Things that have influenced me...

[chalsall]

This is going to be a personal thread, linking off to different things as they come to me in real time.

Please don't reply to this thread. This is my brain dump...

First up, just because it happened to be offered to me by the AIs...

Mark Knopfler talking about the tech behind his sound.

[chalsall]

Leonard Cohen.

My, word, what a voice!!! And very happy to share the stage with those who worked with him.

And he kept working even though he knew was dying. (But, then, don't we all... )

[chalsall]

Not meaning to blow sunshine here. But...

George Woltman (AKA Prime95 here on this forum) coded up something several years ago which pushed everything to the limit, and then released it for free use.

Leveraging on some particular characteristics of number theory that almost no one understands, and doing some very serious coding down close to the "metal"...

Empirically, serious people and companies have used George's code to ensure hardware sanity. And, continue to do so.

George... Thank you sincerely for your help over the years.

We've never met, but you have saved me lots of time and grief by my being able to see the kit I rely on should no longer be considered trustworthy far earlier than any other test I have ever run.

Edit: Sent to me by way of PM by Ken. Appropriate...

Originally Posted by kriesel

1. More than just several years ago. 25 years. First version of prime95 made available in early 1996.
2. Created a group collaborating to systematically search for Mersenne primes, first via email mailing list.
3. Maintained and improved the prime95 program at least annually for 25 years and counting.
4. Expanded capability to other number theory types and capabilities too. (Originally just TF and LL of Mersennes.)
5. Welcomed QA testing and code contributions.
6. Absolutely ego-free thorough search for cross validation and detection and resolution of any software issues. (Even asked for and got LL res64 for comparison between the world class fast prime95 code and my crappy slow C-int-grammar-school-multiplication-only completely independently developed code for the available low p.)
7. Designed database and co-designed primenet API to make the growing GIMPS effort globally scale.
8. Put incentives in place indicating a good understanding of human nature (computing credit; EFF prize sharing, lesser prime discovery prizes).
9. Forum almost devoid of any criticism by him of anyone no matter how inappropriate their actions.
10. Created Mersenne Research Inc with a governing board, to manage the legal aspects of the endeavor
11. Etc.

So many facets to it.

[chalsall]

I'm not quite sure where to begin with this, so I'm going to start at the end (temporal frame of reference this post).

This morning (starting at 0000 hours) something very interesting happened here in Bimshire...

We became a republic!

We now have a President instead of the Queen of England as our Head of State (the Prime Minister remains the Leader of the Government of Barbados).

Prince Charles was here to congratulate us on this decision.

And, it's a serious decision! There is a whole lotta legal stuff that needs to be shaken out of this.

But it looks like both Religion and Sexual orientation are going to be a lot more "normalized" with rational thinking as part of the exercise. Cool!

My connection to Barbados is a bit complicated. My father was born here just over ninety-five years ago. I moved to Barbados just over twenty years ago. As a Canadian, there's something to be said for being warm all the time...

BTW... I feel safer here in Barbados, for my family, my friends, and myself, than I do just about anywhere else I've ever lived or visited.

Please come visit if you find yourself able to do so.

[chalsall]

I was told by someone I take very seriously that I should post something in my Blog, to counteract some "negative energy".

I almost died a couple of weeks ago. Multiple times. But didn't. Seriously.

I think I did hear one person die while I was in their care. And at least two who were resuscitated.

I am thankful for the very good care I received.

The food sucked. The O2 was good...

[chalsall]

Today, Wednesday, January 19th, 2022 Barbados held its first Election since becoming a Republic.

As someone "on the ground", the voting process was managed very professionally by those who were processing the Voters. Only one Voter was allowed into the voting space at one time -- exactly as it should have been.

The experience while queuing up was also somewhat calming.

Complete strangers being very comfortable being in each other's "spaces".

Neighbors greeting each other (with appropriate distancing, of course) realizing "Hey! You invest the time to vote as well. Cool!

Total time invested: 20 minutes.

Total potential upside: Unknown, but arguably greater than zero.

Now we wait for the numbers to come back... Should be by tomorrow (Thursday) morning.

[chalsall]

Please forgive me for this, but...

As a student of The Red Green Show, I understand all too well just how stupid men can be.

If I may please share an image which captures the beautiful faces of several very serious women in the contemporaneous...

IMHO... Let us please be honest... We men don't have a chance! Empirically... The women decide; and tolerate; and do... 8-)