Long time no see taas, ja pidemmitt� puheitta m�r�n sukan lailla viilt�v�� analyysi� maailman tilasta. Esitt�isin siis muutaman kysymyksen aiheesta “todellisuus on Hollywoodia ihmeellisemp��”:

1. Elokuvassa I Am Legend pandemiaksi yltynyt virus tekee ihmisist� aggressivisia valoa kaihtavia zombeja, ja p��henkil� linnoittautuu asuntoonsa joka y�ksi turvaan. N�emmek� sika Lentsun(tm) my�t� pandemiaksi yltyv�n viruksen aiheuttavan (ylip��ns�) ihmisten linnoittautumisen asuntoihinsa, kuluttamaan aikaansa kalpeiden valoakaihtavien zombien luomien ohjelmistojen avulla koteihinsa tulevilla Youtube-videoilla, joissa mies kiinnitt�� rullalautaansa l�hikaupasta ostetun rakettikranaatin vauhtia tuomaan ja ajaa itsens� naapurin katolta alas, kaataen lopulta naapurin puutarhatontun aurinkoa ottavan naapurin kotirouvan jalkojen v�liin? T�h? Miksi helvetiss� kirjoitan n�in pitki� lauseita? Tajusiko tuota edellist� edes kukaan?

2. Vappuaiheinen, kevent�v� kysymys: n�emmek� finanssikriisin(tm) my�t� kansallisvaltioiden luhistumisen? Toteutuuko Marxin muijan pojan profetiat kapitalismin v��j��m�tt�m�st� itsetuhoutumisesta omaan ahneuden ja ep�oikeudenmukaisuuden luomaan m�d�nn�isyyteens� – ts. toiko kapitalismin kova ydin Wall Street ja Lontoo meille sen, mit� Marxin Kalle jo aikoinaan povasi tapahtuvaksi – nimitt�in wanhan cunnon proletariaatin vallankumouksen? Jos n�in on, kuinka ironista. Juokaamme sille lasillinen vappusimaa.

Ruotsista ajankohtainen uutinen product placementista. ABB:n hitsausrobotti on p��ssyt n�kyv��n rooliin uudessa Terminator: Salvation -elokuvassa. Maailman orjuuttavat ja ihmisyyden tuhoavat tappajarobotit valmistetaan siis kotikaupunkini suuryrityksen voimin. Hurraa!

I needed DIMACS-format output from STP, so I hacked together a patch for it.

It works only against the SVN version of STP, but is trivial (although not automatic) to patch the latest non-SVN version also. To patch, cd to the STP folder, then use something like patch -R -p1 < stp_dimacs.patch

Then, use the "-o" switch to dump a DIMACS file to the current folder. Next, fire up your favorite SAT solver and profit...

Update: It seems the toDimacs call can create strange outputs. Be aware of bugs!

An interesting article on BBC about what individual actions actually matter in the fight against climate change/global warming.

Professor David MacKay advocates normalizing energy use into kilowatt-hour (kWh). Using this metric, he then compares the amount of energy saved as a result of various “green” actions. To give you an idea of the kWh-metric: in Great Britain, an average person consumes energy worth 125 kWh per day (for transport, heating, manufacturing, and electricity).

Among the perhaps not-so-surprising findings: turning off your phone charger makes no difference whatsoever, electrical cars are way better than hydrogen cars, heat pumps are a good way to save energy, wind micro-turbines on roofs are basically useless, etc. Check it out.

Update: Thanks to “eagle-eye” Jaska for spotting a bug in the units. Our physics teacher used to rant and rave against falling for that common error and of course I fell for it! “Kilowatt-per-hour” is wrong, it’s “kilowatt-hour”. Duh.

First, there was Mr. Samuel Jackson, who grew weary of . That movie, and especially that utterance became an instant Internet meme (WARNING: contains spoilers).

Then, in a bizarre twist of cosmic happenstance, . Yet more snakes on the plane.

Tahoe-LAFS is a decentralized fault tolerant file system. When Zooko was demonstrating it, he wanted to show how the system stays up even when a node fails.

And to demonstrate node failure, :)

Abstract: We have empirically observed, for the first time, an accurate reading for the half-life of a combined chocolate-mint crush bar (M_f) having an initial mass of 200 grams. During the observations, the mass of the M_f underwent Zeta decay from 200 g to 100 g within about 310 seconds, causing an instantaneous measured energy gain of 7.0805 kJ/s in the observers. The instantaneous energy gain observation is consistent with the five-dimensional space-time manifold Rye-Ergot vertex postulate of the super-string “many worlds” theory [McKenna77].

After admiring the Krypto-Kekkonen, I thought I’d roll my own.

Here’s a Python script called split_pic.py to split an image of your choosing into two shares as described by the Naor-Shamir “visual cryptography” scheme. See the script for details.

The script requires PIL (Python Image Library). The outputs are two files, “share1.png” and “share2.png”. Print share1.png on paper, and share2.png on transparency/foil/plastic and carefully align them on top of each other to see the hidden image.

Or, you can use an image editor such as Gimp. Note, the layer effect must be “multiply” for both layers.

Here are two examples you can play with:

First share of the hidden image

Second share of the hidden image

Occasionally I check what my favorite cryptologists are up to. This morning I checked Markku-Juhani O. Saarinen’s page again. Nothing new this time, except eventually I did spot something old which I had not seen before.

Behold, the Krypto-Kekkonen. How cool is that? (Very. But it’s a rhetorical question.)

(Note for foreign readers: Urho Kekkonen was a very photogenic president of Finland back in the days, keeping the Soviet Union at bay by (among other things) outboozing their leaders.)

It has got to be “Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle“. If only it was in German, it would reach perfection!