jfiore | December 22, 2007The latest issue of Embedded Systems Design has an interesting article on combining C code with assembly code for DSP applications. In some cases, they show an ten fold speed up for an assembly plus C implementation versus straight C code.
Now before anyone starts hollering, please remember that embedded programming is not at all like normal desktop application programing. Generally you're operating in a "slim" (i.e., resource poor) environment. Heck, some embedded processors only have a few hundred bytes of RAM available and you might be talking about a clock frequency of just a few…
jfiore | December 22, 2007Given the arrival of winter solstice, you might be interested in this. It graphs sunrise, sunset, length of day, angle of sun, and other items given your location. And although most people may be aware that winter solstice is the day with the shortest daylight of the year, I'd guess that not many are also aware that it is not the day with either the latest sunrise nor earliest sunset.
And finally, to help celebrate the holiday, I am reminded of an old school-yard Christmas tune (feel free to finish the verse your own merry way):
Chester's nuts roasting on an open fire,
Jackie's nipple on your…
bushwells | December 17, 2007This past weekend found a denizen of the Chimp Refuge brachiating, feeding and feeding yet again, grooming, being groomed and otherwise socializing in the home of its grizzled old matriarch. The photo below the fold illustrates one way in which godless atheists (and bonobos) celebrate Christmas - or Saturnalia or whatever one wishes to call the holiday surrounding the solstice; Festivus works, too. Yes, they decorate a Christmas tree. Here is erstwhile co-blogger Kevin fondling Betty Boop's butt.
Kevin sends his regards to the Refuge readers. Due to a couple of writing projects that…
jfiore | December 16, 2007Arthur C. Clarke is 90 today. He has three wishes:
Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke listed three wishes on his 90th birthday Sunday: for the world to embrace cleaner energy resources, for a lasting peace in his adopted home, Sri Lanka, and for evidence of extraterrestrial beings.
Like many of my generation I first became familiar with his works via his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It remains one of my favorite movies (and books). ACC shares this birthday with Ludwig van Beethoven, who also shared a collaboration of sorts with Kubrick via A…
bushwells | December 16, 2007On the 30th of September 2007, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens sat down for a first-of-its-kind, unmoderated 2-hour discussion, convened by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and filmed by Josh Timonen. I must say that Hitchens is looking quite resplendent. I wonder if this conversation was filmed after Hitchens' self-improvement project was completed?
Please view at your leisure and talk amongst yourselves. And really, don't you have two hours to spare during this tranquil time of the year?
Pant-hoots, grooming session and a carafe…
bushwells | December 10, 2007So does anyone want to lay odds on how long it will be before "discovery of the gay gene" gets spread like a crazed rhinovirus through the popular media? A recent press release announces the discovery that male fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) with mutations in the GB (genderblind) allele not only mate with female flies but also were attracted to - and try to mate with - male flies.
The mutation apparently alters perception of chemosensory cues. Two of the major chemical attractants in the world of fruit fly sex are 7-tricosene and cis-vaccenyl acetate: the flies taste the former…
bushwells | December 10, 2007
Through the initiatives of citizens - and voters - who take a keen interest in science and technology and governmental policies directed toward these, a proposal for a presidential candidates' debate on issues of science and technology is now on the table. The background for this initiative may be found at The Intersection here on Science Blogs: Call for a Presidential Science Debate. SciBlings Chris and Sheril, along with Matthew Chapman, Lawrence Krauss and many others have teamed together to sound the clarion call for genuine responses from the candidates. Krauss has written an op-ed…
jfiore | December 6, 2007Mitt Romney gave his speech on religion today at the George Bush library. Read it here. It's filled with the usual horseshit that one might expect from a man like Mitt:
"Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.
Really? Freedom requires religion? What a novel concept. It always appeared to me that religion suppresses freedom. Does anyone really need to subscribe to dogma in order to "discover (their) most…
jfiore | December 4, 2007A new Pat Condell video regarding the "inappropriately named teddy bear" fiasco in the Sudan. As usual, it's vintage Condell:
jfiore | December 4, 2007Pat Condell answers some critics in the atheist community regarding so-called "hard line" atheist arguments to believers in the supernatural. It's six and a half minutes well spent:
bushwells | December 3, 2007Guido Daniele is a superb illustrator. I've seen some of his sportswear bodypainting, for example, check out this track suit:
Yes, he is naked.
I had not encountered his hand critters. This really gives a whole new meaning to flipping the bird.
If you can tolerate the barrage of advertisements, Animal Planet features videos of Signor Daniele creating handworks.
I realize that these images have made the blog rounds before, but hey, we geriatrics tend to repeat ourselves. The level of detail is amazing and straddles the boundary between the avant-garde and scientific illustration. Most…
jfiore | December 1, 2007Readers of this blog know that, as a drummer, I am very keen on left-right symmetry of co-ordination. The drummer's world is often filled with patterns (get the pun?) and being able to execute them equally well from the left versus right side opens creative possibilities. Time to get those mirror neurons up and running! Today's question, how's your co-ordination between hands and feet?
Before lab the other day, I noticed that one of my students was banging out a little pattern on the lab bench with his hands. Better I should say he was working at it. It turns out he's a drummer. What he was…
jfiore | December 1, 2007I have added two new categories to the refuge, Audio Island and Pattern Juggling, for the convenience of those interested in a couple of my "off the beaten path" jaunts. I have gone back and retagged a bunch of old posts and will use these tags in the future. Audio Island is basically a catch-all for audio/acoustics/electronics gear, new technologies, observations, and the like. Pattern Juggling is the location for my ramblings regarding the intersection of drumming, co-ordination, art and so forth (for example, the DIY Neuromotor Experiments posts). Audio Island is perhaps a bit obvious,…
jfiore | November 25, 2007I am a fan of the BBC show Top Gear. Mind you, I'm no gear-head, but these guys do some funny things and I like to hear their take on various new car models. Last night I caught an episode that I had not seen before where the three hosts come to the USA, rent cars, and drive to New Orleans. On the way, they pass through Alabama, and well, some not-so-friendly southern hospitality ensues. Video here.
Co-host James May has a few words about it in his blog.
Let's just say that the take-home message is that in certain areas of the USA one should not attempt humor that "colors outside the lines".…
jfiore | November 21, 2007In early October I posted a series of pics regarding the low water level at Hinckley Reservoir in upstate NY. The combination of low rainfall and demand had reduced the lake some 35 feet below spill level. I had hoped to post some pics in Spring 2008 to contrast these to normal levels. That won't be necessary. Over the past several weeks we have had considerable rain. Also, the major draw off of the reservoir, the NY state canal corporation, reduced their demand and planned to close the canal early. (At present, the canal is nicely topped off.) The result is that the lake is now just a few…
bushwells | November 20, 2007When the word "stinker" was bandied about in reviews, I should have known better. Yet at happy hour last Friday, my two gal-pals and I made a date to see a Sunday matinee of Robert Zemickis' Beowulf. My friends, a biologist and a chemist, had taken medieval literature as undergrad electives so they were curious, and having recently read Seamus Heaney's translation and as a Tolkien aficionado, I thought the flick might be fun.
Ay caramba, man. The critics were on to something.
The performance-capture animation has improved somewhat, and the scenes in the movie were richly detailed. The…
jfiore | November 19, 2007The local paper ran an article yesterday regarding smoking statistics in upstate NY. The major point of the story is seen in its headline "Region's smoking rate is among highest in state". The basic stats involve a region of upstate NY including 11 counties ranging from Utica, down to Cooperstown, up to Plattsburg, and much of the Adirondacks, for a total population of just about 600,000. The key item is a smoking rate of 26.6%. This is second only to the Southern Tier at 27.1%. The state-wide average is 18% and the national average is 20%. I was a bit surprised by this but it does encompass…
bushwells | November 16, 2007Please allow me to assure you that with this entry, I will not be veering into regular essays on the trappings of banal domesticity. However, I think this is a damn fine minestrone. I typically make it during the cooler months of the year, so as a nod to the recent autumnal weather here in the central regions of the Gaaah-duhn State, I figured I'd toss it out here on the Refuge
Buon appetito, you bonobos!
This minestrone soup recipe produces something more akin to a stew rather than a mere soup. It has a rustic, robust yet nourishing and comforting quality to it, and for this reason, I often…
jfiore | November 15, 2007There is a fun programming assignment I give to my freshman Python class. I call it curses. An example of it (written in Java, with source) can be found here. Basically, the program generates a series of denunciations, each followed by a somewhat odd curse. For example: "You noisy pile of squashed dog snot- May your TV set gyrate madly!" or "You mindless sponge of rotting spam- May your buttocks emit a loud buzzing noise!" (try it, you might find it entertaining). The purpose of the assignment is to show the students how to use random numbers to access tuples (random array indexing for you…