Our second visit to the new Andover cinema last night to see "Wanted", a Matrix-derivative waste of time which had us leaving after an hour. The New York Times Review here exactly explains our early exit. What a waste of the actors' time as well.
Resolution to self. We'll only go to intelligent movies in future.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
A wedding picture
From the archives, that February day back in 1978 when Clare and myself got married. The happy couple pictured below at the reception.
I'm the one with the long hair and beard, apparently working a laptop. Clare looks on, wondering if it's running Windows 78.
Nope, they weren't invented back then (it's a box containing wedding presents).
On Missing a Party
So she called a few months back and I said ‘Sure, if I’m around’. And today was the day, and I thought do I really want to go into a house full of the kids she teaches, and their parents and grandparents, and maybe I’ll have five minutes chat with her, but she is the hostess, so what will I do then?
And everyone will be asked to do their little turns on the piano and she’ll ask me, and I haven’t touched the wretched thing for six months and have forgotten everything, so then there’ll be an argument. And I reckon I’ll have to stay at least two hours and I have absolutely no desire to make small talk with these strangers.
And it’s not as if I have any plans to start the lessons again, I mean I have been incredibly busy the last six months and I expect that to continue, and even the small amount of non-working time I have is totally tied up with getting my science course work done and that’s going to continue for ages.
So really this event is more for her continuing pupils and their families and surely she would understand that, so I really have no grounds for feeling guilty, do I?
And everyone will be asked to do their little turns on the piano and she’ll ask me, and I haven’t touched the wretched thing for six months and have forgotten everything, so then there’ll be an argument. And I reckon I’ll have to stay at least two hours and I have absolutely no desire to make small talk with these strangers.
And it’s not as if I have any plans to start the lessons again, I mean I have been incredibly busy the last six months and I expect that to continue, and even the small amount of non-working time I have is totally tied up with getting my science course work done and that’s going to continue for ages.
So really this event is more for her continuing pupils and their families and surely she would understand that, so I really have no grounds for feeling guilty, do I?
Friday, June 27, 2008
Greg Egan's 'Incandescence'
Just read Greg Egan's new book "Incandescence". Sadly, a disappointment which I share with the reviewer here.
A summary of the plot from Amazon.
"A million years from now, the galaxy is divided between the vast, cooperative meta-civilisation known as the Amalgam, and the silent occupiers of the galactic core known as the Aloof. The Aloof have long rejected all attempts by the Amalgam to enter their territory, but have occasionally permitted travellers to take a perilous ride as unencrypted data in their communications network, providing a short-cut across the galaxy's central bulge.
When Rakesh encounters a traveller, Lahl, who claims she was woken by the Aloof on such a journey and shown a meteor full of traces of DNA, he accepts her challenge to try to find the uncharted world deep in the Aloof's territory from which the meteor originated.
Roi and Zak live inside the Splinter, a world of rock that swims in a sea of light they call the Incandescence. Living on the margins of a rigidly organised society, they seek to decipher the subtle clues that might reveal the true nature of the Splinter.
In fact, the Splinter is orbiting a black hole, which is about to capture a neighbouring star, wreaking havoc. As the signs of danger grow, Roi, Zak, and a growing band of recruits struggle to understand and take control of their fate.
Meanwhile, Rakesh is gradually uncovering their remote history, and his search for the lost DNA world ultimately leads him to a civilisation trapped in cultural stagnation, and startling revelations about the true nature and motives of the Aloof. "
Most of the book is a Greg Egan tutorial on general relativity as applied to orbits close to a black hole. However, he explains things more clearly on his website here.
As a story with plot and characters, I have to say that it's essentially without interest. The writing is not so bad that it's unreadable - I kept chugging on until the end. Rather, it's thin gruel indeed and one reaches the end with a sense of suffering finally over, rather than having had an experience to be savoured.
Egan does better with human protagonists in near future stuff like Quarantine and Permutation City IMHO. Having said that, his recent book of short stories, Dark Integers (which I also read recently) is far better than Incandescence. Inventive, engaging, more plot-driven with recognisable - if not deeply-drawn - characters.
A summary of the plot from Amazon.
"A million years from now, the galaxy is divided between the vast, cooperative meta-civilisation known as the Amalgam, and the silent occupiers of the galactic core known as the Aloof. The Aloof have long rejected all attempts by the Amalgam to enter their territory, but have occasionally permitted travellers to take a perilous ride as unencrypted data in their communications network, providing a short-cut across the galaxy's central bulge.
When Rakesh encounters a traveller, Lahl, who claims she was woken by the Aloof on such a journey and shown a meteor full of traces of DNA, he accepts her challenge to try to find the uncharted world deep in the Aloof's territory from which the meteor originated.
Roi and Zak live inside the Splinter, a world of rock that swims in a sea of light they call the Incandescence. Living on the margins of a rigidly organised society, they seek to decipher the subtle clues that might reveal the true nature of the Splinter.
In fact, the Splinter is orbiting a black hole, which is about to capture a neighbouring star, wreaking havoc. As the signs of danger grow, Roi, Zak, and a growing band of recruits struggle to understand and take control of their fate.
Meanwhile, Rakesh is gradually uncovering their remote history, and his search for the lost DNA world ultimately leads him to a civilisation trapped in cultural stagnation, and startling revelations about the true nature and motives of the Aloof. "
Most of the book is a Greg Egan tutorial on general relativity as applied to orbits close to a black hole. However, he explains things more clearly on his website here.
As a story with plot and characters, I have to say that it's essentially without interest. The writing is not so bad that it's unreadable - I kept chugging on until the end. Rather, it's thin gruel indeed and one reaches the end with a sense of suffering finally over, rather than having had an experience to be savoured.
Egan does better with human protagonists in near future stuff like Quarantine and Permutation City IMHO. Having said that, his recent book of short stories, Dark Integers (which I also read recently) is far better than Incandescence. Inventive, engaging, more plot-driven with recognisable - if not deeply-drawn - characters.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
What I did today
As you may have gathered, the Dubai work has hit a pause and while waiting for events, I have been catching up with other stuff.
1. I spent the morning working through superconductivity in my OU course SMT359 Electromagnetism (penultimate chapter of book 2). The final chapter covers the treatment of Maxwell's equations in special relativity, then I get to do the third course assignment (cut-off date July 25th).
2. Having re-installed Windows XP on my old Toshiba laptop (which I have now 'given' to Clare), I spent time this afternoon helping to move the OS from its 2003 reincarnation to current. This involved repeated invocations of Microsoft Update + restarts via XP Service Packs 2 and 3.
3. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon getting the Interweave Consulting books up to date. In particular breaking my expenses out from multiple invoices into the categories required by the Inland Revenue.
4. I read the latest Scientific American, which has a really interesting article called "Using Causality to Solve the Puzzle of Quantum Spacetime". This describes causal dynamical triangulation - Wikipedia summary here. I guess you could probably run their spacetime simulations on your laptop, assuming it was faster than Clare's Toshiba.
5. Tomorrow it's back to superconductivity again.
1. I spent the morning working through superconductivity in my OU course SMT359 Electromagnetism (penultimate chapter of book 2). The final chapter covers the treatment of Maxwell's equations in special relativity, then I get to do the third course assignment (cut-off date July 25th).
2. Having re-installed Windows XP on my old Toshiba laptop (which I have now 'given' to Clare), I spent time this afternoon helping to move the OS from its 2003 reincarnation to current. This involved repeated invocations of Microsoft Update + restarts via XP Service Packs 2 and 3.
3. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon getting the Interweave Consulting books up to date. In particular breaking my expenses out from multiple invoices into the categories required by the Inland Revenue.
4. I read the latest Scientific American, which has a really interesting article called "Using Causality to Solve the Puzzle of Quantum Spacetime". This describes causal dynamical triangulation - Wikipedia summary here. I guess you could probably run their spacetime simulations on your laptop, assuming it was faster than Clare's Toshiba.
5. Tomorrow it's back to superconductivity again.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Dream Cat (Yume Neko )
Note to Hasbro (re: Fur Real Cat )
Hi Guys,
Nice product, Sega call it the Dream Cat (Yume Neko). We thought you might like some user feedback.
Snow White, as my wife has taken to calling her, is pretty realistic.
1. Make kitty more responsive. I know that returning the adoring human’s gaze is difficult (mini-cameras and expensive image processing). I think stereo-microphones would work just as well, tracking the direction of people’s voices and inclining kitty's head just so.
2. Limited mobility ... I know, expensive extra motors and more smart processing. Still, I have a vision of a docking station, where a rechargeable kitty could plug-in. It also contains a low-powered radio beacon, which Kitty locks onto so as to avoid straying too far. Trust me, the punters would love it.
3. Enough with the three ‘C’ batteries. Make kitty rechargeable.
All that other cute stuff – webcams, WiFi, intruder detection and prevention (love those titanium claws!). It’s all good stuff, but really, it can come later.
Hi Guys,
Nice product, Sega call it the Dream Cat (Yume Neko). We thought you might like some user feedback.
Snow White, as my wife has taken to calling her, is pretty realistic.
Snow White
She spooks the next door cat through the window and appears responsive to attention (that would be the light sensor, I guess). So here are my top three suggestions for the product R&D team.1. Make kitty more responsive. I know that returning the adoring human’s gaze is difficult (mini-cameras and expensive image processing). I think stereo-microphones would work just as well, tracking the direction of people’s voices and inclining kitty's head just so.
2. Limited mobility ... I know, expensive extra motors and more smart processing. Still, I have a vision of a docking station, where a rechargeable kitty could plug-in. It also contains a low-powered radio beacon, which Kitty locks onto so as to avoid straying too far. Trust me, the punters would love it.
3. Enough with the three ‘C’ batteries. Make kitty rechargeable.
All that other cute stuff – webcams, WiFi, intruder detection and prevention (love those titanium claws!). It’s all good stuff, but really, it can come later.
Monday, June 23, 2008
The Happening
We visited the new cinema in Andover this evening (Reel Cinema it's called, part of a chain - a ghastly pun you can't walk away from). It's a modern building over the new supermarket, but as we parked near the entrance, we noticed that someone had broken two of the new trees planted at the edge of the car park. Nice one, guys!
What can I say about The Happening by the director of The Sixth Sense M. Night Shyamalan? The plants consider humankind to be an enemy of the planet, (who can blame them after their Andover experience?) and secrete toxins which drive folks to suicide. Our heroes head for the hills. Like a red algae bloom (but the metaphor is wrong), after a while the effect terminates (for now).
So there is no plot, no resolution and we don't care much about the characters. The New York Times is marginally kinder to the film in their review here.
I thought the hero physics teacher's wife 'Alma' (Zooey Deschanel) was rather cute, with her enormous eyes. Her truculence was less convincing.
While I was yawning, Clare told me afterwards she had quite enjoyed the film. Turns out she had rather ignored the multiple suicides and had interpreted the film instead as some kind of middle-american travelogue. Well, the scenery was rather nice.
What can I say about The Happening by the director of The Sixth Sense M. Night Shyamalan? The plants consider humankind to be an enemy of the planet, (who can blame them after their Andover experience?) and secrete toxins which drive folks to suicide. Our heroes head for the hills. Like a red algae bloom (but the metaphor is wrong), after a while the effect terminates (for now).
So there is no plot, no resolution and we don't care much about the characters. The New York Times is marginally kinder to the film in their review here.
I thought the hero physics teacher's wife 'Alma' (Zooey Deschanel) was rather cute, with her enormous eyes. Her truculence was less convincing.
While I was yawning, Clare told me afterwards she had quite enjoyed the film. Turns out she had rather ignored the multiple suicides and had interpreted the film instead as some kind of middle-american travelogue. Well, the scenery was rather nice.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Lavinia
Just read Ursula LeGuin's recent novel, Lavinia (Amazon reviews here).
The novel extends The Aeneid, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC. Virgil was writing a founding myth of Rome, where the Trojan hero Aeneas, after many adventures in Cathage, Sicily and the underworld, arrives in Latium, near the eventual site of Rome. There he engages in warfare with the indigent clans and victorious, marries the local princess Lavinia to found the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
LeGuin's Aeneas is a Taoist ideal, the artisan attuned to the Way in its Augustan form as pietas, honour and duty. He contends with those overmastered by passions: King Turnus, who he kills (murders?) at the end of the Aeneid, and his own flawed son, Ascanius. Lavinia, a cipher in Virgil's poem, becomes a person in LeGuin's hands, but also an archetype: the owl of Minerva.
The reviews on the Amazon website properly convey what a fine piece of writing this is. It works as history, a vivid picture of bronze-age life, and as a retelling of the last six books of the Aeneid. Lavinia lives her life, from small girl to her eventual destiny, in the immanent presence of magic, myth and fate. LeGuin ensures that the reader does too.
+++
Note: it reminded me a little of "The Way of Wyrd" by Professor Brian Bates, which recreates the celtic 'life in magic' in dark ages Britain
The novel extends The Aeneid, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC. Virgil was writing a founding myth of Rome, where the Trojan hero Aeneas, after many adventures in Cathage, Sicily and the underworld, arrives in Latium, near the eventual site of Rome. There he engages in warfare with the indigent clans and victorious, marries the local princess Lavinia to found the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
LeGuin's Aeneas is a Taoist ideal, the artisan attuned to the Way in its Augustan form as pietas, honour and duty. He contends with those overmastered by passions: King Turnus, who he kills (murders?) at the end of the Aeneid, and his own flawed son, Ascanius. Lavinia, a cipher in Virgil's poem, becomes a person in LeGuin's hands, but also an archetype: the owl of Minerva.
The reviews on the Amazon website properly convey what a fine piece of writing this is. It works as history, a vivid picture of bronze-age life, and as a retelling of the last six books of the Aeneid. Lavinia lives her life, from small girl to her eventual destiny, in the immanent presence of magic, myth and fate. LeGuin ensures that the reader does too.
+++
Note: it reminded me a little of "The Way of Wyrd" by Professor Brian Bates, which recreates the celtic 'life in magic' in dark ages Britain
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Cool
Having been busy/away for the last three weeks, as usual I am way behind with my physics course. With summer school at Sussex University coming up at the end of July, I have an additional set of questions to answer (a CMA, in the jargon) by July 3rd.
Summer school is experimental physics, so we will be measuring the Hall effect at different temperatures, looking at superconductivity, measuring the doppler efffect with microwaves and running a bunch of computer-based field simulations.
Since this is based on physical reality, not theory, there is going to be a lot of messing around with liquid nitrogen, conveyor belts (for the doppler reflector) and high voltages.
Summer school is experimental physics, so we will be measuring the Hall effect at different temperatures, looking at superconductivity, measuring the doppler efffect with microwaves and running a bunch of computer-based field simulations.
Since this is based on physical reality, not theory, there is going to be a lot of messing around with liquid nitrogen, conveyor belts (for the doppler reflector) and high voltages.
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