Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Monday, September 29, 2003

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Measuring the speed of light with chocolate: "The only equipment you need for this experiment is a microwave, a ruler and chocolate, cheese or any other food that melts. [...] There will be some melted hot spots and some cold solid spots in the chocolate. The distance between the hot spots is half the wavelength of the microwaves, and the frequency of the microwaves will often be printed on the back of the oven. The speed of light is equal to the wavelength multiplied by the frequency of an electromagnetic wave [...] So from this simple experiment, and some easy math, you can work out the speed of light [...]" (via Slashdot)

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Java for Bioinformatics: "Bioinformaticians and biological scientists have to sift through a lot of data. Visualization helps. While Perl has been a mainstay of bioinformatics, several projects and APIs in the Java world are making Java a viable development language. Stephen Montgomery surveys the scene. [O'Reilly Network ONJava.com, via A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Weblog]

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Beyond Fear by Bruce Schneier: "Just started reading Beyond Fear by Bruce Schneier. He write a lot about actual risks versus perceived risks. [...] PS It's interesting to note that traffic accidents account for about 10,000 deaths a year in Japan compared to 30,000+ deaths due to suicide. You're 3 times more likely to commit suicide than get in a deadly traffic accident in Japan." [Joi Ito's Web]

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Proposal for a collaborative learning system: "As a self taught programmer I have always been interested in finding better and faster ways of educating myself on any subject. In my experience I have found the biggest blockade to learning is the quality of information. The problems I most commonly encounter are: Assumes you already have studied a certain technique/skill/area but fails to mention this. [...] Wastes time explaining a different subject to the one it is meant to be explaining. [...] There is no structure across different documents which often leaves gapping holes in a students knowledge." [kuro5hin.org]