Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Thursday, March 31, 2005

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Have fun with the PowerBook Sudden Motion Sensor: 'This example creates a window displaying a bicycle wheel. The window is "stable" in the sense that if you rotate the PowerBook left or right, the window compensates by rotating itself by an equal amount in the opposite direction in an attempt to remain in its original orientation with respect to the ground.'

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The Man Who Saved The World: "Because there's a man alive today who singlehandedly refrained from destroying the world when his orders, and the data available, suggested he should do so. And somehow he's not a household name." [Anil Dash]

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John Stuart Mill - On Liberty: "The subject of this Essay is not the so-called Liberty of the Will, so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of Philosophical Necessity; but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual."

Cracking the copy protection is stealing -- Comment()
Copy Protection at the Apple Store: 'I just can't quite see how this is any different from crowing about how you got away with shoplifting ball-point pens from Staples. The ethical question to ask is always, "What would happen if everyone behaved this way?" And the answer here is quite clear: If nobody paid for music, there wouldn't be any.'

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Classic maths puzzle cracked at last: '[It] was not clear why prime numbers showed these patterns - until Mahlburg proved the crank can be generalised to all primes. He likens the problem to a gymnasium full of people and a "big, complicated theory" saying there is an even number of people in the gym. Rather than counting every person, Mahlburg uses a "combinatorial" approach showing that the people are dancing in pairs. "Then, it's quite easy to see there's an even number," he says.'

Commuting by bicycle -- Comment()
I bought a new bicycle for commuting. The bike is based on the Nexus 8-speed internal gear hub, the premium (or sport) version, which is lighter and has less drag. The bike has v-brakes, not the Shimano roller blakes. The bike is custom-made by a small Finnish manufacturer, Rossano. I'll get it after a week or so, with the extra gear I ordered at the same time.

The daily commute is about 25 kilometers, so the bike will get quite a lot of use during the next few months. I haven't been commuting by bike for a long time, so it will take some time to get up to shape. At first I may commute by bike only 2-3 days a week.