Category Archives: technology

Marine Maintenance

Posted on 2013-02-03 by TJ

The Gulf 32 has Universal 32 HP diesel, model 40 (which is also model 5432). It is mounted immediately below the aft companionway and accessible by raising the floor-boards, if by “accessible” one means “can been seen.” There are two … Continue reading →

Posted in life, sailing, technology | Leave a comment

“As I see, I will, and as I will, I do”

Posted on 2012-10-20 by TJ

I’ve been on the West Coast for almost two months now, and my primary plan has come together nicely: I love it when a plan comes together. My plan was to buy a Gulf 32 with mostly original gear for … Continue reading →

Posted in life, sailing, technology | 4 Comments

Some notes on controller software

Posted on 2012-10-17 by TJ

Thesis: the PID controller is a hack. Argument: PID controllers are the bread-and-butter of robotics, and they are a reasonable starting point for any control problem. They work reasonably well for a wide range of problems, they are simple to … Continue reading →

Posted in mechanics, software, technology | Leave a comment

Calibre and E-books on Slackware

Posted on 2012-09-11 by TJ

Just in case anyone is thinking of running Kindle under WINE on Linux: it kind of works, so long as you want to just download books. It’s pretty crashy otherwise. And Calibre under WINE isn’t much for stability either, and … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, life, marketing, technology | Leave a comment

Predictions

Posted on 2012-07-27 by TJ

In 1987 a group of science fiction writers and similar people were asked to predict what the future might look like in 25 years time… which is to say, in 2012 A quarter-century is in some ways not a very … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, history, life, prediction, probability, science, technology | Leave a comment

Some Notes on the Higgs

Posted on 2012-07-04 by TJ

It looks very likely that the Higgs boson has been observed at CERN. There’s a lot of careful, discriminating, detailed and precise analysis to be done yet, but the data so far are consistent with a Standard Model Higgs, which … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, evolution, god, history, physics, politics, quantum, religion, technology | Leave a comment

Quantum One-Time Pad

Posted on 2012-06-16 by TJ

The encryption scheme I wrote about yesterday is probably best described as a “quantum one-time pad”, although unfortunately that’s a term already taken by Bennett’s quantum key exchange protocol. But given that Alice randomly chooses the linear basis for each … Continue reading →

Posted in physics, probability, quantum, science, technology, thermodynamics | Leave a comment

Semi-classical Encryption

Posted on 2012-06-15 by TJ

There’s been a bit in the news lately about Kish’s classical encryption scheme, which is really quite clever. The idea is that in any circuit with resistance there is thermal noise–called Johnson noise–that depends on the total resistance of the … Continue reading →

Posted in physics, probability, quantum, science, technology, thermodynamics | 1 Comment

Silver Bullets

Posted on 2012-05-02 by TJ

“The Mythical Man Month” was published in the mid-70′s and most of it still rings true today: adding people to a late project makes it later, and there is no silver bullet. It probably says something about software developers that … Continue reading →

Posted in language, prediction, psychology, software, technology | Leave a comment

The Most Important Discovery of My Life

Posted on 2012-05-01 by TJ

I have found the key to one of life’s great mysteries, and in doing so settled an argument that has plagued and divided people since nigh-on the beginning of the Epoch. It is a burning, eternal question, the tinder that … Continue reading →

Posted in poetry, politics, software, technology, writing | 1 Comment