Carl Setzer

Piled Higher & Deeper comics created a great animation to go along with an interview with Jonathan Feng . A fun look at where we in the realm of physics research. If you're a physics geek, though, you'll be a bit bored as it's very high-level. But the animations that go with this are still worth watching. Dark Matters from PHD Comics on Vimeo .

Maybe I should pursue this career option?

Received yet another ad for SSDs (solid-state hard-drives). I'd love to have the benefits: faster boot times, less heat/more battery, longer life. As cool as a solid state drive is, I'm not sure I can justify the costs. Or, to bring the costs in line, lower my used disk space. As I think, though, I can see something of a work-around. Go with the smallest SSD I can justify, but then use the cloud, or an external hard-drive, or both for the bulk of my information storage. Also, bodes the question of "why do I save so much data?" I do save nearly everything. That goes way back, though. Every so often, I purge my 4 drawer file cabinet. Yet I have years worth of receipts, various miscellaneous files. My data hoarding goes back to hard-copy days. And, perhaps, it's time for that to end. I think of the times that that one, random file, saved has been either helpful, or has saved my butt. Producing that email saying "I want you to do 'x'" was perfect whe...

I just watched part of a show about 9/11 conspiracy theories (click here for more). Now, I'm no engineer (though have a great deal of related training), so am disinclined to argue the facts on either side of this debate. I lean towards to official story, though, My main criteria for this? For such a secret to be maintained would truly be a revolutionary event. These same people who can't keep secret the next speech are going to keep THIS under wraps? The divergent and conflicting agendas within the federal government will work together in this instance? Now, if there is some shadow org affecting such actions, the ramifications are amazing. Keeping such secrets with actions that would work across departments is something unique. Perhaps it's possible. It escapes my observations, though.

After several attempts to over-generalize my key-fobs functionality (front door >2x, mailbox, store-front, kitchen lights), I started wondering how awesome life would be with remote control of every major appliance. Kitchen lights reflecting on my computer screen? Click! Hands full and trying to get in the house? Click! Mailbox? Yep, Click! Oh, wouldn't life be so much easier? Well, no. Imagine the way such could be executed. Either multiple fobs for each action. I'm imagining an electronic age version of the jailers key ring. Or walking with a universal remote that's more like an iPad. Not very practical after all. Wait! How about an implant wired to your nervous system? We're not quite there yet, but we can see the proverbial light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel for this (though faintly). Imagine that world. Need the lights on? Just think it. Etc, etc, etc. But, besides the risk of infection, what other issues would this bring? First, the Revelation/bible based "mar...

If you're in the Portland, OR area in May, check this out.

Just watched a spot for a prescription eye-lash grower. Watching it makes me think of the treatments for gas, hair-loss, and all sorts of trivial ailments. Seems rather superfluous and silly. Clearly, even such a noble endeavor as medicine looses its ethical compass in the face of profit. How do we get treatments developed for serious diseases that don’t have large markets? The invisible hand won’t bring them about. A disease, no matter how dreadful its affects and the suffering it causes, that only has a minute number of “customers” won’t attract the medical industrial complex. Is there any way to build these treatments, products? To alleviate these diseases and mitigate suffering? This ethical concern is one, unspoken, draw for me towards a nationalized (perhaps globalized?) system. I hope that we could find a non-socialized system.