Eureka Man » Life

Do you believe in man-made global warming?

Eureka Man — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 05:01:12 +0000

I took it for granted. Like most people probably, Al Gore had me sold. Until this:

Before watching that the phrase “global warming propaganda” would have smacked of blinkered Republican rhetoric. As is pointed out in the film, there is a great global warming juggernaut brimming with funding for scientists that is very hard to slow down now. Even Bush conceded! (Wouldn’t it be funny if his stance on man-made global warming redeemed him in the end.) I think this is a very important film to legitimize the other side of the debate. I wonder is it having much effect?

I don’t know about you, but having a previously certain belief shattered by what looks like good science gives me a really good feeling. This science stuff is pretty awesome.

After more reading around, it seems the documentary was a bit misleading, including theories which have been discussed in the literature and found to have problems, and not including some theories that have been put forward to explain the data presented. Check out this detailed response. Nevertheless it’s good to have some counterpoint to Al Gore. Now maybe we can meet in the middle?

The US Tax Filing System

Eureka Man — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 22:31:34 +0000

I’m not going to go into details but user-friendly it most certainly is not! We all know this could be done so much better. Where are the web 2.0 startups doing 3-click tax returns?

I recommend Wikipedia to explain it in plain English.

Spacewar!

Eureka Man — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 05:16:07 +0000

Tonight was PARC’s ~~Christmas~~ holiday party in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. I highly recommend visiting if you’re in the area. This evening they fired up the PDP-1 for us and I kicked ass in Space War. Steve Russell, the original programmer, was there apparently but I didn’t get to play him.

PARC Life

Eureka Man — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:41:14 +0000

You walk into one of the hardware labs at PARC. You’re surrounded by scary machines with lasers and pointy bits. There are drawers and drawers of microprocessors, transistors, whatever you desire. Scalpels and screwdrivers in multiple shapes and sizes. There are three guys standing around something in the middle of the lab, pointing and discussing. You walk over and get a peek at what they’re cooking up. It’s a pumpkin. They’re discussing strategy for the inter-lab pumpkin carving contest.

Firefox is edumucating me

Eureka Man — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 05:22:47 +0000

I think spellcheck in every textarea is going to do wonders for my spelling. I’ve almost got over the urge to spell definitely definately already.

Leaving Cert. Students… meet Paul Graham

Eureka Man — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:24:02 +0000

Here’s this week’s inspiring read from the man himself, just in time for anybody who’ll be filling in their CAO this weekend. Read it yourself, but in short: Realise that work and fun are not exclusive. Aim to do what you love and you’ll be great at it, easily. If you don’t know what you love yet then take as many opportunities as possible to try different things.

That’s the way I’ve been playing it for most of my college and work life. And I have very few regrets. (Though you might get a slightly different viewpoint from certain girlfriends/parents )

Now, if only I could combine my work with that more tormenting duty: exercise. Has anybody ever taken the building metaphor of software development literally and come up with a physical programming language? A hot, chiselled bod by coding – now that would be the ultimate panacea!

Tags: cao, leavingcert