Book Reviews


[Day Permalink] Wednesday, October 2, 2002

[Item Permalink] Solving optimization problems -- Comment()
The second edition of my book on solving optimization problems (written in Finnish) is almost sold out. Soon I have to think seriously about updating the book.

The second edition of the book appeared in 1995, seven years ago. I browsed through the book and it was not too much out of date. The example codes and pointers to the web have to be checked to be sure that they still work.

There is also some additional material which I could include in the book: course material, lecture notes, articles, case studies etc. There are also other books published during the last seven years which contain some material on optimization. But the amount of time which I can dedicate to the third edition is quite small, a month of work at maximum. Thus I am wondering when I have the time to make the update.


[Item Permalink] A great need to write -- Comment()
I have been busy for the last month both at work and at home. At work we are planning for the year 2003, and I'm also recruiting new people to my group, supervising projects, writing memos and minutes, and taking part in meetings. At home there is much to do with two small children.

When the pressure is greatest, I need to write. About something, about everything. Thus blogging has been a nice channel for making sense of the world. However, I'm not quite sure how useful it is to collect links to topical information. Perhaps this will be later on a treasured collection of items that interested me at this time.


[Item Permalink] Weblog standard base? -- Comment()
Matt Croydon::postneo tells that Matt is also thinking about weblog standards:
Weblogging Standard? You know what we need in Roller, MoveableType, Radio, Blogger, etc. is a "standard" for our data stores. How sweet would it be to be able to move your site from Roller to Radio without writing an import/export tool. The quick and dirty solution is to write a bunch of import tools for Roller, but the best idea is to unite the weblogging community into creating a common database schema, or whatever it may be.


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Scientists isolate key lung cancer molecule: "British scientists have announced a breakthrough in lung cancer research, identifying a molecule that may be responsible for the spread of a deadly form of the disease." [Google Technology News]


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Atomic memory developed: "Scientists create a data storage device using atoms as binary bits[cedilla] raising the prospect of a CD that can store a million times more data." [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]


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New Scientist: "US Government to fund IRIS.  A new P2P system.  The first application will be a distributed version of the Web." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]


[Item Permalink] Ranking Universal Rule -- Comment()
I decided to follow the example of other bloggers: now there are links to ranking services on the left side of the weblog home page. Perhaps these links are useful, perhaps not. Am I obsessed with rankings? So it seems.


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There are four lights: "One year ago today, my (now former) manager told me to shut down my weblog and remove all traces of it from my server." [dive into mark]


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Radio Free Blogistan ponders weblog rankings in We're number two: "Dave is obsessing on Google pagerank, trying to get Google to associate his page more rankfully with the search term weblog. He also got me thinking about this thing of being the top Dave or Adam or Jeremy or Jason on Google:
Adam Curry is the number three Adam on Google today, ahead of Adam Smith, Adam Sandler, and the guy who did the deed with Eve. [Scripting News]
Try that with Christian and you'll never find me (I gave up after five pages of religion)."


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The State of Linux in 2002: "Sun Microsystems in August joined IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell in offering Linux as a server operating system. A month later, IBM expanded its prepackaged Linux server offerings. Even Apple computers can be purchased with Linux preinstalled. Clearly, the Linux bandwagon is gathering speed, but where is it going?" [osOpinion]


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Ferry disaster: Ministers quit: "Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade on Tuesday accepted the resignations of Transport Minister Youssouph Sakho and Armed Forces Minister Youba Sambou after a ferry disaster which claimed almost 1 000 lives." [Google World News]


[Item Permalink] More ranking of weblogs -- Comment()
Discussion about ranking weblogs continues without pause. Perhaps this is the most popular subject on weblogs? John Robb's Radio Weblog ponders the matter: "Well, so much for talking about Google hacks. They just downgraded my weblog's PageRank.  Personally, I think the two are related (FWIW, I thought it would be a good thing to make it easy to allow people to get RSS feeds off of Google News pages and add Google search to their site.  I guess not).  My traffic, subscriptions, and linkage has never been better.  Many community measures put my site in the top 15 weblogs.  Human intervention in the PageRank for my site is obviously (to me based on the data) what happened.  This is a warning to everyone else that likes Google:  make sure you don't piss Google off or they will mess with you too."


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SETI to Upgrade Software, Telescope: "At around the same time as the Parkes Observatory recorder comes online, SETI@home will also release new software designed to broaden its scientific applications and streamline the program." [Slashdot]


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The Onion | RIAA Sues Radio Stations For Giving Away Free Music: "The Recording Industry Association of America filed a $7.1 billion lawsuit against the nation's radio stations Monday, accusing them of freely distributing copyrighted music." [Daypop Top 40]


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Africans embrace mobiles and the net: "The internet and mobile phones are catching on in Africa[cedilla] according to United Nations experts on the digital divide." [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]


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Apache: More than a Web server (ZDNet): "However, the Apache Software Foundation has a number of projects that are just as interesting as its flagship Web server. The core technologies Apache supports center on Java and XML, with a contributor list including Sun (Project X) and IBM (SOAP implementation)." [LWN.net]


[Item Permalink] Ranking weblogs -- Comment()
It is suprising how much time we webloggers use for following the rankings and referrals of our sites. Doc Searls Weblog ponders the ranking of weblogs in Grankings: "Dave has be re-observing the polysurdities of Google's ranking system, which moves him up and down the totem pole of top-ranking Daves, and seems to deny Scripting News the Alpha position among results for weblog. For a long time this very blog held that position. Now we're #5, just behind Weblog Wannabe. ... Could it be that Weblog Wannabe moved ahead of Doc Searls Weblog because "Weblog" is the first name of Wannabe's blog, and the third name of mine? And could that be the reason why Doc Searls Weblog is the #2 Doc result out of 24,300,000..."


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Is Linux taking over the enterprise? "Linux is also becoming increasingly important in specialised markets such as scientific research and movie production, with its appeal again centred on low overall costs." [LWN.net]


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.Mac subscribers top 180,000. "Apple today announced that more than 180,000 Mac users have subscribed to Apple's .Mac suite of Internet services." [The Macintosh News Network]


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Matt Croydon::postneo tells that Simon St.Laurent has a website out there called Monastic XML:
MonasticXML.org is a look at XML from a different angle, focusing on what markup is best at rather than what markup can do to solve a particular problem or set of problems. While XML is powerful, developers seem insistent on using XML in ways which seem convenient for a moment but which cause much greater trouble down the line to both their projects and to markup itself.


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Concern over baby gene selection: "Parents should not be allowed to select embryos for IQ or personality, says an ethical watchdog." [BBC News | Front Page]


[Item Permalink] Writing weblog posts in English -- Comment()
I'm still debating whether I should write weblog posts in Finnish instead of English. For two reasons I think I'll continue in English. Firstly, I want to exercise my English skills. Secondly, most of those items that interest me on the web are written in English. Using English poses also problems: I have written most of my previous texts in Finnish, so it is rather difficult to quote from those writings.


[Item Permalink] Film-based digital photography -- Comment()
I have a three years old APS camera, which I have been lately using to make digital photos. When developing the films I also order a Kodak Picture CD. Then I just have to insert the CD to my iBook, and iPhoto automatically reads in the pictures. The resolution is not great, but enough for my purposes.

One of my colleagues uses an SLR, and scans the pictures after developing the films. This of course makes it easier to get the resolution you want. You could also correct the lighting problems manually while scanning. But for me this is too much work.

The new 3-5 megapixel digital cameras are good enough for replacing the APS camera. I'm not in a hurry, but if there appears to be a reasonably priced digital camera with good picture quality and good battery life, I'm going to buy that one. There is not much point in waiting too much longer.