NPCT

I’ve recently checked out last.fm and Pandora. They’re both cool, although I’ve found myself so far happier with Pandora’s selections.

Fearing issues with fires from batteries, Virgin Atlantic has banned Apple and Dell laptops from being used in-flight.

The AI Statistics 2007 Conference just issued a call for papers. Eleventh International Conference on ~ Artificial Intelligence and Statistics ~ ********************************************************************* A I S T A T S 2 0 0 7 ********************************************************************* http://www.stat.umn.edu/~aistat/ March 21-24, 2007, San Juan, Puerto Rico Submission deadline: October 10, 2006 For the first time, collocated with The “Snowbird” [...]

My friend Sophie is in Australia and posted some beautiful pictures of the Australian coast and the Grampians National Park.

I finally set up a new gallery to replace the one that crashed a few months ago. I’m now hosting with DreamHost, who seem to offer quite good value. These are new pictures. I will put the old ones back up as soon as I can get my hands on the disk. This photo is [...]

PhD Comics is always spot on, but the current storyline is particularly relevant: the central character’s relationship is just about to become trans-Atlantic. As I get ready to leave for the US to visit Brenda for several weeks, the topic of this one has come up a few times. Too funny…

This seems like it should be interesting, but I’m not sure what it is. It is pretty, though.

I’m starting to have serious doubts about Britain’s ability to construct home appliances. In the year and a half that I have been in Cambridge, I am on my fourth coffeemaker and second rice cooker. This is starting to get absurd.

It appears that Marvin Minsky has gone through and edited his own Wikipedia page. What’s odd is that rather than editing the page to make it more accurate, he added commentary about the statements, elaborating and correcting. Really interesting, to be sure, but a bit weird.

I decided I have had enough of Metronet. They were fine at first, and I got their PayGo1000 plan. They have been bought out by someone else, however, and things have steadily degraded. Outages have been longer and more frequent. They have imposed traffic shaping after a frustratingly low usage ceiling. They have cut off [...]

At different points, I’ve come across interesting advice related to research and academia. I’ve created a page to keep track of the links. They’re worth checking out.

Water polo has now been over for about three weeks, and I’ve taken all three off. I’m getting even further out of shape than I was before. I went in to swim this morning, and I have a plan to get back into things and get ready for National League and next season. I’ve put [...]

Well, I ordered a new laptop the other day: a Sony Vaio VGN-TX650P/B. I opted for the 650 instead of the 610 for a couple of reasons: 1) it is actually available and so the price tends to be comparable 2) it has a DVD recorder and since the laptop doesn’t come with installation media, [...]

I gave a talk on personal finance at Offtopic Lunch on Friday. The slides are here.

Today I found an interesting annotated history of world oil prices.

My PhD supervisor has just finished his new book entitled Power. I don’t know much about it, to be honest, but here is an intro: Seven internationally renowned writers address the theme of Power from the perspective of their own disciplines. Energy expert Mary Archer begins with an exploration of the power sources of our [...]

I’m not one to tout “diversity” as an end in itself, but come on people. Pending confirmation of the latest conservative white male to the Supreme Court of the United States, our civil liberties will be in the hands of seven lily-white men, one African American, and one lone woman. Although we clearly cannot expect [...]

Director Kevin Smith (of Clerks, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Dogma and others) has put up an auction to benefit the Katrina victims. He has very cool things to buy (I wish I could afford to bid): BBQ and poker at his house A walk-on part in Clerks 2 Clerks 2 set visit T-Shirt extravaganza Personal outgoing [...]

Brenda and I were watching the US Open (that would be tennis) last night and the announcer made a reference to “this uniquely American holiday” when talking about Labor Day. *sigh*

This article discusses how price gouging might actually be beneficial during crises – ensuring that supplies get to those who truly need them. It places a firm belief in the capitalist market ideal, and I’m not sure if I agree with the argument, but it’s an interesting read. But offering goods for sale is per [...]