Lispmeister.com : 2006 02

2006/02/25

The Root Of All Evil

The TV production hosted by Richard Dawkins titled The Root of all Evil is a "one man against human stupidity" kind of show. Hearing people say the things they say in conversation with Dawkins is scary and hilarious at the same time. It's like the last 350 years of scientific progress never happened. I'm paraphrasing W.S. Burroughs here: "Religion is a virus of the mind". Looks like human civilization is in dire need of some heavy duty anti-viral software.

Torrent links to the show:

(via BoingBoing)

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</strong> - posted by <a href="http://www.romania.org/community/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2741">Raaj</a> <span class="meta">- 11/11/2007 08:04:11</span><br /> penis enlargement pill http://www.romania.org/community/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2741 </div> </div> <div class="entry"></div> <p class="date">2006/02/17</p> <div class="entry"> <h3 class="title"><a id="slime-robot">Robot moved by a slime mould's fears</a></h3> <div class="story"> <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8718" title="NewScientist article"><img width="154" height="132" src="http://lispmeister.com/images/slime-robot.jpg" alt="Slime Robot" class="right" /></a> The new robotics project of my friend <a href="http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~kpz/" title="Homepage of Klaus-Peter Zauner">Klaus-Peter Zauner</a> was mentioned in recent a <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8718" title="Robot moved by a slime mould's fears">NewScientist article</a>. <blockquote> <p> A bright yellow slime mould that can grow to several metres in diameter has been put in charge of a scrabbling, six-legged robot. </p> <p> The Physarum polycephalum slime, which naturally shies away from light, controls the robot's movement so that it too keeps out of light and seeks out dark places in which to hide itself. </p> <p> Klaus-Peter Zauner at the University of Southampton, UK, who developed the slime-controlled bot with colleagues from Kobe University in south-central Japan, says the idea is to find simpler ways to control a robot’s behaviour. </p> <p> "The computers we have today are very good for what we built them for," he told New Scientist. "But, in a complex or paradoxical environment, things tend not to work out." </p> </blockquote> </div> <p class="postinfo"> <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/robots" title="category: /robots">/robots</a> | <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/robots/slime-robot.html" title="permanent link: slime-robot">permanent link</a> (<a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/robots/slime-robot.html#writeback" title="writeback: slime-robot">0 writeback</a>) </p>  </div> <div class="entryend"></div> <div class="entry"></div> <p class="date">2006/02/09</p> <div class="entry"> <h3 class="title"><a id="zookos-triangle">Zooko's Triangle: An Introduction to Petname Systems</a></h3> <div class="story"> <img width="486" height="375" src="http://lispmeister.com/images/zookos-triangle.jpg" alt="Zooko's Triangle" /> <p> <a href="http://www.skyhunter.com/" title="Marc Stiegler's homepage">Marc Stiegler</a>, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067157809X/bookfixcom-20" title="Eearthweb by Marc Stiegler">Earthweb</a>, just published <a href="http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/petnames/IntroPetNames.html" title="An Introduction to Petname Systems">An Introduction to Petname Systems</a> which discusses Zooko's Triangle: <blockquote> Zooko's Triangle [Zooko] argues that names cannot be global, secure, and memorable, all at the same time. Domain names are an example: they are global, and memorable, but as the rapid rise of phishing demonstrates, they are not secure. Though no single name can have all three properties, the petname system does indeed embody all three properties. Informal experiments with petname-like systems suggest that petnames can be both intuitive and effective. Experimental implementations already exist for simple extensions to existing browsers that could alleviate (possibly dramatically) the problems with phishing. As phishers gain sophistication, it seems compelling to experiment with petname systems as part of the solution. </blockquote> </p> <p> I first met <a href="http://zooko.com/zooko_introduction.html" title="Zooko's Homepage">Zooko</a> a long time ago. I was working on a demo project for Deutsche Bank using Digicash's ecash system. The setting was one of these very German, very stiff business meetings, where you didn't expect anything interesting to happen. He was clearly uncomfortable wearing a suit and I was wearing jeans and a faded blue D.E.A. jacket. Ignoring the bankers we had some meaty geek talk about cryptography and crypto anarchy. At that time he had just joined Digicash and was enjoying his time in Amsterdam. I visited him there once hoping to walk into the company founder David Chaum, who holds a bundle of patents on cryptographically secure and anonymous cash systems. Unfortunately Chaum was out of town. Zooko later worked for <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/mojonation" title="Mojo Nation on SourceForge">MojoNation</a> and after they shut down, he initiated the <a href="http://mnetproject.org/" title="Mnet project">Mnet</a> project. </p> <p> Further reading: <ul> <li>Zooko's original paper: <a href="http://zooko.com/distnames.html" title="Names: Decentralized, Secure, Human-Meaningful: Choose Two">Names: Decentralized, Secure, Human-Meaningful: Choose Two</a></li> <li>Zooko on <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/citations/zooko.html" title="Death to Multithreading: E">multithreading and E</a></li> <li>The <a href="http://www.erights.org/" title="The E programming language">E</a> programming language</li> <li><a href="http://www.capros.org/" title="CapROS: The Capability-based Reliable Operating System">CapROS</a>: The Capability-based Reliable Operating System</li> </ul> </p> </div> <p class="postinfo"> <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/citations" title="category: /citations">/citations</a> | <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/citations/zookos-triangle.html" title="permanent link: zookos-triangle">permanent link</a> (<a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/citations/zookos-triangle.html#writeback" title="writeback: zookos-triangle">0 writeback</a>) </p>  </div> <div class="entryend"></div> <div class="entry"></div> <div class="entry"> <h3 class="title"><a id="eclm2006">European Common Lisp Meeting 2006</a></h3> <div class="story"> <a href="http://weitz.de/eclm2006/" title="European Common Lisp Meeting 2006"><img width="561" height="374" src="http://lispmeister.com/images/eclm2006.jpg" alt="European Common Lisp Meeting 2006" /></a> <p> Arthur Lemmens just informed me, that the registration for the <a href="http://weitz.de/eclm2006/" title="European Common Lisp Meeting 2006">European Common Lisp Meeting 2006</a> in Hamburg is now open. I'll attend and bring along some T-shirts and books. </p> <p> If you want to meet Lisp aficionados, talk to fellow hackers and be part of an exciting community of software wizardry, this is your opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the Lisp renaissance. </p> <p> Big applause to Arthur Lemmens and Edi Weitz for again organizing this event! </p> </div> <p class="postinfo"> <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/lisp-news" title="category: /lisp-news">/lisp-news</a> | <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/lisp-news/eclm2006.html" title="permanent link: eclm2006">permanent link</a> (<a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/lisp-news/eclm2006.html#writeback" title="writeback: eclm2006">0 writeback</a>) </p>  </div> <div class="entryend"></div> <div class="entry"></div> <p class="date">2006/02/04</p> <div class="entry"> <h3 class="title"><a id="debugging-legacy-code">Debugging Legacy Code</a></h3> <div class="story"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590592344/bookfixcom-20" title="Software Exorcism by Reverend Bill Blunden"><img width="151" height="238" src="http://lispmeister.com/images/software-exorcism.jpg" alt="Software Exorcism" class="right"/></a> <p> So, a very good friend of mine finally joined a consulting company. Seems like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_generation" title="code generation">code generation</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-driven_architecture" title="Model-driven architecture">MDA</a> know-how, which we developed during our last project together, is in demand after all. </p> <p> In his first project though, he'll have to debug some legacy code. The system seems to break down under load. It's a ticketing system and the <a href="http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/" title="FIFA World Cup">world cup</a> will be hosted in Germany this year... You get the idea. </p> <p> We discussed ways to tackle this project and in the end he borrowed four books from my library: <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590592344/bookfixcom-20" title="Software Exorcism by Reverend Bill Blunden">Software Exorcism</a> by Reverend Bill Blunden</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576109178/bookfixcom-20" title="The Science of Debugging by Matthew A. Telles and Yuan Hsieh">The Science of Debugging</a> by Matthew A. Telles and Yuan Hsieh</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0442245920/bookfixcom-20" title="Software Testing Techniques by Boris Beizer">Software Testing Techniques</a> by Boris Beizer (out of print)</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0442213069/bookfixcom-20" title="Software System Testing and Quality Assurance by Boris Beizer">Software System Testing and Quality Assurance</a> by Boris Beizer (out of print)</li> </ul> He later found out, that the project is not about debugging at all. He's not supposed to fix anything. He's supposed to recommend <i>strategy changes</i> to deal with the problem. Welcome to the SNAFU of big companies. </p> </div> <p class="postinfo"> <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/books" title="category: /books">/books</a> | <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/books/debugging-legacy-code.html" title="permanent link: debugging-legacy-code">permanent link</a> (<a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/books/debugging-legacy-code.html#writeback" title="writeback: debugging-legacy-code">0 writeback</a>) </p>  </div> <div class="entryend"></div> <div class="entry"></div> </div> <p id="footer"> <a href="http://lispmeister.com/blog/2006/02/index.html?page=2">Next »</a> <script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.gvisit.com/record.php?sid=147d645c978ab2bfc9bce312b99418bb" type="text/javascript"></script> </p> </body> </html>

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