At a recent talk, engineering hero and consummate computer scientist Donald Knuth gave the following graph-theoretic advice for future professors: be edges, not...
At a recent talk, engineering hero and consummate computer scientist Donald Knuth gave the following graph-theoretic advice for future professors: be edges, not nodes. That is, plan to have two sub-specialties in different fields and be able to act as a bridge between disciplines. Perhaps the source of this advice is related to the proof of his Knuth is fondest of: as edges are randomly to a set of nodes, after initially forming a quite disconnected graph, at a certain point...
At a recent talk, engineering hero and consummate computer scientist Donald Knuth gave the following graph-theoretic advice for future professors: be edges, not nodes. That is, plan to have two...
As has been noted by many other bloggers on blogs.sun.com, the blogs on that site are soon going to be migrated to blogs.oracle.com. As of next week, the...
As has been noted by many other bloggers on blogs.sun.com, the blogs on that site are soon going to be migrated to blogs.oracle.com. As of next week, the previous content of blogs.sun.com/darcy should redirect to and be hosted under blogs.oracle.com/darcy.I will not be making any blog posts here until the migration is complete and I've made a separate backup of this blog's contents in case there is a problem with the move.See you on the flip side.
As has been noted by many other bloggers on blogs.sun.com, the blogs on that site are soon going to be migrated to blogs.oracle.com. As of next week, the previous content of blogs.sun.com/darcy should...
After viewing the film "Inception," I was inspired to use the new try-with-resources statement to summarize the film: public static void main(String... args) {...
After viewing the film "Inception," I was inspired to use the new try-with-resources statement to summarize the film: public static void main(String... args) { try(CloseableDreamLevel dl1 = kickOnClose(createCityScape(firstClassCabin)) ) { try(CloseableDreamLevel dl2 = kickOnClose(createHotel(dl1))) { try(CloseableDreamLevel dl3 = kickOnClose(createSnowMountainFortress(dl2))) { inception(); try(CloseableDreamLevel dl4 = kickOnClose(enterLimbo(dl3))) { findTheLost(); } } } } }...
After viewing the film "Inception," I was inspired to use the new try-with-resources statement to summarize the film: public static void main(String... args) { try(CloseableDreamLevel dl1...
Last week I attended a talk by John Hennessy on the "Future of Research Universities" (video).The talk ranged over many subjects, from distinctions between...
Last week I attended a talk by John Hennessy on the "Future of Research Universities" (video).The talk ranged over many subjects, from distinctions between graduate and undergraduate learning, to the difference between training and education, and distinguishing properties of Silicon Valley.Toward the end of the hour, Hennessy noted the importance of "T-shaped" researchers for effective collaboration: deep enough to contribute in their own field, but with enough breadth to...
Last week I attended a talk by John Hennessy on the "Future of Research Universities" (video).The talk ranged over many subjects, from distinctions between graduate and undergraduate learning, to the...
Complementing the three grade school R's of reading, writing, and 'rithmetic, I've heard it said there are three R's of Windows system administration, retry,...
Complementing the three grade school R's of reading, writing, and 'rithmetic, I've heard it said there are three R's of Windows system administration, retry, reboot, and reinstall. When flying recently, I experienced the Windows R's being applied to airplane maintenance too. After everyone had boarded the plane, the pilot announced there was a problem with the navigation system and they were trying repeatedly to clear the problem. After that didn't work, the pilot came back...
Complementing the three grade school R's of reading, writing, and 'rithmetic, I've heard it said there are three R's of Windows system administration, retry, reboot, and reinstall. When...
When flying recently, I was slightly concerned after when my carry on bag was selected for extra scrutiny after going through the X-ray machine; the culprit:...
When flying recently, I was slightly concerned after when my carry on bag was selected for extra scrutiny after going through the X-ray machine; the culprit: cheese. I was bringing back four bars of 1 ¾" × 1 ¾" × 6" cheese I haven't been able to find in California. My bag also had some batteries and electronics in it. The cheese packaging was swabbed and analyzed and I went on my way. I thought this was a little silly, but I moderated my view when I was catching up on back...
When flying recently, I was slightly concerned after when my carry on bag was selected for extra scrutiny after going through the X-ray machine; the culprit: cheese. I was bringing back four bars of 1...
There have been many years and many miles since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and after seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this...
There have been many years and many miles since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and after seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this weekend, I think the franchise is a little worse for wear. In the opening action sequence, I was was surprised to learn Soviet gunpowder in the 1950's apparently included iron filings in addition to sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate since the powder was magnetic! Somewhere in editing, I'm convinced the line "Ants...
There have been many years and many miles since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and after seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this weekend, I think the franchise is a...
Described as the French "Shakespeare in Love," I watched the film "Molière" about the famous but new-to-me 17th century French playwright and one verbal...
Described as the French "Shakespeare in Love," I watched the film "Molière" about the famous but new-to-me 17th century French playwright and one verbal exchange stuck with me. The exchange is described in the wikipedia article about Molière:In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, the title character, M. Jourdain, composes a love note as follows: "Beautiful marchioness, your beautiful eyes make me die from love" ("Belle marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d'amour"). He then asks his...
Described as the French "Shakespeare in Love," I watched the film "Molière" about the famous but new-to-me 17th century French playwright and one verbal exchange stuck with me. The exchange...
There is a old joke about walking along one night and coming across someone looking down underneath a streetlight for lost keys. Stopping to help look, after a...
There is a old joke about walking along one night and coming across someone looking down underneath a streetlight for lost keys. Stopping to help look, after a minute or two of searching you remark, "Your keys don't seem to be here. Where did you drop them?" "Well, I dropped them over in that ally, but it's way too dark to look there!"While at Berkeley, one of the lessons I learned from Professor Kahan was "test where the failures are likely to be, ", which he stated much...
There is a old joke about walking along one night and coming across someone looking down underneath a streetlight for lost keys. Stopping to help look, after a minute or two of searching you remark,...
