Mandelbrot

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Arthur

Last Friday, Benoit Mandelbrot died, which was widely published around on the Internet. Generally adored by nerds, Mandelbrot, while respected, was a fairly controversial figure in the mathematics world.

Mandelbrot doesn’t spend months or years proving what he has observed,” for which he “has received quite a bit of criticism. … But if we talk about impact inside mathematics, and applications in the sciences, he is one of the most important figures of the last 50 years.

I dare to say that Mandelbrots formulas took off with the introduction of the 8-bit colour homecomputers (earlier on xsamplex in 2004) and all these fractal generating programs. On our MSX2, I think it took at least a week to generate a simple Mandelbroth (320 x 250 with 256 colours). Even with earlier versions of Fractint on 286 AT machines, it would take days: today’s processing power does this in less than a second.

Whenever I think of Benoit Mandelbrot, I think about how fast computers have progressed in those years.

10/24/2010: Jonathan Coulton’s ‘Mandelbrot song’.
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A silver lining

Posted on October 11, 2010 by Arthur

This Saturday, we ended up in Uptown SJ to look at the cruiseship, Silver Whisper (Silversea Cruises). Compared to ships that normally sail in, the Silver Whisper is a small ship and appears to be a fairly luxury cruise-liner. From the number of people that got off the boat, I could only tell that it didn’t seem to be full.

That reminds me that it was windy and bitter cold at the harbour: it was so cold, it felt like my knees were freezing up. According to fellow bus passengers, the forecast for Winter 2010 is going to be, well, Winter-like. More snow and colder: as I mentioned earlier, I don’t care if it’s going to be worse than last Winter as long as the water table stays constant.

And talking about water: there was a boiling order in effect in SJ this Thanksgiving weekend. It was just lifted yesterday. At the local Montana’s we were advised not to order hot beverages and that: Surprisingly, one had to pay extra for bottled water. The silver lining? It was awfully quiet.

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Round here

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Arthur

The last 48 hours it was storming so much that at times it reminded me of Hurricane Juan back in 2003. This morning I found out that apparently the wind was so strong that it had blown the BBQ upside down. If you think of it: the thing is heavy enough for me. This also serves as a reminder to at least clean the BBQ out so once in a while.

Sticking with the weather, the local residents informed me that this year’s Summer was probably one of the better ones since, well, ages. Indeed it had been extremely warm during July and August: compared to the year before where it seemed to be raining every day (delaying the painting of the deck), I prefer a moderate climate with moderate temperatures. Then at least I don’t have to worry about the ground water level. Seasonal forecasts from Weather Canada promise a nice amount of snow: today, I don’t care if we’ll have snowstorms or not.

And earlier this week, New Brunswickers went to the polls and voted out the mr. Graham’s Liberals: I read the conservatives easily managed to get a majority in the province’s assembly (42 versus 13?). I’m only surprised that third parties (like the NDP and the People Alliance) did not manage to get any seats.

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Civilization vs. Technology

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Arthur

I read that the ozone layer depletion has been halted: this week, UN scientists published a report that the ozone layer should restore itself by 2050. This reminded me of one of the most obscure collaborations in musical history between singer Michael Stipe and rapper KRS-One, which is a song, or rather, an agitprop rap, warning against the dangers of the depletion of the ozone layer, commonly attributed to the use of CFCs and industrial pollution. The general consensus is that the 1987 ban on CFC production contributed to the slowing down of the depletion.

Which brings us to today’s ‘Past The Bridge’ posting, the track ‘Civilization vs. Technology’ which features Harmony, Jane Scarpantoni, KRS-One and Michael Stipe (
30+ sample mp3). I’m extremely mixed about this song (or rap): it’s the better track of the record with the same name, but, the production of it seems half-baked. The excellent use of cello (Scarpantoni) sounds fragmented. The same can be said for the lyrics: Stipe’s contribution is fairly limited (but I wouldn’t be surprised if he wrote the majority of the lyrics). The song slightly veers back on rails during the second verse and after but, yeah, the overall result is half-baked.

So, while I don’t think Michael Stipe and KRS actually stopped the ozone layer from depletion personally, they do deserve credit for creating awareness: I don’t think too many artists have raised this issue in the 80s or 90s. That is, not that I can remember. It’s a kind of sad that the rest of the tracks on the Heal project’s ‘Civilization vs. Technology’ album are of such dubious quality that they make the contributions from Billy Bragg, Ziggy Marley, Michael Stipe and Tina Weymouth fall into obscurity. Good intentions (generally speaking) but bad execution.

add1: HEAL project previously discussed on xsamplex

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Mice, a mouse.

Posted on September 5, 2010 by Arthur

How many mice (computer mice that is) does one go through in one’s life? I’ve never thought of that but I think I’ve had more than 10 the last what, 18 years.

My very first mouse was the one that was bought for our MSX home computer (made by ASCII Corporation?): it was overly expensive and initially (since the MSX software wasn’t really GUI based yet) it felt awkward to use. Only with the introduction of Windows 3.1 (for me that was probably around 1993) the mouse death race really started: I’ve seen Genius mice, Logitech and eventually (surprised that they’d started to make mice) Microsoft mice. I generally believe Logitech mice last longer but, that’s probably a personal (subjective) opinion. I do love Logitech’s ‘Trackman Wheel’ mice (which is something I use on-the-side): They are hard to come by these days as they are being replaced (apparently) by those ‘index-finger-based’ Trackmans. As far as I know, this Trackman is still the longest lasting mouse in my possession.

I’m curious about the future prospects of the computer mouse: With the rise of touchscreens (and the popularity of pen-based solutions) I wonder if the near future will make an end to computer mice’s ubiquity. The only use I’d see is for typical PC games.

10/17/2010: Looks like Logitech just released their newest trackball (CNet).

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Just Cause 2

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Arthur

So yeah, I finished the main storyline of “Just Cause 2” the other day and generally the game left a good impression: after you finish up the main line, “Just Cause 2” goes into “mercenary mode”, a free-as-you-will mode to explore Palau and environs.

But before I go into the game specifics, the game’s makers (Avalanche Studios) had a hit in their hands the moment they released the game: this “sandbox game” is so large that it dwarfs anything else (see Kotaku for size). This is also the feeling that creeps in the moment you start and what makes this more delighting is that there are many ways to go out discovering the country, using cars, bikes or boats. And planes. So once in a while you get subtle hints that you should check out the main story line (“Agency missions”), but you’re not really required to do these as there are many other missions from other factions to take care of. The general consensus is that you should be able to finish the main storyline in some 50+ hours.

The point of the game being? As a free-ranging CIA agent (“Rico”), your job is to cause as much chaos in Palau as you can (using as many tools that you have) so that it will eventually take down its leader. In your arsenal of tools are the grapple hook and the parachute, your stunts and weapons (which you can buy from the local black market dealer). The more things you blow up, the more ‘chaos’ points and the more missions open up. However, besides the main missions (8 or so?), there is a limited amount of faction missions (40+?). This is probably the weakest point of the game: while exploring the country seems like an endless cool adventure, knowing that missions are finite is not really a comforting thought. I think Avalanche should have either concentrated on adding missions instead of throwing DLC of (unnecessary) extra vehicles and weapons. Additionally, it’s ‘checkpoint’ save thing is completely flawed. There were complaints that this game didn’t have multiplayer, but, I personally think multi-player co-op (for example) would be a tad too boring: after all, I never had troubles taking over bases on my own.

So yeah, an excellent game with fun and over-the-top features (the grapple hook mostly) and physics: if you like sandbox games, Just Cause 2 is probably of your liking. It’s easy to get into (the “boss monster(s)” are actually not too hard to defeat) and its silliness is so unique that I wouldn’t dare not to recommend it. This. Is. Fun. Really.

Images after the fold:

Continue reading →

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Thus spoke the Oracle

Posted on August 21, 2010 by Arthur

The biggest news in IT happened a couple of weeks ago, when Oracle filed a lawsuit against Google (reddit discussion), in which it claims that:

“Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property. Android (including without limitation the Dalvik VM and the Android software development kit) and devices that operate Android infringe one or more claims of each of United States Patents Nos. 6,125,447; 6,192,476; 5,966,702; 7,426,720; RE38,104; 6,910,205; and 6,061,520”

The lawsuit reminds of the early Java war between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems (technical details): eventually Microsoft and Sun settled on an amount of 20 million dollars and the promise to phase out all Microsoft products that used Microsoft’s Java Virtual Machine.

The most interesting point made during the outrage the last couple of weeks was Miguel de Icaza’s comments on Oracles lawsuit (reddit discussion), which is extremely hilarious but points out good points: Google’s Dalvik engine already marked that discussions between Google and Sun re: Java ME had run on the rocks and that at that stage, Google should have known about any upcoming Java patent lawsuit. Additionally, it also looks the former CEO of Sun specifically pitched the Java patents (“Sue Google” to possible suitors. Icaza further speculates:

Google could settle current damages with Oracle, and switch to the better designed, more pleasant to use, and more open .NET platform.

And that would be extremely ironic. The main question is: If Android is so important to Google, why didn’t it pick up Java by buying Sun while it could do so? At this stage it almost looks like that .Net/Mono is a safer platform than Java (which is something that Icaza has been claiming since, well, ever).

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The State of the Machine

Posted on July 31, 2010 by Arthur

I get cranky when I see people use regular expressions or simple substring routines when extracting strings from, for example, e-mail addresses. The first method, while powerful, is memory hungry, the second method is plain childish. You should only use substring/copy methods if you’re hundred percent certain that the data is formatted and well-formed (that is, it comes through exactly as you expect it to. In the case of e-mail addresses, this is of course, not true. After all, e-mail addresses can come in any format. The following samples are all legal: “hey@you.com”, “hey@you.com (Hey You)”, “ Hey You”, “Hey, You “. Your simple substring copy function would most likely have troubles resolving all of these e-mail variants.

During my Roundabout tenure, we ran into issues where extraction of names/e-mail from e-mail headers didn’t work out as originally planned. I was not surprised to find those evil substring routines in the code and literally rewrote that into a state machine (look for HeaderAddressToStringList). Extremely elegant and very effective.

Why use a state machine then? Because with string operations like this, looping through a string is a lot faster than trying hundreds of “if conditions” to cover all these e-mail cases. Keep in mind that simplicity is the key though: the more states you define, the complexer the code.

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The devil is in the SerialPort

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Arthur

I‘m surprised how many people look here for help on the .Net 2.0 SerialPort component (reference, which leads to this posting). I have plenty of example code, but I haven’t had time to re-test the project or even try com0com on this 64-bit Windows box. Com0Com (link) does support 64-bit environments, provided that you:

The com0com.sys is a test-signed kernel-mode driver that will not load by
default. To enable test signing, enter command:

bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON

What is bcdedit?

No examples for now but my earlier mentioned posting should get you somewhere.

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Broken French

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Arthur

Hier, j’ai mis à jour à WordPress 3.0 et remarqué que, malgré les avertissements sur le Web, mon fidèle AHCommentCentral travaillait encore sur OK. Je n’ai pas fait quelque chose pour les sources depuis, peut-être il ya 4 ans.

J’ai vu aussi que j’ai encore une ancienne version du thème actuel («Simplish): J’ai été réfléchir si je dois faire une mise à jour: cela nécessite une certaine concentration avant et en arrière que le thème actuel eu quelques modifications personnalisées. Pas vraiment ce que je trouve que je ferais tout de suite.

Sinon, je pourrais mettre mon thème xvisionaryx, qui est un thème que j’ai utilisé pour une courte période (moins d’une semaine) après beaucoup personnaliser le thème d’origine visionnaire. Je ne pouvais convertir en un «Wordpress 3.0″ thème, mais une fois de plus, je suis hésitant faire car elle nécessite la création d’un environnement de test. Mon serveur linux («Elsie») a été hors service depuis que je suis éloigné de NS.

Ainsi, le résultat net semble être le «statu quo», ce qui n’est pas l’évolution future prévue, les mises à jour de prudence et de lumière annonce. Sonne comme l’étoffe ordinaire.

update: Google Translate is the new Translate.
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The GPL and other links

Posted on July 24, 2010 by Arthur

I hate to pay too much attention to issues that are so trivial that you want people just to shut up and accept it: A couple of weeks ago, WordPress came a bit in the news because a popular theme maker refused to abide the GPL with one of his popular themes. That link points to a metafilter thread and the discussion goes to the extremes with regards to the GPL: there’s even some ‘libertarian’ views why the GPL is bad. This comment precisely details my point of view and I quote:

At the end of the day, Chris wants to build on top of GPL’d software to make money, but does not want to respect the licensing requirements that come with the GPL. He — and others who agree with him — are taking their stand on hair-splitty definitions to circumvent the clearly explained intention of the license. “You can do what you want with this GPL software, including building stuff on top of it. If you build stuff on top of it, though, and you distribute it to other people, you must give the same rights to them.”

There’s a reason why GPL-ed code is called viral: if you don’t want your code touched by that license, don’t build on GPL-ed code.

Via the UK’s Telegraph, I read that 40% of Americans believe that the Lord will return before 2050. Why not by 2030 or 2040, I wonder? On the other hand, 2050 is an excellent year as it is right in between 2100 and 2000. 2050 is definitely not a prime-number. On a serious note: Why don’t newspapers link to the official Pew statistics? The Pew report is right here.

You know, with China being the sole creditor in the world (I bet Keynes didn’t see this come), I find articles like these both hilarious and sad. Obviously, in China, there’s a need for a certain type of people to make things look official.

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Yargh

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Arthur

I

read about the home-coming of the Dutch national football team earlier this week and thought of putting up some closing remarks about the lost final match against Spain. It was a fricking ugly game after a fairly efficient Worldcup run: I say fairly efficient, as I thought that the Dutch players didn’t show any quality football and relied on too many lucky events to make it to the finals. There were some good moments: I thought Van Bronckhorst was consistent and even scored a goal that would have made it into the list of much discussed ‘best of World cup 2010’ goals if not for that final.

Maybe that’s the point I’m trying to make: In the build-up to the final, it appeared that the foreign press was in favour of the Dutch winning the worldcup, reminiscing the finals of 1974 and 1978. Sadly, of the 2010 World Cup final, the only picture the 2010 final that sticks out is the De Jong karate kick: intentional or not.

On the good side: now might be a good time to start rebuilding a new Dutch national team. Most of the current members of Dutch squad were also involved in the ‘Battle of Nuremberg’.

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The Water Margin

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Arthur

In the late 70’s, the show ‘The Water Margin’ became an instant hit in Europe. Produced by Nippon TV, the show spanned about 30 episodes (I think) and it featured as many types of martial arts kids could only dream of, and a story line that evokes so many cliches, that it, as an adult, makes one’s toes curl up. I mean: An outlaw hero and his merry band of bandits fighting against an evil tyrant. Surely, you’ve heard that story before. But put that story right in Asia, with martial arts, swords and surreal fight scenes (example: “the two day fight”), present that to a European audience and you get an instant hit.

Unsurprisingly, the show’s tune has engraved itself in the minds of ‘Generation 70’ and that tune is the focus of today’s ‘Past The Bridge’ posting. A one minute sample can be found right here. The sung theme features the voice of one ‘Pete Mac Junior’, who I believe is just a Japanese singer. If you’re more into the original musical theme (and if you’re curious about the show itself), you may want to check YouTube. It features trumpets, strings and strangely enough a perfect, out of step, rhythm section. For more dramatic effect, those Japanese lyrics.

There’s a slight irony in all of this: The show was heavily based on the Chinese book with the same name (wikipedia). Written in the early 1500’s, the books became an instant hit in Japan (first translated 200 years later), where the stories were literally localized. The irony, again? A Japanese show, featuring Japanese actors in a Chinese setting playing Chinese rebels. I heard that the Chinese did a remake of the show and apparently there’s also a movie (based on the books) in post-production.

But without doubt, as a kid I was impressed with the show and whenever allowed by my parents, I watched and devoured the stories and fights of Lin Chung and his band of, well, funny looking characters.

Update 1: I couldn’t say it better.

Update 2: ‘Outlaws of the Marsh: A Somewhat Less Than Critical Commentary’

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