Misc

Smoothness
This post accompanies a pair of talks given at CMU in November 2018. Coming soon: my notes from the talk, and possibly a screencast. Links Wikipedia article about differential structures, with a table of counts of exotic spheres.
Nov 5, 2018 1 min read Misc
Lossless Lord of the Rings Blu-ray rip on iPad 3
I have seen what 1080p from a Blu-ray looks like on iPad 3, and it is something to behold. The detail and the colors are just beautiful. Over the last few days I’ve worked through the technical issues of ripping one of my Blu-ray discs and converting it losslessly to a format the iPad can play.
Mar 24, 2012 1 min read Misc
Lord of the Rings project to become a web site
As I have written previously, I created an annotated list of excerpts from The Lord of the Rings to encapsulate the differences in the plot (and theme) from the Peter Jackson films.
Jun 15, 2011 2 min read Misc
Mathematics with MathJax
This is a post to test the functionality of MathJax. Just put a simple script tag in your header, pointing to a global copy of mathjax.js distributed via Amazon’s CloudFront content distribution network.
Jun 14, 2011 1 min read Misc
Digital conservation
If I’m fixing a typo where I typed “loose” instead of “lose”, then is it less wasteful if I click inside and delete one of the “o"s, versus double-clicking the whole word and typing four brand new letters?
Sep 30, 2010 1 min read Misc
The Ur-Quan Masters
I learned something new this weekend. First, I learned that one of my favorite childhood games, Archon, has some spiritual successors. The game designer Paul Reiche III, who designed Archon, went on to design other games from his studio Toys for Bob.
Sep 26, 2010 2 min read Misc
Star Wars for Toddlers is a go
I finished editing Star Wars, and my 3-year-old loves it, and I feel guilt-free about showing it to her. There were some wrinkles during the process, so the current version is actually the third one I made (I’m REAL familiar with the movie now, at least around the problematic scenes).
Sep 26, 2010 2 min read Misc
Star Wars for toddlers
My daughter is 3, and her best friend is also 3. He has been shown the entire Star Wars trilogy already, and is in love with Darth Vader. So my daughter hears about it a lot, and is excited to see it too.
Sep 11, 2010 1 min read Misc
Let's hurry along the iPad gaming revolution
I am so excited at the possibilities the iPad holds for gaming, especially strategy gaming. Others have voiced enthusiasm, but I think there’s another level or two of excitement that folks are missing.
Jul 10, 2010 5 min read Misc
Tolkien project complete
I finished my project to annotate the differences between the book and movie version of LOTR. So I updated my earlier post to point to the finished product.
Jul 10, 2010 1 min read Misc
OK
I’ve read a few theories about the origin of our expression “OK.” But I haven’t come across this one that occurred to me the other day. When you hold your hand in that gesture that means “OK”, you make a circle with your thumb and index finger.
Mar 30, 2010 1 min read Misc
Distance learning for the over-educated
I’m definitely a “lifelong learner” type, always craving new courses, books, or ideas. I even love reading long computer game manuals for complicated games like Europa Universalis 3. It’s pretty easy to learn the beginning of a new field, because there are usually some audiobooks, Teaching Company courses, or online materials to introduce you to the main concepts.
Mar 24, 2010 4 min read Misc
Giving digital items is hard
Here’s a list of a few things I like: books, audiobooks, music, movies, video games, iPhone apps. I consume these items on a variety of devices: Kindle, iPhone, PC, Mac, Xbox, PS3, Wii.
Dec 8, 2009 2 min read Misc
Mac Moments: Not using paths
On my Mac, I had a movie in my Movies folder called “Sesame Street Season 1 part 1.m4v”. I dragged it to iTunes so I could play it there (for my daughter), and all was well.
Jul 27, 2009 2 min read Misc
Lord of the Rings in 100 48 pages
I am a huge fan of Peter Jackson’s movie versions of The Lord of the Rings novels. A HUGE fan. But I am also a fan of the books, which I have read several times, and which I have also done supplementary reading on.
Jul 19, 2009 2 min read Misc
My interpretation of 42% pro-choice
I’m going way out on a limb here, so bear with me. 42% of Americans are pro-choice, according to a new Gallup poll, and 51% are pro-life. My response to this is: since so many Americans disagree with the pro-life stance, then we should stick with the neutral road, which is the policy to keep abortions legal.
May 18, 2009 2 min read Misc
Why is science important?
I was linked to this video today and really enjoyed it. I have never heard of Alom Shaha, but I hope to see more from him in the future. Why is Science Important?
Mar 13, 2009 1 min read Misc
Nudge
I’m reading an interesting book about economics, public policy, and psychology. It’s called Nudge. They make many interesting points that were completely new to me about the way people do not behave in the rational manner modeled by the previous generation of economists.
Feb 24, 2009 1 min read Misc
Vista = Ick
I’m so tired of living with Windows Vista. Especially when it comes to USB. Whenever I plug in a USB device that I’ve used a million times before, but I plug it into a different USB port, Vista goes into overdrive.
Jan 12, 2009 1 min read Misc
Freshness
I love the feeling I get after I tweak what songs are on my iPhone. I added a composer (Mahler) and a Teaching Company course (about Mahler) because I finished listening to another course (about US relations with the Middle East).
Oct 8, 2008 1 min read Misc