Open Source Is The Pinnacle Of The Free Market

Though I am not going to advocate Laissez-faire economics, I do want to point out that the open source world is as close as you can get to a pure free market. The reason is because if you make a product in the open source world, anybody is able to study it, modify it, [...]

Fingerprints Shouldn’t Be Used In Court

I’m sure everyone has seen some Law and Order or CSI type show where finding a suspect’s fingerprints at a crime scene seals the case.
However, it appears scientists, including members of the National Academy of Sciences are questioning the validity of fingerprints, especially partial fingerprints that have been smudged. From the LA Times:
In 2007, a [...]

Innovation Sparks Jealousy

(Full disclosure: I use, and contribute, to both Fedora and Ubuntu)
I’m finding increased jealousy toward Fedora every day especially when someone points out how well Fedora is innovating.
Case and point, take this article I just read Ubuntu 9.04 vs Fedora 11: A lot can change in one month! The article concludes:
Ubuntu, as usual, has been [...]

The Responsibility of Intellectuals

I don’t consider myself an intellectual, but perhaps for moral reasons I should.  First, I am interested in many intellectual things.  Second, I have a unique ability to do some intellectual things. (Otherwise, I would not have successfully been admitted to a PhD program for physics.) Third I came across an interesting article named The [...]

Krugman

Krugman’s posts always worry me. For those who do not know him, he has won the Nobel Prize for economics, is one of the 50 most cited economists of all time, writes for the New York Times, and his blog is considered one of the most influential in the world.
Furthermore, he is traditionally always spot [...]

Finally Learned MPI

I have used several codes that use MPI but not written one from scratch. I have only added to codes others have done the MPI work for. To be honest, I had a hard time reading the online documentation. However, a post doc showed me a code (below) that opened opened my eyes to what [...]

Finally Picked Up My Masters Degree

As some readers may know, I am a PhD Candidate in physics at UC Irvine.  However, last September I was awarded a masters degree in physics since I automatically qualified.  Today I finally went into the registrars office to pick it up, so now I have a shiny new diploma to hang on a wall. [...]

Another 100,000+ week for Fedora 10

Fedora 10 has been gaining new users at impressive rates.  This past week alone Fedora 10 has picked up over 100,000 more.  This puts the total number of Fedora users somewhere around 12-13 million, higher than any other Linux distribution. (If you disagree, please direct me to numbers.)  At last count, Fedora 10 has a [...]

Physics Quote Of The Day

Another one from Zee:  (I may adopt this one as my answer to the question “What is quantum field theory”)
Quantum field theory arose our of our need to describe the ephemeral nature of life.
He then goes on to discuss how it takes quantum field theory to explain why fundamental particles pop in and out of [...]

See, Some Physicists Have Normal Work Ethics Too

An unnamed graduate student speaking about an unnamed professor had this to say:
I decided to have Professor X be my thesis advisor because he/she feels like a 40 hour week is sufficient.  The whole 50-60 hour a week attitude just wasn’t working for me.
So there you go, some physicists believe in normal work loads.