Just so I can boast about it here as well... I'm going to Svalbard next week! :-D

For business. But still...

Let's see...

- The new job (started 3rd of March) is going OK though there are still quite a lot of adjustment pains. At the very least I have close to a carte blanche when it comes to going to external courses and conferences, which is quite cool.

- It's finally warm enough to start running outside. Yay!

- Still doing Krav Maga. Some of you know I missed out last semester due to an injury, but now everything seems to be OK. I'm not sure if I'll go up to P5 this semester though.

- I met an ex-slashdotter/Multiply refugee in real life, making the total to three.

- I've been taking lots of bird photos lately, but I really need to learn how to use my camera properly. It's good to know I'm not short on subjects :-)

- I have mod points :-D

How are you all doing?

Well, it now appears the University of Manchester in England has built 1nm transistors on graphene. The article is short on details, but it appears to be a ring of carbon atoms surrounding a quantum dot, where the quantum dot is not used for quantum computing or quantum states but rather for regulating the electrical properties. This is still a long way from building a practical IC using graphene. It is, however, a critical step forward. The article mentions other bizare behaviours of graphene but does not go into much detail. This is the smallest transistor produced to date.

This has been the dullest April 1st Slashdot has ever had. Has its funny bone been surgically removed? For those who miss the days of OMG!!! PONIES!!!, I think I've found the only site that comes close in being very very strange.....

I want to see these little miracles of evolution! :-D

here's the proof

You know you're in for a training from hell when the instructor says that he's going to whack you with the stick of pain if your tempo (when doing drills) is too slow...

It was a good training though :-)

I've written about Nebbeline on Multiply. Thought I'd share her with everyone over here...

And don't forget to visit Wolfgangkloof ;-)

One of the most fascinating things I've observed in searching for Open Source projects available for whatver I'm doing at the time is the huge disparity of what is available, how it is used and who is interested.

An obvious place to start is in the field of electronics. Computer-based tools are already used to build such stuff, so it's a natural replacement, right? Well, almost. There are tools for handling VHDL, Verilog and SystemC. There are frameworks for simulating both clock-based and asychronous circuits. You can do SPICE simulations, draw circuit diagrams, download existing circuits as starting points or places of inspiration, simulate waveforms, determine coverage and design PCBs. OpenCores provides a lot of fascinating already-generated systems, SUN provides the staggering T1 and T2 UltraSPARC cores, and the Sirocco 64-bit SPARC. This field has probably not got anywhere near what it needs, but it has a lot.

Maths is another obvious area. Plenty of Open Source tools for graphing, higher order logic, theorum provers, linear algebra, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, signal processing, multiple-precision, numerical methods, solvers for all kinds of other specific problem types, etc.

What about astronomy? That requires massive table data crunching, correlation of variations, moving telescopes around with absolute precision - things computers tend to be very good at. There are a few. Programs for capturing images are probably the most common, although some telescopes provide software for controlling telescopes, obtaining data and performing basic operations. Mind you, how much more than this does one need in software? Some things are better done in hardware (for now, at least) because the software hasn't the speed. Yes, the control software seems a little specialized, but it'd be hard to make something like that general-purpose.

Chemistry. Hmmm. Lots of trivial stuff, more educational than valuable - periodic tables, 3D models of molecules, LaTeX formatting aids. There's a fair amount on the study of crystals and crystallography, which is as much chemistry as it is physics, but there's not a lot else. Chemistry involves a lot of tables (which would be ideal for a standardized database), a lot of mathematical equations, formulae, graphing, measuring and correlating all sorts of data, the consequences of different filtering and separation techniques, the wavelength and intensity of energies, analysis of the results of atomic mass spectrometry or other noisy data, etc. I see the underlying tools for doing some (but not all) of these things, but I don't see the heavy lifting.

Archaeology has very few non-trivial tools. Some signal processing for ground-penetrating RADAR, but there are virtually no tools out there that could be useful for helping with interpretation. In fact, most RADAR programs don't interpret either but display the result on a small LCD screen. Nor do any tools exist for correlating interpretations (other than manually via an extremely naive - for this purpose - GIS database). There's a few scraps here and there, but signal analysis and GIS seem to be about it, and those were mostly developed for mining companies and tend to show it.

Biology has plenty of DNA sequencing code. By now, Slashdotter should be able so sequence eith own DNA, not pay someone a thousand to do it. You mean, those aren't enough, that you need more hardware? And a lot more software? It's an important step, but it's not unique.

Mechanical Engineering. I haven't seen anything of any significance.

Geology. Not really, beyond the same software for Archaeology, but using it for find seams in rock.

Psychology: Nada.

Psychiatry: None.

Sports: Lots of software getting used, but little of it is open source.

Result - those who gain with the least to lose and the most to win make the change. Those who feel like there's no benefit from changing what they're doing will continue doing what they're doing. My suggestion? There are gaping holes in Open Source. Fill them in.

Wolfgangkloof - http://wolfgangkloof.myminicity.com/ :-)

This is an interesting (to me) piece of work that I've been asked to do. Using open-source software to analyze data from both ground-penetrating radar and magnetometers, open-source GIS software for tracking archaeological finds, open-source modeling software to produce archaeologically and technically sound reconstructions, and then use a mix of open-source virtual reality software and open-source web technology to provide both the raw and the visually interpreted data in a form that is of practical use to experts and non-experts alike.

If that sounds like a complex task, it is. The site is extremely convoluted, there is a wealth of data that is currently in a highly unusable form, and what is meaningful to an expert is not necessarily the least bit useful or usable to a non-expert (and vice versa). Currently, there is a lot of skepticism by The Powers That Be that such a project would even be possible. My first task, then, is to produce an example. My impossible mission is to convert the few scraps of information published on medieval aisled halls, along with the very limited archaeological finds from the site in question, into the dual format of raw information and virtual reality.

On the one hand, the limited information means that the first part is relatively easy. An online archaeological GIS-enabled database may not be trivial, but all the software needed can - at least - be found on Freshmeat and the amount of data entry is relatively small. The second part is tougher. Again, open-source VR software does exist, but it is one thing to enter known values that can be verified into a database, it is entirely another to derive values that are implied and logically required but for which there is no direct evidence at all.

There is a catch. Virtual reality is great for producing models you can walk through, but it's generally pretty lousy at telling you if said model violates the laws of physics. Given that I can hardly build my own medieval aisled hall, I know of no other method besides hand-cranking through the numbers for validating the predicted structure. Suggestions would be extremely welcome, as would any idea on how I could either use the open-source approach for the hall design, or how I could use something like BOINC to automate the validation of a virtual landscape.

Technically, this is fun - I'm getting to do some reasonably original work - but original work is necessarily far more demanding in terms of research and application than run-of-the-mill work. Mind you, I only have myself to blame - the archaeologists have been satisfied so far with producing a web-based diary of major finds, plus entering the data on a completely unusable regional database. Such are the hazards of pointing out that you can do better! :)

read it and laugh at the stupidity

At least he admitted he was a dumbass...

Read about it here

lots of photos to whet your appetite and make your RoFs go stir-crazy ;-)

I got a lensbaby! :-D

The 2.0 to be more precise. I can't wait to start playing around with it...

If you don't know what a lensbaby is or what it can do, click on the product link, or perhaps check out the lensbaby flickr group...

I also got penguin jewelry - the silver one. Apparently, it was the (plush) penguin and owl families that insisted I get this ;-)

Boyfriend of tuxette got one of these, so that he can find himself :-P

More crashes in the full moon

Statistics show that a full moon really can "bring out the beast," at least in Norway, where the most collisions between cars and moose occur when the moon is full and the weather is cold.

Norway's state statistics bureau SSB reports that 1,321 moose were killed in traffic accidents during the past year. Most of them occurred in the winter: Statistics reveal three times as many collisions between moose and vehicles in January than in the summer.

Torstein Storaas of Hedmark College, one of Norway's foremost experts on moose, told newspaper Aftenposten that it's not just because it's easier for the moose to move alongside open roads when snow is lying deep in the forest.

It's also, Storaas said, because the moose prefer to eat the twigs and branches of pine and low shrubbery during the winter. "Therefore they need to emerge from the deep fir- and spruce forest," he said. "Unfortunately many claim they also are attracted by the salt spread on highways by road crews."

The moose is also most active during a full moon, although it's not entirely clear why. Moose tend to wander more than usual during a full moon, and not just because the moonlight guides their way. Studies show they're just as active when cloud cover blocks out the moon.

Motorists are thus advised to use extra caution during full moon periods in the wintertime. Subfreezing temperatures, snow in the forest and dry air draw the moose towards roadways, and that's when driving is dangerous.

Many drivers involved in collisions with moose claim the animal suddenly darted across the road, and they didn't have a chance to brake in time. Storaas said that's because the moose are easily stressed by the noise of traffic and headlights, making them unpredictable. They also have trouble moving on hard, icy roads and want to get across as quickly as possible.

Collisions between cars and moose are generally more serious than collisions with other animals, because the moose are so large. They're generally hit in the legs, and then land with full force in the car's passenger compartment.