In Starship bloopers Charlie Stross promises to present a nuanced opinion of Starship Troopers, and delivers.
Continue readingAnother Undead Computer Language
From Competitive Programming to APL, with Conor Hoekstra.
The first half or so of this article was like reading an anthropological report of a strange culture far away: There were no programming contests when I was getting started out in the field (1967-1976). I rarely had the kind of technical interviews that Hoekstra went through, and did not get any of the five programming jobs I held from 1977 to 1998 through such an interview.
I started reading more closely with
Conor: So, I heard about APL five different times between the year 2010 and 2019.Continue reading
UFOs? OK. Alien Spacecraft? No so fast.
I found How Washington Got Hooked on Flying Saucers to be fascinating if somewhat depressing. “There is nothing new under the sun.”
This is a subject I have been watching from a safe distance for well over half a century, when I first read Martin Gardner’s Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (Few books have influenced me more than this one).
I met J. Allen Hynek in my last year of high school, 1967-68, when I was a student in the Astro-Science Workshop (Still around although in a different format) at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. This program was organized and run by Hynek. Hynek was a pleasant and interesting speaker, and a good teacher, but he never spoke to us kids about UFOs.
Continue readingRang Gaeilge, 25ú lá Mí na Bealtaine 2021
Duinnín agus an Bhadhbh (tuilleadh)
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Tháinig Dínny amach ón gcuilinn agus a lámha san aer.
‘Tá drochbhail ar na créatúirí istigh ansin.’ ar seisean.
‘Ná bog,’ arsa Jeremiah leis agus, gan béal an ghunnáin a bhogadh, chúlaigh sé gur thug sé stracfhéachaint ar a raibh istigh i gcairt Dinny.
‘Boscaí folmha agus beart sac. Sin uile atá ann,’ arsa Dinny.
Chinntigh Lowney nach raibh Dinny armtha.
‘Suigh id chairt go nglaofaidh mé ort ‘
Chrom an tAthair P’ádraig athuair ar an mbeirt a bhí ceangailte a scaoileadh saor.
‘Bhí tú ag súil go mbeadh gunnaí sa chairt?’ ar seisean le Lowney.Dinny came out from the holly with his hands in the air.
‘The creatures in there are in bad shape.’ he said.
‘Don’t move,’ Jeremiah said to him and, without moving the mouth of the revolver, move back to take a cursory glance at everything that what was in Dinny’s cart.
‘Empty boxes and a bundle of sacks. That’s all there is,’ said Dinny.
Lowney made sure Dinny was not armed.
‘Sit in your cart until I call you’
Fr. Patrick bent over the two that were tied up to release them.
‘You were expecting guns in the cart?’ he said to Lowneycuileann holly m gs cuilinn drochbhail Bad condition; bad circumstances cúlaigh Back, move back; reverse, retreat strac- = srac- Cursory, sketchy, slight féachaint look, glance; appearance; aspect; trial, test; taste, small portion f beart bundle , sac sack m Cinntigh Make certain; confirm, assure id = i do athuair Again, a second time scaoil Loose(n), release, discharge; Undo, untie, unfasten
Léigh tuilleadh
A Newly Discovered Hittite City
Last night I watched A New Iron Age Kingdom in Anatolia, as part of the class I am currently taking on the Languages and Writing Systems of Anatolia. The lecture was about the archaelogy of Türkmen-Karahöyük, a mound in the Konya plain of what is now Turkey. The OI is leading the Türkmen-Karahöyük Intensive Survey Project (TISP), which is part of the Konya Regional Archaeological Survey Project (KRASP). TISP is a surface survey, a necessary first step at an archaeological site. However, it has already yielded significant results.
Continue readingThe Lifetimes of Programming Languages
I started programming computers in February of 1967, when I was a junior in high school. After dropping out of grad school I began a 41 year career in information technology in January of 1977. I have seen a lot of computer languages come and go. So I read 5 Programming Languages You Won’t Likely Be Using by 2030 with some interest. The only one on the list I had ever used was Perl. It was kind of fun, but I did not get very attached to it 🙂
Meanwhile, some much older languages live on. Last year COVID-19 demonstrated how much the financial world still depends on COBOL:
Continue readingMy First Peek at Renormalization
I have vaguely known about renormalization since the 1970’s, but had never seriously studied it. Out of curiosity I watched Renormalization and envelopes on YouTube Thursday evening. This was the final lecture of the Asymptotics and perturbation methods course by Prof. Steven Strogatz of Cornell University. I had watched the first two lectures of the course, but none of the others until this one. Fortunately, there were relatively few explicit dependencies on them, so I was able to follow this quite well. Here is the description:
Continue readingIndo-Hittite
As I mentioned before, I am currently taking a class on the Languages and Writing Systems of Anatolia, focusing on the ancient Hittites and some of their neighbors and successors in the region. These languages have long been recognized as part of the Indo-European language family, but they have common features among themselves which are not shared with the rest of the IE family.
Continue readingHittite Iron
I am currently taking a class on the Languages and Writing Systems of Anatolia, focusing on the ancient Hittites and some of their neighbors and successors in the region. One of our readings was Alfonso Archi, “When Did the Hittites Begin to Write in Hittite?” in Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer. On p. 39 I read:
The words of the Tabarna, the Great King, are of iron. They are not to be thrust aside, not to be thrust aside, not to be broken. He who changes (them) his head will be cut offContinue reading
Reading Notes: April 2021
Lars Celander, How Carriers Fought: Carrier Operations in World War II. “An in-depth analysis of aircraft carrier battles in WWII and the evolution of carrier operations—from technology and strategy to life among the crew.” The book covers US, Japanese, and British carrier use in the war. Very much about the nitty-gritty of how things got done, with a lot of quantitative analysis. “Carriers evolved into ‘eggshells armed with hammers,’ destined for short but interesting lives.” One thing I had not previously appreciated about the 1942 carrier battles in the Pacific (Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons, and Santa Cruz) was the longer range of the Japanese search planes. Highly recommended for those with an interest in WWII naval and air history.
Scott Carpenter, French Like Moi: A Midwesterner in Paris. An American college professor buys a condo in Paris and, though fluent in French, learns how different Parisians and Midwesterners really are, through one story after another. This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. Thank you to my fellow Carleton College (where Scott Carpenter teaches) alumni for suggesting it.