Religion

Getting into an argument with someone over religion is like explaining a joke to a slow person.  They'll never get it, and when you finally give up, its lost its humor.

Leap years

I hate leap years.  It isn't that every four years (with some exceptions) we get an extra day.  What I hate is that we think we have it all figured out.  We know that a year is 375.25 days.... exactly.... right?  Wrong.  It's more along the lines of 365.242199 days per year.... But, it's even more complicated than that.

And it changes periodically, depending on a number of factors. The Earth is in orbit around the sun, but it isn't really in a vacuum.  The Earth picks up matter from space, expels matter into space, collisions from asteroids of various shapes distort our orbit, slightly.

Bad Astronomy also did a blog on something similar.  It is exceptionally difficult to determine when we determine when a year is up.  It should be based on when we return to the same place in our orbit.  Ok, when is that?  How do we determine that?  Based on the fixed stars?  But, the Sun is moving through its orbit in the galaxy, so those fixed frames of reference are themselves changing.

Why do I hate leap year?  Because we think we've got the year all figured out, and that we think it is precisely 365.25 days...

Discordianism states that all the order in the Universe is an illusion.  We wish there to be order, so we impose it on all our observations.  We create rules and structures and all of science is based upon those our observations whose underlying theorem is that there is a form or order... a set of rules which we must understand....  Maybe Chaos is just plays tricks with us...

Probably won't get this job

So, yeah, I'm been working a job on a temporary basis, with the understanding that I might eventually be taken on as full time...  I wrote about this a few days ago.  Somehow, today, I really felt like I won't get get hired on. Can't say why, just a really bad feeling that I'm not needed.  The group used to have many more people in it then there are now.  The others are on temporary assignment to other divisions, and they are all experts in lots of different stuff.  I'm an expert in nothing.  I pick things up, but no expertise....  Anyway, by April (at some point) they will make their decision, and let me know.

Evolution

Forget, for the moment, the technical issues surrounding the following exercise.  I suppose, it can be run using a shell script, perhaps, but anyway...  Let's run some computational experiments on evolution.  Consider the following.  You wish to write a series of programs that do the following things to test evolutionary processes:

• Load it's own source code into memory.
• Search on the Internet (or through a large database) to find ways to make the program faster.
• Copy the new lines of code into the source code, and write it into a different file.
• Compile the new source code.
• Run the new code.

If the new code doesn't compile, then that "species" dies out.  If it does compile and run, then the new code starts repeating the cycle above again, finding new code to implement into it's source and recompiling it's new children.

Essentially, you will create a series of programs that try to reprogram themselves.  You will, in a way, create a new "ecology" populated by running computer programs.... (you could even go so far as to say that the "programming language" is the haploid part of the the life cycle and the running program is the diploid part)

You can measure how quickly a certain lineage evolves over time, how quickly it can reproduce itself, how complex (over time) the program can become.  And you could even try other variations, by adding limited resources to be shared within a community, or other needs that must be performed prior to reproduction.  

Supposed you introduced sex.  One running program encounters another running program and loads their source code as well as its own.  You could either pick out the best parts of both and load that into the next generation, or (supposedly like modern biology does it) at random, with half from the "mother" and half from the "father".

What about cannibalism?  Can a machine write code that not only makes itself more efficient, but also delete source code from other competing programs?  Initially, I would have said"no", there wouldn't be any evolutionary advantage, but what if there were something outside of the program that might cause it to compete.... an "environment" if you will....  

I'll bet someone has already done this.... I'm too lazy to search for it, though...

New Job

I haven't posted in a long time.  I don't know why, maybe there isn't much to say.  I started a new job this month, which is exciting.  I'm working as a "consultant" but with the hope of becoming a full-time employee at the new company.  The manager says "If you work hard, we could offer you a full-time job."  I'm taking him at his word.

But, to be honest, everyone there seems very friendly, including the manager.  My cubicle overlooks a river, and I'm right underneath the approach/take off pattern for the airport, so there are always interesting things to look at.  And, of course, it's not just me staring out the window, either.  There are interesting projects to work on, and I'm learning new things all the time.  For instance, I took a course in Java 8 years ago and never used it once since.  Now, I am developing Java code, so it's nice to "re"learn new things.  And, the group I'm working in is using Agile software development, so they are training me to us their method, which is nice.  Plus, everyone in the group has a PhD, and in similar fields to what I studied, so that's cool, too.

I do what I'm asked to do, quickly, which I hope is making a good impression.  But, I also sometimes screw around.  I do, sometimes, check out some blogs that I've been following (not much, but a bit) on the work computer online.  There are some sites that are blocked, such as Facebook, but that's ok.  And, I'm not surfing porn or anything.  A lot of the blogs I follow are science-y blogs anyway, so...

One person, the next cubicle over, seems to be streaming videos on his computer.  He's in a different division from me, under the same VP.  I noticed it a few times while I was going to get hot water for tea.  I thought it was funny, but paid no attention to it, except when I get up... He got fired today, for that.  Yeah, that sucks.  I mean, I can understand why since he did seem to be always streaming things.  And you have to work while you're... you know... "working."  But, still.  Did he get a warning?  He was a "temp" like I am, so maybe they just let him go rather then discipline him.  I hope I didn't screw up my chances by surfing too much.  I really like my job....

Fall of the Soviet Union

Soviet-Afghan war, along with the rest of the Soviet Union's defense budget, pretty much destroyed the country.  Gorbachev finally pulled the USSR out of Afghanistan a couple of years before the USSR finally collapsed.  Also, Gorbachev declassified a number of documents which exposed corruption in the government. The hard liners knew that the end was near and tried in a desperate attempt, to overthrow Gorbachev.  People resisted, and the end followed quickly thereafter.

Now, we have been in Afghanistan for quite some time.  The "hard-liners" believe that we are "overspending" (though they won't necessarily say that it is from a hyper-inflated defense budget and two wars that won't end). Many of the Tea Partier's say that we are in sovereign debt beyond any hope of being able to repay.  And now the people are coming out and protesting in something like 80 cities through out the country, saying they've had enough of the way that capitalism is being administered in this country.  Think we're near the end?  How did the normal citizenry feel the day before the USSR collapsed?  Did they feel like their country would last for ever, right up until the day that it wasn't?

I wish I could do that when I am your age

Do you ever realize how "passive aggressive" phrases that end in "... when I'm your age!"  It's like, "what you just did means nothing to me, except that you did it when you're excruciatingly old."  I was watching "Oddities" on the Science Channel, and one of the hosts said something like that when an 80-something contortionist twisted herself into a pretzel.  I couldn't do it in my current age... in fact, I could never do it.