Voder-Vocoder

The media looks for heirarchy. That's why they spend so much time talking about the people on top (celebrities, politicos, etc.) and treat human intrest stories as if they were not the real news of the day. For example, every Easter, they have to mention "what the Christians are up to." Instead of any seroius discussion about what Christianity is all about, they simply mention what the pope is up to. As if (1) the protestant reformation never took place and (2) even Roman Catholics are incapable of doing anything religous without invoking the name of the pope.

(Maybe they aren't?)

Image from nytimes.com 2005-03-25 14:42 EST.

They are way too interested in what is goin on at the top, and ignore the fact that religious celebrations are really very local or even individual things.

"When does life begin?"
"When does life end?"
You guys are asking the wrong questions. Bacteria are alive.
My (hypothetical) cancerous tumor is alive. Fuck life.

I'm sick. Stupid cold. All because the latch on my window broke and the spring-loaded POS opens on its own, letting evil cold air into the room as I sleep.

"Agashiel," Pat [Sajak] began and did his best to sound friendly and at ease. "I am told you are the psycho-physical manifestation of human nightmares. You must not get a lot of sleep."

The grotesque flesh-marionettes of the studio audience erupted with a shrill and uneven staccato of laughter.

"You make your residence in the ephemeral substance of slumbering fear and as long as at least one human is paralyzed with terror you will always have a home to return to."

A susurration of confluent rivers of paranoia, horror, and despair emerged from Agashiel's rictus mask and formed a prickling approximation of English.

"The sweet meat dreams of me." Agashiel intoned. "Dreams of me."

He reached out as though to caress Pat Sajak's face but the host was wise enough to pull away. The audience laughed even more enthusiastically than before.

(source)

“Gamblers go to Los Vegas. Golfers go to Myrtle Beach. Alcoholic Crackheads come to Madison.” ---WPR this morning.

google: Pat+Boone+is+now+an+instrument+of+the+Devil

From an interview with Gödel's biographer, Rebecca Goldstein. (via MeFi)

He had meant his incompleteness theorems to prove the philosophical position to which he was, heart and soul, committed: mathematical Platonism, which is, in short, the belief that there is a human-independent mathematical reality that grounds our mathematical truths; mathematicians are in the business of discovering, rather than inventing, mathematics. His incompleteness theorems concerned the incompleteness of our man-made formal systems, not of mathematical truth, or our knowledge of it. He believed that mathematical reality and our knowledge of mathematical reality exceed the formal rules of formal systems. So unlike the view that says there is no truth apart from the truths we create for ourselves, so that the entire concept of truth disintegrates into a plurality of points of view, Gödel believed that truth - most paradigmatically, mathematical truth - subsists independently of any human point of view. If ever there was a man committed to the objectivity of truth, and to objective standards of rationality, it was Gödel. And so the usurpation of his theorems by postmodernists is ironic. Jean Cocteau wrote in 1926 that "The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood." For a logician, especially one with Gödel's delicate psychology, the tragedy is perhaps even greater.

I've been thinking about cheap tech recently. Why? I'm a geek with little disposable income.

What is cheap tech? I define it as technology that does what you need, at minimal cost. A lot of people drool over the newest, most expensive tech. And a lot of people get excited about historically interesting tech (punch card readers and Apple ][s), but I like cheap tech.

Cheap tech should

• be inexpensive or free. If you can find old hardware on ebay, it will be cheap. Software should be free (FOSS).
• satisfy some minimal set of usefulness.
• be replaceable. If it breaks, buy another component.
• consist of upgradable, reusable components.

For example, I am putting together a cheap travel laptop. I have a P200 laptop my dad gave me a while ago. That, combined with the latest linux distribution and some more modern pcmcia cards, will allow it to satisfy the useful category.

My criteria: I need a laptop for traveling that can connect to the internet in three different ways: ethernet, modem, wireless. Three pcmcia cards should do the trick. It needs a CDROM for installing software. It needs basic software (bash, ssh), a text editor and typeseting system, a gui browser (firefox preferably, but dillo is acceptable). Optional software include an office suite, instant messaging, mp3 player, video player, games, and an image editor. Optional hardware include a large hdd and a mouse.

Right now, I am bidding on ebay to get the last major component, a wireless card. Next time I have some cash, I'll drop $50 on a newer laptop.

I'm at work (my college math tutoring job) alone, the friday before spring break. Noone has come in. Noone is going to come in. I'm just here to collect a paycheck.

I'M BORED!

UPDATE: someone jsut came in! We solved 2^(x-1)=3^(1-3x).

Somewhere in here is a proof of the law of sines.

Samophange from here

“You can't spell manslaughter without laughter.”