Brain Pickings is the most intriguing and illuminating website I've visited in a while

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io9.com is a close second. Together this makes for my shortest blog entry with the most number of tags.

I particularly should check out these collections of books... on the left panel on the main page. I already read a few of them and heard about a few more, but hmm... haven't read real books in a while. Too many things are happening lately...

FontForge looks like the answer to my restlessness... [NOT]

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Thanks to Fzz's link to a kerning game... that inspired this sudden concentrated exploration into typography :-P Tried my hands at the game and didn't do too badly I suppose.

Although the actual task of designing a font is rather involved!

I tried to install FontForge via Cygwin at first, then found it to be hopelessly and needlessly complicated. And then I realized, doh, I have Ubuntu. And then the installation was just one line -

    sudo apt-get install fontforge python-fontforge 

Admittedly, this is the first time I truly felt that my multi-OS machine has finally found its purpose... to be multi-OS... after the fiasco of trying to install Jacapo in Ubuntu (which is a lot more complicated than a single sudo command)

Maybe I can fiddle with the notion of my own usefulness for awhile. FontForge looks sufficiently complex to sustain my play for at least a few months.

[Edit] I impulsively upgraded my Ubuntu from 10.04 to 11.10 and now FontForge doesn't work anymore. Blerg! At least "Oneiric Ocelot" sounds cool. I wanted the next release to be called "Pensive Pelican" or "Pouncing Panther" or... "Peeing Poodle", which Fzz said was better than "Pooping Poodle" because it could be shortened to "PeePoo". The developers should make that an April Fool's joke or something...

Solmire MIDI to MP3 online converter

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It's rather fun to experiment with all the sound fonts and channels for my numerous MIDI song clips. They take on various textures. Just like typography...

The MIDIs were generated via Hyperscore, though the tunes themselves were written quite a while ago...

For the greater good...

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Currently running (not all simultaneously) Folding@Home, AQUA@Home, and climateprediction.net from the list of distributed computing projects.

Donated to Wikipedia. After all, I use it many times every day :-P

I would like to think that I'm helping out... even when I'm goofing... especially when I'm goofing.

Some random thoughts in the past week or so

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(1) Stereotypes reduce the spectral richness of the world from continuous Lorentzians to discrete Dirac deltas.

(2) Every snippet I read in Ann Lauterbach's The Night Sky projects a multidimensional array of imagery and ramifications. Meanings morph with space and time. At a particular moment, she could not have quoted Richard Feynman better...

(3) Doctors of Philosophy nowadays usually don't get very philosophical in the traditional sense. But the name stuck somehow.

(4) I don't think having many separate online identities represents a disjoint self. In fact, quite the opposite...

(5) My new rig will be composed of an all-star cast with a first-time director/ system integrator.

(6) I like dragonflies. I associate them with a freedom of a sort of carefree youth. Seeing them hovering above the RNB lawn makes me happy.

Les updates...

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(10:13:12 PM) Friend: How's life?
(10:13:38 PM) Me: For the last 3 days... (insert google spreadsheet link)
(10:13:47 PM) Me: parts list for my new desktop
(10:15:21 PM) Friend: Having fun with that?
(10:17:38 PM) Me: yes
(10:17:41 PM) Me: a little too much
(10:17:49 PM) Me: I think I need to make sure my parts are compatible.
(10:18:01 PM) Me: although I think they should be... unless I missed something
(10:18:39 PM) Friend: You sure have done your research
(10:20:14 PM) Me: Yes
(10:20:28 PM) Me: Now I have headache from reading too many webpages, sigh
(10:20:55 PM) Friend: You could take a break.
(10:21:21 PM) Me: Yes, but I forgot
(10:21:22 PM) Me: oops
(10:21:30 PM) Me: was too possessed.
(10:21:53 PM) Friend: Girls do like shopping.
(10:22:04 PM) Friend: Not always for desktop parts.
(10:22:29 PM) Me: That's right
(10:22:39 PM) Me: I'm not like most girls, but I also like shopping.
(10:22:48 PM) Me: for media.
(10:22:53 PM) Me: and gadgets.
(10:23:13 PM) Friend: I didn't know you're a gadget person.
(10:23:27 PM) Friend: I bought a bluetooth dongle for $2 today.
(10:23:50 PM) Friend: I couldn't figure out how to get pictures from my phone to my computer using it.
(10:24:15 PM) Friend: It was a sad moment
(10:25:05 PM) Me: oh nooo!
(10:25:32 PM) Me: it's doable though right?
(10:25:37 PM) Me: any manual?
(10:26:11 PM) Friend: Well I finally realized that my phone is crippled by verizon to make it hard.
(10:26:18 PM) Me: ohh
(10:26:22 PM) Me: rawr.
(10:27:51 PM) Me: yeah, when one thinks about it, it's a miracle that RF devices work at all.
(10:28:24 PM) Me: To quote one of the Intel fellows in the panel today... the director of the RF stuff
(10:28:42 PM) Me: http://www.intel.com/idf/
(10:29:15 PM) Me: Intel is certainly good at making taglines for the giant banners I saw.
(10:29:53 PM) Friend: I see.
(10:31:29 PM) Friend: I only recently learned that bluetooth is named after a guy named bluetooth.
(10:32:04 PM) Me: I didn't know that hahah
(10:32:17 PM) Me: Imagine if he had a different name
(10:32:25 PM) Me: Like Greenbutt
(10:32:55 PM) Friend: Yeah, harold bluetooth
(10:33:12 PM) Friend: I haven't heard of any vikings named greenbutt.
(10:33:56 PM) Friend: The best name I've heard of so far is erik bloodaxe.
(10:34:11 PM) Me: ohohoh
(10:34:13 PM) Me: That's killer.
(10:35:03 PM) Me: People were joking about Wolf Blitzer being too tame for his name, but I don't know enough about him to have an opinion on that :P
(10:36:21 PM) Friend: Maybe I will rename my cat erik the bloodaxe
(10:36:44 PM) Friend: He did slay a giant roach today.
(10:37:23 PM) Me: niiiice
(10:37:30 PM) Me: how big was the roach?
(10:37:57 PM) Me: (I guess it was in the kitchen)
(10:39:20 PM) Friend: It was trying to hide under the sofa I was napping on, and it was the size of a large human thumb.
(10:40:15 PM) Me: That's pretty scary.
(10:40:28 PM) Me: Then again, many scary things in the tropics.
(10:40:47 PM) Friend: Yeah.
(10:41:04 PM) Friend: The cat keeps the bugs away at least.
(10:41:21 PM) Friend: crickets, wasps, roaches
(10:41:34 PM) Friend: He's been catching a lot of them lately.
(10:42:15 PM) Me: yayyy
(10:42:20 PM) Me: Kitty power!
(10:42:56 PM) Friend: At least he's good for something.
(10:43:46 PM) Me: awwwwww
(11:05:51 PM) Me: I need to consult gadget geeks about my parts list
(11:06:18 PM) Friend: Do you think it's not a good list?
(11:07:13 PM) Me: I need to make sure parts are compatible
(11:07:18 PM) Me: then I should be set to oder
(11:07:20 PM) Me: order
(11:07:50 PM) Me: and the building/verifying is another mountain
(11:08:35 PM) Friend: What would you need to verify.
(11:09:44 PM) Me: That the connections go with one another.
(11:09:54 PM) Me: plugs and sockets and pins are the right types.
(11:10:00 PM) Me: etc.
(11:12:39 PM) Friend: I doubt it'll be a problem.
(11:13:49 PM) Me: I hope not
(11:13:57 PM) Me: I think the more likely problem is parts DOA
(11:14:17 PM) Me: Like each part has a 5% chance of that
(11:14:26 PM) Me: so 8 parts means... hahahha
(11:14:40 PM) Me: 0.95^8 =
(11:15:31 PM) Friend: It looked like you were buying good brands.
(11:15:36 PM) Friend: I think you'll be ok.
(11:16:55 PM) Me: haha I hope
(11:18:09 PM) Friend: I didn't have any problems when I built this desktop, but I guess that was 7 years ago.
(11:18:24 PM) Me: hahahhaha
(11:18:37 PM) Friend: The only parts that died so far was the psu, which I've replaced twice already.
(11:18:38 PM) Me: I had a desktop in 2000? 2001
(11:18:44 PM) Me: and it lasted until a few months ago
(11:18:51 PM) Me: when a cap exploded inside
(11:18:51 PM) Friend: Also the caps on the video card exploded.
(11:18:57 PM) Me: yess.s
(11:19:03 PM) Friend: Oh.
(11:19:10 PM) Friend: Well for me only the video card died.
(11:19:16 PM) Me: wow
(11:19:20 PM) Me: and HD were okay?
(11:19:23 PM) Me: nice.
(11:19:26 PM) Friend: I just switched to an older pci one lying around.
(11:20:09 PM) Friend: I heard bad caps are a common problem.
(11:23:15 PM) Me: yup
(11:32:34 PM) Friend: Finally learned how to take pics off phone.
(11:32:54 PM) Friend: So annoying.
(11:33:04 PM) Me: sigh!
(11:42:51 PM) Me: rawr sleep time soon
(11:43:28 PM) Friend: later
(11:44:17 PM) Me: later
(11:44:30 PM) Me: gnight

Awesome retro inkjet printer

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Fzz gave me the link - I was like, this makes a totally awesome 6.115 project.

Control theory, information theory, neuroscience

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This prof talked about his research interest of engineering brain-machine interfaces. In other words, controlling machines with mere thought, remotely.

He has lots of DoD funding (no surprise...) and the advertisement industry is into this as well (knowing when there's high brain activity upon seeing certain images... even before conscious realization.)

He had occasional strange stutters, which was a tad distracting. I think it's because he spoke very fast and his thought process lagged during moments of stuttering. LOL. I think profs who talk faster in general tend to be easier to follow, assuming coherence.

There is an optimal speed, I've found. But all else being equal, I've found that going too fast is better than going too slow... because the attention level perks up in the former case and wanders elsewhere in the latter case.

I Am A Strange Loop

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That's where I found out what makes that screeching noise when someone takes over a microphone... audio (positive) feedback that amplifies the resonant frequency (circa 15kHz to 18kHz) to saturation!

This book contains a lot of nifty paradoxes. I must say that Prof. Doug Hofstadter sounds like Prof. Marvin Minsky at times, regarding the study of how brains think, consciousness, AI, semantics, etc.

On science fiction, Star Trek, "Physics of the Impossible" by Michio Kaku

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The 1979 Star Trek motion picture is quite prescient, predicting the singularity that is the merging of human mind and machine mind. (too many m's =P) It's looking more possible today than before...

No wonder, Isaac Asimov was on the scientific advisory board. Perhaps Prof. Marvin Minsky does have the right idea about serializing a science fiction writer consortium. Jules Verne's book about Paris in the 20^th Century mentions technology that didn't exist in the 19^th Century but are here now.

In his book, Michio Kaku talks about stretching the imagination just beyond the edge of possibility and whatever is currently in existence. There's no existing physical law that forbids teleportation, telepathy, force fields in the style of Star Trek, invisibility, etc. Which means that these phenomena could very well arise in the next few decades.

Good times.

Media Lab demo

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So I was on the 2nd floor of the Media Lab for an actual purpose for the very first time... the deForest-something-or-other Auditorium.

Saw a demo on a "3D instrument" where the interface is a black universe dotted with stars, and the controller (instrumentalist) operates a joystick that simultaneously navigates through the stars while making sounds... volume and pitch with respect to the giant rods and spheres that are reminiscent of space stations and planets and solar systems that could be created and destroyed at a whim... hence N. asked "Do you feel like a god?" and the demo-er said "Oh yes."

We saw/heard a new composition, which felt like the space ship zapping through wormholes and asteroid belts... pretty awesome!

Wordle my poems

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This is the result from feeding in my poem into this site... I think this works particularly well on villanelles with repeating lines as the central theme.


and this is another one, from this poem...

and yet another one (from this poem)...

I wonder if there is AI programming that governs how the color schemes and fonts are selected based on the semantics on the input text... because these wordles really tempt me to hypothesize as such... too bad I can't see the actual source code!

Google Doc folders

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I put all my Google docs into folders! I feel very productive. I should like go pick up the commencement program and the supposed gift from the Microsystems Technology Lab for its graduates... Too bad I won't get my diploma until the 16th, but at least it's semi-waterproof.

Took apart my laptop

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It was a very very slow process because I was trying to be careful and not break anything... I'm glad I'm not a surgeon, because I'll probably lose patience after about 3 hours.

One part of the vent was completely clogged with a sheet of dust (looked like lint from dryer)... and the other part of the vent was also quite dusty... but it's fixed now! I'll just have to repeat this after a year or so...

New computational engine?

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Wolfram Alpha looks pretty nifty... I anticipate its release!

Human computation

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This video talks about several games and gimmicks to harness the human mind to solve problems computers can't (yet) solve... I call them games and gimmicks, because on the one hand they're inherently psychologically manipulative, but on the other hand there's also a fair amount of clever algorithmic maneuvers. The speaker is quite entertaining and evidently very enterprising as well.

Oh xkcd.

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Yes, I cracked up at this one.

::Smile::

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Big white arctic fluffy jacket with many pockets. Fluffy jacket!

Yum yum yum yum yum...

(01) Dragon Maki: Sushi with eel + CA roll contents. Avocado! :-P
(02) Volcano Maki: Spicy tuna + CA roll contents. Spicy tuna is not a species :-P
(03) Too much wasabi => runny nose :-P
(04) New-Age Asian fusion jazz :-)
(05) The Apple Store - sleeeeekness. The spiral glass staircase.
(06) J.S. Bach's running pose!

ZzZzZzZzZzZz... :-P

(07) Finale cheesecake, creamy and luxurious...
(08) Watercolor :-) Lake with colorful leaves. I tend to draw landscape with water... with watercolors. Very soothing. 106.7 FM is very soothing also. J.S. Bach's victory lap! "Dude I just wrote a 5-part fugue!!" With psychedelic radiance. Glorious.
(09) Random searches about evolution of language. Will expand further.
(10) Bubble tea~ Tapioca green tea with milk~

:-D

e!

When science fiction...

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... is no longer fiction. Like the computer system in "Minority Report".