Hypatia of Alexandria

Years ago, before we even thought of dating, my husband Kevin emailed me and suggested that if I ever have a daughter, I could name her Hypatia (I was engaged to another at that time, and Kevin's email was a congratulatory gesture, but that is another story entirely). It was about a year before I went back to school to study Computer Engineering, and I was a little intimidated about diving headlong into such a male dominated profession. So I was amazed to learn about a woman who was a prominent mathematician and astronomer and who gained the utmost respect from her male contemporaries in the 4th century, when women barely had rights at all, much less commonly held down careers in the hard sciences.

Hypatia was born somewhere between 350 and 370 A.D. to Theon Alexandricus, a mathematician who was one of the last known scholars associated with the Library of Alexandria. Hypatia collaborated with her father on many writings, but she also wrote works of her own. Among these solo projects was a commentary on the 13-volume Arithmetica by Diophantus, a commentary on the Conics of Apollonius, and editing of her father's commentary on Euclid's Elements. She is thought to have invented the hydrometer, which is used to measure the specific gravity (or relative density) of a liquid. She was also the head of the Neo-platonist school in Alexandria where she taught philosophy.

Her life was ended too soon when she became the target of those who blamed her, falsely, for the strained relations between Imperial Prefect Orestes and the Bishop Cyril. Unfortunately, her demise has sometimes overshadowed her accomplishments, as others in later generations have used accounts of her death to support their various religious (or anti-religious) views. I prefer to be inspired by what she accomplished while she was still living, which were so unique for a woman of her time.

Though I have grown increasingly more at ease with my place as a woman in a still primarily male dominated vocation, I still get excited whenever I discover new female role models in the area of mathematics or other sciences. Today is a day to honor another such woman: Ada Lovelace Day. A day created in honor of one such woman who has been credited as the first computer programmer, and to draw attention to women who have excelled in science and technology.

On my summer reading list: Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr by Michael A. B. Deakin.

Humility

I particularly like this quote, as I think it encapsulates the most important lesson I learned (and hope to remember in future study) this past spring in my assembly programming class:

The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own skull. He therefore approaches his task with full humility, and avoids clever tricks like the plague.

-- Edsger W. Dijkstra, from his paper "The Humble Programmer", delivered at the 1972 Turing Award Lecture hosted by the ACM.

All your Einsteins are belong to us

GENIUS HEAD: Albert Hubo is 1.4-meter-tall battery-powered walking humanoid with realistic, humanlike facial expressions. The robotic body was developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and the head is a creation of Hanson Robotics, a Texas company that makes interactive conversational robots.

Found at: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jun08/6329/5

Just some screen shots for a bug report

A Bright Light Has Been Extinguished...

Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Science Fiction Writer, Dies :(

Three Little Kittens ,,,=^n_n^=,,,

Three little kittens they lost their mittens, and they began to cry,
"Oh mother dear, we sadly fear that we have lost our mittens."
"What! Lost your mittens, you naughty kittens!
Then you shall have no pie."
"Meeow, meeow, meeow, now we shall have no pie."
The three little kittens they found their mittens,
And they began to cry,
"Oh mother dear, see here, see here
For we have found our mittens."
"Put on your mittens, you silly kittens
And you shall have some pie"
"Meeow, meeow, meeow,
Now let us have some pie."
The three little kittens put on their mittens
And soon ate up the pie,
"Oh mother dear, we greatly fear
That we have soiled our mittens."
"What! soiled you mittens, you naughty kittens!"
Then they began to cry, "Meeow, meeow, meeow"
Then they began to sigh.
The three little kittens they washed their mittens
And hung them out to dry,
"Oh mother dear, do you not hear
That we have washed our mittens."
"What! washed your mittens, you are good kittens."
But I smell a rat close by,
"Meeow, meeow, meeow" we smell a rat close by...

Musing on Yoshi's polydactyly reminded me of this nursery rhyme. What a good little kitten he is. ^_^

Oh, yeah.... Kevvy and I now have two kittens. Yuki and Yoshi. For more on this, go here.

I Love Intelligent Humor :D

"Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers."

~ Stephen Fry: "Language Conversation" from A Bit of Fry and Laurie

While watching this sketch, I couldn't help but think of Noam Chomsky, and his famous meaningless sentence "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously". Consequently, I was not surprised when I found Fry's turn of phrase in the above article. Apparently someone else has already made the same connection. :D

At any rate, I have discovered a British comedy series that I want to see more of! For those of you who don't immediately recognize Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, think Blackadder. Or for those on the western side of "the pond" think V is for Vendetta and House, MD.

01d 5k001 1337 h4xx0r

...at least I think that's how one would write it, if one were into 1337 5p34k. :P

Anyway, the person I am referring to is one Richard Stallman, who gave two talks at UC Berkeley this past week -- one on Wed. and one on Fri. -- about the importance of free (as in freedom, not price) software. Richard Stallman (for those of you who may not know) is one of the original "hackers" who worked at MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab in the 1970's. In 1984 he left MIT to start the GNU project and the Free Software Foundation. He is the creator of the GPL (Gnu Public License) and the originator of Copyleft (upon which the GPL was built). He's also the princpal author of the GNU/Linux operating system, the GNU compiler collection, the Emacs editor and the GNU symbolic debugger, among other programs.

It was well worth the hour and a half one-way journey to Berkeley on both days to hear him speak. I would elaborate, but My boyfriend took extensive notes and made entries in his blog for the talks on Wednesday and Friday , so I will be lazy and direct you there. Lots o' good stuff. :D

Also a video of the talks should be posted within the next week on UC Berkeley's EECS Website under "Colloquium".

In other news, I am back in school this semester, taking Trigonometry and Algorithm and Design Problems. The trig is review for me, so I am at the top of the class (100% baby!). The CS class is a bit of review so far, with the exception of the analysis of pre- and post- conditions of algorithms. It's a bit odd, though, for me that the course is being taught in pseudocode, rather than a specific programming language. It makes sense because these are concepts that span all programming languages. But I tend to be more of a hands-on learner, so I would like to be able to compile and run these things.

So I found myself blowing the dust off my C++ book yesterday so I could put it into practice. It was scary how rusty I have become in just a semester away from it. But I think this'll help me solidify what I'm learning in the class. I'll get the opportunity to learn more about how to use Code::blocks this way, too. In my spare time I've been wanting to learn Python, so I'll probably end up applying some of the class problems in this language, too.

The Fuzzy Neighbor

We have a most unusual squirrel in the neighborhood... he (she) is black with a red tail. This furry character makes frequent appearances around my apartment. I've been wanting to catch him (her) on film since I moved in here, and last weekend Kevvy and I finally succeeded -- with the help of the bird feeder in the backyard.

It was oddly endearing watching the squirrel hang from his (her) hind legs and grab seed from the trough to munch on. Even if it did mean less seed for the birds.

In-Tents!

Pun intended. ^___^

Kevvy and I got a tent from ebay for our trip West. Today we set it up for the first time. The above photos demonstrate what we ended up with. Kevvy is modelling the first stage of assembly. And I am showing off the finished product, complete with rainfly.

Kevvy's Here! ^_^

Here he is, collapsed on my bed with Claude and Ra. Looks like he's still suffering a little from the jet lag. Isn't he cute when he's sweepy? :D

Three Words: Weirdest Movie Ever.

That would be how I would sum up the movie "Six-String Samurai"
directed by Lance Mungia and starring Jeffrey Falcon. It's a parody on samurai films, Buddy Holly, Western films, post-apocalyptic films, and a little bit of everything else thrown in. I thought "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was weird... I thought "Brazil" was pretty unusual. But this film takes the cake!

While I was watching it today, I couldn't decide if I was enjoying it or not. But by the end I decided it was one of my new favorites.

I firmly believe the Writers/Directors must have been on crack while making this film, though.

The Fifth Horseman.

"Who's Afwaid of a Widdle Apokowips?"

Uncyclopedia has some great images!

Also: my favorite article of the day is on the new software called Potatochop.

Inspirational Quote of the Day.

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."

-- Henry Ford.

I submit, for your approval (and if you don't approve -- tough. :P ), two songs that have been playing in my mind today:

1. Wall of Voodoo's Mexican Radio from their 1990 album Call of the West. Here's the video.

2. This one's been on my mind since I was on vacation in Cali. It's The Fray's How to Save a Life, from their 2005 album of the same name. This be the video.

"It's a phone with appeal!"

This song is dedicated to -YOU- Kevvy! ^_^

It got stuck in my head this morning, and now it will be stuck in yours. I love you!

Oh, and there's the high-speed, badger inducing version as well.

Learn all about the song, written by Raffi.

Happy Birfday, Cammie!

My niece had her 5th birthday this past week. It made me feel old. That aside, it was a fun time. Cake was eaten, presents were open, and all the little rugrats from my sister's neighborhood went swimming in the kiddie pool. Oh, and cammie showed off her new rollerblades. She is pretty good with them for her age. Cammie seems to have much more boldness when it comes to learning things like skating or how to ride a bike than either her mother or I were when we were little.... Cammie has had her training wheels off her bike for a year now. I didn't get that far until I was 6. And she's a whiz with puzzles. I'm proud of her!

Whenever I look at her, I can't help thinking how much she looks like her mother when she was that age. It's a bit haunting.

Cammie's such a joy to me, though. She's helped me to feel not so shy around kids. And I can't wait to be a mom.... I hope when I have kids someday they are as cute and as silly as she is!

More flowers were sent to me by my Kevvy! ^___^

I found these by my entryway, as I did the rose, and I took in the poor orphan flowers to care for as my own. They were a happy, stress-relieving surprise, after a not-so-good day at work.

The Kanji character on my mousepad means "love", which fits in well with the pictures. And the card (in case is too small to be read) says "I love you! Kevin XOXOXOXO"

It feels good to know that I am loved so deeply. They are my favorite color, too!

Thank you, my Kevvy! You are so thoughtful, and I love you!

Musical Goodness.

Heard the following songs on the radio tonight, on my station of choice -- Drive 105:

AFI's Miss Murder on their latest release (June 6, 2006) Decemberunderground. Here is the Video.

And then Gomez with their latest single How We Operate from ther May 2, 2006 album of the same name. Video.

Pwetty Fwower!

About a week ago I came home from a rotten evening at the office and I found this rose, wrapped in paper, outside my apartment door. Kevvy, my love, had this delivered for me. It brightened my whole evening, and soon forgot the stress of the evening.

It has bloomed very nicely, and I have managed to keep it looking lively with the help of lots of plant food. I have never had a rose bloom like this for me, and it is a rather nice feeling. Sort of a metaphor for how my relationship with Kevin has progressed thus far.

I really wanted him to see it, so I took pictures today, while it was still in full bloom.

Thank you for the pwetty rose. I love you Kevvy!