November 2007

November 23, 2007

  • National Geographic article on memory. “There is a 41-year-old woman, an administrative assistant from California known in the medical literature only as ‘AJ,’ who remembers almost every day of her life since age 11. There is an 85-year-old man, a retired lab technician called ‘EP,’ who remembers only his most recent thought.”
  • John Siracusa's Leopard review. I finally finished reading it. Leopard being the first OS release since my switch, this was my first Siracusa review. Thanks, Gruber, for pointing it out!
  • 'Borges': Writer on the Couch. David Foster Wallace's review of a Borges biography. Via Kottke.

November 22, 2007


November 21, 2007


November 17, 2007

  • Lautapeliarvosteluissa on paljon mielenkiintoisia pelejä. Ostoslistalla on pitkään ollut Ticket to Ride ja Puerto Rico. Power Gridkin näyttää oikein mielenkiintoiselta, joskin se saattaa olla hieman liian monimutkainen satunnaiselle peliporukallemme. Lautapelikokemuksemme perustuu lähinnä Settlers of Cataniin (sekä tietty muihin perinteisempiin peleihin kuten Monopoliin), mutta epäilen, että “ilkeät pelit” (esim. Intrigue) olisivat meille vähän liikaa.
  • Dean Esserman's BIF speech on community policing. An inspiring speech with a very important message. Via SvN.

November 14, 2007


November 10, 2007

  • While I’m not quite ready to daily delve as deep into javascript as reading Dan Webb’s weblog would entail, I can say it’s a nice one.

November 8, 2007


November 6, 2007


November 4, 2007

Control theory to the rescue — of the internet

Control theorist John Doyle has a simple plan to make the internet faster — just make the traffic measurements better. Doyle studies what makes free-scale networks robust:

“The reason the bacterium works so well, Doyle finds, is that it is organized in much the same way as the Internet. Both the Internet and E. coli are conceptually organized like a bow tie, with a broad fan of incoming material flowing into a central knot and then flowing into another broad fan of outgoing material. On the Internet, the incoming fan is made up of data from a huge range of sources — e-mail, YouTube videos, Skype phone calls, and the like. In E. coli, the incoming fan is made up of the many sorts of food it eats. As information and food move into their respective bow ties, they get homogenized: E. coli breaks down its food into a few building blocks, while the Internet breaks down its motley incoming data streams into streams of standardized packets.”

“Today computers sense Internet congestion by noticing how many packets they lose. That’s like trying to drive down a highway by just looking at what’s 20 feet ahead of you, constantly accelerating and then slamming on the brakes as soon as you see something.”

“Doyle and his coworkers enable computers to use more information about traffic flow, noting how long it takes for their packets to get to their destination. The less traffic, the shorter the time, and with these traffic reports on hand, their computers make much smarter decisions. The result is a string of victories for high-speed Internet communication competitions. In the last face-off in 2006, they managed to send 17 gigabits — about a full-length movie’s worth — each second across the Internet.”

Ilya
  • Taik.fi. En ole aiemmin kommentoinut tätä, mutta Taikin saitin uudistus on erittäin onnistunut. Ulkoasu erityisesti miellyttää. Ja tekijäjoukossa näyttää olevan tuttujakin.
  • Guardian Unlimited's Great interviews of the 20th century.
  • PHP mail() and the path of no return. "Turns out that lesser-spotted fifth argument to mail() can be used to send an additional parameter to Sendmail to set the envelope From address. '-r from@example.com'."
  • Fast Company: Motorhead Messiah. "Johnathan Goodwin can get 100 mpg out of a Lincoln Continental, cut emissions by 80%, and double the horsepower. Does the car business have the guts to follow him?"
  • Eye-Fi wireless camera SD memory. Matias and I were talking about why digital cameras don't have wireless connectivity yet -- at least not cheaply. Here's one option.

November 3, 2007

  • Logo remakes reviewed. I agree with most of the critiques with the exceptions of AT&T (old definitely better), Qantas (the original kangaroo was nicer), Delta (again, the original has much more texture), and, most of all, the Old Navy logo (the new typeface is so much better).
  • P22 London Underground. This extensive family has some really nice light cuts.
  • BF Fiona Serif. A versatile family with some great robust cuts.
  • Jupiter. A whimsical Roman with fantastic ligatures and alternative characters.

November 1, 2007