So I’ve been reading A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram, the creator of Mathematica. It was hyped up big time back when he first wrote it, since he had gone silent for a number of years, hinting that he was about to do something big. So my middle little sister got me the [...]
Archive for 28 October 2007
Simple Cellular Automata
Posted: 28 October 2007 in UncategorizedTags: books, cellular automata, code, computer science, experiments, python, wolfram
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Photodriving Pittsburgh
Posted: 28 October 2007 in UncategorizedTags: cars, downtown, mobile pics, photodriving, photowalking, pittsburgh, pittsburgh english, pittsburghese, regional dialects
A recent journey through the Steel City. And yes I am a menace to public safety. This is downtown, which people from the ‘Burgh pronounce [dɑ:ntɑ:n] instead of the Standard American English [daʊn'taʊn]. If you’re not familiar with IPA, it’s more like donton. But not quite. It’s amusing. Pittsburgh English is also sometimes called Pittsburghese, [...]
Rube Goldberg and Automata
Posted: 28 October 2007 in UncategorizedTags: automata, contraptions, cool stuff, fun, games, mouse trap, rube goldberg, steampunk
Rube Goldberg devices are quite fascinating. However, whenever I see one in practice (below), I am nagged the entire time by A) worry that something minor will go wrong, causing failure and a lot of work; B) wondering about how much time this wasted; and C) who is the person who has that kind of [...]
