http://www.netcrucible.com/blog The software industry from a rational perspective Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:02:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In most world languages, babies call their mother "mama" and their father "papa" or "baba". This would seem to be the most obvious evidence that there was an ancient ancestor language from which modern languages descended. Indeed, I've written before about this theory of a common root language ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2010/03/07/baby-mama-baby-papa/ Apologies for the delay in posting the solution; I’ve been swamped at work.  Here it is! The first person to solve the Parity Encoding Puzzle correctly after I published it was Vittorio’s wife, Iwona, with a very elegant and compact solution, which is slightly different from mine. First, ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2010/02/05/parity-encoding-puzzle-solution/ This is the puzzle.  If you want to see the solution, visit this post. A few weekends ago, a friend introduced me to this puzzle while we were walking around the park.  It took me a few hours to find the solution and write a program to test it.  ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2010/01/28/parity-encoding-puzzle/ Check out the new comment form on my blog.  Feel like being Oprah today?  No problem!  Feel like using the Avatar of Neytiri, princess of the Na’vi?  No problem! When entering comments, you just use your handle (or the handle of your favorite celebrity) from Facebook, Twitter, or whatever else, ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2009/12/26/incarnate-your-avatar/ A couple of years ago, much derision met the movie studios’ choice of the name “Hulu” for their video portal, which has since become one of the top sites on the Internet. At that time, I immediately defended the name Hulu, calling it a “great name”, based on it’s ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2009/05/28/about-that-bing/ I am reading about Arthur Machen, who was apparently an influence on Yeats, Pierce, and Lovecraft, and a friend of A. E. Waite. His philosophy and approach reminded me a lot of Barfield, but I couldn’t find an explicit link.  Here is an excerpt from a review ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2009/05/21/if-ecstasy-be-present/ Today my old colleague, Cliff Schmidt, came to Microsoft Research to talk about his current role as director of the Talking Book project.  He recently returned from Ghana, where they have been field-testing the first version of their hardware, which allows rural villagers to share audio versions of educational materials ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2009/05/19/talking-books-talking-signs-and-fairy-tales/ The advantages of objectivity are widely heralded.  The scientific method depends on being able to set aside our subjectivity, step outside of ourselves, and deal with the world as an objective, empirical reality.  This ability to suppress our introspection has led to amazing scientific discoveries and command over the material ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2009/04/21/the-curse-of-objectivity/ Last week, I read Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther”.  It is fairly short, and I read the entire book on the plane ride from Seattle to visit the Grand Canyon.  Though short, the story is a near-perfect allegory and overflowing with insights.  As always, I took many notes, which ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2009/04/19/werther-pharaohs-haggadah/ Here is the conclusive proof, from Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther”. On his condition in the world, Werther sounds exactly like Marcus Fenix (And no, I am not paraphrasing – this is verbatim from Hulse’s classic translation of Goethe)”: “There is not one moment that does not ... http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2009/04/18/gears-of-war-2-inspired-by-goethe/