Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Saturday, April 5, 2003

Virtual blood with an virtual needle -- Comment()
On Friday I was demoed the CAVE enviroment at Manchester Computing. This supercomputer site has an impressive array of systems, and the CAVE was also quite impressive, although it is not wholly immersive. There were also smaller systems available for using, for example a system with force feedback and stereo view of the model. It was a nice demo to try to get blood from a virtual hand using a virtual needle. When you pushed the needle through the skin, it actually felt like the skin had been punctured. Nice! And nobody got sick at the sight of blood.

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Fact and propaganda: "The Guardian's list of claims and counter claims made during the media war over Iraq is growing steadily..." [thx Allan > The Aardvark Speaks]

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Parallels? 'I wonder if John Robb is right and the USA has indeed in a sense become Israel: "We needed a target for our rightous indignation and thirst for revenge re: 9/11. The long slow process of terrorist hunting wasn't enough to satisfy this need. We didn't have Palestinians to beat up on so we manufactured them in Iraq."' [The Aardvark Speaks]

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RSS Gets a HUGE Backer: "Dave Winer: Microsoft Supports RSS." [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

SARS linked to birds -- Comment()
New Scientist: "Bi Shengli told the South China Morning Post that collaboration with health officials in Guangdong had revealed that the earliest SARS patients had been in close and continued contact with chickens, ducks, pigeons and owls." [t e c h n o c u l t u r e]

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Getting the right stuff to your eyeballs: "Michael Fagan [provides] Putting More Meaning Into the Blogosphere. Nice overview of how this savvy blogger gets his news, and how we could make it even better (notably through even more personalized relevance filtering)." [Seb's Open Research]

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Dumbo may be a jumbo, but he's no go-slow: "Elephants are known for their plodding pace but they are more quick-footed than they appear and may even break into a run, researchers said on Wednesday." [Google Technology News]

Mac OS X spam filter -- Comment()
Mail.app spam filter a dud? "One of the big selling-points for Apple's Mail application in OS X is the adaptive spam filter. Reviewers have gone wild praising how wonderful it is, and how it gets rid of 95% of their spam. In my experience, it has been catching about one fifth of the junk, and letting 80% through." [The Fishbowl]

I have been satisfied with the filter, although the efficiency has diminished during the last six months. In the beginning, almost 90% of the spam was stopped, and now only about 80%. In any case, 2-5 spam messages getting through of about 20 per day is not so bad.

The filter needs an update, that is for sure. But it still is an excellent tool. Perhaps the good efficiency for me is due to the fact that there is not so much Finnish-language spam as there is English.

The state of the grid, or return from Manchester -- Comment()
On Friday is was in Manchester at the Computer Science department of the University. The campus area is nice and has some open spaces, but the department itself was a bit crowded. The spring was well advanced, with daffodils in flower everywhere, and leaves in many bushes and small trees. The temperature in daytime was 13-15°C. What a contrast to Finland: it was snowing when I left, and it was snowing when I returned.

I learned a lot about the state of the art in grid technologies at the meeting. Also, I found about some practical details about the European Union activities in this area. It is now much clearer what EU wants to promote in the 6th framework programs. This is an interesting area to be involved in, and I started to believe that much of the hype in grids in fact is not hype at all. There really is something revolutionary going on.

I have to think some more about grids and the meeting in Manchester. The hospitality was fine, and the company excellent.

Finland to have woman as President and Prime Minister? -- Comment()
After the Parliamentary Elections in Finland I wrote: "It will be interesting to see if Finland will have a woman both as the President and the Prime Minister." Now it seems that this will be the case. Anneli Jäätteenmäki of the Centre Party seems to be almost certain to hold the position of the Prime Minister. Perhaps other countries should follow this example?