Recently updated blogs

Over the last few weeks, my much-missed dad has been on my mind more than usual, which has been largely as a result of a number of less-than-typical happenings in the natural world. The first of these was the BBC’s weather app going somewhat haywire, seeing it predict hurricane-force winds of up to 16,543 knots – strictly speaking not an unusual happening in the natural world but as a man …

Watches. Watches never change us. # If you’ve just joined us, welcome to my series: Wristwatch Roulette, where I furnish my forearm with two fancy finds a fortnight, from fan-favourite Ali Express, market of choice for my 2023 series Shenzhen Safari, and 2024 series Shenzhen Sojourn. Ghoulish Behaviour # Remember when games were good? Ahahaha. No. Things keep getting better. The possibilities of what can be accomplished are built on …

Most of the émigré Angeleno poets whose work I’ve shared here over the years wrote in Russian, though some of them had roots in Ukraine and even identified as Ukrainian. Today I bring you a poem originally written in Ukrainian by Abram Katsnelson (1914-2003), who, like Peter Vegin (1939-2007), came to California in the 1990s, on the same wave that carried my family to these shores. By that time Katsnelson …

Within the story, Jack’s problem, which becomes the reader’s, and must have been to some extent the writer’s, too, is that Roy has a theory, and the theory is just too much. For the Redux newsletter of the Paris Review, I ask whether the demons of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks universe were inspired by a 1982 short story by Norman Rush. Click here to read! And click here to sign …

Graham Hancock was again a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience on October 17th, presumably in support of the release of season two (The Americas) of his Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse on October 16th. The opening move Hancock and Rogan begin by complaining that they were duped by archaeologist Flint Dibble (who was just given a well-deserved Ockham Award) on the widely viewed and commented debate episode about Hancock’s claims, …

Pain conceals itself in the stone, the petrifying pain that delivers itself into the keeping of the impenetrable rock in whose appearance there shines forth its ancient origin out of the silent glow of the first dawn­ the earliest dawn which, as the prior beginning, is coming toward everything that is becoming, and brings to it the ad­ vent, never to be overtaken, of its essential being.from Language in the …

The 2024 election is fast approaching and once again, there's a lot to vote on. Most of your choices will have a (D) or an (R) next to…

I’ve written a lot of JavaScript. I like JavaScript. And more importantly, I’ve built up a set of skills in understanding, optimizing, and debugging JavaScript that I’m reluctant to give up on. So maybe it’s natural that I get a worried pit in my stomach over the current mania to rewrite every Node.js tool in a “faster” language like Rust, Zig, Go, etc. Don’t get me wrong – these languages …

LifeSpan Under Desk Treadmill TR12000-DT3 GlowUp Walking Pad As a software developer, I spend the majority of my time sitting at a desk. In the past, I worked in an office but still managed to get some physical activity through my daily commute. I had occasional back pain, but it was infrequent. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. We shifted to remote work, and my physical activity decreased significantly. My daily …

Moshe Vardi wrote a short interesting essay “What is theoretical computer science?” (It followed by interesting posts on Facebook.) Moshe argues that Thinking of theoretical computer science (TCS) as a branch of mathematics is harmful to the discipline. I personally do not regard TCS as part of mathematics and I also don’t think that thinking of TCS as part of mathematics is harmful. Certainly there are parts of TCS that …

After I posted the last two parts of this series (which I thought wrapped it up…) I received an email asking about whether there’s a similar thing happening if you remove the reconstruction (low-pass) filter in the digital-to-analogue part of the signal path. The answer to this question turned out to be more interesting than I expected… So I wound up turning it into a “Part 3” in the series. …

The readers of this blog know know that I stay away from non-math related discussions. It’s not that I don’t have any political opinions, I just don’t think they are especially valuable or original. I do however get triggered by a clear anti-Semitism, discrimination of Jews by the universities, and by personal disrespect. The story below is a strange mixture of these. As I was visiting the IAS in Princeton, …

I've always posted irregularly and I don't think that's going to change, that's just how I roll (no, I'm not bipolar). On the other hand, I need to recharge the batteries, so my absence will be longer than usual. See you on the other side, space cowboys.

We’re excited to introduce Mosaic, a new initiative from the Bonfire team that empowers organisations by creating fully customised, federated digital spaces—built just for them. What is Mosaic? # Mosaic is a unique service where the Bonfire team collaborates with you to co-design and build a bespoke online presence that serves as a hybrid between a traditional website and a social networking platform—going well beyond merely sharing pictures or short …

Quantum computer in an office foyer What did I do to avoid disempowering people? I listened. Specifically, I listened in on a user research session with a woman who recently had a baby (burbling in the background of the Teams call :) One of our teams is looking at improving digital self-referral to maternity services, and the research was to learn about this experience first hand from people who recently …