Judson

judovitch @ 2009-05-29T00:25:00

2009-05-29T04:26:53Z

My friends with a science bent might appreciate this link and the comments that follow it:
http://hujhax.livejournal.com/522794.html

birthing article

2009-03-29T22:24:16Z

A friend of ours from Sarah's moms group was featured in this article about VBAC:
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090329/NEWS01/903290311

I'd be interested to hear what you all think, especially redmed... :)

Why bloat?

2008-09-11T03:00:12Z

This question is squarely aimed at my compsci-enabled friends, hujhax, jrtom and fdmts. That is, why the software bloat? This is old, but if you haven't seen it already, take a look:

http://hubpages.com/hub/_86_Mac_Plus_Vs_07_AMD_DualCore_You_Wont_Believe_Who_Wins

Honestly this totally jives with my experience - other than games pretty much everything ran as fast on my Win3.1 POS in college as it does now on my shiny opteron 850. Why hasn't anyone written a blazingly fast, optimized, stripped down OS to take M$ head-on? More than that, why don't most pieces of software run lean, only adding on "features" when you demand them? I never touch >90% of the word menu items, why do they all need to be loaded into RAM? I suspect the answer is economics - that optimization is expensive, doesn't convince anyone to actually buy the software, and just delays it from getting out the door. Or if I wanted to be more cynical, it's being kept in reserve. That is, once computers stop getting faster year after year, the software companies will still be able to claim you need to upgrade to the "faster" version with the bloat cut out. Hopefully google is already working on this in the back rooms, although chrome seems to hog just as much memory as the other browsers...

Question to LJ-land

2008-08-22T12:48:05Z

So this is similar to a thread posted by ladirectora a while ago. That is, what web sites do you find yourself visiting most often? Which ones have really become part of your daily routine? To give you an example, my current rotation is below:

News: http://www.nytimes.com

Sports: http://sports.yahoo.com

Blogs: http://slashdot.org, the gawker groups (mostly http://jalopnik.com), and http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

WebComics: http://www.qwantz.com and http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/

Work-related: http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/

But I'd love to add some new ones - what are your personal favorites?

Musings on merging

2008-08-05T23:05:21Z

Finally, a clear answer to the age old question - what is the best way to merge? :)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03traffic-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=automobiles

More politics

2008-07-19T01:46:41Z

Diebold CEO personally installing software patches in two counties, both democratic strongholds...
http://rawstory.com//news/2008/Cybersecurity_expert_raises_allegations_of_2004_0717.html
(from /.)

judovitch @ 2008-05-06T11:34:00

2008-05-06T15:35:21Z

For those of you who are into this sort of thing, I've posted my profile on Linkedin.

BSG thoughts

2008-04-08T19:03:17Z

For those of you who aren't linked to him, hujhax has some interesting thoughts on the latest BSG episodes.

101 ways to pwn n00bs

2008-03-31T23:54:19Z

It was amusing counting how many I was familiar with... most of them. :)

A couple freakonomics links

2008-02-29T02:27:27Z

I've been following the freakonomics blog that's now on the nytimes website. Recently they had a run-off for a six word motto for our country. The winner was:

"Our Worst Critics Prefer to Stay"

(http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/and-the-new-six-word-motto-for-the-us-is/)

Next, with hujhax in mind I've been following a recurring special where an econ prof at columbia watches The Wire with a bunch of (mostly) ex gang members. I don't watch the show, but these are fascinating. Beware - spoilers galore:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/the-wire/

From the latest entry: "A gang leader named J.T. would always tell me that 'success' in the game was simple: if you woke up and you weren’t in jail and you were breathing, that was reason enough to celebrate."

I can get on board with that...

snuggly-the-security-bear-explains-warrantless-wiretapping

2008-02-16T12:25:27Z

This isn't one of my major political issues, but I got a good laugh out of it:

http://gizmodo.com/356837/snuggly-the-security-bear-explains-warrantless-wiretapping-is-all-about-love-and-freedom

(From Mark Fiore to boingboing to gizmodo to me to you)

Geopolitics

2008-01-27T14:03:45Z

A very interesting read, from the NY times...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/magazine/27world-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

"When America dominated NATO and led a rigid Pacific alliance system with Japan, South Korea, Australia and Thailand, it successfully managed the Herculean task of running the world from one side of it. Now its very presence in Eurasia is tenuous; it has been shunned by the E.U. and Turkey, is unwelcome in much of the Middle East and has lost much of East Asia’s confidence. “Accidental empire” or not, America must quickly accept and adjust to this reality. Maintaining America’s empire can only get costlier in both blood and treasure. It isn’t worth it, and history promises the effort will fail. It already has."

Car shopping

2008-01-14T01:49:27Z

This is for panthera_onca in hopes it might be useful...
http://consumerist.com/consumer/how-to/13-step-method-for-buying-a-car-while-controlling-the-sale-and-the-price-296553.php

Voltron got served

2008-01-04T15:48:04Z

This one's for panthera_onca:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3662826019015263773

In DC for the holidays

2007-12-17T00:09:57Z

For anyone who might be interested, the fam and I are in DC until after xmas. If you want to call, my cell phone is (845) 430-6796.

now THAT's what I'm talking about

2007-12-16T16:13:18Z

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hybrid/twike-ev-is-the-flintstones-wagon-painted-red-334370.php

This is why I think those end of oil survivalist nutjobs are a little off base. The point is, there's a lot that can be done to reduce our consumption, it's just a question as to when the economics force a culture shift. Right now I would never want to drive one of those things on the street because the safety and lack of schlepp-ability. However, put gas at $20 per gallon, get rid of the Hummers and Escalades, and I'd be right there.

Brunchity brunch brunch

2007-11-10T22:57:18Z

Today saratchka and I had brunch with amnesiadust, fdmts and a couple other non-lj friends from high school. We had a great time, it was really good to catch up with everyone and just hang out for a while. Pictures were taken, toddlers were bounced, and schemes were hatched. Just the sort of thing we need to get us out of the house and keep the old connections going. :-)

Expand your vocab and help feed people FTW!

2007-10-24T01:17:51Z

From jrtom:
http://www.freerice.com/index.php

I know a bunch of people out there who should bookmark this. That's right, I'm looking at you, hujhax, amnesiadust, fdmts and pantera_onca. :)

You just can't un-see this

2007-10-18T03:55:25Z

Posted for panthera_onca:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wffwg7pA0t8

Also this is one of the other things I mentioned - looks a lot less convincing when I re-read it:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7915

how others perceive you...

2007-10-12T04:31:59Z

I was talking to a co-worker today, and he had an interesting comment about my work style. Says he, "Judson - you're the kind of guy that if we ask you in a meeting how do we fix a problem, you'll know *exactly* how to solve all six of them." Made me think of panthera_onca's research.... :)

NYTimes article on diet and fat

2007-10-09T17:17:22Z

Okay, so now I'm confused - this author claims that the dietary fat vs. mortality link hasn't been clinically proven. I thought there were a bunch of heart studies, including the Framingham longitudinal study that said otherwise. The article doesn't go into a lot of detail, I guess they want you to buy the book. Anyone else have any relevant links?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09tier.html

GOD helmet!

2007-10-08T15:57:24Z

(link found on /.)
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=434D7C62-E7F2-99DF-37CC9814533B90D7

Yet another reason why I feel utilitarianism is the way to go...

"To seal the case for the temporal lobe's involvement, Michael Persinger of Laurentian University in Ontario sought to artificially re-create religious feelings by electrically stimulating that large subdivision of the brain. So Persinger created the “God helmet,” which generates weak electromagnetic fields and focuses them on particular regions of the brain's surface. In a series of studies conducted over the past several decades, Persinger and his team have trained their device on the temporal lobes of hundreds of people. In doing so, the researchers induced in most of them the experience of a sensed presence - a feeling that someone (or a spirit) is in the room when no one, in fact, is - or of a profound state of cosmic bliss that reveals a universal truth. During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and religious language - terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence or the wonder of the universe."

Then there's this gem (classical conditioning FTW!):
"Praying before a meal, for example, links prayer with the pleasures of eating. God, he claims, is nothing more mystical than that."

Of course it ends on a conciliatory note:
Moreover, no matter what neural correlates scientists may find, the results cannot prove or disprove the existence of God. <...> After all, finding a cerebral source for spiritual experiences could serve equally well to identify the medium through which God reaches out to humanity. Thus, the nuns' forays into the tubular brain scanner did not undermine their faith. On the contrary, the science gave them an even greater reason to believe.

w00t!

2007-09-23T19:38:25Z

I have defeated bloxorz. Totally recommended for anyone who likes that sort of thing.

Constantly amazed by non-scientists

2007-09-11T23:23:35Z

If you have the time, read this article on burning water and keep in mind the following facts:
1) The products of combustion are always CO2 and/or H2O. In this case the reaction has got to be 2H2O + energy --> 2H2 + O2 --> 2H2O
2) Conservation of energy.

Then laugh when they discuss "whether the energy output from the burning hydrogen — which reached a heat of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — would be enough to power a car or other heavy machinery." Far easier (and more efficient) to just make an electric motor...

Wash Post article on mythinformation

2007-09-05T12:47:49Z

(as seen on slashdot)
This is really great stuff - everyone should take the time to read this article - page1, page2.

By the way, judovitch is awesome. No wait, judovitch is not awesome. HA! No matter which you think/believe to be true, I have just planted the seeds of judovitch's awesomeness in your subconcious. In 30min to 3 days you will be more likely to think that judovitch is awesome. :P