My invitation from Barack

Hmm... Barack Obama just invited me to Grant Park in Chicago next Tuesday to help him celebrate his coronation, er, election. I think I'll pass - freelance wealth redistribution doesn't much interest me.

One last prediction

Not a landslide, but a decisive victory by McCain Tuesday night. "Decisive" meaning we'll know the election is over Tuesday night, not sometime the month after next.

Email from Joe Biden!

So a couple of nights ago I signed up at Barack Obama's website to see whether they had my info in their "neighbor-to-neighbor" database. They didn't, but today I hit the jackpot - an email from Joe Biden himself! Old Joe is pretty handy with the html email - his links are well formed and he even included a video of last night's teevee special about compassionate King Obama meeting His Downtrodden Subjects.

How Joe finds the time, I'll never know. Maybe he'd rather send email than talk to those pesky McCainiac reporters. I can say that he writes better than he speaks - there wasn't a gaffe or even a single grocer's apostrophe in the whole email.

Joe linked to this page at Barack's website - I like how SUBMIT is down there in big bold letters. (Ha ha. I'm joking - we all know the Big O isn't a Muslim :-) I'm wondering whether I should respond to the windy old Senator from Delaware. Last time I emailed my own personal Senator Dick "US troops are Nazis" Durbin, I didn't receive a reply. Maybe if Barack is elected next Tuesday, Dick will send someone around to talk to me in person.

In praise of pot roast

A rather good 1990 NYT article on pot roast from Florence Fabricant. It's what we're having for lunch today.

This is what "red" used to mean

Who switched red and blue? Was it USA Today back in the 2000 election with their red & blue county-by-county election map? Nowadays I still have to mentally swap the colors to make sense of writings about "red states" and "blue states".

Anyways, it's bass-ackwards. This is what red used to mean.

The Sarah Palin effect

Jeff Culbreath notes the effect Sarah Palin has on his visitor stats (via google searches, presumably), so let's see if we can tap in to the Sarah Palin effect here at Summa Minutiae. Sarah Palin.

A pretty good article on Wolfram Research

From the local newspaper, reproduced here since it will eventually migrate behind a paywall:

Wolfram Research founder projects further growth

By Don Dodson

Sunday October 26, 2008

CHAMPAIGN – While some companies scale back, Wolfram Research continues to swell in what founder Stephen Wolfram calls a "rapid expansion phase."

"We've added 24 new people in the last two months," Wolfram said on a visit to Champaign last week. "We're hiring lots of technical research-and-development people and adding strengths in business and marketing."

The company, which employs more than 300 in Champaign, is the maker of Mathematica technical computing software.

On Thursday, Wolfram announced the newest version of that software, Mathematica 7, will be ready for shipping in November.

Meanwhile, the company is forging ahead with its "computable data initiative," which is expected to result in a new, undisclosed product sometime next year.

Nearly a year ago, Wolfram Research announced it would hire as many as 75 people with specialized knowledge in different fields for the initiative.

At this point, about 65 people are involved in the project, including 20 to 25 data "curators," Wolfram said.

"This is a really good area for finding people," he said, praising Champaign-Urbana's "large intellectual base." Those involved in the initiative typically have master's degrees, and the project is seeking more expertise in several areas, including finance, economics and medicine, he said.

But knowledge isn't the only requirement.

"It's less the skills set and more so the culture match. We're looking for smart people who can figure things out," he said.

Wolfram described his company's culture as "a large community of people independently doing things. We really look for people interested in our world."

The company sells to a wide variety of customers in government, academia and research and development and needs employees who "resonate" with those customers, he said.

Aside from the computable data initiative, the company is trying to fill other positions, mainly in business, marketing and project management.

Plus, there's another new venture on the horizon. Wolfram said the company is starting up Wolfram Solutions, a consulting arm that will help business customers see how Mathematica can address their needs.

"I'm pleased we're growing," Wolfram said, "but it always makes me nervous to have more mouths to feed."

Wolfram Research, founded in Champaign in 1987, occupies the entire fifth and sixth floors of Trade Centre South, as well as parts of the third and fourth floors. It also has a storage and shipping facility at Randolph and Green streets in Champaign.

Wolfram said he doesn't expect to need too much more office space soon, adding, "I think we can fit some more people into this building."

Wolfram, who lives in the Boston area, said Wolfram Research has an office in Cambridge, Mass., that interacts with scholars at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The company has close ties with the University of Illinois Mathematics Department, and Wolfram said he'd like to expand the company's dealings with other parts of the university. He said he'd like the company to be more visible in Champaign-Urbana and to do more outreach.

Sometimes, he said, people at the UI are surprised to learn Champaign is the home of Mathematica. That lack of awareness "seems a shame," he said.

Wolfram was back in Champaign last week for the International Mathematica User Conference, held Thursday through Saturday at the Hilton Garden Inn. About 250 to 300 people were expected to attend, with "beta" versions of Mathematica 7 to be distributed there.

Wolfram typically visits Champaign a few times a year but conducts most of his business conversations by phone.

"I'm always accused of being a micromanager, or these days, a nanomanager," he said.

So seldom does he work face to face with colleagues that when he asked one, "Why are you looking at me?" she responded, "That's what people normally do."

Wolfram said his company is profitable and has no debt. He said it has weathered two recessions and fared slightly better than other firms in those times. His theory: "During recessions, people think more" and consequently buy more Mathematica.

As a closely held, privately owned company, Wolfram Research does not release sales figures. Hoover's Inc., a business information service, estimated the company's 2007 sales at $21.6 million, a figure Wolfram neither confirmed nor denied.

"Their data curation is not as good as our data curation," he said.

Election prayers

Including a novena - from Lane Core, whose long-awaited return to blogging I completely missed. He needs to send more email.

My sainted college roommate

Blessed Charles of Austria looks exactly like my old college roommate Dion Buzzard.

The last great concert

I've been on a Chet Baker kick lately, and this, his last concert recorded just two weeks before his death in 1988, captures him at his musical height in the full mature perfection of his trumpet and vocal sound.

And this 1959 album shows him at his best before his heroin-fueled decline and fall in the 60s and 70s.

The complete works of John Adams

Online. I love the internet.

Thomas Jefferson, book reviewer

TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE

Monticello, November 4, 1823

My Dear Friend, [...]

I thank you much for the two books you were so kind as to send me by Mr. Gallatin. Miss Wright had before favored me with the first edition of her American work; but her Few days in Athens, was entirely new, and has been a treat to me of the highest order. The manner and matter of the dialogue is strictly ancient; and the principles of the sects are beautifully and candidly explained and contrasted; and the scenery and portraiture of the interlocutors are of higher finish than anything in that line left us by the ancients; and like Ossian, if not ancient, it is equal to the best morsels of antiquity. I augur, from this instance, that Herculaneum is likely to furnish better specimens of modern than of ancient genius; and may we not hope more from the same pen?

Jefferson on journalism

The more things change...

TO JAMES MONROE

Monticello, Jan. 18. 1819

You oblige me infinitely, dear Sir, by sending me the Congressional documents in pamphlet form. For as they come out by piece-meal in the newspapers I never read them. And indeed I read no newspapers now but Ritchie's, and in that chiefly the advertisements, as being the only truths we can rely on in a newspaper.

The complete works of Thomas Jefferson

Online. I love the internet.

NYT bogosity

Wolfram Research's Theo Gray uses Mathematica to dismantle, pulverize and incinerate a snarky little chart in a recent issue of a New York "news-paper".

Here's the Mathematica Demonstration Theo wrote.

A fresidential pirst?

I don't recall ever hearing a Spoonerism from a presidential candidate. It was a run-of-the-mill thing, "freth of bresh air" or somesuch, not approaching the magnificent Ur-Spoonerism "What am I to tell this audience of beery wenches?" And I think I heard something about nuclear power pants.

Anyhoo, McCain came out hitting hard tonight and did pretty well.

Come the Golden Age...

of Democrat control of the executive, legislature and judiciary on the federal and state levels, this sort of election engineering will be much easier: no one will ever find out about it. I suppose once in a while they'll let a tame, domesticated, tutored Republican win to keep up appearances.

Trying out KDE

I stumbled upon Linus Torvalds' criticisms of Gnome and endorsement of KDE (old news to other geeks) so while I have a few minutes between other things I'm downloading KDE to give it a whirl after using Gnome for years. Ubuntu makes it easy, of course. Ten years ago I'd have to download sources, track down dependencies and compile, 5 years ago I'd have to download and install packages, now I do this:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

then log out, select the KDE desktop, and log in. I like easy.

Holy apostrophe's, Batman!

The inimitable Fr Z occasionally suffer's from Grocer's Apostrophe.

Boosting my average

I had two solid hits over at TSO's Spanning the Globe today! [geezer]I still remember the 3-hitter I had back in the winter of aught-four.[/geezer]

Our favorite Italian Beef

I have to print this out every year or two as the old printout is made unreadable by spills and splatters, or lost entirely after one of our mothers reorganizes the kitchen on some deeply rational utilitarian plan.

Here's tonight's supper:

Message-ID: <412A2D3C.7000205@wolfram.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 12:45:32 -0500
To: wri-recipes@wolfram.com
Subject: *Slow Cooker Italian Beef for Sandwiches*

This is a delicious and EASY recipe!  I loved it because I had
everything but the meat and dry salad dressing - and it is enough
sandwiches to feed a family for 2-3 days, or at least have a few
leftovers for a hungry family the next day.  I also have very little
time to cook, so this was great because it cooked all night and made
the house smell fabulous in the morning.

*Slow Cooker Italian Beef for Sandwiches*

Rump roast is cooked with Italian salad dressing mix and seasonings
until it is tender enough to shred with a fork.

*Prep Time:* 15 Minutes
*Cook Time:* 12 Hours
*Ready In:* 12 Hours 15 Minutes
*Makes:* 10 servings

*Ingredients*
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 bay leaf
1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
1 (5 pound) rump roast - I used a 3 1/2 lb roast and it was fine.

*Directions*

1. Combine water with salt, ground black pepper, oregano, basil, onion
salt, parsley, garlic powder, bay leaf, and salad dressing mix in a
saucepan.  Stir well, and bring to a boil.

2. Place roast in slow cooker, and pour salad dressing mixture over
the meat.

3. Cover, and cook on Low for 10 to 12 hours, or on High for 4 to 5
hours.  When done, remove bay leaf, and shred meat with a fork.

One or the other

Either everyone writing on the web has gotten a lot dumber in the last few weeks or I've entered some manic phase in which every typo and grammatical error on a page may as well be lit up in bold flashing type. The last straw tonight:

The 2009 budget deficit could be close to $2 trillion, or 12.5 percent of gross domestic product, more than twice the record of 6 percent set in 1983, according to David Greenlaw, Morgan Stanley's chief economist. Two weeks ago, budget analysts said the measures might push [the, dammit!] deficit to as much as $1.5 trillion.

Waltz for Debby

Tonight's Music for Programming is the second album from Bill Evans' June 25, 1961, date at the Village Vanguard: Waltz for Debby. The first album contained tracks that highlighted the work of bassist Scott LeFaro, who was killed in a car accident just 10 days after the Vanguard concert.

The last few days I've dipped here and there into Evans' discography and have found it a very good accompaniment to programming.

Mulligan at the Vanguard

This morning's Music for Programming: Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Band live at the Village Vanguard in December 1960.

Later: hey - this is good stuff! Nice horn section and a sax sound I can live with.

Could have been better

My two cents on last night's debate before I start reading other bloggers: McCain was old and tired last night, and seemed slightly confused. He enjoys delivering his little one-liners that seem meant to provoke laughs from sympathetic audiences, but he seemed to forget that he was in front of an audience last night that had been told not to react. He seemed to loose his sense of place just slightly as I've seen in elderly relatives who can't track context as well as they used to.

And yet, Obama lost the debate even worse than McCain did. He came across as dour, grim, lethargic, nearly as old as McCain. Neither one had the Palinesque gumption to go beyond their long-memorized talking points (or maybe she's just memorized better ones). In the two debates so far, McCain didn't even stick to them; he seems so sick of the things he just telegraphs them with a contextless phrase or two. And neither one could refrain from their damn pointless jabs at each other that kept miring the whole ramshackle debate in repetitive tedium.

Here's Q and O on the issues last night.

Abortion and other evils

It seems that among Catholic Democrats, abortion is just one evil among many: poverty, racism, capitalism, et cetera. The argument is that we can best fight the evil of abortion by abolishing its root causes - hence their futile quest to end human evil and perfect human nature through politics. Elizabeth Scalia demolishes those arguments here by noting that all those "other" evils are fully present in abortion:

Government policy affects war, poverty, and the rest, while abortion is — like the casting of a vote — a personal choice. But it is a personal choice for the physical and intellectual internalization of war, and of torture, and of the death penalty, and of poverty, and of racism, and of capitalistic exploitation.

"And THAT will settle the Manichees!" :-)

Why are the media squandering their credibility?

Because they won't need credibility come the Glorious Millenium of Obama.

Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard

Bill Evans, the hopeless junkie whom everybody dug, is up next in today's Music for Programming with his June 25, 1961 session at the Village Vanguard with bassist Scott LeFaro and drummer Paul Motian. If you think Miles' Kind of Blue is just the thing (and some folks don't), this is even more so. Details to follow.

If we ever visit New York City, we'll hit the Vanguard to catch whoever's there.

Later: I listen to music while I think about and write code, and this just didn't do it for me as accompaniment. To enjoy this album I'd need a dark quiet room, a tall drink and a foul mood. There are great gems here - the cool spare intellectual style and the almost telepathic communication between the musicians make for some awesome moments, but like other albums, it's not hanging together for me right now.

Something old

Nothing new today in Music for Programming - after dipping into McCoy Tyner's frenetic first album and Dave Brubeck's heavy-handed 5/4 debut, I'm back in Spain with Miles. Fret not, though - Duke Ellington, Chet Baker, Stan Getz and the man whom everybody dug, Bill Evans, are on the way.

.

Empyrean Isles

This morning's Music for Programming: Herbie Hancock's 1964 Empyrean Isles.

Later: I hate free jazz. Fortunately, that's only one tune, "The Egg", on this otherwise enjoyable album. Cantaloupe Island is a blast, of course. Here's a much later version live in Japan - check out the faces of the other musicians as Herbie goes wild on the start of the tune.

Exclusively for My Friends

On this afternoon's Music for Programming...

With Oscar Peterson and friends on bass and drums on small live dates in Germany between 1963 and 1968, Exclusively for My Friends is hot stuff! They're just rehashing standards here (from what I've heard so far), but these are exciting interpretations with a stripped-down, cleanly-recorded and balanced sound palette and commanding, extravagant and at times aggressive piano playing from the rotund Canadian that Scott Yanow calls "one of the greatest pianists the world has ever known".

Mingus Ah Um

Tonight's Music for Programming is my first-ever listen to the irascible Charles Mingus's 1959 album Mingus Ah Um.

Later: that was disappointing. First listens can be difficult things. I recall my first listens of various 10,000 Maniacs/Natalie Merchant albums - the way she took the lyrics and slathered them all over the music was disorienting after coming from singers with a more rhythmic delivery, and their music often had no gaudy geegaws to hang on to at first, but I knew from experience that it was worth working through patiently and now it's some of my favorite, especially Our Time in Eden, the Maniacs last album.

Other first listens deserve nothing more than a hearty "That's crap!"

There's obviously something to work with here in Mingus Ah Um, but the mishmash of musical styles was offputting and the thing just doesn't hang together in my head yet. I'll try again after it percolates a while.

I do like the album cover, though. That's the true distilled 1960.

Sketches of Spain

This morning's Music for Programming is Miles' and Gil's 1961 Sketches of Spain - more modal stuff with a big disciplined horn section. Miles' muted trumpet is a good accompaniment to code writing, and the feel of the album is contemplative: you don't dance to it, you bathe in it. It has its share of goodies, though - there's a harmonically surprising bit about 20 seconds from the end of Concierto de Aranjuez that gives me goosebumps.

Miles Ahead

Current listening for late-night programming: the 1957 collaboration between Miles and Gil Evans, Miles Ahead. I love what Gil Evans could do with a horn section.