I thought I would write a bit about the things I work with, hopefully this will only be the first of a row of posts about different geophysical methods.
The geophysical method I work with the most is called MEP, Multiple Electrode Profiling, I think in some areas this is better known as static DC-profiling.
The idea behind this method is to send an electric current between two points on the surface of the earth and measure the potential difference between two other points which then will give you some kind of resistance measurement.
Now this resistance says something about what it is you are sending the current through. Of course you measure higher resistance the further apart the electrodes are, but when you do some calculations on this you find out that this can be taken out of the equation by dividing by something called the geometrical factor, you then have something that is measured in ohms/m, called relative resistance which if you stand on a "homogeneous halfspace" (a flat earth consisting of the same material) will give the same output no matter how you arrange the electrodes. Now the earth is not a "homogeneous halfspace" but this relative resistance that you measure says something about what it is you send the current through.
Another thing that is being used is that the further apart the electrodes are, the deeper the current will run into the earth. So this way you can get a lot of information about the resistance of the earth. By doing measurements with different configurations of the electrodes you get ever more information on the resistance structure of the earth.
There are almost always more than one resistivity model that will fit data, but if you also have some other geological information and put on some boundaries on what kind of model you accept (like for example the 1-d model which says that the earth is composed of horizontal layers, which often is close to true) you can get a pretty good idea of what is beneath the surface.
The way this is done practically is most often (at least in my experience) with some special equipment from a company in Sweden, Abem, the company is closely connected to the university in Lund.
Usually you lie out 400 meters of multi conductor cable, connect that cable to the ground using spears that you connect to the cables outlets and then let the machine in the middle send out current and measure potential differences on a lot of preprogrammed configurations. When it is done you move 100 meters of cable to the other end of the line, move the machine back to the middle and let it measure again, then move another 100 meters and so on and on.
One of the good things of this method is that you can measure in almost any terrain as long as the fieldworkers are able to lie out the configuration in a straight line (can be a bigger challenge than what you might imagine, but it is can almost always be done). All the equipment and work can be done by two men carrying the equipment.
With the 400 meters configuration you can usually get reliable data down to at least 50 meters depth and sometimes even 200 meters depending a lot on what structure the underground has. As with almost all of these method the deeper you get the less resolution you will have on the structures in the underground.
August 09, 2007
August 07, 2007
Gentoo and Daniel Robbins
I am an incarnated user of Gentoo Linux, for many years Gentoo has been the only operating system I have been using on the computers I own.
Ever since Daniel Robbins, the guy who created Gentoo, left the project because of money problems there has been a lot of problems finding the right structure within the Gentoo society, I think I will avoid commenting on it, lots of has been going on I hardly understand. My computers have been running as I wanted them to in the time I have been using Gentoo, and on the Gentoo Forums I have always found the help I needed to get the problems I had fixed, the problems seem to have been in "developer society" of Gentoo, not as much on the user level.
Anyhow it seems that Daniel together with others doing again is trying to find solutions to these problems after Daniel has been absent for some years. Daniels blog is quite interesting reading these days.
Ever since Daniel Robbins, the guy who created Gentoo, left the project because of money problems there has been a lot of problems finding the right structure within the Gentoo society, I think I will avoid commenting on it, lots of has been going on I hardly understand. My computers have been running as I wanted them to in the time I have been using Gentoo, and on the Gentoo Forums I have always found the help I needed to get the problems I had fixed, the problems seem to have been in "developer society" of Gentoo, not as much on the user level.
Anyhow it seems that Daniel together with others doing again is trying to find solutions to these problems after Daniel has been absent for some years. Daniels blog is quite interesting reading these days.
July 03, 2007
Handling an unstable income
Geophysics fieldwork is often a very unstable business, at times there is enough work to keep you busy all day around, cast gushing in your account and then there are these periods where there hardly is any work around at all, and with that no real income.
One thing that controls this is the seasons, a lot of the manual geophysics work is often done in spring and fall (see previous post about crops for part of the explanation why), other things that may change this is the financial situation for those that order the work done and then again the company where you are working for the most might not win the big assignments that you are were counting on etc. etc.
So how to handle this, not really being able to count on a stable income?
Now I am not an expert on this, far from actually, but still I thought I would share a few thoughts on this subject with those who might have interest in this.
One thing that sure helps is to have a big bag of money lying there for the periods without income.
This is something that needs to be thought of in the periods where the income is really good, don't spend it all at once, tug a bit aside for times when work might not come as easily.
Different unemployment insurances might also be something that could help, I myself prefer to steer clear of as many insurances as possible (easy for me to say living in a country with free health care ... a health insurance is something I would avoid living without if I could) and try my best to be self insured. If you wonder why then take a look at the big office buildings (palaces might be a better word) and the many many workers in these buildings of the insurance companies, where do you think these money come from?
I don't find it easy at all handling this financial instability, but one thing that helps in handling this is the art of making a budget and working on sticking to it.
Another thing that helps is to have some kind of back up job that you can fall back on when geophysics work is getting slim. At this time in Denmark that is no problem at all, there is more work than there are hands to do it, but this will not always be the case. How you get one of these jobs to fall back on isn't something that I have a recipe for ... having an open mind never hurts, for example the tourist business has a lot of their main seasons in the summer and winter which fits nicely with the geophysics fieldwork in spring and fall.
One thing that controls this is the seasons, a lot of the manual geophysics work is often done in spring and fall (see previous post about crops for part of the explanation why), other things that may change this is the financial situation for those that order the work done and then again the company where you are working for the most might not win the big assignments that you are were counting on etc. etc.
So how to handle this, not really being able to count on a stable income?
Now I am not an expert on this, far from actually, but still I thought I would share a few thoughts on this subject with those who might have interest in this.
One thing that sure helps is to have a big bag of money lying there for the periods without income.
This is something that needs to be thought of in the periods where the income is really good, don't spend it all at once, tug a bit aside for times when work might not come as easily.
Different unemployment insurances might also be something that could help, I myself prefer to steer clear of as many insurances as possible (easy for me to say living in a country with free health care ... a health insurance is something I would avoid living without if I could) and try my best to be self insured. If you wonder why then take a look at the big office buildings (palaces might be a better word) and the many many workers in these buildings of the insurance companies, where do you think these money come from?
I don't find it easy at all handling this financial instability, but one thing that helps in handling this is the art of making a budget and working on sticking to it.
Another thing that helps is to have some kind of back up job that you can fall back on when geophysics work is getting slim. At this time in Denmark that is no problem at all, there is more work than there are hands to do it, but this will not always be the case. How you get one of these jobs to fall back on isn't something that I have a recipe for ... having an open mind never hurts, for example the tourist business has a lot of their main seasons in the summer and winter which fits nicely with the geophysics fieldwork in spring and fall.
May 26, 2007
The problems of crops and other difficult terrain
This week I have been out doing a little geophysics job and one particular experience from this week inspired me to write this post.
Things were as such going smoothly with our fieldwork, it looked as if we might even be able to pretty much finish two days work in one long day, we were slowly moving south with the stuff we were doing. Then it was that I saw something that made me right away forget about getting this job done in one day ... rape ... about the hight of my head and entangled as only rape can be. We were able to move all measurements but one with the first method we were doing in the area out of the area with rape but had to take some serious detours and the one measurement we had to do in rape took about 3 times the time that one would otherwise do in not so annoying crops.
The next day we were also moving through the same rape, giving us quite a few problems also but this time we were doing PACES which involves a puller on crawler tracks which cleared a way through the lines we were moving on, still the part of the lines that were through the rape did take something like double the time and the measurements were of much worse quality due to the rape lying down were making the earth contact worse.
So I by now really understand why anyone who is just a little experienced in planning geophysics fieldwork try to push the fieldwork so that it can be done when there are as few crops on the fields as possible ... not only because of the problems that the crops (the worst crops here in Denmark being rape, charlock and corn but others can also cause problems). There are times when the job just can't be pushed to the right seasons like the job I did this week ... with the weather we have had here in lately the crops are at least two weeks ahead of what they usually would be.
Again certain kinds of terrain take even more time than any kind of crops, the most extreme experience I have had was when we were lying some CVES lines through a swamp, it took an entire day to get done 1/5 of what we would usually have been able to do on a day.
Other things causing problems is forests, some method just can't be done there (or in "worse" terrain) while others like CVES just takes a lot longer time to do and requires experiences fieldworkers to get good results.
I have been thinking of maybe developing a way of estimating the problems caused by different kinds of crops and terrain for the fieldwork that needs to be done, this would probably be a useful tool for the people put in charge of planning geophysics fieldwork. I have not seen this done anywhere yet, but I would be grateful if someone could point me to such a resource if it exists ... if for not other reason then because it would be interesting to see if my experience from practical fieldwork fits what some theoretic work is predicting.
Things were as such going smoothly with our fieldwork, it looked as if we might even be able to pretty much finish two days work in one long day, we were slowly moving south with the stuff we were doing. Then it was that I saw something that made me right away forget about getting this job done in one day ... rape ... about the hight of my head and entangled as only rape can be. We were able to move all measurements but one with the first method we were doing in the area out of the area with rape but had to take some serious detours and the one measurement we had to do in rape took about 3 times the time that one would otherwise do in not so annoying crops.
The next day we were also moving through the same rape, giving us quite a few problems also but this time we were doing PACES which involves a puller on crawler tracks which cleared a way through the lines we were moving on, still the part of the lines that were through the rape did take something like double the time and the measurements were of much worse quality due to the rape lying down were making the earth contact worse.
So I by now really understand why anyone who is just a little experienced in planning geophysics fieldwork try to push the fieldwork so that it can be done when there are as few crops on the fields as possible ... not only because of the problems that the crops (the worst crops here in Denmark being rape, charlock and corn but others can also cause problems). There are times when the job just can't be pushed to the right seasons like the job I did this week ... with the weather we have had here in lately the crops are at least two weeks ahead of what they usually would be.
Again certain kinds of terrain take even more time than any kind of crops, the most extreme experience I have had was when we were lying some CVES lines through a swamp, it took an entire day to get done 1/5 of what we would usually have been able to do on a day.
Other things causing problems is forests, some method just can't be done there (or in "worse" terrain) while others like CVES just takes a lot longer time to do and requires experiences fieldworkers to get good results.
I have been thinking of maybe developing a way of estimating the problems caused by different kinds of crops and terrain for the fieldwork that needs to be done, this would probably be a useful tool for the people put in charge of planning geophysics fieldwork. I have not seen this done anywhere yet, but I would be grateful if someone could point me to such a resource if it exists ... if for not other reason then because it would be interesting to see if my experience from practical fieldwork fits what some theoretic work is predicting.
May 06, 2007
Help stop animal abusive rodeo in Denmark
Just wanted to tell people (especially Danes) that the sick idea of rodeo's is coming to Denmark, please also sign this petition to support the efforts to stop this.
Sure there is lots of this kind of stupidity and animal cruelty going on in other places, it might seem difficult to do something about this for a Dane (but that doesn't mean it is not possible), but lets make sure that we don't get this particular stupidity here in Denmark, this is the time for Danes that care for animals to act.
*edit* he rodeo has been canceled due to too few people buying tickets, that sure is good (and by this update old) news *edit*
Sure there is lots of this kind of stupidity and animal cruelty going on in other places, it might seem difficult to do something about this for a Dane (but that doesn't mean it is not possible), but lets make sure that we don't get this particular stupidity here in Denmark, this is the time for Danes that care for animals to act.
*edit* he rodeo has been canceled due to too few people buying tickets, that sure is good (and by this update old) news *edit*
May 03, 2007
Sudoku
I have just been spending 4 hours on a 4x4 Sudoku puzzle where I here after 4 hours sitting in front of the computer find that I have made a mistake and can't find room for the 5 that needs to be somewhere in a quadrant. I can identify in which quadrant the mistake is, but I end up figuring that 4 hours is enough time spend on this.
Sudokuy is really very fascinating, the 3x3 is usually solved in less than 30 minutes, it is a nice way for me to relax, but I have only once had the patience to solve a 4x4 sudoku, that took me something like 4 hours back then.
I have made myself a little programming task of making a Sudoku program of some kind, Sudoku is something that computer programs are much faster at solving than a human brain will probably ever be ... at least if you have anything that resembles as much computing power as what has the everyday person has easily been able to get for the last ~25 years.
Still to make this program I need to learn Java better which right now is the language I am trying to motivate myself to get learned, it's been months since I last did spend time with this, it will probably have to wait until winter like so many other projects involving a lot of sitting down.
Right now I am out working a lot in with geophysics and related things which has me very physically active, if I was to sit down to much now I would get out of shape, it has been hard enough to get myself into physical shape again after the winter, I am kind of planning not to allow myself to get as much out of shape again like I did last winter.
Sudokuy is really very fascinating, the 3x3 is usually solved in less than 30 minutes, it is a nice way for me to relax, but I have only once had the patience to solve a 4x4 sudoku, that took me something like 4 hours back then.
I have made myself a little programming task of making a Sudoku program of some kind, Sudoku is something that computer programs are much faster at solving than a human brain will probably ever be ... at least if you have anything that resembles as much computing power as what has the everyday person has easily been able to get for the last ~25 years.
Still to make this program I need to learn Java better which right now is the language I am trying to motivate myself to get learned, it's been months since I last did spend time with this, it will probably have to wait until winter like so many other projects involving a lot of sitting down.
Right now I am out working a lot in with geophysics and related things which has me very physically active, if I was to sit down to much now I would get out of shape, it has been hard enough to get myself into physical shape again after the winter, I am kind of planning not to allow myself to get as much out of shape again like I did last winter.
April 06, 2007
Kvistur looking good when he is angry
I have moved my horse to this new place where I live now, right now he is on the pasture with a mare, Skotta, that he is getting along with very well.
Now today Skotta was taken out for a little ride while Kvistur was left alone on the pasture, he sure wasn't satisfied with this, I kind of expected this so I had brought my camera and this resulted in this little album of Kvistur hissing around over having been left alone.
Now today Skotta was taken out for a little ride while Kvistur was left alone on the pasture, he sure wasn't satisfied with this, I kind of expected this so I had brought my camera and this resulted in this little album of Kvistur hissing around over having been left alone.
March 17, 2007
Saving power
Until I moved to here I had not been paying for the electrical power I was using and my hut was heated by electricity anyhow so I didn't care much about the power my computer was consuming in the winter I even used my computer as a heater by running the CPU at 100% while working on the project Seventeen or Bust.
Now I have moved a place that is heated by a central heating system running on wood, I don't pay for the heat but I pay for the electricity I use so I have been trying to change a few things.
My investments in 2 P4's while living in the little hut seem a bit annoying now, I have been selling the smaller of them and now only have one system running.
I have activivated the CPU-frequency scaling in the kernel, which means that the CPU will scale down when there is no need for running at 3GHz, it is scaling down to around 400 MHz I notice a little delay in scaling up, but that is not something that annoys me to much, a bit of fine tunning of this system and I have quite a bit of power saved.
Anyhow the P4 is still eating too much power, but for the time being that is the best fix I could come up with, I don't want start investing in new hardware right now.
I think I would do well to invest in a better power supply with the 80 PLUS specification, which would allow my power supply to better follow the demand from the system instead of it being a bit conservative and eating to much power all the time, until I have that kind of power supply I don't think I will see the full effect of the frequency scaling.
Another big problem with my desktop system here is the two old CRT screens I am using for my dual screen setup, I surely would save a lot of power replacing them with two LCD's or maybe even better one big LCD (not sure about that though, I think I might get better watt/squareinch with two smaller LCD's). As I wrote earlier I don't want to make any new investments, so for now I try to remember to shut down the CRT's when I don't use them.
I am sure I will find other ways to reduce my computer power use, I will try to post about it here when I find them.
Now I have moved a place that is heated by a central heating system running on wood, I don't pay for the heat but I pay for the electricity I use so I have been trying to change a few things.
My investments in 2 P4's while living in the little hut seem a bit annoying now, I have been selling the smaller of them and now only have one system running.
I have activivated the CPU-frequency scaling in the kernel, which means that the CPU will scale down when there is no need for running at 3GHz, it is scaling down to around 400 MHz I notice a little delay in scaling up, but that is not something that annoys me to much, a bit of fine tunning of this system and I have quite a bit of power saved.
Anyhow the P4 is still eating too much power, but for the time being that is the best fix I could come up with, I don't want start investing in new hardware right now.
I think I would do well to invest in a better power supply with the 80 PLUS specification, which would allow my power supply to better follow the demand from the system instead of it being a bit conservative and eating to much power all the time, until I have that kind of power supply I don't think I will see the full effect of the frequency scaling.
Another big problem with my desktop system here is the two old CRT screens I am using for my dual screen setup, I surely would save a lot of power replacing them with two LCD's or maybe even better one big LCD (not sure about that though, I think I might get better watt/squareinch with two smaller LCD's). As I wrote earlier I don't want to make any new investments, so for now I try to remember to shut down the CRT's when I don't use them.
I am sure I will find other ways to reduce my computer power use, I will try to post about it here when I find them.
March 05, 2007
Linux keyboard shortcuts
I just found this nice blog post on Linux keyboard shortcuts, just thought, I learned a few new ones there.
February 23, 2007
A bit about my field equipment
I have just been spending a bit of time writing about field equipment primary from my years of experience in geophysics fieldwork.
The page is far from done yet, I plan to write a lot more, primarily to help myself remember everything when I am in a hurry getting new equipment or packing for field trips, it has so far happened quite often that I do not have many days between field trips.
The page is far from done yet, I plan to write a lot more, primarily to help myself remember everything when I am in a hurry getting new equipment or packing for field trips, it has so far happened quite often that I do not have many days between field trips.
February 22, 2007
Seventeen or Bust
Sitting here with the snow keeping me indoors I just wanted to write a little praise for the project that is keeping my hut warm.
The hut is warmed by electric radiators, so I don't feel bad about using my two Pentium 4's for heating the hut.
The way I am doing that is by keeping these two processors working at 100% checking if some big numbers is prime.
The numbers I am checking is of the form k * 2^n + 1, where k is one of 9 numbers left (when the project started there were 17 k's left to check hence the name) that is smaller than k=78557, with this k it has been proven that there is no primes for any n.
So the challenge is to show that k=78557 is the smallest of such numbers. The project is now checking numbers bigger 12 million, it approximately half a month to check one of these n if it is prime with the CPU running 24/7.
There are no practical implications for this search right now, I do this mostly because I like the project, the way it is driven. It started out as a garage project and hasn't really gotten beyond this stage in many ways even though there are lots of people contributing.
I think I will suspend my efforts on this project soon with a bit of sadness, but I am going to move to an apartment that is not heated by electric radiators. That probably also means I will replace the smaller of my CPU's with something that uses a bit less power consuming, having a P4 as a server is a waste of money and energy, even if it doesn't run 100% all the time.
So if anyone out there is interested I have a p4 2.4GHz with motherboard for sale, I'd even throw you a never NVidia graphics card in the deal, I don't need any heavy graphics for a server.
The hut is warmed by electric radiators, so I don't feel bad about using my two Pentium 4's for heating the hut.
The way I am doing that is by keeping these two processors working at 100% checking if some big numbers is prime.
The numbers I am checking is of the form k * 2^n + 1, where k is one of 9 numbers left (when the project started there were 17 k's left to check hence the name) that is smaller than k=78557, with this k it has been proven that there is no primes for any n.
So the challenge is to show that k=78557 is the smallest of such numbers. The project is now checking numbers bigger 12 million, it approximately half a month to check one of these n if it is prime with the CPU running 24/7.
There are no practical implications for this search right now, I do this mostly because I like the project, the way it is driven. It started out as a garage project and hasn't really gotten beyond this stage in many ways even though there are lots of people contributing.
I think I will suspend my efforts on this project soon with a bit of sadness, but I am going to move to an apartment that is not heated by electric radiators. That probably also means I will replace the smaller of my CPU's with something that uses a bit less power consuming, having a P4 as a server is a waste of money and energy, even if it doesn't run 100% all the time.
So if anyone out there is interested I have a p4 2.4GHz with motherboard for sale, I'd even throw you a never NVidia graphics card in the deal, I don't need any heavy graphics for a server.
February 20, 2007
When people just have too much time
Some time ago I came upon this video, it apparently has taken these two guys two months to make this movie.
I think the coolest part of the movie is how one of the persons get dressed.
I think the coolest part of the movie is how one of the persons get dressed.
February 12, 2007
Slashdot, flamebait and sensitive topics
There has been quite a few topics that I have found interesting on Slashdot lately (check out my profile there, it is mainly those that I label geophysics as that is what I have been studying a lot), it probably has a lot to do with how global warming has been brought up a lot, both by Al Gore and then by the new UN report.
I have been somewhat annoyed by the moderators on the site. I really feel that I am trying my best to give sensible and meaningful comments to the articles that add something new. At times I write something stupid, but mostly I feel I succeed at doing so.
Still I am often moderated down, for example a comment I just gave on the topic of how low clouds formed by cosmic radiation had an effect on the global heating we have seen in the last 30 years or so. This comment was given to begin with given the moderations insightful and interesting, all nice, but then this moderation flamebait comes along and moderates me down. To begin with I got really frustrates over this, getting positive moderations on Slashdot is a good thing generally as it improves your credibility (they use the word karma for this, which I don't really like because of it's religious meanings).
Anyhow after looking a bit on the following comments I have to agree with whoever moderated me flamebait, my comment really did give way for some aggressive comments or political statements, so I guess I have been bait for flaming.
I no longer really care much for the political side of global warming, there was a time when this was something that concerned me a lot, but I no longer believe in that humans will be able to safe this earth, we have gone to far. (I have now found another hope in the Bible, but that is a totally different topic which you can look at my homepage for a little more information, as I don't wan't to give release some really serious flame bait here ;).
I am kind of glad that I no longer have a political position on this topic of global warming, I find it highly interesting still, but it no longer matters all that much to me what is being done politically, I try to do what I can myself to be the cause for release of too many particles that add to the greenhouse effect as possible, but the political system and the political side of this story is no longer something I want to be part of or I guess I am by writing this blog post and such, but I don't want to take any direct political action anymore would probably be a more correct way to state this.
Global warming has really turned into a hot political topic. I guess that begin was also part of the reason why I choose to study geophysics, I really thought that I was able to do something that way, for a better world and such, but I have since realized that the best I can do is to not do to much harm to the environment that I love and then spend my time on other things than trying to do a little change that is not going to mean anything really in the big picture.
I still have deep respect and understanding for those that do spend a lot of time trying to make political change for a better environment, I feel a bit sorry for having left them behind, people I really still care very much for, but I don't believe that putting my energy there is the right thing to do anymore.
Anyhow see you all on Slashdot soon again, probably from more flamebait from me even though I will try to avoid it, I guess I can't deny my opinions, but at least I don't spend my time sitting in treetops anymore :)
I have been somewhat annoyed by the moderators on the site. I really feel that I am trying my best to give sensible and meaningful comments to the articles that add something new. At times I write something stupid, but mostly I feel I succeed at doing so.
Still I am often moderated down, for example a comment I just gave on the topic of how low clouds formed by cosmic radiation had an effect on the global heating we have seen in the last 30 years or so. This comment was given to begin with given the moderations insightful and interesting, all nice, but then this moderation flamebait comes along and moderates me down. To begin with I got really frustrates over this, getting positive moderations on Slashdot is a good thing generally as it improves your credibility (they use the word karma for this, which I don't really like because of it's religious meanings).
Anyhow after looking a bit on the following comments I have to agree with whoever moderated me flamebait, my comment really did give way for some aggressive comments or political statements, so I guess I have been bait for flaming.
I no longer really care much for the political side of global warming, there was a time when this was something that concerned me a lot, but I no longer believe in that humans will be able to safe this earth, we have gone to far. (I have now found another hope in the Bible, but that is a totally different topic which you can look at my homepage for a little more information, as I don't wan't to give release some really serious flame bait here ;).
I am kind of glad that I no longer have a political position on this topic of global warming, I find it highly interesting still, but it no longer matters all that much to me what is being done politically, I try to do what I can myself to be the cause for release of too many particles that add to the greenhouse effect as possible, but the political system and the political side of this story is no longer something I want to be part of or I guess I am by writing this blog post and such, but I don't want to take any direct political action anymore would probably be a more correct way to state this.
Global warming has really turned into a hot political topic. I guess that begin was also part of the reason why I choose to study geophysics, I really thought that I was able to do something that way, for a better world and such, but I have since realized that the best I can do is to not do to much harm to the environment that I love and then spend my time on other things than trying to do a little change that is not going to mean anything really in the big picture.
I still have deep respect and understanding for those that do spend a lot of time trying to make political change for a better environment, I feel a bit sorry for having left them behind, people I really still care very much for, but I don't believe that putting my energy there is the right thing to do anymore.
Anyhow see you all on Slashdot soon again, probably from more flamebait from me even though I will try to avoid it, I guess I can't deny my opinions, but at least I don't spend my time sitting in treetops anymore :)
htop
I just came upon this little program for Linux, htop.
I think top is one of my most used commands in Linux, I use it to monitor my system and for setting which processes get priority on the cpu and such.
htop is a step forward from top for me, I recommend anyone who regularly used top to try it out.
I think top is one of my most used commands in Linux, I use it to monitor my system and for setting which processes get priority on the cpu and such.
htop is a step forward from top for me, I recommend anyone who regularly used top to try it out.
February 10, 2007
Best looking Linux desktop I have seen yet
I just came upon this thread on the Gentoo forums.
The page has a really cool video that shows you just how cool and smooth a well run Linux can look (turn on your speakers, there is some nice background music for it too).
I myself don't run any of all these fancy graphic things, I go for the minimalistic look and efficiency. But for those of you out there who are stuck with windows because it is pretty try taking a look at this and think again. The graphics is not a valid reason for staying away from Linux.
The page has a really cool video that shows you just how cool and smooth a well run Linux can look (turn on your speakers, there is some nice background music for it too).
I myself don't run any of all these fancy graphic things, I go for the minimalistic look and efficiency. But for those of you out there who are stuck with windows because it is pretty try taking a look at this and think again. The graphics is not a valid reason for staying away from Linux.
February 09, 2007
Quick login to blogger
I have for some time been really tired of the slow front page of blogger.com, so it is with some relief that I finally found a way to log in to blogger without having to go to that page.
I noticed that I was directed to a different page when I put in the wrong password when trying to login to my blogger account. The address for this page is
https://www2.blogger.com/login.g
So just type this into the url line of your browser, bookmark the link above or or this blog post for a quicker login to your blogger account.
I noticed that I was directed to a different page when I put in the wrong password when trying to login to my blogger account. The address for this page is
https://www2.blogger.com/login.g
So just type this into the url line of your browser, bookmark the link above or or this blog post for a quicker login to your blogger account.
Choose the right service to provide your weather forecasts
I just came upon this interesting article on /. pointing to a statistical evaluation of the forecasts from 10 different internet forecast channels that have weather predictions for the USA.
Pretty useful for anyone living in the USA to try and figure out where to go for their weather forecasts I would think.
I am happy to also be able to give the advice in this case, stay away from Microsoft products, MSN weather turns out to be pretty much the worst in that evaluation.
Still I think getting to know the basics of meteorology and then study what is going on at the moment and why the predictions were made the way they were is an even better option if you are really dependent on knowing the weather. That way you have an idea of possible scenarios and know how to read the skies and other signs when you are outdoors and can take your precautions.
Pretty useful for anyone living in the USA to try and figure out where to go for their weather forecasts I would think.
I am happy to also be able to give the advice in this case, stay away from Microsoft products, MSN weather turns out to be pretty much the worst in that evaluation.
Still I think getting to know the basics of meteorology and then study what is going on at the moment and why the predictions were made the way they were is an even better option if you are really dependent on knowing the weather. That way you have an idea of possible scenarios and know how to read the skies and other signs when you are outdoors and can take your precautions.
February 08, 2007
Fever pictures
For some reason my body decided that today it didn't wanted to take stop working.
I have been feeling sick all morning today, I haven't really been able to figure out why until now where I had the bright idea to try and put a hand to my own forehead, no wonder I am feeling a bit sick.
Anyhow I was out for a walk today and took a few pictures, these 12 pictures I uploaded reflect some of the strange things that catch ones attention when being fever struck, seems taking pictures with a fever isn't that terrible idea after all.
Anyhow I am of to bed, enjoy the pictures.
I have been feeling sick all morning today, I haven't really been able to figure out why until now where I had the bright idea to try and put a hand to my own forehead, no wonder I am feeling a bit sick.
Anyhow I was out for a walk today and took a few pictures, these 12 pictures I uploaded reflect some of the strange things that catch ones attention when being fever struck, seems taking pictures with a fever isn't that terrible idea after all.
Anyhow I am of to bed, enjoy the pictures.
February 05, 2007
How a Roman legion ended up in China and formed a village
I just found this interesting story in the news about how a lonely village in the north western China has a lot of inhabitants with western features.
Some "old" theory from the 1950'ies suggests that the reason for this is a lost roman legion, lead by Markus Craccus. Craccus was defeated in 53 BC in what is now Iran, the theory suggests that these troops then moved eastwards as mercenaries until they were taken prisoners by the Chinese and described as using a "fish-scale formation" which fits well to the way the romans had a habit of defending themselves with shields all around.
Some scientists now want to test this theory using DNA samples from the inhabitants of the village, to see if it really is Roman blood that gives the inhabitants of the village their special features.
I find this story quite fascinating in many ways.
*2nd edit*
As pointed out in the comments to this post, the pdf linked to below, while being an investing read is pretty unscientific on the subject and also does not cite it's sources, so please do not take it for a historic document or an accurate description.
I have not read this paper yet [pdf] that the comment also links to but it sure does look a lot more scientific and worked through at a first glance.
*edit*
I got a post posted to /. on this subject, a user was so friendly to direct me to this very interesting piece [pdf] about the story and theory from the 1950'ies. I stand corrected for leaving behind the impression that the roman troops were acting as "happy mercenaries" when they moved eastwards, that is probably far from true, in some ways they were more like prisoners of war.
Some "old" theory from the 1950'ies suggests that the reason for this is a lost roman legion, lead by Markus Craccus. Craccus was defeated in 53 BC in what is now Iran, the theory suggests that these troops then moved eastwards as mercenaries until they were taken prisoners by the Chinese and described as using a "fish-scale formation" which fits well to the way the romans had a habit of defending themselves with shields all around.
Some scientists now want to test this theory using DNA samples from the inhabitants of the village, to see if it really is Roman blood that gives the inhabitants of the village their special features.
I find this story quite fascinating in many ways.
*2nd edit*
As pointed out in the comments to this post, the pdf linked to below, while being an investing read is pretty unscientific on the subject and also does not cite it's sources, so please do not take it for a historic document or an accurate description.
I have not read this paper yet [pdf] that the comment also links to but it sure does look a lot more scientific and worked through at a first glance.
*edit*
I got a post posted to /. on this subject, a user was so friendly to direct me to this very interesting piece [pdf] about the story and theory from the 1950'ies. I stand corrected for leaving behind the impression that the roman troops were acting as "happy mercenaries" when they moved eastwards, that is probably far from true, in some ways they were more like prisoners of war.
February 04, 2007
Searching for Jim Gray on mturk
As my previous post also told about there is a online search going on for the Tenacious (Jim Gray's boat) where people online are to trying and determine if there is a boat in satellite images. Many of the pictures are quite noise and in the 80 tasks I have done I think I have had quite a few false positives.
It seems some better quality pictures have started showing up among the tasks on mturk, I think they are infrared, I think there is better chance that they will find actual boats and not just noise.
I am starting to wonder if this really does help anything at all, but I continue doing a few tasks now and then, it must be terrible for the family not knowing what has happened.
Here is more information on the search.
It seems some better quality pictures have started showing up among the tasks on mturk, I think they are infrared, I think there is better chance that they will find actual boats and not just noise.
I am starting to wonder if this really does help anything at all, but I continue doing a few tasks now and then, it must be terrible for the family not knowing what has happened.
Here is more information on the search.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
