Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician’s finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but …More
Archive for July, 2005
That’s the first ten minutes, then what? I got plane tickets today to go visit Joanna in early August. Isn’t that exciting? Yes, exactly 30 days from now. I’m not normally one for counting days, my preferred unit of time …More
The Road to Reality
July 6, 2005
Started reading Roger Penrose’s new book, The Road to Reality, yesterday. Whether it should be classified as a popular science book plus a textbook part or a textbook with a popular science part – it is too early to tell. …More
With the Choedan Kal
July 5, 2005
Got a bit of the intended summer reading done this past weekend; I’ve got a lot more in the pipeline after a visit to the Katonah Library and Borders. As the title of this post might indicate to you, I …More
Man = O(pwned)
July 2, 2005
In a recent match between the computer chess demigod Hydra and British GM Micheal Adams (rank #7 in the world, elo 2741), humanity took a .5:5.5 kick in the face. The match is interesting because the games played are generally …More
QuickSort = O(pwned)
July 2, 2005
On a 2.8 Ghz Xeon CPU, QuickSorting a million elements takes between 17 (if you use Intel’s compiler optimized for Hyper Threading) to 21 (MS Visual C++) seconds. Unless, of course, you have a really good graphics card. The trend …More
