Star Wars, Star Trek, and Wing Commander - 3-Dimensional Space combat

I caught this article on gizmodo.com today and thought it was one of the more interesting mental exercises I have seen dealing with the subject. You can read it here. Enjoy

Cool Flash Game

I just recently used Adobe Flash for the first time working on our corporate intranet portal. It was an interesting experience. With that in mind, I ran across this game this morning and it struck my fancy so I thought I'd share it. You can find it here. It reminded me of those flat square number puzzles I used to play with as a kid. I LOVED those things.

For the Math Geeks out there...

Ran across this on Hacker News this morning. This is a link to 100 Open Source lectures for Math Geeks. Everything from Algebra to Calculus, to the math in Engineering and Physics as well as teaching mathematics. Several of these series look pretty cool. Check it out for yourself if you've a mind.

Zombies and Math. What could go wrong?

I saw this on Hacker News today and it just spoke to me. As an engineer, I love to understand how things work. So, when someone wants to mathematically explain how a zombie apocalypse works, I'm all over it. You can be too, here. And to top it off, its a college paper. How cool is that?

The Sci-Fi Prophet...

To all those that know me well, you know that one of my favorite authors is William Gibson. I find it fascinating how he has used fictional tech in his books and how it has "come to life". In his book All Tomorrow's Parties, he has done it again. I am used to seeing this done in SLA modeling for prototype manufacturing applications, but this takes it a step further and uses actual plastic resin to make the parts. Check out the link here. It's REALLY cool stuff...

Book Review - Panzer Commander

For those that know me, I am an amateur WWII historian. My interests are based in the European theatre, both the German conquest of 1938 and 1939, the Russian campaign in 1941 and 1942, and the subsequent Allied invasion in 1944 and 1945. As such, I am always on the lookout for new books that appeal to my historical tastes.

I had the pleasure of finishing a new book this afternoon. Based on recommendations from the Gamesquad ASL forums (a WWII tactical level board wargame and my other main hobby), I picked up Panzer Commander, by Hans von Luck. Hans von Luck was the commander of the 7th and 21st panzer divisions under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. As a strict study of tactical doctrine, the book is somewhat lacking. I had hoped for a little more in that arena. However, it was an extremely pleasant read. I am a big fan of the writing style of Stephen Ambrose and this book presented his history and doings in much the same vein. I was particularly struck with the sentiment (and I have seen it in other books) of camraderie between former enemies (soldiers from different armies): German and Russian, German and American, German and French, and German and British. Having never been in the military, the respect that seems to exist, even for enemies, between professional soldiers is very appealing. The distinction between the Weremacht and the SS also struck me as profound, and seemed to be readily accepted, even by von Luck's Russian captors.

If you are looking for a strict study of tactical/strategic doctrine, I'd suggest that you keep looking - there are other books out there that cover the subject better (BH Liddel Hart's "Strategy" for one). If you want a decent feel of what being a officer in the German Army during WWII was like, this is an excellent read.

Quantum Computing article...

I am a huge fan of the concept of quantum computing simply because I liked thinking about some of this stuff in physics and physical chemistry. Ran across this article this morning in Hacker News and figured I'd share. Enjoy!

Spooky computers closer to reality

Solid-state quantum processing demonstrated.

Katharine Sanderson

The new processor takes advantage of quantum entanglement.Alamy

The computers of tomorrow could be quantum not classical, using the quantum world's strange properties to vastly increase memory and speed up information processing. But making quantum computing parts from standard kit has proved difficult so far.

Now physicist Leonardo DiCarlo of Yale University, New Haven, and his colleagues have made the first solid-state quantum processor, using similar techniques to the silicon chip industry. The processor has used programs called quantum algorithms to solve two different problems. The work is published in Nature¹.

Classical systems use a series of 0s and 1s, or bits, to convey information. Two bits, for example can be combined as either 00, 11, 01 or 10. But quantum systems have a property called superposition, where all these combinations can exist at once. This vastly increases the amount of information that can be stored and the speed at which it can be processed.

Quantum bits, or qubits, can also be entangled — the state of one qubit influences the state of another even at a considerable distance. A quantum computer would use entangled qubits to process information.

Solid work

Quantum algorithms have been processed before, but only in exotic systems using lasers or ions suspended with strong magnets. To make something more similar to a computer, a solid-state system is needed.

DiCarlo made his device out of two transmon qubits. These are tiny pieces of a superconducting material consisting of a niobium film on an aluminium oxide wafer with gaps etched into it. A current can 'tunnel' across these gaps — another special property of the quantum world, where waves and particles can cross barriers without breaching them. The two qubits are separated by a cavity that contains microwaves, and the whole system connected to an electric current.

“The appeal of our processor is that it is an all-solid-state device.”

Leonardo DiCarlo
Yale University

"The appeal of our processor is that it is an all-solid-state device," says DiCarlo. It was made using standard industrial techniques. But the analogy with ordinary computers shouldn't be overstretched, he cautions — the device works at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero and requires special refrigeration technology.

The researchers controlled the system using a microwave 'tone' with a frequency that causes the qubits to become entangled. A voltage pulse is then applied to control how long the two qubits remain entangled and in their superpositional state. Longer entanglement allows the qubits to process more complex problems.

DiCarlo was able to keep the qubits entangled for a microsecond, which is the state of the art, he says.

Qubit calling

The system processed two algorithms written specially for quantum systems.

The first is Grover's search algorithm, also known as the reverse phone book search, where someone's number is known but not the name. The processor essentially reads all the numbers in the phone book at once to find the single correct answer. "At the end the qubit will be in one state, not superposed, and that's the answer," says DiLorio.

The second, more simple, algorithm, the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm, tests whether the flip of a coin is fair or not.

DiCarlo's processor got the reverse phone book search right an impressive 80% of the time and the coin-flip algorithm right about 90% of the time.

To read out the answer, DiCarlo used a microwave tone at the same frequency as the cavity in the system. "Depending what state the qubit is in, the cavity will resonate at a certain frequency. If the tone is transmitted through the cavity, we know it's in the right state," he says.

But this technique could not read out the answer in a system with many more qubits, says quantum-computing expert Hans Mooij from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The development of the processor is good news Mooij adds. "This is a necessary step," he says. "If this can be done, the next thing can be done."

DiCarlo is cautious. "We've made a very simple quantum processor," he says. "It's by no means a quantum computer."

He is working to give the processor more qubits, and so more processing power. He thinks that scaling up to three or four quibits will be relatively straightforward, but beyond that the problem becomes a lot harder, and the coherence time needed will be very difficult to attain. Mooij agrees: "From three or four to ten they will need to make a big step again."

• References

  1. DiCarlo, L. et al, Nature, doi:10.10383/nature08121 (2009)

6 months later...

Well, it finally happened. 6 months of looking and I finally landed a job. I am the new project engineer at Caprock Manufacturing in Lubbock, TX. I can't even tell you how excited I am to NOT be unemployed anymore. More details to follow.

Maxwell Smart would be SOOO jealous...

OK, I'm not quite sure how the tech would work for this, but the idea is VERY intriguing. Imagine. Total auditory privacy. For those of you who know much about the physics of sound, it's a very interesting puzzle to make this work to say the least. The snippet can be found on slashdot, here.

Hardcore Geek-age

OK, for those of you that know me, I'm a geek. I like computers, games, books, movies, and most other things that are done quietly and solo. I like technology in most of it's forms. I am also a guy. I like it when things blow up. I like action. One of my favorite shows is Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel. Those guys get paid to...play. How awesome would it be to be them?

Aparently there is a new show that is going to be starting on May 11. It's called Weaponizers. The premise is turning cars and such into radio controlled insturnments of gleeful distruction. Check out Hack-a-day and BotJunkie for more information.

Cars to blow things and each other up....Cooooooooooool ;)

I am SUCH a geek....

Rocket Cars

I've read several times over the last 10-15 years about land speed record tests in the desert and have always wanted to get involved. I think it would be cool to work on something that could go so fast. This time, they took a Lockheed jet and are going for 800 mph. The article (here) was in NY Times. This concept has already appealed to the engineer in me. Of course, the dreams I had as a kid of flying a fighter jet may have had something to do with it as well.....

Programming

As part of my "self-development", I have been working on teaching myself a series of new programming languages. The first of these I decided on was Python. In roughly 2 weeks, I have become about as comfortable with programming in Python as I am programming in C++ which has been my "workhorse" language for over 10 years now. It's just so dang easy to get things done in Python, much more so than in C++. I am starting to come around to a new way of thinking that I have seen in the "hacker" community (not the break-the-law "cracker" types, but the true see-a-need-fill-a-need "hackers"). Programming languages are like a toolbox. If your toolbox only contains a hammer or only a screwdriver, you will be able to tackle only specific types of projects well and others you will struggle with to varying degrees. If you learn several varying languages, however (in essence, filling your toolbox with multiple different types of tools), you can tackle a vast majority of projects with relatively the same amount of ease.

I have 5 languages on my list of known/to-learn programming languages. C++ for those instances where a program absolutely needs to run at top speed (graphics and bigtime math programs), Python (I'm thinking is going to be my general purpose (swiss army knife) language, Perl because so many web items (like CGI scripts) are already written in it (I may not code in Perl, but it wouldn't hurt to be able to read it), C# for it's platform-independance because of the Common Language Runtime (and I already know some so that elevates it above Java for me), and finally Lisp because it's been recommended as an advanced programming language that will change the way a programmer thinks about programming (and busting out of the box is almost NEVER a bad thing).

The other thing I found interesting last night as I was awake tooling around on the internet from 1am to 5am were the "sacred cow" arguments between the Perl Hackers and the Python Hackers. There was a lot of arguing about which language was "better" and a lot of them seemed to me like wisps of cloud dispersing in the wind - that is, with a lot of personal opinion and not much substance. I'd seen this phenomenon in other areas like my ASL wargame hobby, but I guess did not really think to see it in a "professional" setting. I began to wonder how many other, similar environments I would find "like" discussions in. Then I went to bed, thinking I'd probably never dredge up the energy or curiosity to find out...

If only I was rich, this is the kind of stuff I would buy...

OK, this is about the coolest "new" piece of hardware I've seen since I first saw the new michelin tire a year or so ago. Yes, it comes out of Japan. Yes, the name of the company is a blatant rip-off from the Terminator movies. That being said, check this HAL suit out. Pure awesomeness. It reminds me of that power suit that Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) wore in Aliens. Who wouldn't want to be stronger, and this one looks cool. Bulky, but cool.

How NOT to get depressed during a job search...

They say that the job market is getting worse by the day. More and more people saturate the job pool and the odds for you landing that job are getting smaller. So you pound away furiously at your contacts, on the internet and other sources for leads...without much appreciable result. How do you avoid falling into a depressed state after some time passes?

It has been recommended to me several times, that the key to surviving a job search with your sanity intact is to search when it's time to search, but to not make that the only thing in your life. Family time is important as is personal development.

Personal development...

I have often heard that volunteering somewhere is a great outlet in times like these. Personally, I think you can substitute anything productive that you are passionate about.

Me? I love to learn. I have a wide variety of interests. I also have a secret dream.

I dreamed of going to MIT to study. For those of you that don't know, MIT stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is (to this day, as far as I know) THE premier university in the US for engineering, math, and the physical sciences. And they just made my day.

http://lifehacker.com/software/education/free-classes-from-mit-155699.php

I think I might have to take some classes from MIT...for free.

They have over 1800 course offerings with more interesting topics than I can shake a stick at. The only down side is that the texts used for the course are more often than not, not included in the online course materials, so you have to access them elsewhere. If you're internet savvy like me, however, you ought to be able to use the 'net to get information on pretty much whatever subject they are talking about or that the "homework" requires.

There are some other universities doing the same thing (http://education-portal.com/articles/Universities_with_the_Best_Free_Online_Courses.html). I don't know about you, but I think this is probably one of the coolest things the academic community has ever done. It dovetails right along with the OpenSource software movement. That's a whole other post, however. Perhaps another time...

Note: As an aside, if you are looking for text material. A good place to start is Textbook Revolution.

Because we can....

OK, I have a new "hero". His name is Ben Heckendorn. Ben makes laptops. Not just any laptops, though. Ben makes laptops out of consoles and rare electronics like (Atari and his latest, the Commodore 64). Why, you may ask? Because he can. Because it's a challenge. Because when you're going to that illegal arms meeting to pay for stolen AK-47's it's fun to see the look on the buyers face when he pulls out his Pellican briefcase and opens it up to find, no, not $100,000 in cold hard cash, but a portable X-Box 360 (obviously right before the arms dealer shoots him for wasting his time).

http://hackaday.com/?s=ben+heck+laptop

Someday, I want to know enough about electronics to do a Hack like this. Why? Because I can.

5 Deadly Sins (Part 5)

The fifth most deadly sin that job seekers make:
Expecting others to conduct your job search for you.

I'm surprised by the amount of people who look to me to find their job for them. They have not contacted anyone else in their search for employment.

Successful job seekers have dozens of people enlisted in their job search army, not just one or two. Successful job seekers don't rely on any one individual to help them in their quest.

If you are to be successful in your search you will need to enlist an army. The more people who are helping you in your search - the faster you will find what you're looking for.

5 Deadly Sins (Part 4)

The fourth most deadly sin that job seekers make:
Stopping your marketing efforts once you have one good lead.

Commonly job seekers stop all of their marketing as soon as they have one
good lead.  This is detrimental and unwise.

This is frequently found among people with very technical skills, although this
is not a pre-requisite.

When you stop your marketing, you stop your forward progression.  Like in life,
you are either moving forward or backward.  Never stop your forward
progression on any job search until you are sitting at your new desk.

There are a million things that could go wrong.  Never put all your eggs in one
(job) basket.  

New Tire Concept

I've known about this one for a while, but recently was reminded and it occurred to me that this would be a perfect addition to this blog. This is a new tire concept that Michelin is developing. The engineering is REALLY cool. Check it out here.

5 Deadly Sins (Part 3)

The Third most deadly sin that job seekers make:
Not chasing each and every job lead until an offer is made.

I'm always surprised when someone I'm coaching withdraws from interviewing on a job they were chasing.

Often I am told that the job that they were interviewing was beneath them. It could be due to low advertised pay, or that the job title was beneath where they feel they belong.

This is wrong thinking. You should chase each and every job lead as if it is the only thing you have going. If an offer comes in, evaluate the offer for what it's worth.

Until an offer is made - you have nothing. Chase each and every lead until you have an offer. Wouldn't it be better if you had two or three opportunities to choose from three weeks from now?

Cool Tech Links

I decided to add some links that I check regularly just because it's cool what some people come up with. My favorite is the one called Hack-a-Day. These guys are AMAZING.

5 Deadly Sins (Part 2)

The Second most deadly sin that job seekers make:
Only working with one or two recruiters.

Often job seekers feel compelled to use just one or two recruiters. Whether it's some desire to be loyal to a previous recruiter, or it's a long time friend, you are not best served by working with such a small group of recruiters.

To understand the recruiting business you need to know that recruiters can only place you on a job when someone will pay them for you. If they are not currently being paid to find someone with your skills, they don't need you today.
Therefore, the more recruiters you are working with, the better your odds that one of them will need you and your skills sometime in the next month.

In addition, you need to sharpen your interviewing skills.
I know no better way practice than to meet two to three times a week with recruiters who make a living placing people on jobs.

5 Deadly Sins (Part 1)

These are from Michael Webb (the guy that did the webinar that I attended last night - see previous post).

The first most deadly sin that job seekers make:
Conducting the majority of your job search online.

If you are spending most of your day online responding to job postings, you are most likely depressed or quickly approaching a state of depression. I call this phenomenon Internet Depression. Internet Depression occurs when you apply to several jobs a day (possibly dozens) in which you know you are well qualified and you never hear back from anyone.

Of vital importance is the knowledge that there is nothing wrong with you other than the fact that you are conducting your job search wrong. You see, the internet is a wonderful tool for job searching. It is, however, important to remember that it is only a tool.

Fact: When you apply online to a posted job, you are competing with the entire world for that job. I call this the Electronic Cattle Call. Your resume is sitting in an electronic folder somewhere along with hundreds of other resumes - just waiting for some overworked, underpaid Human Resource generalist to review.

In order to get rid of your Internet Depression and jump start your job search, you need to find another way to reach the hiring managers that are looking for you.

Advanced Job Hunting Tricks

I attended a webinar last night given by a recruiter named Michael Webb (website). He talked about a few different things, but the one that really tickled my fancy was the wonders of Google Advanced Search. Two points:

1.) LinkedIn, a great networking tool does NOT necessarily give you a complete listing of matches to your search for people (and possibly jobs) when you use their search engine unless you are a paying customer. This is a marketing concept for them.

2.) Many small-to-medium size companies can not afford to post jobs to the "big hitter" jobsites like Career Builder, Monster, Hotjobs, Dice, etc... Where do these companies post their jobs? Craigslist. However, for all of you who have EVER used craigslist, you know that each geographical location listed off to the right has its OWN page including subregions. Sifting through all of this to find a job is a daunting, if not impossibly unproductive task.

Enter Google to the rescue.

In the Advanced Search page you can tell Google to search a specific website instead of the entire internet. For example: If you want to search for process engineering jobs on craigslist, you fill in the following:

this exact wording or phrase: process engineer
search within a site or domain: craigslist.org

Click on the Advanced Search button, and voila! You now have all of the jobs with the words "Process Engineer" in the title/body and without all of that messy clicking on every single region in every state/country that participates in craigslist.

Want to find a contact in a job target company on LinkedIn? You do the same thing:

all these words: (enter your search terms here)
this exact wording or phrase: (use if you know EXACTLY who/what you are looking for)
any of these unwanted words: directory (ALWAYS fill this in for LinkedIn searches)
search within this site or domain: linkedin.com

Click on the Advanced Search button, and it will pull up all of the people that have allowed their profile to be searchable and contain your specified keywords that are on LinkedIn.

Important Note: This illustrates the importance of making your profile as complete and common as possible. If someone is trying to find *YOU* for a job and you put in your profile that you are a manager but abbreviated it as "mgr", that will only come up if the person is searching for "mgr" instead of "manager". As an interesting aside, do an EGO search and try to find yourself using Google to see how easy it is.

One last trick he mentioned:

Have you ever seen a job posting where the poster for some reason did not want to be found? They put NO contact information on the posting. I don't mean they used their email (for you to do a search on the domain), but NO information at all. One thing to try is to find a unique phrase in the job description and paste it into a google search. Michael said that HR people are as overworked as the rest of us. It is very possible that they are simply copying and pasting job descriptions from one posting location to another. If they posted the job on the COMPANY website, this may allow you to find out who to call.

Michael's summary was: Resumes don't land jobs, people do. In a job search, it is particularly important to set yourself apart. Find out who is doing the hiring and instead of being just another one of the tens or hundreds of resumes on the desk of an overworked HR employee, be one of the one or two that he ACTUALLY talked to. Stand out from the crowd.

New Blog

I have decided to start a new blog to give a little more focus to the things that I find interesting. This will include everything from technology to ideas that are presently applicable to me (see next post). Hope others find it useful too. As far as the blog title goes, almost every time I see a new idea dealing with technology or science, I get excited, much like a kid in a candy store. I'd imagine that if I could look at myself in these moments, my eyes would be wide in awe and wonder.