Occasional Observations

Many organizations have reported receiving this letter from the American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN):

http://www.arin.net/knowledge/about_resources/ceo_letter.pdf

They point out that we have about two years remaining in the life of of the IPv4 address space, and that we should be preparing to transition to IPv6 now.  Are you ready?

I like to watch the TED talks.  Most are merely good, some are exceptional.  I just watched a most excellent talk given by Elizabeth Gilbert (bio) titled “A Different Way to Think About Creative Genius”  In her 19-minute talk, she explains the two ways Western thought has considered our creativity.  Ancient Romans and Greeks believed that creativity was a cooperation between humans and the gods.  Since the Renaissance, rational humanism has assigned the creative process to us mortals alone.  Gilbert thinks the ancients had it right and explains why.

Listen to her talk here.

I had been a Republican for a long time. To paraphrase Reagan, I didn’t leave the party, the party left me. It seems others have felt the same way.

Check out the interview and read the post from a former Republican and conservative author Frank Schaeffer here.  I agree with everything the man says.

NYT columnist Paul Krugman asks this in a recent column.

Now, it’s true that a serious investigation of Bush-era abuses would make Washington an uncomfortable place, both for those who abused power and those who acted as their enablers or apologists. And these people have a lot of friends. But the price of protecting their comfort would be high: If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again.

I really hope the new administration will do the right thing and hold the Bush administration accountable for its actions.

Breathing (and breathing correctly) is much more important than merely keeping us alive. Improper breathing can actually cause stress on our bodies and alter our blood chemistry. We all know that taking a couple of good deep breaths can help us to relax, but often we forget to monitor our own breathing and unconsciously fall into bad breathing patterns. Read this short article by a former Apple and Microsoft exec:

http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_10.html

This is hilarious! Sadly, I think some people still think this is how computers work!

Mainframe

In fact, computers do not have brains like we do.  They cannot really think for themselves except when they are doing complicated arithmetic. The important thinking is done by humans who feed them with information called programs. If computers are not regularly fed, they may become listless and unhappy.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/24/how-it-works-the-com.html

I love it when I find an article that brings together multiple of my favorite topics.  So when I saw this article on the Noise Addicts blog about a mathematician who used numerical analysis to finally solve a problem plagueing the music world about a Beatles song;  well, I just had to publish it!

This first chord that starts A Hard Day’s Night is one of the most recognizable and famous opening chords in rock & roll. It’s played by George Harrison on his 12 string Rickenbacker.

The other reason that it’s famous is because for 40 years nobody knew for sure what it was. Many guitar players have tried in vain to recreate the sound but have usually failed miserably.

Well, someone has figured it out definitively - not a musician, but a Dalhousie mathematician.

Four years ago, Jason Brown was inspired by reading news coverage about the song’s 40th anniversary - so much so that he decided to try and see if he could apply a mathematical calculation known as Fourier transform to solve the Beatles’ riddle. The process allowed him to break the sound into distinct frequencies using computer software to find out exactly which notes were on the record.

What he found was interesting: the frequencies he found didn’t match theinstruments on the song. George played a 12-string Rickenbacker, John Lennon played his 6 string, Paul had his bass - none of them quite fit what he found. He then realized what was missing - the 5th Beatle. George Martin was also on the record, playing a piano in the opening chord, which accounted for the problematic frequencies.”

“I started playing guitar because I heard a Beatles record—that was it for my piano lessons,” says Brown. “I had tried to play the first chord of the song many takes over the years. It sounds outlandish that someone could create a mystery around a chord from a time where artists used such simple recording techniques. It’s quite remarkable.”

The Beatles producer added a piano chord that included an F note, impossible to play with the other notes on the guitar. The resulting chord was completely different than anything found in songbooks and scores for the song, which is one reason why Dr. Brown’s findings garnered international attention. He laughs that he may be the only mathematician ever to be published in Guitar Player magazine.

The original PDF published by Dr. Brown is online here.

National Writing Project

This election season, Google and the National Writing Project invited middle and high school students to make their voices heard by writing letters to the U.S. presidential candidates.

Guided by teachers and mentors, students across the country composed their thoughts on the issues they care about most – everything from gas prices and the economy to education and the war in Iraq.

Using Google Docs, a free online writing tool, the students wrote and published their letters for the entire world to see.

My friend Paul sent me this tonight.  I like it.

A brief summary of a life’s learnings:

Age 5: I learned that things are easier when someone is holding your hand.

Age 10: I learned to never blow in a cat’s ear.

Age 15: I learned that although it’s hard to admit it, I’m secretly glad my parents are strict with me.

Age 20: I learned that if you want to cheer yourself up, you should try cheering someone else up.

Age 25: I learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it.

Age 30: I learned that there are people who love you dearly but just don’t know how to show it.

Age 35: I learned that if I want to do something positive for my children, I should work to improve my marriage.

Age 40: I learned that the greater people’s sense of guilt, the greater their need to blame others.

Age 45: I learned that I can never allow life’s disappointments to steal my enthusiasm.

Age 50: I learned that I can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

Age 55: I learned that keeping a vegetable garden is worth a medicine cabinet full of pills.

Age 60: I learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.

Age 65: I learned that I shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. I need to be able to throw something back.

Age 70: I learned regardless of your relationship with your parents, you miss them terribly 

after they die.

Age 75: I learned that children and grandparents are natural allies.

Age 80: I learned that even suffering has its gifts.

Age 85: I learned that whenever I decide something with kindness, I usually make the right decision.

Age 90: I learned that even when I have pains, I can live without being one.