Periodic Dosage Archive 2009-08

Essay: Math Notations, Computer Languages Syntax, and the “Form” in Formalism.

This week i got a email from Rudy Rucker. He's writing a blog about pseudospheres http://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2009/08/28/pseudospheres/. Our brief chat went over whether there's a animation of the Breather Surface breathing.

I don't know the answer. I don't even know what exactly the breahter surface is, and I've wondered about seeing it breathing. After asking Richard Palais, he gave me some explanation. Here's from what i understand. For detail, see: Breather Surface.

Been rusty with SVN. But recently, David Capello joined the ErgoEmacs project, and he put the code into google code's svn repository, and also created a draft emacs binary. Fantastic. With this, i needed to brush up my svn and start to work with svn to commit code. So, i wrote a basic SubVersion Tutorial.

How to Increase Efficiency in Using Mac, Linux, Windows

News: CIA memo details procedures for breaking detainees (2009-08-26) (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP478656. Quote:

WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Sleep deprivation, “insult slaps”, water dousing and “walling”, or slamming a detainee's head against a wall, were techniques used by CIA interrogators to break high-value detainees, according to an agency memo.

Mont Saint-Michel in Second Life

Wrote a basic tutorial on how to use AutoHotkey to create keyboard shortcuts and key macros on Windows: AutoHotkey Tutorial. (computing)

Added definition to this vocabulary page: Xah's A Word A Day.

Just bought 2 keyboards: “Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000” (review) and “Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard” (review) Love them both.

Update on the Computer Keyboards Gallery page, on the purpose of the keys: PrtScn (Print Screen), SysRq (System request), ScrLk (Scroll Lock), Break keys. Also, some design problems of Apple's keyboards.

Tim Burton's new film “Alice in wonderland”. Trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/aliceinwonderland/. See also: Misc Alice Artwork, White Rabbit. Jefferson Airplane live.

News, “AP sources: Report shows CIA interrogation methods” at http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iOTk5mUIVTPTRGU5hoR5JJrr38BAD9A7UV600. Quote:

AP sources: Report shows CIA interrogation methods

By PAMELA HESS (AP)

WASHINGTON -- As the Justice Department considers whether to investigate alleged harsh interrogation practices sanctioned by the Bush administration, sources say a soon-to-be-released report by the CIA's inspector general reveals that agency interrogators conducted mock executions of terror suspects.

These latest allegations are contained in a 2004 report that has been kept secret and is to be released next week, two congressional officials told The Associated Press. They spoke late Friday on condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been cleared for release.

Threatening a prisoner with death violates U.S. anti-torture laws.

In one case, interrogators brought a gun and power drill into a session with suspected Cole bomber Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, the report says. The suicide bombing of the warship USS Cole killed 17 U.S. sailors in Yemen in 2000.

In another episode, a gunshot was fired in a room next to a detainee to make the prisoner believe another suspect had been killed, according to the report, which a federal judge has ordered to be made public Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

See also: A Love of Torture.

Spent 30 min to update: Xah's A Word A Day, page 11. (English literature)

In 2005, Google denied me from participating their AdSense program. I've documented this incidence in my 2005 traffic report, but now i separate it out onto its own page: Google AdSense Ban on XahLee.org.

New tutorial: Working With Tables In Emacs (computing)

Discovered that a new emacs 23 feature. Fantastic. For detail, see this new page: Emacs Suggestion: dired-do-query-replace-regex Replace ALL (computing)

“Mathematica Notation: Past and Future” (2000-10-20), by Stephen Wolfram, at http://www.stephenwolfram.com/publications/recent/mathml/index.html.

For some commentary, see bottom of: The TeX Pestilence (the problems of TeX/LaTeX).

Exotic Architectures in Second Life

More Second Life screenshots: Second Life Futuristic Cities. (virtual world; tech)

short notes on Unicode: Carbon Emacs 22 vs Emacs 23 (computing)

Tutorial: How to use and setup Emacs's whitespace-mode (computing)

Rant: A Exhibition of Tech Geekers Incompetence: Emacs whitespace-mode (computing)

Updated: Emacs: Where to get JavaScript, Visual Basic, PHP modes? (computing)

Emacs Manual Node Persistency Issues (programer culture; technical writing)

http://xahlee.info/powershell/emacs_powershell_mode.html

A new essay index: Keyboards, Layouts, Hotkeys, Macros, RSI. (computing)

Took about 2 days to write: New Features in Emacs 23 (computing)

Today, on my Windows machine, the system pops up telling me Java has a update. Then, the Java update offers me some Carbonite Online Backup free trial for 30 days. Fuck Java. Fuck Sun Microsystems motherfuck.

Analogy vs Reasoning (humor; computing culture)

Emacs, Dvorak, C-x (computing)

Difference between Emacs's “(setenv PATH …)” and “(setq exec-path …)” (computing)

Collection of tools for: How To Create Your Own Keybinding In Microsoft Windows (computing)

From Wikipedia: Group of Two

Sino-American or U.S.-China relations refers to international relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China (PRC). Most analysts have characterized present Sino-American relations as complex and multi-faceted, with the United States and the People's Republic of China being neither allies nor enemies. Generally, the American government and military establishment do not regard the Chinese as an adversary, but as a competitor in some areas and a partner in others. At the same time, it is acknowledged that the nature of Sino-American relations will be a major factor in determining the fate of the world in the 21st century.

The U.S. has the world's largest economy. China's economy is the third largest and will soon overtake Japan's to become the second largest. The two countries are the two largest consumers of motor vehicles and oil[1]. They are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases and thus have a disproportionate impact on climate change.[2]