigan."--Whitehouse.gov

   An example of why $500 million is petty cash when investing in 
   the future: So far this year Google Inc. has invested about 
   $700 million into renewable energy projects.

   I think we are just now starting to enter the Age of Robotics 
   (or the Robotics Age). Not yet, but we are getting close. Borrowing 
   from the Eagles... 1st word out of baby's mouth is "more"... 
   Robotics needs more $$$, more $$$, more $$$.

[2011.06.24] "I want to build a clock that ticks once a year. The century hand advances once every 100 years, and the cuckoo comes out on the millennium. I want the cuckoo to come out every millennium for the next 10,000 years." -- Danny Hillis {Wired.com::How to Make a Clock Run for 10,000 years}

   I do not recommend switching to 5-digit year usage because it 
   puts one too much out-of-sync with the rest of the world. I have 
   switched to using 5-digit years in three forums: All of my 
   AzCentral.com postings (Arizona Republic and "12 News"); my 
   quote collection uses 5-digit birth- and death-years; and, 
   I use 5-digit years in all of my Facebook postings.

[2011.06.23] We encountered a lot of road construction on our recently completed 2,441 mile road trip. Most of the time I ended up asking myself, "Why are they doing this?" Since returning home I've encountered this Milton Friedman quote multiple times: "Then why not use spoons instead of shovels?"

[2011.06.23] Tangled web we weave... I came across this Neil Young link because of today (6/23) being Alan Turing's birthday. [Alan Turing (01912-01954): "Father of computer science, mathematician, logician, wartime codebreaker, victim of prejudice."] I like the way Neil Young does country. {RollingStone.com::}

   Let's add Bertrand Russell to the tangled web we're weaving... 
   Wikipedia File: Sackville Park Turing plaque.jpg http://goo.gl/aHb9l

   Remembering Alan Turing on his 99th birthday 
   http://t.co/uo2kHCq via @THINQtech

   My quote collection contained only one Alan Turing quote and it has 
   to do with the Turing Test... "A computer would deserve to be called 
   intelligent if could deceive a human into believing that it was human."

   Tangled web we weave... Mitch Kapor, Ray Kurzweil and Long Bet #1: 
   "By 2029 no computer - or "machine intelligence" - will have passed 
   the Turing Test." http://longbets.org/1/

[2011.06.22] Came across a new acronym this morning... BASE Camp is a program to help kids learn stuff when not in school. BASE stands for "Before and After School Enrichment." The BASE acronym rates an 'A' on my acronym grading scale.

[2011.06.22] 1 exaflops by 02018 and 4 exaflops by 02021? I'd bet on that. 1,000 exaflops by 02030? I guess it's possible. {ITProPortal.com::Knights Corner's The Beginning: Intel Aims For 1000-Petaflop Supercomputer By 2018}

[2011.06.21] It took 2,228 days, but today I posted my 700th BARS (Basic Arithmetic Road Sign). I have a bunch of road signs waiting to morph into BARS, but I selected this one because of the basicness of its arithmetic. {MathBABS.us::BARS::1 Mile From Ft. Selden on NM Hwy-157 in New Mexico}

[2011.06.21] I read in the Arizona Republic that in four days (on 6/25/02011) the city of Scottsdale will celebrate 60 years of incorporation. I've never lived in Scottsdale, but I have worked there for 22 years. Two things I know about Scottsdale: It has a great community college and it's the corporate headquarters for Discount Tire Company.

[2011.06.21] keyphrase: every day... "Every day Amazon Web Services adds enough new capacity to support all of Amazon.com's global infrastructure through the company's first 5 years." -- James Hamilton {DataCenterKnowledge.com::A Look Inside Amazon's Data Centers}

[2011.06.20] All I know is that 8.162 petaflops is a lot of flops. HPCWire.com::Japanese Supercomputer Is New TOP500 Champ}

[2011.06.20] "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. " -- Thomas Jefferson {From the Quotes Of The Day section on my iGoogle homepage.}

[2011.06.19] Father's Day 02011 is nearing an end. My favorite (not worst) fictional fathers include Herman Munster, Homer Simpson, and Fred Flintstone.

   More favorite fictional dads... Ward Cleaver, Andy Taylor 
   and Steven Douglas.

[2011.06.18] Looking forward to playing this on Day 0 of the Fall 02011 CSC100 class at SCC. {ComputerHistory.org::The Art of Writing Software}

   "Adding a couple of lines of code to my program gave me a real high. 
    It must be the way poets feel when they're... or a musician 
    and so on." -- Donald Knuth

[2011.06.17] I did not know that west Texas was getting a 10,000 year clock. {Blog.LongNow.org::Major Update on the 10,000 Year Clock Project}

[2011.06.15] An old man took a picture of us standing in front of the entrance sign to Bryce Canyon National Park. "Nice beard," said the old man upon handing back the camera. "I'm a barber and you're a barber starver."

[2011.06.14] Today is 3!/14 and that means it's a Factorial Pi Day.

[2011.06.10] Just saw a headline that says socially responsible robots might help humans be more socially responsible. I guess it's possible.

[2011.06.08] IPv6 test on my computer: "It looks like you have only IPv4 Internet service at this time. Don't feel bad - most people are in this position right now. Most Internet service providers are not quite yet ready to provide IPv6 Internet to residential customers." {Wired.com::Nerdiest Holiday Ever: World IPv6 Day}

[2011.06.08] Quoting self: Teach them goto and they will use it. {GeeksAreSexy.com::10 Print "Are we there yet?' -- 20 Goto 10 [Cartoon]}

[2011.06.07] @JPBarlow re-tweeted a good question: "Which action brings more shame to Congress? Sexting, or fundraising?"

[2011.06.07] A few days ago the follower count on my @mathbabbler Twitter account hit hecto-Pi (314) followers.

[2011.06.07] I second Brisco's edict: "I'm calling for an international cease-fire in the usage of the term 'bubble'." {BBrisco.com::The Damn Bubble in Bubble Analogies}

   It's all one bubble. RT LinkedIn Bubble Debate Rages On: 
   Mathematicians 'Affirm' Bubble http://t.co/wjQfdix via Forbes

[2011.06.06] Sunday's Arizona Republic had the following front-page headline: "ASU seizing online future." With respect to the cost of taking online classes, the following quote by ASU's online dean almost made me LOL: "If we get too cheap, people would regard it as a degraded less-than-optimal degree."

   The dean's quote reminded of a worn out refrain from the early 
   days of Free Software: If it's free, then it must be bad.

[2011.06.05] I consider 14.3 trillion a large number, but it does depend on context. For example, a supercomputer that can do 14.3 trillion arithmetic calculations per second isn't much of a supercomputer, but $14.3 trillion of debt is approximately $46,316 per U.S. resident and to me that's a lot of $$$. {NPR.org::Any Way You Stack It, $14.3 Trillion Is A Mind-Bender}

[2011.06.05] I took notes while at Google's annual meeting. CEO Larry Page said Google (paraphrased) "wants to be like toothpaste -- something you use everyday."

[2011.06.04] A Google tidbit... In some men bathrooms the stand-ups have eye level posters one can read while peeing. This was true at Google; however, the posters were of defective code and you had to find the defect(s).

[2011.06.03] The "semantic" web is coming... {GoogleWebMasterCentral.Blogspot.com::Introducing schema.org: Search engines come together for a richer web}

   Sir Tim Berners-Lee has been working on the semantic web since 
   the late-01990s... http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html

[2011.06.03] Having lunch at Google's annual meeting was probably similar to lunch time in Sun City, Arizona.

[2011.06.02] I am at Google waiting for the company to feed the shareholders.

[2011.06.02] It's all one bubble. The word "bubble" is popular these day (Internet bubble, stock market bubble, housing bubble, whatever bubble). Upon reading or hearing the word "bubble" I'm often reminded of Don Ho's classic: "Tiny bubbles... in the wine... make me happy... make me feel fine."

[2011.06.01] I'm going to try to add "grok" to my vocabulary... RT ThinkGeek Today in Geek History: Heinlein coins "grok" when Stranger in a Strange Land is published in 1961. {Now I want to hear Leon Russell sing "Stranger in a Strange Land."}

[2011.06.01] I agree with Machines Like Us use of the word "creepy." The Treebot looks innocent enough, but I don't want any in my trees. {MachinesLikeUs.com::Autonomous tree climbing robot}

[2011.05.31] Gerald Thurman via PhysOrg.com - Science, Research, Technology, Physics, Nanotech, Space News... D'oh! {PhysOrg.com::10.69 seconds: Robot Ruby breaks Rubik's record (w/ video)}

[2011.05.31] I watched MusiCares tribute to Neil Young and enjoyed John Mellencamp's rendition of "Down By The River." I also thought the band Wilco did a great job on "Broken Arrow."

   "His mother had told him a trip was a fall." -- Neil Young 
   from the song "Broken Arrow."

[2011.05.30] I am now following http://twitter.com/asu_transhuman

[2011.05.29] "The greater our knowledge increases the greater our ignorance unfolds." -- John F. Kennedy {JFK would have turned 94 today (5/29/02011).}

[2011.05.29] There are calendar years, fiscal years and life years. I spent yesterday summarizing what it was like to 53. I think it was Neil Young who once sang... 54 and there's so much more. {GDT::Speaks::I am Now 54 Years Young}

[2011.05.28] My mom was 3^3 years young when she had me; my son (for 3 more months) is currently 3^3 years young; and now I'm 3^3 doubled years young (and I'll hit 3 score years young in 3! years).

   My 3 story continues... Right now my mom is 3*3*3*3, my son 
   is 3*3*3 and I'm 3*3*3! Next month my dad turns 3*3*3*3+3. 
   My son and mom have birthdays in August and September, 
   respectively, But then my daughter has a birthday in 
   November and she turns 3*3*3+3.

   One last 3 related tidbit... Earlier this month I read about 
   Harmon Killebrew dying. I was a serious Killebrew fan while 
   a kid. When I read about Killebrew I remembered that he wore 
   number 3. I also remember that his teammate, Tony Oliva, wore 
   number 3!. The Minnesota Twins haven't retired many numbers, 
   but they have retired 3 and 3!.

[2011.05.27] Came across a new acronym this morning that's being used in the U.S. Senate's PROTECT Intellectual Property (IP) Act. PROTECT stands for "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft."

[2011.05.27] Linux is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. WTFoo?!?!?!? I didn't know penguins can fly.

[2011.05.26] I just clicked the "Like" button for Facebook.com::Machines Like Us.

[2011.05.26] I usually think petaflops today, exaflops tomorrow when it comes to IBM, but it is also major player when it comes to nanoworld. {Dipity.com::Nanotechnology at IBM Research Timeline}

[2011.05.25] My employer ran the required "Truth in Taxation Hearing Notice of Tax Increase" in Monday's Arizona Republic. They want to increase their hit of our property taxes by 3%. Tiny tax increases are popular these days and that's bad news for those of us on fixed income.

[2011.05.25] "I don't think I'm from the same planet, actually." -- John Perry Barlow (EFF). "Speech has to be free but movies cost money." -- Jim Gianopulos (20th Century Fox). {ARStechnica.com::Copyfight: EFF co-founder enters e-G8 "lion's den," rips into lions}

[2011.05.24] Bob Dylan has hit 70 years of age. "But something is happening here... And you don't know what it is... Do you, Mister Jones?"

   Neil Young with the Grateful Dead doing Bob Dylan's "Forever Young"
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqrGn-ytdzg

   Posted to the FB for Open Culture "Guess I'm Doing Fine" 
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSXY5xxZ9UM&feature=youtu.be

[2011.05.24] Watched "Glen or Glenda" for the first time. It was a D+ "bad" movie. I did collect the following quote from the movie: "Only the infinity of the depths of a man's mind can really tell the story." -- Dr. Alton

[2011.05.23] Made motel reservations for an upcoming 2500 mile road trip. Bottom-line: Road tripping is "expensive." I often think in monetary units of 'pitchers of beer' and the money we're going to spend on motels approximates thirty pitchers of Four Peaks liquid candy.

[2011.05.23] I liked Patriots Square Park in downtown Phoenix, but Phoenicians didn't like it and now it's gone. {TempeHiker::Phoenix::Before and After Views From Ed The Hotdogger's in Phoenix, Arizona}

[2011.05.22] I like TED videos (especially those that come with closed caption). {Blog.TED.com::TED Blog | Welcome to our 1,000,000th Facebook fan}

[2011.05.22] "Back when today was the future" has been added to my quote collection, but right now the quote is attributed to anonymous. I came across the quote in a tweet by @BobMetcalfe (the father of Ethernet & a leader of today's Blue Movement).

   @BobMetcalfe's tweet contained a hyperlink to "Nerds 2.0.1 
   episode 1 part1/7" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpAlKeukMys

[2011.05.22] I'm still cleaning off my USB drive. Yesterday, I uploaded 20 video clips to YouTube.

[2011.05.21] I like the Kindle, but I consider e-books pricey. {Amazon.com::PressRelease::Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books}

[2011.05.21] "We need to reward education reforms that are driven not by Washington, but by principals and teachers and parents." -- Barack Obama. I agree with our President. "Education Reform" step 0: Abolish the U.S. Dept. of Education.

[2011.05.17] "I remember we used to ask our teachers, 'When am I going to need algebra?' Well, you may not have to solve for x to get a good job or be a good parent. That's true. But you will need to think through tough problems. You will need to think on your feet. So, math teachers, you can tell your students that the President says they need algebra." -- Barack Obama {KnoxNews.com::Text of President Obama's speech to graduates at Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis}

[2011.05.17] Yesterday, my iGoogle Dictionary.com word-of-the-day was "nonplus." Hmm... If 2 plus 2 is 4, then 2 nonplus 2 is _____.

[2011.05.17] $64 billion plus/minus 'x' billion. {Google.com::Google's Economic Impact | 2010}

[2011.05.15] The first BARS (Basic Arithmetic Road Sign) was created on 15 May 02000. 2191 days later there are 693 BARS. {MathBABs.us::BARS::Basic Arithmetic Road Sign BABs}

[2011.05.15] Today's Milestones Day... VeryVeryVeryCool.com turns 11, BARS (Basic Arithmetic Road Signs) turn 6, and at 4:20pm MST the @mathbabbler tweet count is scheduled to hit 1,500.

[2011.05.15] I registered the VeryVeryVeryCool.com domain name for the first time on 15 May 02000. It has taken eleven years, but we have finally figured out what we're going to do with this domain. Maybe VeryVeryVeryCool.com will have some content before it turns 13.

[2011.05.14] I don't know why E.O. Wilson got two quotes; however, I did like what he had to say about humanity... "It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life - for 8 billion or more people - without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt." {Facebook.com::Thurman::Quotes at SCC}

[04 July 2011 (the monsoon is upon us; 83° at 6:04am) top]

14 May 2011

MOTD::Summer Break 2011 Has Begun
The Summer 2011 MOTD is the 42nd edition of the MOTD. The Spring 2011 MOTD has been added to the MOTD archive.

[14 May 2011 (it's summer time; 73° at 8:14am) top]