‘commentaries’ Category
Mandelbrot sets. Up close and 3D
Recursive algorithms are pretty to look at alone based on their simplicity and power. Fractals drive this home on a visual level, though historically they’ve focused more on how to fit every color of the rainbow and less on the intricate forms within. All this has changed thanks to this stunning site which reveals incredibly high [...]
British PM’s Apology Regarding Alan Turing
The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has released a statement apologizing for the “appalling” treatment of Alan Turing. Turing made many important contributions as a mathematician, including laying some of the major foundations of the field of computer science. Brown’s statement shortchanges these accomplishments by focusing only on Turing’s role in breaking German cyphers during [...]
Which one of these majors is not like the others?
The Star Tribune interviewed a bunch of Gustie seniors. Who was the only one with a job lined up? Computer Science major Tom Wick. Of course, you have to take anecdotal evidence with a grain of salt. But broader evidence suggests some points consonant with Tom’s experience. Computer science majors are subject [...]
Jefferson and the Internet
I just finished reading a delightful, trim, recently published book, In Search of Jefferson’s Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace, by David G. Post. This book uses Thomas Jefferson as a guide for thinking about the Internet: both what it is like and how it ought to be governed. The resulting mix of Jeffersoniana [...]
The time for mere “deliberate speed” has run out
Today’s news concerning web security made me think about a 1964 school desegregation decision from the Supreme Court of the United States; the title of this blog post is taken from Justice Black’s opinion. But before I can explain the connection, I need to provide some security background.
Moebius Transformations, Visualized in 3d
This short animation on youtube has a very interesting visualization of Moebius transformations which shows how they can be directly projection mapped to emanate from a 3d sphere. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX3VmDgiFnY&NR=1
The Internet on Stage
This summer, I had the pleasure of seeing a remarkable dramatization of the Internet, including both its technical and social dimensions, focusing on the difficult problem of cyber-bullying. While I can’t give my professional endorsement to every last detail of the show, I will say that I found it be both very enjoyable and [...]
Sexual Promiscuity and Math (NY Times)
I had originally been planning to blog about the ownership of copyrights for the Unix operating system. But maybe no one else cares about that. Everyone’s minds are on more important topics, like sex. So imagine my pleasure in seeing that sex and math have had a rare convergence in the pages [...]
XKCD – a Math Comic/Blog for those not already in the know
While it’s anything but consistent (randomness abounds from comic to comic) you may want to check out XKCD – a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language by Randall Munroe, a CNU Physics Graduate who has been through the trenches of sorting algorithms, number theory, and more. He varies from very funny to [...]
GAC Alum on Web2.0’s role in shaping Politics
Jon-David Schlough (GAC ‘00) is one of the many GAC alums who I know that, while not a CS major, has gone on to work in the internet communications industry here in the Twin Cities. His latest work for the Al Franken campaign’s online presence is at last connecting his knowledge of web technologies [...]