Lastly, I had to add a CAPTCHA to the comments form to get rid of a tide of spam. Mostly from Russia, it seems, although there are probably enough people who dislike Russians to try to make it look as if all spam comes from the formerly Red Bear. I don’t think it’s too much [...]
Today I bounced some ideas off Henri and it made me realize that I have, for a very long time, slightly misunderstood a fundamental problem in Computer Science. In particular, the CNF-SAT problem is arguably at the core of computation complexity, which is one of the cores of Theoretical Computer Science. The solutions I have [...]
There are many things in the news this week: MJ passed away, of course (sad for his family, but I have never been a big fan, and even if I were, how much would it have affected me?). Stonewall riot anniversary, and we must be mindful of history, but again I do not feel a [...]
The cold is cometh. It is only about 12 degrees, so not a bitter cold. (It will probably get colder, although the next couple of days are forecast as sunny. Poor Sutherland: they’ll be having -6 next week, if the forecast is correct.) I even took my beanie and gloves — usually reserved for Finland [...]
Savoir se libérer n’est rien ; l’ardu, c’est savoir être libre. [Knowing how to free oneself is nothing; the difficult thing is knowing how to live with that freedom.] André Gide The situation in Iran is sad and I hope it works out for everyone. Well, that is unlikely, if not impossible. But there is more [...]
Was raining cats and dogs today. Interesting what falls from the sky in different languages: old women with knopkerries (clubs), boats and barrels, dog poo, wheelbarrows, shoemakers’ apprentices, pipe stems, stair rods, pitchforks, elephants & giraffes, frogs, ropes, long strings of rope, halberds, nails, cobblers’ knives, youngs dogs chair legs, fire and brimstone, earth and [...]
I am explicably tired. My sleeping has varied wildly over the weekend, and I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight. Looking back over the day, it has been quite successful. I browse through Papadimitriou before I go to sleep and it is clear now that Henri was right: my graph assignment problem [...]
My site was down a little yesterday. It is rare, so I am not too worried. I was trying to post a bit of fluff about the similarity between our modern diets and the rise of obesity, and the glut of information and the rise of the internet. I do not believe that the internet [...]
While the performance of computer hardware has been accelerating nicely according to Moore’s Law, many have observed that software has been compensating by growing more and more sluggish. Apparently the hardware trend will run its course somewhere between 2020 and 2030. Long before then we shall begin using new architectures, like multi-core units and perhaps [...]
Had a busy day today. Meeting with a prospective student who wanted to do an Honours degree without any undergraduate background in Computer Science whatsoever. I can understand the impulse, and perhaps it is possible in some fields, but I think that in most cases the knowledge gap is simply too large. Then I had [...]