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langreiter.com simple plainnesshttp://www.langreiter.comThis site definitely defies description.Copyright (c) 1999-2002 Christian Langreiter, Contributorshttp://backend.userland.com/rss092chris@langreiter.comchris@langreiter.comhttp://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-09-03-magicDan2008-09-03-magicDan<a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Dan+Ingalls">Dan Ingalls</a>: "There's no doubt that <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/V8">V8</a> puts us on a new plateau, and the V8 team is good, and [...] the further attention being put on multiprocessing and security are critical. <a href="http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2008-September/131243.html">However VMs are not black magic</a> [...]" <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Brendan+Eich">Brendan Eich</a>: <a href="http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2008/09/tracemonkey_update.html">TraceMonkey Update</a> <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Andreas+Gal">Andreas Gal</a>: <a href="http://andreasgal.com/2008/09/03/tracemonkey-vs-v8/">TraceMonkey vs V8</a> Update: Some more interesting comments (from Brendan Eich, <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Maciej+Stachowiak">Maciej Stachowiak</a> [<a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/WebKit">WebKit</a>] &c.) <a href="http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-performance-rundown/">can be found here</a>.http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-09-02-canBak2008-09-02-canBak<a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Lars+Bak">Lars Bak</a>: "Ever since we opened the <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Google">Google</a> office in Aarhus, Denmark, I've been bombarded with the same question. What kind of virtual machine are you working on? Finally, I'm able to answer. It is an open source <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/JavaScript">JavaScript</a> engine <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2008/09/google-chromes-need-for-speed_02.html">and it is fast</a>." Heck yes, <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/V8">V8</a> sure is; faster even (for now) than <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Apple">Apple</a>'s already amazingly/blazingly fast <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/SquirrelFish">SquirrelFish</a>. Who'd have thought just a few months ago that we'd have not one, but three (almost) production-quality high-performance JavaScript engines by September? I for one welcome the definitive x86 of the web: Hello, JavaScript! You never looked quite as good. I wish you continued mega success. For a bit more substance, <a href="http://earl.strain.at/space/comments-2008-09-02">head over to earl</a>.http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-09-02-reWired2008-09-02-reWired"In September 2006, after more than 20 years of nonstop labor designing virtual machines, [<a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Lars+Bak">Lars Bak</a>] had been planning to take some time off to work on his farm outside Århus. <a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-10/mf_chrome?currentPage=all">Then Google called</a>." <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Steven+Levy">Steven Levy</a>'s <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Wired">Wired</a> <a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-10/mf_chrome?currentPage=all">background piece</a> on <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Google+Chrome">Google Chrome</a>, <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/V8">V8</a> and all that is well worth a read.http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-09-01-sep'd2008-09-01-sep'dHappy September!http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-08-09-density2008-08-09-density"In the 9th century AD, roughly 3x10^14 man hours occurred. In the 90s roughly 5x10^14 man hours occurred. A century during the middle ages contained roughly the same amount of <a href="http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/blog/01218270035">human experience as a modern decade</a>."http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-30-evolan2008-07-30-evolan<img src="http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-doc.png"> <a href="http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060186">Across the Curious Parallel of Language and Species Evolution</a> <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/William+Croft">William Croft</a>, requoted: "I have to constantly fend off the view that applying evolutionary ideas to linguistics is an analogy. [...] It's not an analogy: these are two different instantiations of a <a href="http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060186">general theory of evolutionary change</a>."http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-30-hydroHype2008-07-30-hydroHype<img src="http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-doc.png"> <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Robert+Zubrin">Robert Zubrin</a>: <a href="http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-hydrogen-hoax">The Hydrogen Hoax</a> "Hydrogen is only a source of energy if it can be taken in its pure form and reacted with another chemical, such as oxygen. But all the hydrogen on Earth, except that in hydrocarbons, has already been oxidized, so none of it is available as fuel. If you want to get plentiful unbound hydrogen, the closest place it can be found is on the surface of the Sun; <a href="http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-hydrogen-hoax">mining this hydrogen supply would be quite a trick</a>."http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-29-ot2008-07-29-otYou appreciate the simplicity of a problem only when you overthought it hard.http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-29-keiSketch2008-07-29-keiSketch<img src="http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-doc.png"> <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Ken+Iverson">Ken Iverson</a>: <a href="http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Essays/Kenneth_E._Iverson">An Autobiographical Sketch</a> "Ken and Donald McIntyre worked on what was to be The Story of <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/APL">APL</a> & <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/J">J</a> in 2004 through a series of e-mail messages, with the last e-mail from Ken coming in the morning of Saturday, 2004-10-16. Now Donald feels that he is unable to continue work on The Story of APL & J due to his poor health. What remains is an autobiographical sketch of Ken. Donald emphasizes that the text is in Ken's own words."http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-28-lloss2008-07-28-llossSo <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Cuill">Cuill</a> <a href="http://cuil.com">launched</a> (and lost an l in the process, leading to the curious effect that it <a href="http://www.cuil.com/search?q=cuil">doesn't even find itself</a>); while I like some of the interface concepts (especially the <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Techmeme">Techmeme</a>-like extraction of key images) and love <a href="http://www.cuil.com/info/privacy/">their privacy policy</a>, in most other regards (especially when it comes to ranking) it seems a tad underwhelming when compared to the Big 3 (and especially the Big G). <img src='http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-arr.png'> <a href="http://thenoisychannel.blogspot.com/2008/07/not-as-cuil-as-i-expected.html">Some first impressions</a> from <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Endeca">Endeca</a>'s <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Daniel+Tunkelang">Daniel Tunkelang</a>.http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-25-fullOfWonderLand2008-07-25-fullOfWonderLand<a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Randy+Pausch">Randy Pausch</a>, &dagger; <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-25">2008-07-25</a>. "What Indira didn't tell you is that this lecture series used to be called the <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo">Last Lecture</a>."http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-13-randomForestry2008-07-13-randomForestry<img src="http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-pdf.png"> <a href="http://projecteuclid.org/handle/euclid.ss/1009213290">A Conversation</a> with <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Leo+Breiman">Leo Breiman</a> (2001) "The interests and accomplishments of Leo Breiman extend outside the areas of professional statistician and probabilist. He was a waiter in the Catskills, a dishwasher in the Merchant Marine, a trekker into the heart of rainforest Africa, an active father to many children from a small agrarian Mexican village, a member and President of the Santa Monica School Board, the architect of his stunning home and an accomplished sculptor." If you're only tangentially interested in ensemble methods like <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Bagging">Bagging</a>, [create <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/exec/vanilla.r?selector=new&snip=AdaBoost">AdaBoost</a>] &c., this is highly recommended reading. "On most data sets that people have looked at, Adaboost did quite a good deal better than bagging did. This was a startling discovery because you could take a sow's ear and transform it into a silk purse. That is, you could take a classiﬁer like, say, everyday vanilla <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/CART">CART</a>, which was good but not a great classiﬁer, and by using this Adaboost algorithm, which was almost trivial to program, just iterated calls to CART, turn it into a world-class classiﬁcation algorithm that, by almost any standards, had accuracy as good as anything else out there, and better than almost everything else out there." I guess the interview was conducted at about the same time as Leo Breiman was working on the first <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Random+Forests">Random Forests</a> publications. Random Forests <a href="http://www.conflate.net/icml/paper/2008/632">were recently shown</a> (<a href="http://hunch.net/?p=340">via</a>) to perform splendidly in high-dimensional supervised learning settings.http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-13-thruff2008-07-13-thruffThere's a relatively interesting discussion on <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Thrift">Thrift</a> and <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Protocol+Buffers">Protocol Buffers</a> on <a href="http://stuartsierra.com/2008/07/10/thrift-vs-protocol-buffers">Stuart Sierra's blog</a>; apparently, my recollection that the first was massively inspired by the latter wasn't all wrong: [create <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/exec/vanilla.r?selector=new&snip=Mark+Slee">Mark Slee</a>] interned at <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Google">Google</a> before working at <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Facebook">Facebook</a>. The coolest of all is still <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Q">Q</a> IPC, tho.http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-13-got2008-07-13-got<a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Git">Git</a>: The simple things are simple. The amazing things are amazing.* I spent (quite) a few hours last week working through assorted Git materials (mostly prompted by a mind-bending crash course administered by no one else than <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/earl">earl</a>; but also by a looming sense of eventual inevitability). As far as I understand it right now, Git looks like a neurosurgeon's chainsaw when compared to the humble table knife that is <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Subversion">Subversion</a>. What follows is the curriculum I'd stick to if I had to start afresh; since I'm most certainly still a Git newbie, take it with an appropriately sized grain of salt. <img src='http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-arr.png'> <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Linus+Torvalds">Linus Torvalds</a>'s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8">talk at Google</a> (optional). Gives the backstory and motivation; describes the style of development organization Git was made for. Might even entertain some. <img src="http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-doc.png"> <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/gittutorial.html">Git tutorial, part 1</a> (required, <a href="http://www.henso.com/log/2008.07.04/1329/">via Hannes</a>). Short & sweet. <img src="http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-doc.png"> <a href="http://cworth.org/hgbook-git/tour/">A tour of git: the basics</a> (required). Nicely paced walkthrough; probably the best single-document introduction. Not surprisingly, covers essentially the same material as part 1 of the Git tutorial, but from a slightly different angle. This helps to reinforce. <img src="http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-doc.png"> <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/gittutorial-2.html">Git tutorial, part 2</a> (required). Judging from del.icio.us evidence, many skip this part. I wouldn't. Goes well with <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Tommi+Virtanen">Tommi Virtanen</a>'s <a href="http://eagain.net/articles/git-for-computer-scientists/">graphical illustration</a> (kthx <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/earl">earl</a>). <img src="http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-doc.png"> <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Ryan+Tomayko">Ryan Tomayko</a>'s <a href="http://tomayko.com/writings/the-thing-about-git">The Thing About Git</a> (required). Excellent propaganda, enticing use cases: How to untangle the tangled working copy. <img src="http://www.langreiter.com/imagery/icon-doc.png"> <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/everyday.html">Everyday Git With 20 Commands Or So</a> (optional). When you understand the commands without having to look at their description, you're done with Git 101. More: earl's <a href="http://earl.strain.at/space/git-notes">git-notes</a>, <a href="http://del.icio.us/chl/git">del.icio.us/chl/git</a>. * With apologies to <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Alan+Kay">Alan Kay</a>.http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-12-mae2008-07-12-mae"There is no law or regulation to that effect, just an assumption by the market that <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Fannie+Mae">Fannie Mae</a> is too big, too close and too important to the government for the government to ever let Fannie Mae fail. With the mortgage market in massive turmoil and Fannie Mae's stock down 85% in the last year, that assumption is <a href="http://billburnham.blogs.com/burnhamsbeat/2008/07/fannie-maes-gol.html">currently being heavily tested</a>." Amazing story. "Guaranteeing oneself against risk is not insurance, its an exercise in futility." http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-10-schupla2008-07-10-schuplaOpportunity favours <a href="http://www.smime.at/blog/2008/07/10/grune-plakate/">the mentally prepared</a>. Monsieur <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/smi">smi</a> textet in Topklasse. Not quite unrelated <a href="http://twitter.com/marshallmcluhan/statuses/854804717">marshallmcluhans Getwitter du jour</a>: "Most people read ads about things they already own. They don't read things to buy them but to feel reassured that they bought the right thing"http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-10-emo2008-07-10-emo"Unfortunately, psychiatry is (ironically) a bit too emotionally attached to <a href="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/07/mental_illness_in_w.html">the traditional diagnostic categories</a> [...]"http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-10-tailblazer2008-07-10-tailblazer"So, the big change wrought by the internet is not so much to change the shape of the demand curve for media products, as [<a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Chris+Anderson">Chris Anderson</a>] claims; nor has there been no change whatsoever, as [<a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Anita+Elberse">Anita Elberse</a>] posits. The big change is not in what fraction of the demand is in the head, it's in how the items that are in the head got there in the first place.* Any change in the shape <a href="http://anand.typepad.com/datawocky/2008/07/the-real-long-tail-why-both-chris-anderson-and-anita-elberse-are-wrong.html">of the curve itself is incidental</a>." * Just like with <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Git">Git</a>!http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-07-chingleBall2008-07-07-chingleBall"But what if these sentences aren't really bad English? What if they are evidence that the English language is happily leading <a href="http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/16-07/st_essay">an alternative lifestyle without us</a>?"http://www.langreiter.com/space/2008-07-07-sudorama2008-07-07-sudorama<a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Armin+Wolf">Armin Wolf</a>: <a href="http://zib.orf.at/zib2/wolf/stories/291084/">Mehr Breisky als Kreisky</a> <a href="http://www.langreiter.com/space/Heinz+Wittenbrink">Heinz Wittenbrink</a>: '[Die SPÖ] verteidigt die vorgeblichen Interessen der "kleinen Leute" und tut diese auf Kosten der wirtschaftlichen und technischen Modernisierung. Tatsächlich trägt sie damit zum weiteren wirtschaftlichen Abstieg <a href="http://heinz.typepad.com/lostandfound/2008/07/yes-we-can-stat.html">der Gruppen, die sie vertreten will, bei</a>.' Leider.