Swaine’s World

May 2, 2008

All 29 West Coast Ports have been shut down. (LA Times)
All salmon fishing has been banned on the West Coast. (SF Chronicle)
Oregon is likely to experience a magnitude-9 earthquake. (Oregon Live)
What next, West Coast intercity warfare?
Microsoft's Yahoo bid ready to go hostile? (Seattle Times)
Dang!

April 18, 2008

“True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.” -Clarence Darrow
Birthday: Clarence Darrow (Wikipedia)

April 13, 2008

High Performance Computing: For the first time, a supercomputer beat a Go master. (HPCwire)
Related links: See also Summary of the matches | Monte Carlo method and Go on computers | Cracking Go | INRIA | Bull

April 12, 2008

Oregon: What's causing the mysterious quakes off Oregon's coast? (Portland Oregonian)
Technology: Two Gartner analysts say Windows is collapsing and offer Microsoft some advice. (Macworld)

April 11, 2008

Science: Did our universe have a parent? (New Scientist)
Science: An international team of researchers have made a breakthrough in nanoscale logistics. (New Scientist)
One reviewer called her an 'inner ear infection.' (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Farming: Bio-dynamic farming is growing in the Northwest. (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

April 10, 2008

Computer history: Babbage's Difference Engine is visiting Silicon Valley. (Cnet)
Technology: Hacking power: it wouldn't be all that hard to shut down the grid. (Network World)
Science: The many levels of dishonesty in Ben Stein's creationist propaganda film (Scientific American)
Farming: The streamlined CSA model (Ashland Daily Tidings)
Food: In his new book, Michael Pollan champions the simple act of eating. (Christian Science Monitor)

April 9, 2008

Oregon: What's nerdier than being tech journalist? Strap on the SLR and the binocs and let's go birding! (Medford Mail Tribune)
... Before going birding you might want to listen to this. (Jefferson Public Radio)
Related links: See also Rogue Valley Audobon Society | Josephine County | Ashland
Lunch guests: Authors Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow stopped by for lunch in our restaurant today, hosted by a mutual friend of our and theirs. Michael is the author of Thank God for Evolution and Connie is the author of The Ghosts of Evolution.
Their bios and books: Michael | Connie
Science: A 'Darwin Chip' device demonstrates evolution in real time. (New Scientist)

April 8, 2008

Apple: Your iPod won't interfere with your pacemaker. (New York Times)
Technology: The return of the network computer? (Wall Street Journal)
Web design: Google Maps fatigue. We've all experienced it. (A List Apart)
Tolerance: An Illinois State legislator seems to think America is a theocracy. (Chicago Tribune)

April 7, 2008

Road trip! I'll be out of the office today. (Willamette Valley Wineries Association)
Drinks: There's enough spearmint out back now to justify putting mojitos back on the menu. (http://www.10cane.com/)

April 6, 2008

High Performance Computing: IBM's Stream Computing software and Blue Gene hardware are helping Wall Street track market forces in real time, making it that much easier to see the hammer of hurt as it swings usward. (IBM)
... Maybe Blue Gene will be more effective in the fight against HIV. (HPC Wire)
... Here's some info on Blue Gene. (IBM)
... And here's some background on Stream Computing. (IBM)
... Blue Gene installations rank as some of the most powerful computers. (Top 500 Supercomputer Sites)
... And they're energy efficient, too. (Green 500 dot org)
I'm reading: Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (Powell's Books)
Science: Ten 'impossible' things (New Scientist)
Science: Ethanol from garbage and old tires (Technology Review)
I'm watching this: Wait Until Dark (Summer Jo's)
Oregon: Oldest evidence of humans in North America found in Oregon cave (Seattle Times)
Drinks: Ramos Fizz (New York Times)

March 24, 2008

High-performance Computing: What is cloud computing, and why should you care? (Wikipedia)
... Everybody's talking about it. (Ian Foster)
... Google thinks 90 percent of everything will migrate to the cloud. (New York Times)
... HP thinks the cloud doesn't necessarily belong to Google. (Eric Klintz, HP)
... IBM and the EU have jumped into the cloud with a project called RESERVOIR. (Enter the Grid)
... Dublin gets Europe's first Cloud Computing Center. (Supercomputing Online)
... Yahoo is jumping into the clouds in collaboration with CRL. (Supercomputing Online)
I'm watching this: Wait Until Dark (IMDB)
... We're putting on the play at Summer Jo's, and are watching the movie as research. (Google Books)