Wow! 2,443 Authors?

First time in my life I encounter a paper written by 2,443 authors (scientists). This unimaginable. Well, I think for large collaborative research such as the one being done in CERN, then I guess it is just natural to have thousands of authors for a paper.

Here's the paper (if you want to read it):

Alignment of the CMS Silicon Tracker during Commissioning with Cosmic Rays

Imagine what a collaboration can do? I have high respect for any task, job, project, program conducted through collaboration.

Thanks To You! Physics Nobel Prize Winners 2009

Thank you to you guys! Because of you, we can now share media files speedily and efficiently around the world (especially images).



More information here. Or you can read the attached document.

My Vote for the 2009 Bloggers' Choice Award (Visayas and Mindanao)

My Vote for the 2009 Bloggers' Choice Award (Visayas and Mindanao)

I vote for EXPLORE ILOILO
Bloggers' Choice Award
2009 Philippine Blog Awards

Terragen Time

Before going to sleep this morning, I was thinking of so many things, bills to pay, backlogs in personal goals, lovelife, delays in some of the side projects in the office, my self the the universe and my connection to it, and the time I am spending on some personal endeavors. To move away my mind from this thoughts, I decided to play around with Terragen 2 again.

Here are the screenshots of the virtual world I created:



I love about the new version of Terragen because of the following:

1. Easy navigation of the landscape. It has control module of the camera and views.
2. Whole planet view.
3. Easy control of objects.

Things you need to bear in mind when working with Terragen.

1. Powered machine. I think it is better to have a fast processor.
2. Long rendering time especially when you have a lot of objects added.
3. Plug-ins, you need a lot of them before you can enhance the details of your work.
4. Time. You need time to finish everything. Patience is important in this kind of hobby.

If you want to try, you can download the software from Terragen website.

See attached documents for some Tutorials from Oshyan Green.

I hope I have more time to play around with this software.

Enjoy!


Now I am wondering when I can do a world like this.

Hubble is stronger now!

Astronomy community is happy with the new Hubble now. It's revitalized and generating images further back in time.

Read here for more information: Just How Good is the "New" Hubble.

Here's a new image from Hubble:


More images here.

On Flowers

Thanks to Carl Zimmer. I am learning more about Flowers now.

Amborella: Mother of All Flowers

The family of this flower gave birth to all flowers we are enjoying now.




Water Lilies: Next Oldest Flower


Star Anise: Along with Water Lilies



To read more about flowers and their evolution you can check this blog entry of Carl Zimmer.

I just discovered that Goethe is also a good naturalist. Now I know that he is not only a writer or a poet, he is also a natural scientist. Good to have this knol in my brain. :D

Something... I Miss

I miss this kind of life.


Oh something is missing... aha this one:


This is the kind of life I terribly miss now. :(

Fine Sunday of August

I woke early, around 7:00 PM. Lighted a stick for a smoke and filling my lungs with goodness and bliss of this fine Sunday morning. Took a bath, dressed up, and went to Choco Kiss UPD for a brunch. After the brunch, ordered for another round of coffee and studied and answered my module on Inverse Circular Functions (one more module and I am done with Trigo). I am loving this Sunday. I will have more Sundays like this.

I had this for brunch... my favorite pasta and I have been eating this eversince I discovered Choco Kiss.

It's a good plate of Pesto Penne with Chicken Breast Fillet. :D

And here's my second round of coffee.

I got finish what I need to finish. That's a promise. Cross my heart. :D

UPD's Biggest Ashtray

For us who used to stay in Molave Residence Hall, we consider this area as the biggest ashtray in UP. This is where we usually spend our time dreaming, thinking, talking, and smoking.

Welcome to Molave's Kiosk... where ideas are born. We do moments here.

Yakal Orgy Box

I miss my days with Aretha, Mader Juliet and Darla. Mga diwata ng Yakal. We used to sit on that orgy box nad appreciate the male beauty of the guys passing infront of us. Hayz.... those good ol'days.

Ichigo

Sometimes I think I am like him, rarely manifesting the real him.


I am the Soul Reaper.

We need this!

I believe. I think. This is what we need!

Photo from Dr. Alzheimer's Photoblog

Why are we so afraid of anything Nuclear?

Imagine how much we are going to benefit from this:



Sometimes I am wondering why we are not afraid of this:

Stargate Universe

Wonderful! I can't wait for the first episode of Stargate Universe.

Here's the teaser:


I am excited!

Hopefully, it won't copy the style and approach of Star Trek Voyager.

You

Look. Look at this. This is your future. - Sandman.

I can't see anything. It's dark. Nothing. - Me.

Just look deeper and deeper... Deep down your soul. And you will see the future that awaits you. - Sandman

Listen. Just listen to your heart. - Spock.

You're future is so bright that it burns my eyes. - Quincy Jones.

How, tell me how to see that future. Right now, I can't see anything. If there is something in there how come I can't even imagine it. How come I only see pitch black of nothingness. - Me.

It is because you stopped imagining. - Rudyard Kipling

Whatever you imagine. - James Ingram.

Watchman, where is hope? - Me.

Is it really important for me to know my future? - Me.

No. But you have forgotten most of your past. You abandoned the You that we were trying to create. That you lost the whole You that we designed few years ago. - The Fates and The Kindly Ones.

Come here my little. Sleep... Sleep... And join me in my world. - Sandman.

Yes. Go with him. Find the lost You. Capture it. And once you have it again, you will be bursting with light a billion times brighter than a supernova. - Cosmos.

The Lost You is Your Future. - Voices from Olympus.

Under construction

My life is always under construction.

Everything in me is still under construction.

When am I going to finish building myself?

Someday.

1,2,3... mental countdown? Or breakdown?

1,2,3... mental countdown? Or breakdown?

I overslept. 18 hours in bed. I woke up craving for a good cup of coffee.

24 hours ago I finished LOST Season 3. I am hooked to this TV series. Philosophically, this series has something to say, man, humanity, in its primal state.

Just few minutes ago, I read a line from Albert Camus. It reminded me of how I view life before. Bleak and dead-end.

I think about the bonobos, the idea of separating sex from reproduction. They are like us. And we are too like them.

I am afraid of the future. Not because the world will end soon. But because of the thought of failing my expectations, of me becoming a failure.

I think about collaboration, a draft write-up in my head. I wanted to write about collaboration, the culture of collaboration, just like the individual cells in our body working together and let us live in this chaotic world. I think of the ants, the bees and many other eusocial organisms. I hope one day humanity will achieve this state. We are working together for one common goal, development of our species, of science and technology, of the discovery of universal truth, with no differences.

I think of how wonderfully we created ISS, LHC, Fermilab, and soon how we are going to colonize space.

Now, I think of how delayed I am when it comes to my deliverables. I need to focus.

I am sipping my third mug of coffee (in three hours), black coffee. And I feel I am a failure.

I need to focus. But I can’t.

I am thinking of so many things, of my personal life, of the particles around me, of books I need to read, of papers I need to submit, of deadlines and deliverables, of the transcribed recorded meetings (two months overdue), of my future, of being detached from my colleagues, of being isolated from my real happiness, of being a failure, of being nothing but a simple and ordinary person whose existence does not matter, of the future of mankind, of many other things.

I need to give myself a break because I can feel I am thinking too much and eventually will lead to my breakdown.

My laundry is piling up. I got tons of them and the laundry shop closed already (as in closed forever). I don’t know where to have my laundry. I am allergic to detergents. I am doomed.

I need those radicals and signs.

I am exhausted.

I think I wanna quit the world.

I am.

On Freeman Dyson

I so love Freeman Dyson. I definitely unarguably agreeing with him on Global Warming.

"all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated." - Freeman Dyson

When we mastered Chaos Theory, Nonlinear Dynamics, Climate Modelling and interdisciplinary modelling of earth dynamics, and the results from this mastery will conclude that we are doomed because of Global Warming, then that's the time I am going to believe that it's a real thing.

For me, I guess we are just so overly-persuaded by media.

I'll give my two cents to Freeman Dyson's skepticism.

To know more check NYT's article on Freeman Dyson, The Civil Heretic.

Species of the Month

Bonobo (Pan paniscus)

Natural Terminator

The population of Tasmanian devils is declining. A certain non-viral contagious cancer is killing them one by one.

Photo from FoxNews

This recent natural terminator is on rampage of exterminating the Tasmanian devils. Hopefully this won't spread in Dasyurini Tribe.

Read here for more information about the Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

Imagine how our own cells turn against us.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In biology, a tribe — or infrafamily — is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.

Update: P-BTX

I somehow moved my bar for P-BTX from 2.25% to 3.15%. My goal for next week, March 30, 2009, is to move it to 6.30%. So many things to do and I have to focus myself to achieve this goal.

On Copper

“Copper is kind of schizophrenic — it wants electrons, but once it starts getting some it also wants to do something to get rid of them,” - Robert Maleczka Jr.

From: Helping Molecules to Reach Meta

Something "New" is coming!

This May, Wolfram, the creator of Mathematica will launch the first (I am not sure about this) Answer engine in the web. Semantic Web is gaining ground nowadays. Keep them coming! We are slowly working our ways to create AI machines.


Wolfram Alpha

Of Mobile Reading and Other Things

Few weeks ago I blogged about e-reading and until now I am still bugged by the thought of buying a good e-book reader.

As usual, I scoured the web for mobile (e-) reading technologies. Good thing, wiki has a list. So it is time for me to visit the malls and check the items in cybergates.

Before arriving to the point of buying an e-book reader, I explored first the possibility of efficient mobile reading with the technologies I have now. I tried my laptop and I concluded that it is only good as a repository of my e-books and for home reading. Ivan (my laptop) has an Adobe Digital Edition. This software proved its worth for e-reading as long as you’re not in transit or mobile. In mobile mode, I guess E71 can already serve the purpose. I tried reading books using Adobe Reader installed in my E71 (I call her as Bisetta Dutt – or Bisetta or Bessie in short, in honor of Time Odyssey character). I encounter one problem in reading through Bessie, the screen size. The fonts of the e-book are too small and can easily strain my eyes. Zooming-in on the document gives another problem, the left and right scrolling while you are reading through the line, another eye-straining activity. These methods are not efficient for me. I need something that I can bring (which I cannot do with my laptop) and I can read well (which I cannot do using E71) through the document. So, I really need to buy an e-book reader.

By right now, I have around 60 e-books lined up to be read. Some of them will take me days to finish, others months to comprehend and much years to completely understand.

Hopefully, by the end of this year, I can buy a good e-book reader.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Physicists are going gaga in detecting Higgs-Boson. This mysterious particle is really hard to catch.

On life, more and more biologists believe that RNA started life here on earth and not the set of DNA, RNA and proteins. Viroids can tell a lot.

In astronomy, Kepler is in the lime light. We are engaged to look for other planets beyond Sol.
Mathematics, I haven’t checked the latest developments yet in this field. I am stuck with Gregori Perelman’s case.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Projects (based on my progress bars), I am sluggish. I am not sure what will be my net progress when I lag for months and move only for few days.

On one hand, we are close to finish our project here in the office. Hopefully we can hit it before the deadline.

Ayn Rand

"I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." - Ayn Rand

Microsoft Visions

Microsoft Vision 2010




Microsoft Vision 2019

Go KEPLER!

Last night, NASA launched KEPLER. A modest beginning of our search for answers to the question, are we alone?

While watching the launch animation in Youtube, I was reminded by Star Trek tagline:
“Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

We are taking steps in realizing this vision, slowly by slowly, scouring the sky for a slight signal that will prove that we are not alone in this universe.
I am glad and happy to know that we are spending so much time and effort (as well as money) to discover new worlds scattered around our universe.

I believe we are not alone here. Somewhere, someday, we will explore and conquer space and I am 100% sure of it.

Anyway, let’s go back to KEPLER. It is just the beginning. This mission will look for earth-sized planets revolving around several thousand stars. If we will discover much of these earth-liked planets it will be an interesting result for us. It will provide us so much insight and motivation to push forward our dream to conquer space.

Astronomy blogosphere is excited about this mission. They know the importance of this mission, especially on how we create our future action plans in conquering space.

Someday we will launch a starship to visit these earth-sized planets.

For more information about KEPLER check these videos:


Launch Animation





KEPLER A Search for Habitable Planet/s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9gENveG0FQ


KEPLER Observatory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaD9wx6GGKU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJLHM8dQ0fQ

The Blogosphere Pages

Cosmic Diary – Up, up and away!

Asymptotia – Kepler, Ready!

KEPLER NASA Page

Archimedes

I did not know that Archimedes did something in the development of Calculus until I read Michio Kaku's The Physics of Impossible.

It is interesting to note that the foundations of Calculus were not built only by Leibniz and and Newton. In fact, they were built by several figures of mathematics.

I just revisited the time line of calculus and it's wonderful to the see the names of Archimedes, Zeno of Lea, Fermat, Barrow and many other mathematicians.

Anyway, here's the short story of Calculus.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ o0o


Side note: I so love Erwin Schrodinger. He had a lot of mistresses (according to Michio Kaku). He he he he he. :D

E-reading

At last I already have a copy of Adobe Digital Edition and currently using it.

It's good e-library for e-reading. I was telling most of my friends to migrate to e-books to exploit and enrich the digital ecosystem and capabilities.

Here I am now, exploiting e-reading with the use of Adobe Digital Edition. It is indeed a useful tool to read digitally.

The Library



The Bookshelf/shelves


The Book


The Reading Mode (Two-Page)



The Reading Mode (Zoom-In)


You can insert bookmark/s.


There are still a lot of things to be improved in e-books softwares or managers, like insertion of notes, highlighting, and relink/referencing.

But, I guess this is a good start already. And for me, it is time to migrate to ebooks.

Powerful reading!

Shocking!!!!!

Nokia considering entering laptop industry

By Tarmo Virki

HELSINKI - The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia is eyeing entering the laptop business, its Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in an interview to Finnish national broadcaster YLE on Wednesday.

Read more here: Yahoo News.

Attention!

Something caught my attention today. I hope I have the luxury of time to read and comprehend this paper.

Digital Ecosystems: Self-Organised Complexity of Evolving Agent Populations

This kind of paper will really attract my attention, evolution, computer science and sociology in one. He he he he he. :D

Arxiv Laundry List III

Again, I am still busy to read some papers. I have to remind myself that I need to read these papers, so I am posting them here.

Much of the papers in Arxiv.org have not been refereed yet but you got to see the view of what keep the scientists and mathematicians busy.

How Does the Brain Organize Information?

Authors: Helmut Kroger

(Submitted on 19 Feb 2009)

Abstract: Cognitive processes in the brain, like learning, formation of memory, recovery of memorized images, classification of objects have two features: First, there is no supervisor in the brain who controls these processes. Second there is a hugh number of neurons (10^{6} to 10^{10}) involved in those cognitive tasks. For this reason, the search of understanding cognitive processes uses models built from a large number of neurons, but very much simplified neurons. The so-called neural networks have been quite successful in describing certain aspects of brain functions, like the mechanism of associative memory or recently the prediction of epileptic seizures. At hand of the Kohonen network we discuss the treatment of information in the brain, in particular how the brain organizes such information without supervisor. Recently, networks of small-world and scale-free architecture came into focus. There is evidence indicating that the brain (cat cortex, macaque cortex, human brain) uses such connectivity architecture. Tasks like treatment of information, learning and classification take advantage of such scale-free and small-world connectivity and thus play a potentially important role in self-organization of the brain.

Subjects:	Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC)
Journal reference:	Mechanisms of Spontaneous Active States in the Neocortex, ed. I. Timofeev, Research Signpost, (2007), p.169-193
Cite as:	arXiv:0902.3418v1 [q-bio.NC]

A distributed editing environment for XML documents

Authors: Claude Pasquier (INRIA Sophia Antipolis), Laurent Théry (INRIA Sophia Antipolis)

(Submitted on 18 Feb 2009)

Abstract: XML is based on two essential aspects: the modelization of data in a tree like structure and the separation between the information itself and the way it is displayed. XML structures are easily serializable. The separation between an abstract representation and one or several views on it allows the elaboration of specialized interfaces to visualize or modify data. A lot of developments were made to interact with XML data but the use of these applications over the Internet is just starting. This paper presents a prototype of a distributed editing environment over the Internet. The key point of our system is the way user interactions are handled. Selections and modifications made by a user are not directly reflected on the concrete view, they are serialized in XML and transmitted to a server which applies them to the document and broadcasts updates to the views. This organization has several advantages. XML documents coding selection and modification operations are usually smaller than the edited document and can be directly processed with a transformation engine which can adapt them to different representations. In addition, several selections or modifications can be combined into an unique XML document. This allows one to update multiple views with different frequencies and fits the requirement of an asynchronous communication mode like HTTP.

Subjects:	Software Engineering (cs.SE)
Journal reference:	1st ECOOP Workshop on XML and Object Technology, Sophia Antipolis : France (2000)
Cite as:	arXiv:0902.3136v1 [cs.SE]

What are the best routes for us to use for driving home tonight in rush hour traffic?

Authors: Bogdan Danila, Yudong Sun, Kevin E. Bassler

(Submitted on 14 Feb 2009)

Abstract: We show that the capacity of a complex network that models a city street grid to support congested traffic can be optimized by using routes that collectively minimize the maximum ratio of betweenness to capacity in any link. Networks with a heterogeneous distribution of link capacities and with a heterogeneous transport load are considered. We find that overall traffic congestion and average travel times can be significantly reduced by a judicious use of slower, smaller capacity links.

Comments:	6 pages, 4 figures
Subjects:	Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph); Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn); Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI); Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
Cite as:	arXiv:0902.2415v1 [physics.soc-ph]

What's in a Message?

Authors: Stergos D. Afantenos, Nicolas Hernandez

(Submitted on 13 Feb 2009)

Abstract: In this paper we present the first step in a larger series of experiments for the induction of predicate/argument structures. The structures that we are inducing are very similar to the conceptual structures that are used in Frame Semantics (such as FrameNet). Those structures are called messages and they were previously used in the context of a multi-document summarization system of evolving events. The series of experiments that we are proposing are essentially composed from two stages. In the first stage we are trying to extract a representative vocabulary of words. This vocabulary is later used in the second stage, during which we apply to it various clustering approaches in order to identify the clusters of predicates and arguments--or frames and semantic roles, to use the jargon of Frame Semantics. This paper presents in detail and evaluates the first stage.

Subjects:	Computation and Language (cs.CL)
Journal reference:	12th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL 2009), workshop on Cognitive Aspects of Computational Language Acquisition. Athens, Greece
Cite as:	arXiv:0902.2345v1 [cs.CL]

Collective dynamics of social annotation

Authors: Ciro Cattuto, Alain Barrat (CPT), Andrea Baldassarri, G. Schehr (LPT), Vittorio Loreto

(Submitted on 17 Feb 2009)

Abstract: The enormous increase of popularity and use of the WWW has led in the recent years to important changes in the ways people communicate. An interesting example of this fact is provided by the now very popular social annotation systems, through which users annotate resources (such as web pages or digital photographs) with text keywords dubbed tags. Understanding the rich emerging structures resulting from the uncoordinated actions of users calls for an interdisciplinary effort. In particular concepts borrowed from statistical physics, such as random walks, and the complex networks framework, can effectively contribute to the mathematical modeling of social annotation systems. Here we show that the process of social annotation can be seen as a collective but uncoordinated exploration of an underlying semantic space, pictured as a graph, through a series of random walks. This modeling framework reproduces several aspects, so far unexplained, of social annotation, among which the peculiar growth of the size of the vocabulary used by the community and its complex network structure that represents an externalization of semantic structures grounded in cognition and typically hard to access.

Subjects:	Computers and Society (cs.CY); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph)
Cite as:	arXiv:0902.2866v1 [cs.CY]

Arxiv Laundry List II

This is what I can do best in my blog for now. I am sooooooo very very busy.

Ageing as a price of cooperation and complexity: Self-organization of complex systems causes the ageing of constituent networks

Authors: Huba J. M. Kiss, Agoston Mihalik, Tibor Nanasi, Balint Ory, Zoltan Spiro, Csaba Soti, Peter Csermely

(Submitted on 1 Dec 2008 (v1), last revised 17 Feb 2009 (this version, v2))

Abstract: The network concept is increasingly used for the description of complex systems. Here we summarize key aspects of the evolvability and robustness of the hierarchical network-set of macromolecules, cells, organisms, and ecosystems. Listing the costs and benefits of cooperation as a necessary behaviour to build this network hierarchy, we outline the major hypothesis of the paper: the emergence of hierarchical complexity needs cooperation leading to the ageing (i.e. gradual deterioration) of the constituent networks. A stable environment develops cooperation leading to over-optimization, and forming an "always-old" network, which accumulates damage, and dies in an apoptosis-like process. A rapidly changing environment develops competition forming a "forever-young" network, which may suffer an occasional over-perturbation exhausting system-resources, and causing death in a necrosis-like process. Giving a number of examples we demonstrate how cooperation evokes the gradual accumulation of damage typical to ageing. Finally, we show how various forms of cooperation and consequent ageing emerge as key elements in all major steps of evolution from the formation of protocells to the establishment of the globalized, modern human society.

Link: http://arxiv.org/abs/0812.0325

Arxiv Laundry List

Arxiv Laundry List

Papers to read when I get free-time:

Emergence of Power Law in a Market with Mixed Models

M. Ali Saif, Prashant M. Gade

We investigate the problem of wealth distribution from the viewpoint of asset exchange. Robust nature of Pareto's law across economies, ideologies and nations suggests that this could be an outcome of trading strategies. However, the simple asset exchange models fail to reproduce this feature. A yardsale(YS) model in which amount put on the bet is a fraction of minimum of the two players leads to condensation of wealth in hands of some agent while theft and fraud(TF) model in which the amount to be exchanged is a fraction of loser's wealth leads to an exponential distribution of wealth. We show that if we allow few agents to follow a different model than others, {\it i.e.} there are some agents following TF model while rest follow YS model, it leads to distribution with power law tails. Similar effect is observed when one carries out transactions for a fraction of one's wealth using TF model and for the rest YS model is used. We also observe a power law tail in wealth distribution if we allow the agents to follow either of the models with some probability.


Effects of introduction of new resources and fragmentation of existing resources on limiting wealth distribution in asset exchange models

M. Ali Saif, Prashant M. Gade

Pareto law, which states that wealth distribution in societies have a power-law tail, has been a subject of intensive investigations in statistical physics community. Several models have been employed to explain this behavior. However, most of the agent based models assume the conservation of number of agents and wealth. Both these assumptions are unrealistic. In this paper, we study the limiting wealth distribution when one or both of these assumptions are not valid. Given the universality of the law, we have tried to study the wealth distribution from the asset exchange models point of view. We consider models in which a) new agents enter the market at constant rate b) richer agents fragment with higher probability introducing newer agents in the system c) both fragmentation and entry of new agents is taking place. While models a) and c) do not conserve total wealth or number of agents, model b) conserves total wealth. All these models lead to a power-law tail in the wealth distribution pointing to the possibility that more generalized asset exchange models could help us to explain emergence of power-law tail in wealth distribution.

Virtual Desktop

Thin Computing

Cloud Computing

Grid Computing

Cloud Computing for the Rest of us. Symmetry Breaking.



I want to learn more.

Other Earths

Copying Nexxx.

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/02/16/the-milky-way-could-have-billions-of-earths/

:D

Anyway, let me deviate a little by having this link. Milky Way Could Have Billions of Earths.

I wish to see these earths someday.

Joke Time

Funny!



And some funny comments:

Christine

Is it not an i missing in the second term?

Then it is just a case of taking what is real or imaginary in your physics feelings.

Best,
Christine

Hi dberenstein,

Yes, of course, but I think you have missed my point! [Only in an imaginary world you'd have too much time and little to do! At least for a physicist!]

Best,
Christine

Todd

For me, f(t) is less than epsilon where epsilon is less than 10^-12.

Christine

Yet my joke does not work in Hilbert spaces…

Lionel

The reason f(t) stays close to zero is due to the quantum Zeno effect. I recommend not making any rapid repetitive measurements on “physics” when you have too many other things to do =)

For more details check Shores of Dirac.

Happy Birthday Darwin!

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin! May all the organisms of this planet and beyond celebrate your bday today (technically yesterday - if you are in PH time).

Progress Bar

So many things are happening right now in life. Personal projects, work projects and some other side tasks are populating my calendar and I cannot keep track of them anymore. To be on track, I believe it is time for me to launch the “Progress Bar” of my life to see my progress in all of my major projects, both personal and work. This morning, after kicking myself out of bed (while sipping a good cup of coffee), I tabulated all the tasks I finished in 6 major projects I am determined to complete. And here are the results:

Project BTX – 2.25% out of 222 tasks

Project MM3 – 0.89% out of 112 tasks

Project BIG – 0.00% out of 132 tasks

Project CELESTIA – 0.53% out of 190 tasks

Project Prometheus – 1.98% out of 186 tasks

Project HOME – 3.64% out of 165 tasks

All of these are long term projects. Some will run for a year others will run for 2-3 years.

Maybe, it is time for me to check my progress on these 6 areas every month. This is the only way to make sure than I will complete them.

Today is the kick off of my Progress Bar.

Beam me up, Scotty!

The best website I've encountered in my whole life (as for now): Star Trek Movie.

Futuristic. Savvy. Elegant. Trekkie. Awesome and Wonderful!

It's all because of Jonathan Archer.

Lost and Found

While cleaning my unit last weekend, I found out that I lost two of the books I bought last year. I am sure I lost them because I only have few things in my unit (a bed, a cabinet and a small table... and soon a ref). So that would be impossible for me not to see them. They are definitely lost. And I am not sure where.

Anyway here are my two missing books:

Warped Passages: Lisa Randall



Competition: James Case


I lost two books, but I found three new books to read (of course from the bookstore). I am not sure though is I can finish reading these three new books. I am not yet done reading those two lost books and now I lost the chance of finishing them. Hayz... I swear I am going to take care of my books moving forward. They are expensive. And I am not rich.


Mathematics for Nonmathematicians: Morris Kline



Endless Forms Most Beautiful: Sean B Carroll (He is a different Carroll and he is not the physicist).




Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: Stephen Hawking


Hopefully, I can finish all of them before the end of 1H 2009.

Oh, I also both a sci-fi novel several weeks ago and I barely scratched the surface of this novel. I need to finish this novel before they release the film version.


Hyperion: Dan Simmons



Here's the original front cover. Above is the future classic version front cover.