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Aug 16 2006
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Shannon vs Boltzmann

Posted by | science | No Comments

Nice explanation of diff between Shannon and Boltzmann etropy. Thermodynamic entropy vs information entropy – Advanced Physics Forums The information entropy is the log of the number of accesible states, and is dimensionless. The thermodynamic entropy is equal to the information entropy times the Boltzman (sic) constant. (kB = 1.38×10^-23 J/K) so the thermodynamic entropy has units of energy per degree kelvin. It is worth noting that present day computers process so little information compared to the number of equivalent thermodynamic states accesible to them, that the information entropy of the device is insignificant compared to the thermal entropy. I believe this means that present day computers operate nowhere near the thermodynamic limits of computation, so in a certain sense the equivalence of the two forms of entropy is irrelevant except that it does allow one to place theoretical limits on the process of computation.

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Aug 10 2006
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Wists new hardware

Posted by | technology | No Comments

We’ve moved Wists to hardware with five times the horsepower and into new datacenters. the overall speed is several times faster than just before the move. Traffic has been doubling every two and a half months (interestingly with no reflection of this on Alexa – oh well), and we’re getting ready for the roll out of Wists rev 2! Since its such a pain for people to install bookmarklets in Internet Explorer, we’ve automated the process with an installer. Wists, top web picks from for all. Wists, social shopping scrapbook, wishlist

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Aug 10 2006
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Would capsules of pig fat in plane seats deter an Islamic fundamentalist suicide bomber .

Posted by | religion | No Comments

Would capsules of pig fat in plane seats deter an Islamic Fundamentalist suicide bomber? Urban Legends Reference Pages: Rumors of War (Pershing the Thought) The logic of an irrational deterrent, such as pig fat, which is really an imaginary weapon unless god is a nasty piece of work himself, seems at first glance to be less of a moral dilemma to me than other inevitable anti-muslim stereotyping and encroachment on civil liberty that a less stable society brings with it. However, I suspect that, because religious beliefs are irrational, they are actually based often on subconscious convenience. In other words, if being covered in pig fat prevented you from being a martyr, the belief system of people who conveniently distort the very nature of a loving god by killing in his name would evolve around this inconvenient fact and it would only be a deterrent against the majority of moderate…

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Aug 10 2006
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Oi Vay Maria

Posted by | diary | No Comments

Some people from The Twelve Tribes : The Commonwealth of Israel parked up three really nicely restored old 50s buses in Washington Square last night. I think they are Christans, but are playing ‘Irish/ Israeli’ folk music in NYC next week. I would suggest that they should be called Oi Vay Maria. Anyway, I learned this really interesting fact – If you are a hippy traveller, the best place to park up your trailer for free, is the car park at a mega Walmart. Hippies and ultra-consumer capitalism have a symbiotic relationship after all.

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Aug 08 2006
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Hating America

Posted by | diary | No Comments

“Divebars. Jukeboxes. Allen Iverson. Beerball. Super Mario Kart. NetFlix. LiveFuckingJournal. The way my girl looks in that skirt.” Very well written piece about loving America for the good things, after seeing it fresh after backpacking abroad. The Musty Man – Hating America

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Aug 07 2006
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(M)ann Coulter

Posted by | politics | No Comments

The National Review has a list of the most harmful books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Its next to an ad for Ann Coulter’s book, so these guys are clearly literature experts. (Its a little known fact that (M)Ann Coulter is actually a drag act – check out the give away jaw line.) My top ten most dangerous books, period: 1. The Tanakh 2. The New Testament 3. The Koran 4. Mein Kampf (these guys can’t have a monopoly on it) 5. Atlas Shrugged 6. Pedigree Dogs 7. The Art of War 8. Barbara Cartland’s Book of Etiquette 9. High Availability MySQL Clusters for Absolute Beginners 10. Grimms Fairy Tales

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Aug 07 2006
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Oil prices

Posted by | predictions | No Comments

Table of inflation adjusted (dec 2005 prices) oil prices. Today’s shutdown of the US’s biggest and most geopolitically stable oil source puts oil at $77 a barrel. It is still more than 10% cheaper than in 1980 – but the climate and the political climate is much more unstable. At this point, a recession is innevitable, and is probably the least of our worries for anyone who has read a history book.

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