Saturday, December 31, 2005

sudoku (051231)

sudoku (051231)

It is Saturday once again, so you know what that means: time for another super-hard sudoku. Since there hasn't been a single comment about the (lack of) monster sudokus, this one will just be a 9 by 9 sudoku, but wickedly difficult.

Now, seeing as it is New Year's Eve, I just want to say that if you are going to be partying tonight, and you have a little bit too much to drink, don't be an asshole - get someone else to drive you, or take a cab, or crash where you are. Dying or killing someone else is not the way to ring in the new year.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 30 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments. The first person to do so wins a prize: a guest appearance in my Mr. Robot Guy cartoon.

Update: The solution is here.

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Thursday, December 29, 2005

sudoku (051229)

sudoku (051229)

Welcome! to another edition of sudoku, my shameless thrice-weekly attempt to boost readership and steal eyeballs away from local newspapers.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 30 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments.

Update: Solved! the solution is here.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

On the mainstream media's enemies list

On the mainstream media's enemies list

In today's Orlando Sentinel, Kathleen Parker hangs a big ol' Kick Me sign on her back:

What is wonderful and miraculous about the Internet needs little elaboration. We all marvel at the ease with which we can access information -- whether reading government documents previously available only to a few, or tracking down old friends and new enemies.

It is this latter -- our new enemies -- that interests me most. I don't mean al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden, but the less visible, insidious enemies of decency, humanity and civility -- the angry offspring of narcissism's quickie marriage to instant gratification.
The enemies to which she refers? Bloggers.

Although I've been a blog fan since the beginning, and have written favorably about the value added to journalism and public knowledge thanks to the new "citizen journalist," I'm also wary of power untempered by restraint and accountability.

Say what you will about the so-called mainstream media, but no industry agonizes more about how to improve its product, police its own members, and better serve its communities. Newspapers are filled with carpal-tunneled wretches, overworked and underpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to getting it right.
This is demonstrably false. Just ask Dan Rather. Or Eason Jordan. Or Jayson Blair. Or Walter Pincus. Or as a counterexample, ask Michael Yon.

Fact-checking is one thing the blogosphere does very, very well. I couldn't get away with publishing a falsehood here. Even with my small readership, only 50 or so regular daily readers, I am certain that even the tiniest error I make here will be pounced upon, and a correction forced. Just watch how fast this gets corrected: E=mc3E=mc2. (That didn't take long. Lone Pony came up with the correction four hours after I posted this. Two hours later I checked my email and saw the message from Lone Pony, then made this correction. Ever see a response that fast from a newspaper?)

If what I wrote was truly outlandish, I could expect to not only hear about it, but potentially be ridiculed in thousands of blogs - and worst of all, to be ignored thereafter. I get instant fact-checking too; if I write something stupid or crazy or just plain incorrect, I can expect a comment about it within a few hours at most. And I would have to correct my mistake; I've done so in the past, on several occasions. So has any other blogger worth his salt who has been at it for any length of time.

If a newspaper publishes something that is stupid, or crazy, or just plain incorrect, then they get letters to the editor - letters which the editor might or might not publish, letters which might not get acknowledged at all. The error might be corrected, in small print on page A12 a few weeks later. Or it might just simply be buried.

This is the major difference between publishing news on a blog as opposed to publishing it in the mainstream media: transparency. Bloggers have checks and balances in their readers and a multitude of other blogs. Newspapers checks and balances are completely opaque, where they exist at all.

Prior to the arrival of the blogosphere, a paper like the New York Times had gravitas, respectability, trustworthiness ... and I suspect that these qualities were due in large part to the opacity of the feedback system. Now that bloggers can publish easily, and now that there are millions of fact-checkers rather than the handful that any newspaper can afford, the New York Times has been exposed over and over again as being little more than a fancy version of the Weekly World News. Not that I am picking on the Times in particular; they are simply emblematic of the newspaper publishing industry as a whole. Newspapers around the globe have taken a hit to their trustworthiness, because now the transparency has been taken care of for them by an outside force, the blogosphere. And it shows, in consistently-declining readership across the newspaper industry.

Bloggers persist no matter their contributions or quality, though most would have little to occupy their time were the mainstream media to disappear tomorrow. Some bloggers do their own reporting, but most rely on mainstream reporters to do the heavy lifting. Some bloggers also offer superb commentary, but most babble, buzz and blurt like caffeinated adolescents competing for the Ritalin generation's inevitable senior superlative: Most Obsessive-Compulsive.

Even so, they hold the same megaphone as the adults and enjoy perceived credibility owing to membership in the larger world of blog grown-ups. These effete and often-clever "bloggies" are rich in time and toys, but bereft of adult supervision.
Here's where Parker goes off the rails. If I put out consistently poor-quality blogposts, I might persist - but my readership would drop to nil. You see, I do have adult supervision: my readers. They ultimately decide whether my blog is worth reading, or not. If not, then they will go elsewhere - they have fifty or sixty million other blogs they could be reading instead.

And while Parker is correct that bloggers rely on journalists to do most of the primary reporting, that isn't always going to be the case. Where was the primary reporting from the mainstream media on Iraq's elections? It was nonexistent. If you wanted to know what was going on in Iraq, you had to turn to the above-mentioned Michael Yon or else go to Pajamas Media: bloggers, all.

Each time I wander into blogdom, I'm reminded of the savage children stranded on an island in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.

What Golding demonstrated -- and what we're witnessing as the blogosphere's offspring multiply -- is that people tend to abuse power when it is unearned and will bring down others to enhance themselves. Likewise, many bloggers seek the destruction of others for their own self-aggrandizement. When a mainstream journalist stumbles, they pile on like so many savages, hoisting his or her head on a bloody stick as Golding's children did the fly-covered head of a butchered sow.
"without adult supervision"..."murderous barbarians"..."savages"... Thanks Kathleen, we love you too. I am tickled pink by the second-last paragraph in her essay:
I mean no disrespect to the many brilliant people out there -- professors, lawyers, doctors, philosophers, scientists and other journalists who also happen to blog. Again, they know who they are. But we should beware and resist the rest of the ego-gratifying rabble who contribute only snark, sass and destruction.
After an entire article in which she calls bloggers children, savages, murderous barbarians, and so on, it is a little rich to say "I mean no disrespect" in the second-to-last paragraph. As for her ego-gratifying rabble, well, if what they write is of good quality, then they will get readership; if not, then not. It's the free market, baby.

Perhaps that is what has Kathleen Parker so discombobulated: it really is a free market. Maybe she is afraid that newspapers will join buggy-whip makers: an industry demolished by the advance of technology and an unwillingness (or an inability) to adapt.

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back to normal

back to normal

Michelle Malkin links to a couple stories from the BBC and AP - after a hiatus for peace on earth and goodwill toward men, Palestinian militants launched rocket attacks into Israel, followed by a retaliatory airstrike by the Israelis on a Palestinian base in southern Lebanon.

One would think that the Arab nations would learn, eventually. That is, one would think that if one was rational. Which apparently the Palestinians are not.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2005

new cartoon

new cartoon

As my regular readers know by now, I love cartoons. Occasionally, however, one of the cartoons does something wonky; today, the DuJour cartoon started asking for a password. This has happened before with Toy Trunk Railroad, which I simply eliminated until it started behaving normally again. When something like this happens to a single panel cartoon like DuJour, though, I can't simply eliminate it. My blog is set up so that if I have an extremely short post like this one, the single panel cartoons fill up the space in the center column, thus preventing the wide strips at the bottom from overrunning the stuff in the right sidebar. So, if I eliminate a single-panel cartoon, I have to replace it with something else.

I have been bugging fellow Red Ensign blogger Blair Hansen of Italics Mine to publish his cartoon in a regularly-updating format. He's hilarious - go check out his archives. Anyhow, Blair hasn't taken up that challenge yet, but he has allowed me to publish his cartoon here. So, that's what I have done; scroll down to see the latest Italics Mine cartoon.

Rather than make Blair do all the work in publishing his cartoon, here's what I'm doing: as he publishes a new cartoon, I copy it to my Photobucket account and rename it. Then a short section of html code publishes his latest cartoon on my blog. If anyone else wants to publish the Italics Mine cartoon on their own blog, here is the necessary html code:


I used the width of 400 pixels because it works well for my blog, but Blair typically publishes his cartoon more than 700 pixels wide. Just adjust the width="400" statement to give a width in pixels appropriate to your own blog.

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more pretty pictures from Cassini

more pretty pictures from Cassini

The Cassini probe continues to return stunning pictures of Saturn and its moons. Click on an image below for a high-res version. Earlier posts in the Cassini series can be found here and here.

First, a picture of the moon Enceladus taken from a distance of 108349 km on December 24, 2005:
Next, a picture of the moon Telesto taken on Christmas day, from a distance of 20825 km:
And a enhanced-color image of Titan from May 5, 2005. Note the high-level detached layer of the atmosphere (the thin purple line just outside of a thin, black, empty layer):
Finally, one of the prettiest sights in the solar system - Saturn and its rings, with the shadow of the rings obscuring part of the northern hemisphere:

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Monday, December 26, 2005

sudoku (051227)

sudoku (051227)

Well, now that the social aspects of Christmas are done for the year, I can get back to my regularly-scheduled programming; yes, it is time once again for an easy sudoku.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 30 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments; I will credit the first person to solve it, immortalizing their name here on my blog.

Update: We have a winnah! Anonymous gives the correct response here.

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edge of seventeen

edge of seventeen

It is amazing that in all the history of astronomy, one of the oldest of sciences, there has never been an official definition of the word "planet".

Depending upon how the International Astronomical Union defines "planet" in the spring of 2006, our sun might have 8, 9 or even seventeen planets. If they go with the definition that a planet is any round object greater than 1000 km in diameter, then Pluto will remain a planet - and several Kuiper Belt Objects will be officially planets as well: Sedna, Quaoar, Xena, Buffy, Santa, EasterBunny, Orcus, and Ixion. (They are going to have to come up with official names for some of these as well... while Xena might pass muster, I doubt that Santa or EasterBunny will become the official names of those objects.)

Of course, the IAU might decide to demote Pluto and group it within the "trans-Neptunian objects", a decision which would surely anger a great many people.

I find the definition noted above to be somewhat lacking. The 1000 km value is completely arbitrary. Personally I prefer the "gravitational rounding" definition of a planet: any object which orbits a star that is large enough for gravity to force it into a spherical shape, but too small for gravity to ignite hydrogen fusion. Of course, under this particular definition, the sun would have nineteen (known) planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Ixion, Quaoar, Varuna, Santa, EasterBunny, Orcus, Buffy, Xena, and Sedna. Under this definition, the sun may in fact have dozens or even hundreds of planets, the vast majority of them so far undiscovered. Some more asteroids besides Ceres might also be considered planets under the gravitational rounding definition (we really don't know much about Pallas, for instance).

Hey, as far as I'm concerned, the more the merrier.

(h/t to Chris at Spacecraft)

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...or maybe you can't take the sky from me

...or maybe you can't take the sky from me

Apparently the Entertainment Weekly interview with Joss Whedon took some things out of context (or just plain got it wrong). From an article in the Toronto Star:

And now it has all somehow come full circle. The TV show, Firefly, abruptly cancelled halfway through its first season, did well enough in fan-generated DVD sales to inspire its resurrection as the feature film Serenity. After a healthy, if not yet entirely profitable theatrical run, it arrives [December 20th] on DVD.

And after that, who knows? A sequel? Another series?

"It would depend on huge numbers from the DVD," writer/director Whedon allows. "Obviously, we are still shy of making our money back from the box office. But we are within shouting distance. Still, it would have to blow up pretty huge for a sequel to be called for.

"Mind you, stranger things have happened. And they do seem to happen to me. So it's not like I'm shutting the door."


Sounds like a definite maybe to me.

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Saturday, December 24, 2005

apologies

apologies

I have been out of town for a few days, so I have been shamefully neglecting my blog. As a result, I did not post a sudoku on Thursday or today - and I had promised a 25 by 25 monster sudoku for today. I am still planning to put one together, but it will take several hours; I might not get it done today, so perhaps tomorrow.

Update, Christmas day: The program I use to generate the monster sudokus appears unable to generate 25 by 25 sudokus. So, that's it, my last monster sudoku was on December 17th, and from now on I will only produce 9x9 sudokus on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays - that is, unless I get requests to produce more 16 by 16 sudokus.

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

you can take the sky from me

you can take the sky from me

Entertainment Weekly says that Firefly is done for good; apparently, the film Serenity was a non-starter as a franchise - it cost $40 million to make, but only made $25 million in the theaters.

However, the DVD goes on sale today; wanna bet that it makes many times its theater take in worldwide DVD sales?

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sudoku (051220)

sudoku (051220)

Welcome to Tuesday, and thus time for a nice, easy sudoku.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 30 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments.

Update: The puzzle was solved by Angel, here.

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Monday, December 19, 2005

fly, Falcon, fly

fly, Falcon, fly

At T minus 18 minutes, everything is go for the SpaceX Falcon launch. Out of the Cradle is liveblogging the event.

Update: According to Kimbal Musk (Elon's brother), the mission has been aborted. I assume that this is due to the high winds that forced a hold in the countdown at T minus 14 minutes, but I'll find out for sure shortly.

Update 2: Out of the Cradle reports that the scrub was due to a fuel tank leak. The next available launch date will be no earlier than January 2nd or 3rd of 2006.

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belaboring the obvious

belaboring the obvious

I've been programming computers for 25 years, back when the Apple II was new. I was the first kid in my class to have my own computer, a Commodore Vic-20. I know how to program in BASIC, FORTRAN77, Pascal, C++, Mathematica, 8085, 80x86, 6502, 68HC11, (I'm probably forgetting a few languages) and wrote my own mid-level computer language. Heck, I've even designed computers. Therefore, it comes as no suprise to me that:

My computer geek score is greater than 95% of all people in the world! How do you compare? Click here to find out!

and
I am nerdier than 95% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!


(hat tip to Space Pragmatism)

Sunday, December 18, 2005

robot videos

robot videos

I was looking through Google Video the other day, and I found a few movies there that feature robots. Of course, my robot video is in there (and also here), but I wanted to direct attention to some of the other really good robot videos too.

First, there is this video of a Japanese robot dancing - very fluid motion, kind of eerie actually. Next, there is a cute animation called the Little Robot. Third, there is a short animation of a robotic arm in operation.

And finally, there is an animated video that has a robot as a peripheral cast member, in a Star Trek: the Next Generation parody. Although the robot has a bit part in this video, the whole thing is hilarious and well worth downloading.

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open letter to Ontario

open letter to Ontario

When I think about the impending Canadian federal election, I am torn.

Part of me wants to see the Liberal party suffering a Campbellesque defeat, losing their official party status. In a sane world, Canadians would severely punish the party for any number of things: for stealing taxpayers' money and kicking it back into Liberal party coffers (Adscam); for their harebrained schemes, like the utterly ineffective $2 billion long-gun registry which has yet to capture a single real criminal (while criminalizing hundreds of thousands of honest Canadians), or a $2 billion job creation scheme that created not one permanent job; for the constant lies (such as their 1993 pledge to abolish the GST, or Paul Martin promising to fix the democratic deficit and end Western alienation); for the billions of dollars that have gone missing in Foundations untouchable by the Auditor General... I could go on and on and on.

However, I fear that this will not happen. I believe that Canadians, particularly those in Ontario, have become spineless wimps - wimps who tolerate corruption on a scale unseen outside of banana republics. Far from punishing the Liberal party with a massive defeat, I think that Canadians will condone the Liberal party's behaviour, even reward it, by handing the Liberals a majority government.

Two generations of corrupt rule in Canada has sucked the fortitude from Canadians. Where we were once a world power, we now only have a say on the international stage due to rapidly-fading-from-memory past glories. Our armed forces operate equipment older than most soldiers' parents. Our soldiers are sent into desert combat in Afghanistan wearing jungle camoflage. The armed forces has been cut, and cut, and cut again, until now we don't even have one complete brigade remaining. Our soldiers cannot defend our borders from any potential aggressor; we don't have the planes to get them where they need to go. Our country survives as an independent political entity thanks only to the Americans. And at the same time, we curse the Americans, our protectors by virtue only of a shared history that we are earnestly wiping out, and a shared border upon which we are forcing them to erect a fence and defend, as they no longer trust us. And why should they? What have we done for them lately, other than condemning them for protecting us and providing us with the market that sustains half of all Canadian jobs?

The country is far gone down the path of socialism and political correctness and mediocrity. With every passing day our government interferes more and more with the private lives of Canadians, as we swaddle ourselves in the smothering embrace of the nanny state. There is a cancer in the country: as socialism has metastatized, the entrepreneurs - the only ones who actually create jobs - have either given up, fled the country, or embraced the corruption and palm-greasing that has become the modus operandi of a government that exerts astounding interfering influence upon the economy.

We have abandoned the ideas of peace, order, and good government. In their place, we have installed a revolving-door criminal justice system, a sickening reversal of morality where good is seen as evil and evil as good, and a government that operates on "pull" and graft and brown envelopes stuffed full of untraceable cash left on a table in a Montreal restaurant. We have abdicated the law-making function reserved for Parliament, in favour of allowing nine unelected and unaccountable Supreme Court justices, appointed at the pleasure of the Prime Minister, to make our laws for us. We have allowed the Senate to become a feeding trough for party hacks and hangers-on, loyal only to the Prime Minister who appoints them, rather than the chamber of sober second thought as designed by the Fathers of Confederation.

We have ignored the Constitution, allowing the federal government to vastly overstep its bounds and encroach onto Provincial responsibilities such as health care and education. We have allowed a "reading-in" to the Constitution of rights that were explicitly not included by the framers, such as same-sex marriage, while riding roughshod over explicitly-listed rights such as the freedom of religion. This has been done in a willy-nilly patchwork, based upon whatever frivolous idea happens to be in vogue that particular day, with no forethought as to the inevitable consequences or the inherent contradictions imposed by this flavour-of-the-month approach. For example, since marriage is now a "right", divorce is now an unconstitutional infringement upon that right. Unintended consequences are a bitch, no?

The Canada in which I was born is gone. In its place, there is a sickly, jaundiced and jaded patchwork of special interest groups. Where once there were hard-working people who fought to make the world better for their children and grandchildren, we now have the equivalent of delinquent teenagers spraypainting "Kilroy wuz here" on the Mona Lisa, giggling to themselves as they destroy something beautiful.

There are pockets of Canada remaining, but they get smaller and more isolated as time goes on and the cancer spreads. The largest single pocket of the Canada as it once was, the Canada that was a great country, is the province of Alberta. And yet, even there the cancer is spreading, outward from the two big universities. In Edmonton and Calgary, yes even there, there are people who embrace the ideology of the socialists and communists, ignoring the inevitable end result of their leprous ideology.

It is time for Alberta to save itself. It is ironic that the only reason we stay is the deeply-held patriotism for Canada, a Canada that no longer exists.

And yet, a large part of the population of Alberta still holds a misplaced belief in the honesty and integrity of our fellow citizens. We hope against all reason and precedent that the bulk of Canadians will reject the thieves and grifters in the Liberal party, to give them the decades-long banishment to the political wilderness.

However, that will not happen. This coming election, when Ontario rejects decency and honesty and elects 100-plus Liberal MPs, will be an eye-opener for many Albertans. We will finally see the rest of Canada for what it has become: an international laughing-stock, populated by invertebrates too weak to stand up and say "no more".

The first step in combating flesh-eating disease is to recognize that the disease is present. The next step is to amputate the affected area and pump the remaining flesh full of antibiotics. This election will provide Albertans with the recognition that Canada has become afflicted with an advanced form of national necrotizing fasciitis. With that recognition, we will begin the process of amputating the sick part of the country from the healthy part, and then using the antibiotic of sound fiscal policy to treat the disease in all that remains; that is, in Alberta.

So there you have it, Ontario, the upcoming election in a nutshell: a vote for the Liberal party is a vote to break up the country. Please do so, so that those of us who still believe in the things that once made Canada great can go on about the business of recovering that greatness, while those of you who believe in the nanny state and corruption and graft can go about the business of going to hell.

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Saturday, December 17, 2005

sudoku (051217)

sudoku (051217)

I was going to post another 16 by 16 monster sudoku like I have for the last several Saturdays, but I changed my mind at the last minute. Instead, here's a devilishly difficult 9 by 9 sudoku.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 30 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments.

Update: The solution is here.

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Thursday, December 15, 2005

the ultimate pratical joke

the ultimate practical joke

Have you ever done a practical joke on someone? Placed a Whoopee cushion on the teacher's chair, or disassembled a Volkswagen and reassembled it in the Dean's office?

Well, that's nothing compared to the three-year long practical joke that Dylan Reiff and Joe Korsmo pulled on Kolin Pope.

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sudoku (051215)

sudoku (051215)

It's Thursday, so it's time for the medium-hard sudoku for the week. I made this one a little harder than my normal Thursday sudokus, just becausee I can. It's ok though, because my readers are brilliant.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 30 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments. If nobody gets it, then I will post the solution myself in a couple of days.

Update: Congratulations to Anon Y. Mouse, who posted the correct solution here.

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Wednesday, December 14, 2005

yet more problems with Hayabusa

yet more problems with Hayabusa

JAXA had some more problems with the Hayabusa probe. It has already been determined that it is highly unlikely (but not certain) that the spacecraft managed to collect a sample of the asteroid Itokawa, but now a new problem has come up: a gas burst on Friday caused by leaking fuel has set the spacecraft spinning out of control. JAXA is confident that they will be able to regain control of the spacecraft, but now the return to earth is delayed by several years. The proble will now leave Itokawa in 2007 and return to earth in 2010.

Even though the spacecraft has encountered a slew of problems over the course of the mission, and appears to have failed in its primary mission, I wouldn't call it a total failure. The software on the probe has been magnificent, enabling Hayabusa to land twice on Itokawa, once during a complete communications blackout. It was the first unmanned spacecraft to land and take off again from an extraterrestrial body, and did so twice. While the range of problems enountered would likely have crippled many other spacecraft, Hayabusa is still ticking. And come 2010, it could (assuming no catastrophic problems) become the first spacecraft to return to earth from a mission to an asteroid. I'd rate the Japanese effort here as a solid B minus.

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Tuesday, December 13, 2005

handy spreadsheet

handy spreadsheet

Dick Stafford of Rocket Dungeon has put together a spreadsheet of the various projects in which private space companies are involved. If you have any additions or corrections to his spreadsheet, let him know here.

I have added a few more space companies to my Space Businesses list in the left sidebar based upon information mined by Dick, and included his spreadsheet at the top of the list. I'm hoping that list will grow very long over the next few years.

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sudoku (051213)

sudoku (051213)

Welcome to Tuesday, and this week's easy sudoku.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 30 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments.

Update: And the winner is... gfriend, who posted the solution in the comments here before noon today.

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Monday, December 12, 2005

Sunday, December 11, 2005

i just keep messing with it

i just keep messing with it

I got rid of the Space Newsfeed and the Space Blogfeed in my right sidebar. It just made the page load take too long, and didn't really add much to the blog. The Pajamas Media feed stays though.

I think this is the way that the blog template is going to stay for a while, other than occasionally changing some of the comics, or maybe adding some more ads to the right sidebar. I mean it this time. Really.

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Saturday, December 10, 2005

monster sudoku (051210)

monster sudoku (051210)

Saturday is once again upon us, so it is time for a 16 x 16 monster sudoku.

The rules of Monster Sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 16 by 16 grid, which is further divided up into sixteen 4 by 4 blocks. In each row, column, and 4x4 block, the letters A through P each get written exactly once. There is only one solution. If the letters are a little too small for you, click on the image to bring up a large version. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

The following words are listed in the correct solution to the puzzle:

BEHOLD, BLOOD, CANCEL, CHILD, CLIMB, CLONE, EDGE, FLAG, FOLK, FOOD, GIMBAL, LOGIC, MILK, PLANE, POLE

The words might be written across, down, or diagonally; some are written backwards.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it out on graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold). If you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments. The first person who posts the correct solution wins a prize: a permalink on my blogroll and a graphic declaring him or her to be the Monster Sudoku Champion, which can be displayed on their own blog. I will post the solution in two or three days.

I will post one more 16 x 16 sudoku next Saturday. The Saturday after that is Christmas Eve, for which I will be posting a 25 x 25 behemoth. After that, I don't know if I will be making up monster sudokus anymore; they take a couple of hours to put together and I don't know if anyone is trying them at all. I will still keep posting sudokus every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, but I might just make the Saturday ones devilishly difficult 9 x 9 sudokus. I haven't decided for certain yet, but that's the way I'm leaning.

Update: The solution is here.

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Virgin goes to New Mexico

Virgin goes to New Mexico

Virgin Galactic has chosen the spaceport in New Mexico as the site of future launches of its fleet of five SpaceShipTwo craft.

Dry weather reduces the possibility of corrosion and the high altitude makes reusable launch vehicles more cost-efficient in terms of the fuel needed to reach space.

Virgin will not be the only ones operating out of New Mexico: Starchaser Industries has also decided to manufacture and launch their craft there.

Dick Stafford of Rocket Dungeon has more on the New Mexico Spaceport.

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Friday, December 09, 2005

another book on the way

another book on the way

One thing I love about this blogging thing, which has just started happening recently, is that people send me free books. Today Rick Tumlinson of the Space Frontier Foundation offered to send me a copy of Return to the Moon. It should be here within a week or so, at which time I will review it here on my blog.

He is considering making this book a yearly event; maybe next year I can contribute to the effort.

Note to authors and publishers: I am all about free stuff. Any authors, editors, or publishers who want to send me free stuff, feel free.

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Thursday, December 08, 2005

sudoku (051208)

sudoku (051208)

Thursday is here, so it is time once again for the medium-hard sudoku of the week.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 36 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments.

Update: Ben of NYC Nova Hunter posted the correct solution here.

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Wednesday, December 07, 2005

getting space islands off the ground

getting space islands off the ground

Jon Goff of Selenian Boondocks cornered Gene Meyers of Space Islands Group a few months ago after the last session of the ACES conference. He has some good ideas for closing SIG's business plan, such as offering cheap space-based solar power satellites to both China and India (and having them bid against each other); using small low earth orbit- based solar power satellites to power microwave thermal rockets for the LEO-to-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit stage as an intermediate step to building the big GEO satellites; and even subsidizing demand for reusable launch vehicles.

As the chief engineer for one of the small space companies that SIG would fund, I am all for anything that can close Space Island Group's business case.

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Tuesday, December 06, 2005

cry freedom

cry freedom

The Carnival of Liberty is up at Below the Beltway.

sudoku (051206)

sudoku (051206)

It's Tuesday, so it's time once again for an easy sudoku.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 30 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments. The person who first posts the correct solution receives a prize: satisfaction at a job well done.

Update: Ben of NYC Nova Hunter got this one; the full solution is posted here.

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Monday, December 05, 2005

what the heck was that all about?

what the heck was that all about?

All the Blogspot blogs have been down for several hours. Mine only just came back up now. No explanation from Blogger.

Sheesh, it's hard enough generating traffic to the site even when it isn't shut down for a quarter of the day.

saving money, saving space shuttles, and saving the vision for space exploration

saving money, saving space shuttles, and saving the Vision for Space Exploration

In today's The Space Review, Taylor Dinerman looks at the number of shuttle flights required to finish the International Space Station and to fly the one last mission to the Hubble: 19 launches in all. With the next shuttle flight due no earlier than May of 2006, that leaves 55 or 56 months to do 19 launches: an average of one launch every three months.

Although 4 or 5 launches per year is about what NASA was flying in the years prior to the Columbia disaster, I don't think that this is a reasonable pace for shuttle launches anymore. The Discovery launch last year turned up more problems with the spray-on foam insulation on the external tank, pushing September's launch back to November, and again to next year. If NASA has any further problems with the SOFI, and they will, then further launches will also be pushed back. Any further delays in the launch schedule will mean that shuttles will have to be turned around even faster. If that is not possible, then that means that some launches will have to be dropped from the plan.

And given the number of remaining launches, the age of the remaining three shuttles, and the terrible, terrible shuttle design, there will be at least one more catastrophic failure. Suppose it is happens in 2006 or 2007 to Discovery; that means that rather than Atlantis and Endeavour each launching once every nine months, they would each have to launch once every six months to maintain the launch schedule - and that is assuming that there isn't another two-year gap between launches to study what went wrong. That increases the odds that one of the remaining two will also be destroyed, as maintenance is crammed into one-third less time. If however the next catastrophic failure occurs in 2008 or 2009, and there is another two-year gap to study what went wrong, then that would pretty much kill the shuttle program altogether.

Dinerman explores some alternative, cost-saving options. First he suggests going to single-shift operations and reducing the number of flights to two per year, or about 10 to 11 total, and possibly cutting back on flying the European and Japanese modules. This is a political non-starter. Second he suggests simply ending the shuttle program now and concentrating on the Crew Exploration Vehicle, Crew Launch Vehicle, and Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV) to complete the station; this is also a non-starter, as the HLLV will not be able to loft some of the bigger modules. Finally he suggests not saving the costs at all, but counting on NASA receiving a bigger budget.

Although I would favor ending the shuttle program right now (hell, I would shut down the entire agency right now if I could), even a hardcore libertarian like myself can see that there is so much entrenched pork that it just isn't going to happen (but the calls to do both will be deafening after the next destroyed shuttle). What I would propose instead is a combination of Dinerman's first and second options: Accelerate the HLLV development, let that vehicle carry whatever it can launch to the station, and use the shuttle only for the Hubble servicing mission and to launch whatever modules to the station that are too big for the HLLV to carry. This would probably mean that it would take longer to complete the station, but would hopefully cut down enough on the remaining flights of the shuttle that my projected catastrophic failure doesn't occur. The station would still get finished, thus satisfying the international partners; it just would be done with fewer shuttle flights.

If there are only five modules (I'm guessing at the number) too big for the HLLV to carry, then that would mean a total of six more shuttle flights including the trip to Hubble. After the fourth flight, one-third of the current standing army doing maintenance on the shuttles could be laid off (as one shuttle would be retired), and after the fifth flight another third of the standing army would be let go. The remaining third would get the last shuttle flight prepped, and afterwards would be retained to prepare the HLLV flights. The layoff of 13000 out of a standing army of 20000 engineers and technicians, along with the elimination of their expense accounts, would give NASA the funds they need to accelerate HLLV development. The first HLLV could thus be launched much sooner than currently planned, and the HLLV fleet would finish the station.

Will it happen this way? Probably not. NASA isn't in the business of saving money (NASA isn't in business at all, but that's a rant for another day). I fully expect, after May of 2006, that NASA will attempt to launch once every three months. Concern over problems with the shuttle, and the desire to prevent my catastrophic-loss scenario, will likely cause some launches to be postponed, pushing the schedule so far back that the shuttles will not finish the station before the planned retirement date of 2010. The fleet operations would thus be extended beyond 2010, pushing the development of the CEV, CLV, and HLLV back further and further. The near-certain loss of another shuttle (the fleet won't be getting any younger) would mean another two-year gap between launches, and a commensurate pushback of the development of the Vision for Space Exploration. And the further the VSE gets pushed back, the less likely it will be to happen at all.

If President Bush is serious about the VSE, then it is essential to retire the shuttles as soon as possible, preferably before he leaves office. If the shuttles are still flying in 2014, then the VSE probably won't happen at all, and Mark Whittington will get an "I-told-you-so" moment as China sets up a base on the moon before NASA does.

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Sunday, December 04, 2005

epsilon rebuilding?

epsilon rebuilding?

It appears the hurricane season isn't over just yet. A few days ago, hurricane Epsilon was heading northeast in the Atlantic, typical behaviour for a hurricane that is heading into the north Atlantic to dissipate. However, it looks like Epsilon is going to take another run at the Caribbean and USA; it is expected to curl back south towards the tropics. There it will probably gain strength from the warmer water:
We could see Epsilon hitting the Caribbean and Cuba in about seven to ten days. Hopefully this is the last hurricane for this year.

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book review

book review

How to Survive a Robot Uprising: tips on defending yourself against the coming rebellion by Daniel H. Wilson

This book arrived a few days ago in the mail. I expected that it might take me a while to read this book, but I was wrong. I read it in one sitting, in just over an hour.

It is a fun read, with lots of humour. The book is divided into several parts, each of which begins with a quote from the Terminator, Lost in Space, the Matrix, or Futurama. It doesn't take itself too seriously, drawing heavily upon scenarios presented in cheesy science fiction movies:

Today, scientists are working hard to bring these arificial creations to life. In Japan, fuzzy little real robots are delivering much appreciated hug therapy to the elderly. Children are frolicking with smiling robot toys. It all seems so innocuous. And yet how could so many Hollywood scripts be wrong? How could millions of dollars of special effects lead us astray? So take no chances. Arm yourself with expert knowledge. For the sake of humanity, listen to serious advice from real robotics experts. How else will you survive the inevitable future in which robots rebel against their human masters?

Hidden underneath the humour, sneaky-like, is an introduction to robotics: how each robot is a combination of sensors, software, and effectors; the various types of sensors; the different types of robot bodies; and the state of the art in AI. While on the surface the book is about how to defeat future robot overlords (number one technique: go for the eyes; or with giant walking robots: aim for the legs) it is really about the current state of robotics research: what types of robots are out there now, their strengths and their weaknesses, and the challenges faced by roboticists. The reader is eased into learning about things like hyperspectral cameras, proprioception, gait recognition, and smart houses.

Wilson also gives advice on what to do if robots actually do take over, although some of that advice applies to other TSHTF emergencies as well; advice on bugging out works equally well if the impetus is a robot uprising or a hurricane or a nuclear war.

The artwork by Richard Horne, spread throughout the book, complements the subject matter well. Various illustrations show evil robots plotting humanity's demise, people getting zapped by giant walking robots, a guy fighting back with a crowbar, an electromagnetic pulse destroying all robots, plus lots of little illustrations approximately every second page.

I enjoyed this book, and recommend it for that hard-to-buy-for mad scientist (or curious kid of any age) on your holiday shopping list.

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Saturday, December 03, 2005

monster sudoku (051203)

monster sudoku (051203)

It's Saturday once again, so it's time for monster sudoku. Let's get right to it.

The rules of Monster Sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 16 by 16 grid, which is further divided up into sixteen 4 by 4 blocks. In each row, column, and 4x4 block, the letters A through P each get written exactly once. There is only one solution. If the letters are a little too small for you, click on the image to bring up a large version. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

The following words are listed in the correct solution to the puzzle:

BEAN, BEEF, BLEAK, BOLD, CALM, CHAIN, CHEAP, CONIC, DANK, DICE, HOME, IGLOO, FLAIL, MELD, MILE, MOOD, MONK, PEACH

The words might be written across, down, or diagonally; some are written backwards.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it out on graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold). If you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments. The first person who posts the correct solution wins a prize: a permalink on my blogroll and a graphic declaring him or her to be the Monster Sudoku Champion, which can be displayed on their own blog. I will post the solution in two or three days.

Update: the solution can be found here.

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Friday, December 02, 2005

surviving the robot uprising

surviving the robot uprising

I mentioned the book How to Survive a Robot Uprising by Daniel H. Wilson ten days ago, and received it this week. At first I thought it would be a straight humor book, but from a brief scan it looks like there is some actual learning available too. I'll post a review of the book sometime in the next week.

I want to thank Matthew Godzieba of Holtzbrinck Publishers for sending me this copy of the book. Note to other publishers: if you want to send me free robotics- or space- or science-related books for review on my blog, feel free to email me.

I'm all about free stuff, baby.

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feed me

feed me

I guess I have resigned myself to near-constant tweaking of the blog template. Today I added three feeds to the sidebars: on the left sidebar now appears the Pajamas media feeds, and at the bottom of the right sidebar are the Space News and Space Blog feeds. I also added about a dozen more links to the space link list on the left sidebar, added another blog to the space blogroll, and fixed up a couple of links that had changed over the last little while. Let's see, what else have I done to it lately... I also added a Rollyo search function, moved the Mr. Robot Guy comic to the sidebar... basically I have made the blog take a really long time to load up. I feel kind of sorry for anyone who comes to this blog using dialup - but only a little, because I have broadband.

The Space Blog feed only reads the feeds from Blogspot space blogs for now. The FeedSweep reader didn't like several of the blogfeeds on the space blogroll, but it took the Blogspot Atom feeds with no problem. Over the next few weeks I will probably be adding even more Space Blog feeds as I wrestle FeedSweep to the ground.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

ESA finds underground water on Mars

ESA finds underground water on Mars

I alluded to this in today's sudoku post. The MARSIS radar instrument on the ESA's Mars Express probe has found a layer of nearly pure water-ice 1km thick and 250 km in diameter at a depth of 1.5 to 2.5 km below the surface of Mars. This lends weight to Gold's Hypothesis, that oil is abiogenic. How? Well, the water did not seep to that depth, not in that quantity. Nor was it covered over by 1.5 km of rock after being deposited. No, that water was there since the planet was formed in the original nebula that surrounded the sun.

Also part of that nebula were other simple chemicals such as methane and ammonia, which would have also formed large deposits just like this water deposit. The same process formed huge water deposits under the earth's surface (estimated at ten times the amount of water in the oceans today) and the deposits of natural gas. In a nutshell, Gold's Hypothesis states that the heat and pressure underground converted the existing natural gas deposits to coal and oil.

Today's prediction: the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, now just over halfway to Mars, will find enormous salt domes under the surface of Mars (a telltale sign of oil deposits), thus conclusively proving Gold's abiogenic oil hypothesis.

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sudoku (051201)

sudoku (051201)

Wow, is it December already? This year has just flown by. It seems like only two days ago I had already posted a sudoku here. Well, that one was pretty easy, so let's try a tougher one today.

The rules of sudoku: The puzzle board consists of a 9 by 9 grid, which is further divided up into nine 3 by 3 blocks. In each row, column, and 3x3 block, the numbers 1 through 9 each get written exactly once. The puzzle board generally starts with 18 to 30 of the cells in the grid already filled in. For those who need help, a short tutorial on how to solve sudoku puzzles can be found here.

To solve this puzzle, I suggest first saving the GIF on your computer. Then print it out (or copy it onto some graph paper) and solve it in pencil (or in pen if you're feeling bold); or, if you don't feel like using paper, then solve it using a graphics editor such as Microsoft Paint.

If you solve this puzzle, post your solution in the comments. The person who first posts the correct solution receives a prize: proof of Gold's Hypothesis.

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