Oleg Zabluda's blog: April 24, 2012

Oleg Zabluda's blog

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

500 new fairytales rediscovered in Germany
500 new fairytales rediscovered in Germany

http://indiebookspot.com/2012/03/05/500-new-franz-xaver-von-schonwerth-fairytales-rediscovered-after-more-than-150-years/

"""
More than 500 fairytales, gathered together by Franz Xaver Von Schönwerth more than 150 years ago, have been rediscovered in an archive in Regensburg, Germany. Von Schönwerth was a contemporary of the Grimm Brothers and, like them, worked to collect fairytales for future generations.

The collection includes a number of stories that have never previously been recorded, as well as Bavarian versions of well-known stories such as Rumpelstiltskin and Cinderella. While the Grimm brothers were known for the flourishes they added to stories they collected, Von Schönwerth preferred to record the stories as accurately as possible, with very little added invention of his own.

A translator has already started work on bringing the newly discovered fairytales to an English edition.
"""

Now, hopefully, we'll find out if it's the Germans who were sick, or just the Grimm brothers.
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/Ho4QSTsVXuq
http://indiebookspot.com/2012/03/05/500-new-franz-xaver-von-schonwerth-fairytales-rediscovered-after-more-than-150-years/

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

As I was reading
As I was reading
http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/features/raspberry-pi-interview-eban-upton-reveals-all/

I was floored by the following excerpt:

"""

PCB routing has been a real issue. It’s not just size, it’s also simplicity: the board is a very simple board, in terms of the number of layers and the kind of features that we use in the PCB design, because features cost money. So, it’s easy to make something which is big and simple, and it’s easier to make something which is small and complicated, but it’s hard to make something which is both small and simple. So, yeah, a lot of effort went in to that, and it is one of the reasons we took so long doing it.

The alpha boards took about three days to lay out, but you can see [...] they were big and they were eight layers, whereas the final board is small and six layers. That stuff translates directly into routing effort.
""""

So nowadays 6 layers are considered simple and cheap. After brief search online, I found that they make 26-layer PCBs now. Amazing.
https://www.google.com/search?q=26+Multilayer+PCB
http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/features/raspberry-pi-interview-eban-upton-reveals-all/

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

The Weight of Software
The Weight of Software
http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2008/05/the_weight_of_software.php

Lots of good comments

Vacuum story is instructive that bureaucrats also have hacking streak to them. In order to reduce the problem to an already solved one, they defined "vacuum" as "asphyxiant", but, as always, this has bugs, etc... We all do a lot of that, so I sympathize.

As for weight, there is well-known quantum-information-theoretic answer, somebody gave in the comments. Somebody else correctly pointed out that it's only true about reversible computing, but incorrectly implied that with reversible computing the weight is zero.

In fact, if you want it to run with decent speed, some amount of stored energy is required, which has mass.

There is also a much better known argument from quantum thermodynamics that information i.e. entropy also has minimum mass.
http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2008/05/the_weight_of_software.php

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

Planetary Resources, Inc.
Planetary Resources, Inc. whose founders include Peter Diamandis, James Cameron, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt want to mine asteroids for raw materials. We will find out details later today http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_Rsources

Some obvious notes:
1. I am skeptical about the current cost of automatic mining. See how much it costs to do sample returns now. Automatic mining may become reasonable only after the cost of launch is reduced, but it'll also reduce the profit margin, since it'll be cheaper then now to ship from Earth.
2. It's best to ship water to LEO, then make fuel, rather then make fuel, then ship it to LEO.
3. If they do want to ship fuel to LEO, don't bother with H2. Just ship O2.
4. The value of Fe/Ni in an appropriate asteroid is much more then anything else. Iron is where the real money is, not Platinum/etc. Even on Earth they mine 2.4*10^9 t (=$400G/yr worth) of iron ore, and 1.3*10^9 t of steel (=$1.3T/yr worth), which have to be smelted, while it's pure Fe/Ni in asteroids. For comparison, 111 t (=$5G) of platinum per year is produced.
5. They can use electric guns to launch freight from asteroids/comets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_Resources

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

Inspirational songs about snow. Add yours in the comments.
Inspirational songs about snow. Add yours in the comments.

Майя Кристалинская - А снег идет
FRANK SINATRA - LET IT SNOW,LET IT SNOW,LET IT SNOW
Проект ПНВ "Снегопад" (В.Берковский - Ю.Мориц)
Сергей Никитин "Снег идёт"
Снежинка (Чародеи)
Александр Городницкий "Снег"
Несчастный случай - Снежинка (дуэт Двое против ветра)
Кола Бельды - Увезу тебя я в тундру
Аквариум-С утра шел снег
Верасы - Белый снег
ВИА Пламя «Снег кружится»
Машина Времени - Музыка под снегом
Машина времени-Два белых снега
Нани Брегвадзе - Снегопад
Здравствуй песня - Синий,синий иней.
Белой акации гроздья душистые...
В землянке (оригинал) V zemlyanke (original)

Honorary Mention
Виктор Цой - Звезда по имени солнце
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCio2YpbCKM

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

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