SloMo; Shuttle; Voting; Quaoar
I had a hard drive crash (or something) a few days ago. It was my fault though. In a moment of irresponsibility, I turned off my computer without letting it shutdown first. When I tried to boot up again, system was fuxxored. That'll learn me! I thought it might be a good opportunity to get rid of Windows once and for all and switch over to Linux.
You know how people say things like "Linux is good, but it's too technical for, say, my grandmother." Screw that. It's too technical for a fricken electrical engineer. I'll give it a chance, but I think I'll eventually go back to WinXP.
Interesting High-speed (super slow motion) Video Clips
I only watched a few of these before my PC cacked. I didn't watch any of the others, because LINUX CAN'T PLAY THEM, but the titles look interesting.
Endeavour Rides Piggyback
Just a nice picture, that's all.
Condorcet Voting Explained
Voting wonks say CV is mathematically the optimal voting system. Apparently, some people say that if CV was used in the 2000 election, Ralph Nader would have won. The system basically consists of selecting a candidate for every possible pairing, the overall winner being the candidate with the most wins. This would work fine with a small group, but if you have lots of candidates, you end up evaluating N*(N-1) pairings. For example, If you have 20 candidates, then you'd have to rate 380 pairs. Personally, I'm a big fan of the approval voting system. It's simple and to the point, plus it gives you the ability to vote against a candidate, by approving of everyone else.
Quaoar Precoveries
The beyond-Pluto planetoid, Quaoar, was discovered in 2002. Once the astronomers knew its orbit, realized that it had already been photographed (several times) as far back as 1983. I wonder how many other things we've photographed, but haven't seen, because we don't know they're there? (By the way, here's a guide on Quaoar pronunciation. The hip way is KWA-WAH.)
You know how people say things like "Linux is good, but it's too technical for, say, my grandmother." Screw that. It's too technical for a fricken electrical engineer. I'll give it a chance, but I think I'll eventually go back to WinXP.
Interesting High-speed (super slow motion) Video Clips
I only watched a few of these before my PC cacked. I didn't watch any of the others, because LINUX CAN'T PLAY THEM, but the titles look interesting.
Endeavour Rides Piggyback
Just a nice picture, that's all.
Condorcet Voting Explained
Voting wonks say CV is mathematically the optimal voting system. Apparently, some people say that if CV was used in the 2000 election, Ralph Nader would have won. The system basically consists of selecting a candidate for every possible pairing, the overall winner being the candidate with the most wins. This would work fine with a small group, but if you have lots of candidates, you end up evaluating N*(N-1) pairings. For example, If you have 20 candidates, then you'd have to rate 380 pairs. Personally, I'm a big fan of the approval voting system. It's simple and to the point, plus it gives you the ability to vote against a candidate, by approving of everyone else.
Quaoar Precoveries
The beyond-Pluto planetoid, Quaoar, was discovered in 2002. Once the astronomers knew its orbit, realized that it had already been photographed (several times) as far back as 1983. I wonder how many other things we've photographed, but haven't seen, because we don't know they're there? (By the way, here's a guide on Quaoar pronunciation. The hip way is KWA-WAH.)
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