Random Links (Worthwhile)

A few random things caught my attention recently.

• Flow. A game perfect for the occasional need to space out. After-lunch-break compatible.
  


• Crayon Physics. A hugely great game. In the style of The Incredible Machine, but with an even more distinctly interactive touch.
  


• Processing.
  Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is developed by artists and designers as an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.
  
  Processing is free to download and available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.
  
  While at first sight this might seem a bit boring, there is incredibly stunning potential hidden in this language. It is based on Java, but hides all the complexity of classes, compilation, and communication from the user. The IDE itself is totally self-contained, it runs immediately, compiles in the background (actually the programmer/user never sees anything remotely like compilation), and runs the programs straight as if they were scripted.
  
  You really need to have a look at the examples (images, transformations, webcam, ...) coming with it, or at the Exhibition. Processing compiles executable Java programs into applications which run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X without any further work.

"You're doing, like, *what*?"

Recently I am facing a period of reduced activity, possibly a delayed hibernation phase. After a highly intense time writing grant applications, papers, and presentations, I am able to settle back on my very own projects.

Among these are

• The thesis. It's in the making. But returning to a multi-page document after some weeks' hiatus is a pain in the a**. All those text blocks seem jumbled!


• Applications. Time is running out, so I'm looking around. There's interesting stuff everywhere, but so is the proverbial glass ceiling.


• Basically, that's it. The third list entry is a non-entry - I am not:
  
  
  • Writing emails which should be written.
  
  
  • Calling friends.
  
  
  • Cleaning up, physically and metaphorically.
  
  
  • Finishing my tax statement.
  
  
  • Settling.
  
  

All of this stuff is just... exhausting.

Moving In

The move is mostly over. There was only limited damage. Apart from minor issues, the new building is agreeable. The RONAF robot setup is mostly functional again. The new office cubicle oozes a certain amount of Zen.

Moving

After all these years in GSP, we're moving out. And moving into the new building right on campus.
I have dreaded this moment for long, since it's showing me I've stayed here far too long. However, it is exciting nevertheless. Somehow everybody doubts stuff will still function properly after the move. Let's hope that, to fulfill some Murphy's Breaking Quota, only the replaceable stuff will break - not the ancient robots, cameras, controllers and stuff shown here.

Ay Caramba

Scientific American: "The End of Cosmology?"

I keep returning to this article over and over, not intentionally but by chance, or maybe directed by my reading preferences.
This is the most interesting article I have read in a substantial amount of time.


Scientific American: "The End of Cosmology?"
An accelerating universe wipes out traces of its own origins
By Lawrence M. Krauss and Robert J. Scherrer

• A decade ago astronomers made the revolutionary discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. They are still working out is implications.


• The quickening expansion will eventually pull galaxies apart faster than light, causing them to drop out of view. This process eliminates reference points for measuring expansion and dilutes the distinctive products of the big bang to nothingness. In short, it erases all the signs that a big bang ever occurred.


• To our distant descendants, the universe will look like a small puddle of stars in an endless, changeless void.


• What knowledge has the universe already erased?

[...]