noogzblog

The Week in Review...

2008-11-21T07:41:00+00:00

Time for me to enumerate a few things that have happened of late (in reverse order of occurrence, naturally), since it now seems like the time to do so.

Uni

I handed in my Computer Science term project today, which, I suppose means that my academic year is now complete. I'm fairly happy with how the semester's progressed, every unit that I studied (including the two that I chose on a whim) has been excellent, which is more than I can say for previous semesters. Analysis (Real analysis to be specific) was absolutely fantastic, and I'll be doing my best to enrol in the follow-up functional analysis unit (I've had it suggested to me by several people, and I'm convinced), and it's certainly made the maths major I'm now enrolled in seem like a very good idea.

As far as I can tell, exams went well, but I won't know for certain until results are released next week (I'm very confident with my two maths units, Graphics is a different story (though I don't recall doing as badly as the lecturer claims the class as a whole went)).

TUCS

In other (though slightly Uni-related) news, TUCS (The UTAS Computing Society) had its Annual General Meeting for 2009 last week, and as well as discovering the joy of barbecued* Woolworths' Quantity Burgers (they're excellent, really!), I was elected society president for 2009. The rest of the exec are also a truly awesome bunch of people, so the future certainly looks bright.

TUCS has run some excellent events in its inaugural year: our tech talks were, in general, wildly successful, amongst other things. Thanks to that, we've become what appears to be one of the most active societies on campus. I'll be doing my best to make sure that we can replicate, or even better that next year. (If you're a speaker, or know any good ones, and would like to give a talk, let me know!)

In related news, we also took delivery of some particularly awesome TUCS-Branded T-Shirts just after exams -- we're particularly happy with how that went and will probably do it again next year.

(*I will definitely be approving funding for a new barbecue for the society... the current one is truly dreadful)

LCA

Last week-ish, I had dinner with some members of the Linux.conf.au organising committee. Though much of what was discussed must be kept under wraps (it's thoroughly exciting, I promise!), I can tell you that the conference is shaping up to be most excellent, and if you haven't already booked your ticket, I suggest you do so as soon as possible!

That is all for me for now, more news as it comes (I hope!)

Meme #42

2008-11-14T07:02:00+00:00

Well, I've decided to do the Book Meme from PLOA and Planet Debian etc... Just recapping for those of you who haven't seen it yet (not many of you):

Grab the nearest book.
Open it to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST

And mine is:

It is possible to prove that if such a nontrivial square root of 1 exists, then n is not prime.

-- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Second Edition.

Fun with Sockets

2008-10-28T11:06:00+00:00

Whilst doing some coding today for my semester research project I found a need to check for incoming data on a socket without taking any data out of the stream. Here's the code I came up with:

     
cp.sock.setblocking(False)
try:
    cp.sock.recv(0)
    stuffwaiting = True
except socket.error:
    stuffwaiting = False
cp.sock.setblocking(True)

This code works finely on Linux -- you can only receive data if there is data to be received (even if you want to receive no data). Unfortunately, the code doesn't port to Mac OS -- you may receive as many bytes as there are in the socket's buffer -- if there are no bytes in the buffer, you can receive 0 bytes. Therefore, the following fix is necessary:

     
cp.sock.setblocking(False)
try:
    cp.sock.recv(1, socket.MSG_PEEK)
    stuffwaiting = True
except socket.error:
    stuffwaiting = False
cp.sock.setblocking(True)

So, my question for Lazyweb is: is there a better way to do this?

Merging

2008-10-25T02:37:00+00:00

A question for my interstate readers: Has anyone seen the following lane structure outside of Tasmania?

(If anyone wants to guess what the correct procedure is in such a situation, you're also welcome to do that)

LCA2009 -- Registered

2008-10-12T23:02:00+00:00

LCA 2009. I'm registered. Are you?

ICPC 2008 Final Results

2008-09-18T03:16:00+00:00

The 2008 ACM South Pacific Programming Contest Results have been confirmed: my team's come 3rd overall (as expected). We find out whether or not we've achieved a wild card position in the World Finals in December.

A brief (though complete) history of "Mehffort"

2008-09-14T01:11:00+00:00

For the benefit of those who were intersted, Mehffort is a portmanteau of meh and effort, and is a very popular word in the semester 2, 2008 Maclab dialect of English. It is used to convey one's lack of motivation towards a particular task. In context:

Me: Paris, help me come up with a witty slogan for the TUCS T-Shirt.
Paris: Mehffort.

As proud denizens of the Maclab, my ACM ICPC team for this year decided to adopt the word as part of our team name.

ICPC 2008 (huge success)

2008-09-14T00:56:00+00:00

The ACM ICPC South Pacific Region was on yesterday, and was great fun (as usual). My team this year, the Mehffort Musketeers consisted of Alex Berry (who'll be competing in the Google Code Jam regionals soon as well), Michael Ford and myself.

For the benefit of people who did the ICPC this year: I solved problem A, C and I; Michael solved B and D, and Alex solved E, F and H. Here's some general commentary on the problems that I solved:

Problem A was very simple, and the shell of my solution was complete within three minutes of the contest starting. Unfortunately, the entire problem was not defined until halfway through the test data, which led me to finishing it a bit later.
Problem C, which seems to have been the problematic problem this year (as far as judging's concerned) was relatively straightforward, though I had two rather annoying bugs that took me about an hour to week out... it happens, I suppose. Solved on the first submission, which I'm happy about.
Problem I was a longest path problem, that was relatively straightforward depending on what sort of algorithm you chose to solve it. I've heard reports of people using the Bellman-Ford Algorithm and failing -- as far as I can tell, such an algorithm would work on problems except where there existed a cycle not involving the endpoints of the path taken in the problem. I used Floyd's Algorithm and had it solved first time. Simple.

As alluded to earlier, we solved 8 problems, and we're currently the only team to do so with the testing data used on the day (this means that we're in a provisional first place), however, there are many teams who are likely to get problem C rejudged, and following that we'll likely be third. More news to come.

Large Hadron Collider

2008-09-10T23:21:00+00:00

I found this very useful news service today, at HasTheLHCDestroyedTheEarth.com. May you find it informative.

Debian Lenny+1: Cool for Cats?

2008-09-01T23:54:00+00:00

So the new version of Debian is to be known as Squeeze, eh?

Does anyone else think of a certain 1970's British New Wave group?

Desperate ad campaigns

2008-08-09T03:14:00+00:00

Bad ads are one of many things that annoy me when I watch commercial television: normally this is quite infrequently, but due to the large sports event currently being broadcast on my local Seven Network affiliate, I'm being subjected to more than my usual allocation of bad ads.

Few ads are more annoying than Harvey Norman's: bad jingles played to buggery, shoutey voiceovers, etc, etc, etc. Today, I was pleasantly surprised that they've put some effort into a new ad campaign. Their tagline? Nearly 50 years of Harvey Norman. Following the link to their web site, I found that Harvey Norman started trading in 1961, or for those of you who are mathematically impaired, 47 years ago. This leads to two separate conclusions:

This is a highly desperate campaign designed to coincide with the Olympics, and will disappear very quickly.
This is a highly desperate search for an interesting tag line, for a 6-year ad campaign (with a minor change in tag line to happen in three years time).

This is certainly a new low for Harvey Norman, and I hope that it is removed from my attention as soon as possible.

Marshmallow

2008-08-06T22:57:00+00:00

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Marshmallow, originally uploaded by Christopher Neugebauer.

We randomly found this searching for marshmallows today in the Mac Lab.

If anyone can explain this, it'd be much appreciated.

Seen on Debian...

2008-07-30T05:28:00+00:00

So I was upgrading my Debian installation the other day, and saw the following...

Get:18 http://mirror.internode.on.net lenny/main khelpcenter 4:4.0.0.really.3.5.9.dfsg.1-4 [2339kB]

Rather interesting version number, don't you think?

Harbucks Revisited

2008-07-29T12:31:00+00:00

On September 4, 2006, I wrote the following:

Today, Hobart's first Starbuck's Coffee store opened. I'm going to celebrate by not going!

It seems that I've almost succeeded in my quest to never visit Starbucks here... In the SMH today, it was announced that the Hobart Starbucks will be closing in the near future. I can't say that I'm unhappy.

(If any mainlanders are perturbed by the lack of a Starbucks when they visit Hobart for LCA, may I recommend Oomph Coffee on Liverpool Street as a far better replacement.)

Neugebauer Chocolate

2008-07-17T10:52:00+00:00

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Neugebauer Chocolate, originally uploaded by Christopher Neugebauer.

I was in the TUU Shop today, and did a double-take as I saw my surname staring back at me (it's in the top left corner of the wrapper).

Why a Brazilian chocolate company would call themselves "Neugebauer" is beyond me -- but I shalln't complain. The occasional ego trip can be healthy.

(Oh, and the chocolate itself wasn't particularly nice. Oh well :()

Google Code Jam

2008-07-16T23:40:00+00:00

Just a friendly reminder to you all that Google Code Jam 2008's qualifying round opens today. Code Jam is an individual programming competition, which lets you compete with a number of languages. Qualifying opens at 9AM Australian time, and you have until that time tomorrow to qualify. Good luck!

Self-absorption in brief

2008-07-16T07:35:00+00:00

My 20th Birthday was yesterday, so I'm making amends for not posting about it yesterday by making a note of it today. Notably, I don't really feel any older than any time before, other than a strange feeling of foreboding that accompanies age in general. Or that may just be my stomach. No idea, though I'm sure I'll find out in the ensuing years.

And a brief wrap-up of other me-related news:

Had a nice, short trip to Sydney in early July -- I will make it a point of not entering New South Wales when State of Origin is on in the future. Went to the Apple Store on George Street far too many times -- free internet is quite enticing when you're waiting for people.
Whilst in Sydney, I attempted to catch up with SydneyPython in order to spruik my proposal for a Python Miniconf at LCA2009. Unfortunately, the meeting was cancelled, and so instead the SyPy people went to Beer2.0, where we met a bunch of interesting Web2.0 people.
Uni exams finished in mid-June, with results being released last week. In short, I had my best semester yet at Uni (straight HDs/nothing below 82), and so I'm certainly not regretting the increased workload as far as maths is concerned.
Semester 2 of Uni is now underway, I've had lectures in all three of my coursework-delivered units (Real and Complex Analysis, Computer Graphics and Animation, Topics in Advanced Mathematics), with only my research project unit to be dealt with. It's looking like it'll be a very interesting semester, with some thoroughly difficult units to be dealt with, so I'm happy about that.

That's all for now. More as it comes.

LCA2009: Python Miniconf Proposal

2008-07-16T07:20:00+00:00

I just posted the following announcement of my proposal for a Python Miniconf to be held at linux.conf.au 2009 to Australian Python mailing lists. I'm posting it here in case anyone has missed it:

Linux.conf.au 2009 is to be held at the University of Tasmania's Sandy
Bay campus in Hobart, Tasmania over the week of January 19-24; and the
call for presentations [1] and mini-confs [2] is now open.

I am currently in the process of producing a proposal for a Python
Miniconf to be held at LCA, so I thought I should detail my plans to a
greater audience for the purpose of feedback/suggestions.

The miniconf would be a single-day conference on the broad topic of
Python programming.  Broadly speaking, the topics I would like to see
presented would range through:
- Recent developments on Python core (presented to a more
Python-oriented audience than may happen at LCA proper)
- Frameworks and libraries (e.g. Django, which I believe is hitting
1.0 this year)
- Techniques of Python programming (e.g. using advanced/new/etc
features of Python effectively)
- Discussions of Python use in the "real world" (e.g. Industry use,
education, etc, etc, etc).
- Anything else Python-related: please make suggestions! [3]

The intention is that there would be 5 "organised" talks of ~45
minutes length (although if there is sufficient interest/free space, I
could split blocks into 2x25 minute talks), with a 50-minute block of
lightning talks to conclude the event, with the possibilty of some
loosely-organised get-together of pythoners after the day's
proceedings have finished.

If you are interested in participating in the Python miniconf (which
requires you to also be interested in attending Linux.conf.au), please
e-mail me [3].  I would particularly like topics of talks that people
would be able to give (vague/general is fine at this early stage in
preparation), so that I can include them in the miniconf proposal (so
the earlier I receive them the better!).

Thanks in advance for any help that you may be able to offer me.

-- Christopher Neugebauer

P.S. if I have missed any user groups/potentially interested parties,
could you please forward this message on -- I've already dealt with
most relevant mailing lists in Australia, but international lists may
also be interested, due to the nature of LCA as an international
conference.

[1] http://marchsouth.org/media/news/6
[2] http://marchsouth.org/media/news/15
[3] for the benefit of google groups users: chrisjrn [ a t ] gmail.com

The Gruen Transfer (and car parks etc)

2008-07-10T11:54:00+00:00

Last Friday, whilst in Sydney on a short trip, I had the fortune of being asked to go ice skating with a bunch of people from USyd. This required me to visit a large suburban shopping mall.

Whilst the ice skating was fun and thoroughly enjoyable, the visiting of the shopping centre and surrounding parking facilities was one of the most traumatic events of my recent life. In my travels, which has resulted in visiting shopping malls in many different cities, never have I been so thoroughly disoriented in my life. As well as the completely haphazard layout of the centre, which resulted in me not being able to figure any direction, there were (at least) two disjoint car parks, each consisting of 6 levels of confused layout, with only minimal indication to newcomers as to how to identify the location of the car park.

Perhaps it's just that my brain is wired for a small city, but I've never encountered such a deliberately confusing building. Ever.

Music!

2008-07-07T13:15:00+00:00

A band that I've been quite impressed by of late is The Grammar Club, a four-piece rock/hip-hop group from the USA who produce their music collaboratively over the Internet. They relaunched their website recently, and whilst it is a really unfortunate all-flash job, they did provide a nice freebie to celebrate: a cover of Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey.

If you approve of it, you can download their debut album, Bremelanotide from their website -- it's good!

Sydney 2nd-5th

2008-06-25T13:54:00+00:00

For the benefit of friends of mine who read this blog, I'll be in Sydney for the latter half of next week visiting friends -- if you want to catch up with me, let me know.

On Public Transport

2008-06-25T12:06:00+00:00

Russell Coker writes on the comparison of costs of Public Transport as compared with that of using a car. I see two key flaws with his argument:

Firstly, the costs of travel that he uses are fairly specific to Melbourne, where there exists a very good ticketing system amongst all forms of public transport, therefore a trip involving a bus to a train station, a train to the CBD, followed by a tram to final destination is all covered within the same ticket, and $2.76 is certainly a very cheap price for this. I believe that this argument only applies to cities with such a system (or cities like Hobart, where there is only one primary form of public transport, with a single supplier). For example, in Sydney, tickets only apply to the provider of transport that the ticket is purchased from: so, a trip involving, say, a bus, a train and then a second bus would require three separate fares (in fact, fares are not even consistent within a single provider -- the Sydney Morning Herald reported earlier this year that there exist more than 100 individual fares for the rail system there. Sorry for the lack of a proper citation -- SMH appear to have removed the relevant article).

Secondly, Russell's argument relies upon a definite choice between public transport, and private car ownership: this is since, as he rightly points out, the cost of registration and insurance tend to be flat, annual fees, that do not depend on how far you travel in the year. Therefore the only way to decrease the "per kilometre" cost of car travel is to travel more. This implies that the choice to occasionally travel by car, and occasionally by public transport will actually increase the total cost of owning a car. At least one friend of mine does not travel by public transport for this reason.

Whist the sole use of public transport may be a viable option for people living near the centre of large cities (such as the relatives I stayed with during LCA this year, the trains were very regular extending well into the night), it is not an option for many others. Transportation here in Hobart into the night is very sparse, and implies either the choice of perfectly timing one's evening to coincide with a once-every-three- hours bus service, or paying for a taxi, which costs considerably more than a private vehicle per kilometre (for example, a trip from the airport to where I live, approximately 15 kilometres will cost $40 -- a cost of $2.66/km). This therefore makes access to a car imperative in many places.

In summary, I'm not surprised by the relative lower cost of trips by public transport, but in a circumstance such as this where not owning a car is a serious inconvenience, the collateral costs that the use of public transport entails makes it a less appealing option.

TUCS Tech Talk Photos

2008-05-05T03:43:00+00:00

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TUCS Tech Talk #1, originally uploaded by Christopher Neugebauer.

As I mentioned previously, TUCS had its first tech talk on Friday (delivered by myself, on the topic of Introductory Python), this is the first opportunity to show off photos from it. I was rather impressed by the turnout (there are a few people off to the side that can't be seen in the frame).

Upside-Down Man

2008-05-05T03:35:00+00:00

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Upside-Down Man, originally uploaded by Christopher Neugebauer.

On Digg, Today, there's a site that allows you to create silly sketches and swap them with people.

Unfortunately, as with most such things, it's turned into an exchange for Goatse impressions, and phalli.

I got an impression of the latter in return for this, so I figured that I'd share this with everyone.