The Entropist Manifesto

The history of the universe is a history of entropy liberation, which means, simply, that entropy increases. But what does that mean?

Many sources will tell you that the increase of entropy is dissipation, degradation, and dissolution, and they're right, but they're not entirely right. It is a glass half empty/full sort of situation, for along with the dissipation, degradation, and dissolution comes everything else.

Moons

moons.elf.org is a web application for displaying moon phases over the coming year in a browser.

Change

change.elf.org is a web application for consulting the Chinese classic of change, in classic Chinese if you wish.

hp15c

hp15c.elf.org is a web application for consulting the classic HP15C desk calculator.

Mahjong

mahjong.elf.org is a web application for playing mahjong solitaire in a browser.

Borges Translated by Di Giovanni

Sat, 02/20/2010 - 14:28 — rec
Perhaps you remember reading Jorge Luis Borges when you were a college student, way back in the 20th century, and you don't get the same charge from the stories when you reread them today? So your new copies of Borges sit on the shelf accusing you of infidelity? Is it that you've grown since then? Is it that Borges was really an immature taste?

The translations of Norman Thomas Di Giovanni, many of which were co-copyrighted between Borges and Di Giovanni, are no longer in print because Borges' estate withdrew permission after the author's death.

The New Sentinel of Spring

Fri, 02/12/2010 - 10:52 — rec
Forget watching groundhog shadows, the Patagonia Winterfest announcement arrived in my mailbox just 43 minutes before the REI Winter Clearance announcement.

Will Burn Fat for Heat

Tue, 01/12/2010 - 11:41 — rec

It's 28 degrees F here in Santa Fe this morning, but bright and sunny. I just took Cookie for a walk and left my coat, cap, and gloves behind. A half an hour and 3540 steps in the cold and it feels pretty good.

Moons Calendar 2010

Sat, 11/21/2009 - 23:09 — rec
There was a lovely waxing crescent moon this evening which will be close to Jupiter tomorrow night.

Why this calendar looks like it does is explained on the Moons Calendar page.

X200 Tablet Accelerometer

Sat, 11/21/2009 - 17:03 — rec
The new scoop is to use tp-smapi-dkms which will reinstall the accelerometer support each time you install a new kernel. It's working fine with the standard Karmic kernel but not with the real time kernel.

Starred Items in Reader

Sat, 11/21/2009 - 16:46 — rec
I read way too much stuff in Google Reader, here are the ones I've starred.

The Discouerie of Magic

Thu, 11/12/2009 - 15:41 — rec
Boing Boing linked to some articles about the original book of magic tricks, Hocus Pocus Junior, (1634). Hocus Pocus Junior was actually a remix of parts of Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), published 50 years earlier to debunk all sorts of magic.

The Discouerie of Witchcraft is available in a beautifully scanned copy of an 1886 reprint.

Welcome to the Library of the Future

Fri, 10/16/2009 - 11:27 — rec
Years ago I conceived a desire to read Hamilton's Elements of Quaternions. This was part of my independent study of geometric algebras inspired by working on molecular dynamics and reading David Hestenes. There's a geometric algebra desk calculator lurking around here somewhere, desperately in need of a rework which I promise should happen real soon now.

But back to this craving to read Sir William Rowan Hamilton in the original. Reading the original works of scientists is unfashionable.

MiFi 2200 + Ubuntu Jaunty = Continuing Relief

Wed, 05/27/2009 - 13:25 — rec
I've been using the MiFi with Ubuntu for over a week, from Seattle to Santa Fe on a road trip, and it's been great. Particularly nice when you pull into a hotel that claims to have network access but can't explain why it doesn't actually work. And it worked while driving down the road, too, well enough that I needed to discourage video viewing.

The device is a black rectangle smaller and thinner than an iPhone with a power switch, micro USB connector, status LED, a battery compartment, and a sticker identifying the network SSID and password.