brainwagon

No, this isn’t the sequel to the movie “The Castle of Fu Manchu”. It’s a very interesting bit of computer science that deals with the construction of interpreters, compilers, and specializers. I’m dashing out the door with the family this morning, but check it out, courtesy of the “A Neighborhood of Infinity” blog. Unlike most […]

Last year, I noticed that Google had changed their search page to a Sherlock Holmes inspired theme in honor of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday. This year, I see that they have chosen to honor Mary Cassatt instead. Well, fine, happy birthday to all, even to Naomi Campbell. But I’ll be listening to some of […]

Earlier, I blogged about the historic book available from Google Books called Gould’s The Game of Draughts. While surveying a few problems, I noticed that my play was significantly different, and included a number of different outcomes for a couple of tested positions. So, I decided to use the newly added 8 piece Cake endgame […]

I’ve been C programming for… (quick arithmetic) roughly 25 years now, and yet, there are still things to learn. For instance, I decided to move my code for Milhouse back from my AMD64 Linux box to my Macbook for a little “mobile hacking” over the next week. I quickly found that unlike gcc on the […]

Pardon me for this diversion from usual topics. While commuting in with my wife this morning, I was listening to a talk show discussing a reality TV show (specifically, the truly horrendous Real Housewives of New York, a show which obviously stretches the meaning of the words “real” and “housewives”). In it, one of the […]

[Event “More Sparring”] [Date “2009-05-12”] [Black “Simple Checkers”] [White “Milhouse”] [Result “0-1”] 1. 11-15 22-17 2. 9-13 17-14 3. 10×17 21×14 4. 7-10 14×7 5. 3×10 26-22 6. 6-9 23-18 7. 10-14 18×11 8. 8×15 27-23 9. 4-8 23-18 10. 14×23 22-17 11. 13×22 25×4 12. 2-7 31-26 13. 1-6 26×19 14. 7-11 4-8 15. […]

To all the moms out there in the world, thanks for all the wonderful things you do for all your children. And while I’m at it, happy birthday to me!

Alan, VK2ZAY, has a really nice blog with all sorts of interesting experiments. Today’s fun installment was a radiation detector that’s just about as simple as can be imagined, ao aimple and inexpensive that I am pondering the possibility of using a similar circuit as part of a sensor for a balloon launch. Very cool: […]

I’ve been interested in 3D printing for quite some time. It’s a technology that seems poised for a break through. One of the things that it really needs is an inexpensive medium to create objects from. I’ve seen printers which use sugar which is carmelized by hot air, corn starch which is glued together, and […]

I’m testing WSPR reception using some new hardware. It’ll return to active duty soon.

There, did I get your attention? So yesterday was a really warm day, the first of the new year really. According to weather.com, temperatures in Emeryville reached a high of 89 degrees. Pretty darned nice. In fact, actually hot. After work, I hopped into my car (around 6:30PM, well past the heat of the day) […]

One of the Knights mentioned that Bill was now visible on WSPR. Presumably, this means his DSB beacon is actually alive. Here’s a link to his spots as reported on the WSPR net. Not bad! Bill’s WSPR Spots

And I thought I was nerdy for having the Dr. Who theme be my ringtone… httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KRja415Iwk

MVI_7296 Originally uploaded by oaklandEarthGirl This is just an interesting little aside. Over the past couple of days, construction of the new building here at Pixar Animation Studios has begun in earnest, which means that we have pile drivers operating a couple hundred feet from my office. Strangely, my office appears to be very close […]