and one fine morning…
Tech
you open doors and close them, quicker than the eyes of most
Aug 30th
In the past, I’ve decided on a specific computer hardware configuration and then purchased a custom systems with exactly that setup. In July, I chose and shopped for each piece separately and put things together myself. Here are the components I chose, taking me a total of 3 hours to physically assemble:
- Case: Antec 902
- Processor: Intel Core i7-930
- Cooling: Corsair H50 self-contained water cooling
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
- Memory: Crucial Ballistix 6GB (3x2GB in triple channel) DDR3 1600
- Boot Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ (1TB, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache)
- GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 (1GB DDR5)
- PSU: Corsair 750TX
- Data Drive, Optical Drive, and Card Reader: scavenged from unused computers at home.
I have the system overclocked from the stock 2.8 GHz to 3.8 GHz. It’s stable and smooth, and the H50 provides plenty of cooling, even when the processor is at 80-90% load. I installed the H50′s cooling fan backward on purpose. This means that the radiator for the cooling sits on the back exhaust of the case, and not on a back intake. I based this off of an article at Tom’s Hardware which suggested that preserving overall airflow of the case is more important than getting cool ambient air for the processor’s radiator. I find that both processor and Northbridge temperatures do not exceed 65C, which is 15-20C below their suggested limits. I am also very pleased with the H50′s noise performance, since I can hardly hear it. The 902 is also a very quiet case in general, unless all the fans are turned up to high.
All in all, this build is a success! I did it for $400 under the “custom configuration” style websites, a full $550 under the Dell equivalent, with a better case to boot. As an added bonus, I now feel fearless about putting my own components together. If you are considering making such a step, just know that pieces these days don’t fit together the wrong way (for the most part) so it’s hard to “put it together wrong” and that your actual assembly process will probably take you twice as long as you think it will. Email me if you want tips or ideas. Otherwise, I think Tom’s Hardware and AnandTech are great for ideas. Check out MicroCenter for your processor (I saved $99 by going to this “brick and mortar” store) and investigate Bing Cashback for your online purchases.
Unrelatedly, I heard an interesting discussion on the Nature Podcast about an experiment that calls into question something called the “testosterone folk hypothesis.” Most people associate testosterone with aggressive, antisocial, and egoistic behaviors. However, researchers found that testosterone actually resulted in people being more fair in negotiations when blinded to the drug they had received. Here is the fascinating, yet somewhat unsurprising part: those people that were told that they had been given testosterone behaved less fairly and more aggressively in negotiations. Essentially, the prejudice about testosterone influenced people in the opposite way of the actual hormone! Read the full paper free, here, courtesy of Nature.
On July 11, my lovely friends Jonathan and Lida just had a beautiful baby girl named Eva Ann. She’s the first baby that I’ve actually known since the beginning, and despite her predilection for emptying her bowels when I hold her, I am fascinated by her.
Lastly, (since I am wary of counting chickens or bragging), I will add that my first academic paper has been submitted. It is called Predicting criticality and dynamic range in complex networks: effects of topology. You can read the preprint abstract here, or download the preprint PDF here from the arXiv. My collaborators were Juan G. Restrepo, my advisor, and Woodrow L. Shew, a physics-trained neuroscientist with the National Institute of Mental health, a part of the NIH. I am really excited about this submission, and will post any news about it here.
we do what we must because we can
Jun 29th
Yesterday I played soccer for the first time since 2005, and felt great. Well, actually my game was pretty awful and I was seriously winded the whole match since I haven’t done any sprinting since January 2009′s adventure. Regardless, I am very very happy with how my leg and ankle held up, and I’m already looking forward to playing again. Seb and I were just going to kick a ball around, but then got wrapped into a pick up game, and it was great. The only downside was a ball to the face that bruised the bridge of my nose, but luckily didn’t rebreak it.
I finished watching a sequel season called Ghost in the Shell: Stand Along Complex (2nd GIG) and really loved it. I wrote previously about the first season of this series and pointed out that I enjoyed how it treated issues of technology. In the second season, I realized that what I like the most is the particular issues that the writers brought up about artificial intelligence. Specifically, through the “think tanks” called Tachikomas (pictured) there are numerous discussions among them that I believe are meant to be a weak A.I. trying to decide whether or not it is a strong A.I. or still only a weak A.I. In context, you should read “think tank” in the military denotation as a tank that thinks, and not in the political denotation as a lobbying research “think tank.” Weak A.I. is the kind that lives in Searle’s Chinese Room and seems like a person but just isn’t. Strong A.I. is a non-human intelligence that is actually intelligent in the sense that it thinks and is conscious (as humans are), beyond just doing human-like computation with identical output. The Tachikomas were interesting to listen to because of their setup: they are child-like helper robots, synced in memory every night, but allowed to differentiate from each other throughout the day (since they are not always synced). They therefore seem to do and think about different things each day, resulting in a bizarre setup when they confer and each instance of the machine is talking to the different versions of itself that diverged through experience through the course of the day. 
Meanwhile, since I have been saving tutoring money to upgrade my home computer, I have been back in computer hardware research mode. In the process I stumbled upon the following article that demonstrates that professional PC gamers have the physical health of old chain-smokers, but the minds and reaction times of professional athletes. It’s not surprising, but it’s fantastic that someone did the research. Here is a link to the article. Anyway, the only thing I’ve purchased so far is an Antec Nine Hundred Two case that was 50% off, new. 
got a system that’ll beat and knock your wall off
May 29th
Last night I finished Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex which falls nicely into cyberpunk anime, but has so many nice threads and connections to Singularity theory. In fact, I thought Stand Alone Complex’s treatment of technology in general was really really good. This was a significant contrast to IronMan 2, which as far as I can tell, sees the future of technology as a bunch of hidden hinges in motorized metal parts. I think the IronMan sort of future looks a little bit more macho, but is so far from the mark. In my opinion, the future is at the interface of biology and computer science. Things will get smaller, lighter, and harder to see and detect. Anyway, I would rate Stand Alone Complex very high due to coherence of plot, universe, and exceptional animation. I’d put it up there with Dennō Coil for overall enjoyment in the futurist genre. Watch it!
this old gal rattled, rattled, rattled like a tin can
May 25th
Time for a little bit of internet management here. I did the standard self-google and decided to brush some things up. Here are links to some of the things that I would like to see more of:
- My academic homepage at CU’s applied math department: Daniel B. Larremore
- My personal website: tomorrow i will run faster…
- Fun stuff, like my contribution to NPR’s Planet Money: Lawnmowing efficiency
- My band’s website (recently created! I am pumped): Hot Dude Party
Eventually, it would be nice to get results for some of my publications, but of course, having publications is a necessary condition for them to show up in a search. I would also like Twitter to stop showing up. I disabled the automatic feed from twitter to the blog. If you still want to read twitterbits, just follow from twitter directly.
Meanwhile, life is good. I am running the BolderBoulder this coming Monday, and feeling decent about it. I also picked up a sweet new cycling outfit from Wheat Ridge Cyclery, which makes me feel a lot faster. I assume that it helps when the shorts match the jersey. I would estimate that I now go about 20% faster. “lol”
Research is going well. I am starting work with an undergraduate student named Kevin Murphy, and he seems to be really sharp…and works hard too. This should make for a good summer. Meanwhile, I am still working on a draft of the paper that we hope to submit pretty soon on the dynamic range of excitable networks. Dane and I have also started collaborating on a project about percolation. We’ll see how it goes.
if i were the keys, then where would i be?
Nov 29th
So my thought previously was that if you made a 3D computing environment that people navigated as pseudo-avatars, you’d be able to give users a better, more “virtual-realistic” experience. However, the second advantage that I saw was that as a human moves at (augmented) human speed through the environment, the computer, moving at a much higher speed (and in fact facilitating the human speed) could anticipate the movements and desires of the user and juggle system resources appropriately. For example, as you walk toward your word processing desk, the OS begins to load the word processor. It’s not that we need a faster processor, but maybe just a smarter one that covers up its slowness more smoothly. I also think we’ll see a bigger blurring of the lines between OS and application. The concept of an application “running” or “quitting” seems like it should soon be antiquated.
Maybe this isn’t necessary. Maybe people want a 2D environment for their computing. After all, if writing is 2D, then how the hell would making a 3D computer help with any important computing functions? All it would really do is make the interaction a little bit more fluid and fun. But people pay for that. People care about that. If you go to a coffee shop and open up a Dell or a HP, it doesn’t say anything. If you open up an Apple, it does. (This is where Dell and HP owners will stop reading because I am having a bad attitude or something.) Anyway, I think that there are arguments to be made for computer in a certain environment just for the image of it. I think that a sexy 3D operating system might fit that.
But still, maybe it’s not even desirable. Maybe there are better ways to go about things. As far as I can tell, there are two ways of doing things. One is objective, one is subjective.
In the objective sense, we can continue to bind computing to objects, and proliferate those objects. Good examples of these from the past and perhaps future are personal computers, wireless cards, iPhone, GPS navigation, and Microsoft Surface. In science fiction, these types of computers are well exemplified in Star Trek, where the computer is an object to which anyone can talk. It facilitates communication, food, and all of everyday life on the Enterprise. The computer is an object with physically ubiquitous access points.
In the subjective sense, we can bind computing more directly to subjects, and make the subject the access point to computing. One simple example of this is the pacemaker, if we can liberally think of it as a bio-computer that the user wears. Or a cochlear implant! In Card’s Ender’s Game series, Ender wears a bug in his ear to hear from, and subvocalizes using subtle jaw/throat movements to talk to, a remote computer (entity). In The Night’s Dawn Trilogy, Hamilton has dreamed up a neural nanonic computer implanted in the base of the skull, that users can use to enhance reality, datavise experiences (as in televise, but straight to the brain, rather than through a TV, so you feel like you are actually there). In The Golden Age Trilogy, Wright has conceived of telepresence, so that people actually live in matrix-like pods where their bodies are cared for, while they are telepresented to places to which they could not physically travel. Finally, in my personal favorite visual interpretation, the anime Dennō Coil lays a veneer of virtual reality over the physical reality, which is accessible only to those wearing special glasses, which interpret the signals of the virtual, visually and aurally.
For the time being, I think that humanity will most likely continue to go down the path of the objective technology. However, in the next half century, I imagine we’ll see more of an integration of technology into the subject, both for medical and augmentation purposes. The innovations of the iPhone and the Wii in their use of both reading finger movements and orientation using accelerometers may actually be a good staging point for future ideas.
nervous like a knife fight
Nov 24th
People started writing long ago, and the basic idea behind writing was to express ideas with characters. Out of pragmatism, characters are all two dimensional, because it’s impractical to write in three dimensions if paper is planar. The act of writing leaped from the quill to the computer screen with a brief stepping stone of printing in between, so it makes sense that now, we have computers that are two dimensional. We have windows, which are like sheets of paper, and we can stack them in different orders with different pieces of paper on top. Yeah, but why stop there?
I have in mind a 3D environment for computing. Rather than a desktop, on which all your papers sit, why not a more natural environment? The computer screen is physically planar, but it need not display only planar images. Where do you work? Where do you think you should work? Maybe in a garden studio? Maybe in a studio apartment? Maybe on a rooftop? Maybe in a cubicle? Maybe in a lab?
Look, the advantage of the computer over reality is that when you lose something on the computer, you can just search for it. And with apps such as GoogleDesktop, you can search inside the documents, deeper than just the titles. The advantage of reality is that you can arrange your office, room, or garden however you want. Some people like things to be cluttered and warm. Some people work better in cold fluorescent cube farms (maybe?).
Since we can’t google reality (yet) I think that we should design an operating system that is a framework for virtual reality. Applications and files are stored in virtual physical locations that have names based on what you want the system to look like. Let me paint a picture for an artist who would love to be working outside.
You turn on your computer and the screen displays a well-rendered picture of a CG garden. It is 3:30 in the afternoon in reality, and so the garden is lit by a 3:30 sun. You want to check your email. Since you are old-school, you’ve bound your email to a mailbox just on your left as you enter the garden, since email is the first thing that you check. You open the mailbox, and it’s sorted already, because it’s virtual…we can just DO that. Some of the emails are bank statements and bills, but you don’t feel like dealing with them right now. You toss them on your desk, which happens to be across the garden. But it’s virtual, so your ninja star throw lands the letters perfectly on the desk. You want to be sure to remember them, so you highlight them. They softly glow as if lit from inside to show that they are important.
It’s time to do some work though, so you walk across the garden to an easel which you have bound to Illustrator. As you walk closer, the OS notices, and begins to launch the application. You work for a while. The interface for Illustrator is like a HUD from a video game that pops up over the screen. As you’re working, you get some new mail. A ding from behind you lets you know, in rendered 3D sound (advances in stereo sound now have determined how to render things to sound above you, below you, in front of you, and behind you. This is not a fantasy technology yet, though the rest of this is).
I am not sure the best way to navigate a 3D environment that you can manipulate and bend as you wish. A mouse is fine, but I think that there are other things that would work better.
If you look at a picture with 4:3 resolution, you see 4:3. If you switch to 16:9, you see more of the edges. Imagine a continuum of this, that you adjust as you move around, so that your environment bends around you. At maximum bend, you can see nearly behind you. At minimum, you can see just a cone in front of you (standard video game). Think fish eye lens, but only laterally. (maybe??)
I need to eat dinner now, but I think that this is the future of OS. It’s more like reality, more customizable than a desktop background, and still allows for a rigid hierarchy of file systems, but with a much more pleasurable GUI. Most of the technology is there from gaming. It’s just a matter of turning your OS into a game.
PS: Think of what video chat would be like when someone is sitting in your yard, and you are sitting in someone’s living room! All it would take is a binocular camera, and you could render someone in binocular vision!
where are your friends tonight?
Jul 12th
Well. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but about 80% of my html pages got rewritten as just two scripts…so when I tried to go to those pages, I just got blank white, and nothing happened. I discovered the scripts upon viewing source. One of the scripts is the google analytics urchin.js. The other script, I have no idea. I did some searching, but found nothing. Also, all the permissions for those files were 644, so I am pretty sure that it was something funky serverside. But what? The hosting company, of course, has no idea, and asks me to fix my scripts…which I don’t have. Interesting
I finished and published the Recycle Bicycles website. I also finally donated my bicycle to them, which was long overdue. Basically, I wanted to donate a bike weeks ago, and got put in touch with Bruce at Recycle Bicycles, but I realized that they could use a newer, nicer site much more than they could use my crummy bike. So I made their site. Comments are always welcome…especially critical ones. That’s my first work using a template. Thanks to BK for helping me find the graphic for the header. :3
Last night I went to Girl Talk at the Fox in Boulder. The show was so much fun. The dudes were all busy or out of the country, so I was going to go with Boulder people, but they all forgot to get tickets… Anyway, I ended up going with Mikey’s high school bff’s sister and her friend, which was awesome. They are hilarious. We all danced onstage. Maybe I’ll have pictures. I almost considered driving to Aspen to see them again tonight. ALSO, my friend’s band, Team Awesome, opened, and they were solid.
The evening ended really nicely when I got a phone call from Jay Kamath, who was out in Denver. He’ll be here until Tuesday. Sweet!
disappeared/home
Jul 5th
Here is an interesting article about the implementation of carbon nanotubes to receive radio signals. Thanks to BK for this link.
tomorrow i will edit PHP faster…
Apr 22nd
I think I have finished the migration process. The old blog glitched out and was unsecure, so now I’m on something that’s smoother and much more stable: wordpress.
Fun with the internets!
Update: I’ve imported the old blogs. Unfortunately, I was using dumb code before, so I had to rewrite the RSS.php file to include all the old blogs, and then import the text. The upside is that it took me 5 minutes. The downside is that after about 30 minutes of poking around, I think that’s the best I can do. I guess now I “have the opportunity to” learn the new system. In the meantime, the old blogs are at /bloog. I’ll bring in the photos and learn how wordpress does thumbnailing soon. /victory
地球はゴールライン、
Oct 1st
Updated links section on site.
Things are going well. Brandon has made wine out of the hundred or more pounds of grapes from the backyard. Apparently, we’ll find out how it is in about 10-14 months. I am pumped. His first beer turned out really well, and I wish there were more of it. “Baby. Imma gonna brew you…a draaaaaank. brb 7 weeks plz.”
I am packing my bags for Boulder. I have a suitcase full of clothes next to me, with duplicates of all my toiletries, to leave either in my car or at Dan Honaker’s place, for when I stay nights at 30th and Colorado. (Close!!!) I also have a ton of workout gear packed. I think I am going to start training with the CU Ski Racing team. I don’t know if I can afford it, but I will be interested in seeing what the people and the coach are like.
Training during the dry season is daily, M-F, and focuses on core and legs (orly?). During the ski season, training is at Eldora from 8:30-10:30 M-F, and races on the weekends. I think though, that it’s only as seriously as you allow it to be, so maybe I will just try it out. It will be an expensive experiment, but I will be a much better skier for it, I think.
I ran 7 yesterday, which felt good. I think, that if I don’t keep doing the ski training, that I will keep ramping up the running. Maybe I will run Tokyo?!? Haha. We’ll see.
This month: Beefest, Chicago, Halloween, Snow, First Exams, Adventures.