• The Fountainhead: I came to know about Ayn Ryand’s work after I read Mark Cuban saying that every hopeful entrepreneur should scrutinize The Fountainhead. I shared the following comments with a friend of mine upon finishing the book (slightly edited):

“The book is amazing! Ayn’s cogent ideas blew me away. At first, I thought Roark was nothing but a rebel, an antagonist, as I made clear to you in my previous remarks. Even as I found Roak’s ways charming, I still couldn’t really understand why he was so adamant, so unyielding and borderline stubborn in his views. ‘What’s up with this guy?’, I thought more often than not. But it all eventually made sense. Howard is not a second hander. Howard was, as you so adequately put it, true to himself. He wasn’t looking for recognition. He wasn’t looking for money. He just wanted to create. He aspired to create, and create, and create some more for the sheer sake of creating, as any other earnest creator in any field would naturally do. His devotion was not to other men or their approval, but to his true passion. This is one of the most important messages I’ve received from any book, fictional and non fictional alike, in a long time. I now understand why this book is a recommended reading to any aspiring entrepreneur. I’m glad I read it.”

• Sustainable Energy — without the hot air: The debunking of many misconceptions about sustainable energy ensues. From the free book’s section “Can we live on renewables?”:

“You can’t power  a TV with cat food, nor can you feed a cat from a wind turbine. Energy exists in different forms — chemical, electrical, kinetic, and heat, for example. For a sustainable energy plan to add up, we need both the forms and amounts of energy consumption and production to match up. Converting energy from one form to another — from chemical to electrical, as at a fossil-fuel power station, or from electrical to chemical, as in a factory making hydrogen from water — usually involves substantial losses of useful energy.”

• Silas Marner: I found Silas Marner at a Barnes & Noble bookstore when I was looking for a short novel to keep me busy during class breaks. George Elliot’s story was first published in 1861. The moral of this story is far from outdated though. I highly recommend it.

• When I’m dead, how will my loved ones break my password? I think this is a question many of us should entertain at least once to some extent. Doctorow’s overly sardonic tone is just a plus.

• Why do the rich keep working? Yet another interesting question. From the article:

“Some of the men craved the chance to keep proving themselves, perhaps to a doubting authority figure from their past. Others saw work as a getaway from a stale marriage. Still others said they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if they weren’t working. More time with friends? Many of them had no close friends. Hobbies? You can only play so many rounds of golf. Travel? “They probably want to burn their passports,” says Mintz.”

• How much of live are you actually living? The existentialist element of this list that’ll undoubtedly make you go “Huh?”. Forget about the author’s metaphorical twists and rethorical gymnastics for a second. Focus on the crux of the matter. And? You’re welcome.    ;-)

There you have it. Suit yourselves. Now, if you’ll excuse me, yours truly needs to log off and focus on some heavy-duty coding. Ciao.

Oh, hai! Wana codez too?

Source: ju.ju.bees’ photostream via Flickr.

Largely because of its haunting beauty, the Mandelbrot set has become the most famous object in modern mathematics. It is also the breeding ground for the world’s most famous fractals. Since 1980, the set has provided an inspiration for artists, a source of wonder for schoolchildren, and a fertile testing ground for the science of linear dynamics.

The set itself is a mathematical artifact—an odd-shaped infinite swarm of points clustered on what is known as the “complex number plane.” Let’s try to visualize it.

I’ve always thought of fractals as the quintessential beauty champions in the math world. They’re simple, elegant and, most importantly, endless! Here’s the Mandelbrot set generated with Nova’s Design a Fractal tool:

The most famous fractal

Source: Nova

Isn’t it beautiful? Oh, by the way, if you happen to have 50 minutes to spare, watch Nova’s Hunting the Hidden Dimension. A must-watch for any self-respecting fractal lover out there.

“On/Off – A Jekyll and Hyde Story” will be released on November 11th. It’s the creepy little story of a college freshman with early onset Parkinson’s Disease, who undergoes an experimental procedure to control the symptoms of his illness, with horrific results.

Interestingly, Mike chose RIT as the setting for his work. I don’t know about you, but I think it looks very promising. The horror genre has always piqued my interest. I’ll grab a copy.

Thanks for sharing, Mike!

• The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was the biggest piece of tech news this week. The awesome guys at ARS have a nice article on the subject. Oh, make sure you also watch the humorous, Large Hadron Rap video. Jay-Z has nothing on these geeks.
• The Future of Money is a set of very interesting readings about the presence, role and power of money in years to come. For instance, check out this extract from one of the site’s short articles (Electric Money):

“2032 heralded a new era for our currency, as more than half of the world’s countries converted to electronic money systems. Although the new systems were cheap and efficient, problems began to occur…people outside the systems began to suffer. Attempts were made to include the minorities, but unfortunately this led to the system being hacked. Hyperinflation swept the globe and money needed to be made tangible once again. Nanotechnology allowed the redox flow battery to dramatically reduce in size…allowing people to carry a few kilowatt hours of electricity with them; exchanging charged electrolyte for goods is now a widespread reality and because energy cannot be created or destroyed only converted…the risk from hackers is negligible.”

• “The circus around Seinfeld’s ads won’t shoo Vista away”. Descriptive enough I’d say.
• Microsoft’s woes are basically young people? I positively agree.
• “Leaving Computers On Helps Them Last Longer”. Right on the money:

“When it comes to judging whether sleep or standby causes more wear and tear on your computer, pick your poison. Whereas disk hard drives are most likely to crash during the process of turning off the computer, leaving the PC on causes the microprocessor to generate heat—more heat than if the system is shut down—that will wear down the electronics over time. “Some components will last longer if you shut down your computer, others won’t,” Bosley says.

As a general rule of thumb, he says, most electronics have some failure rate linked to the amount of hours they’re in use. A few hundred dollars will buy you either a blazing-fast new microprocessor or a spacious, terabyte-size hard drive, so the replacement cost differences are negligible.”

You can also check out my newest Reporter article (“Safeguarding Your Reputation“). Did I mention I would be doing this on a weekly basis? No? OK, now you know it. Make sure you read yours truly every Friday at Reporter’s web site. I believe I still have 8 more columns due this quarter.

That’s all for now. Adieu!

My latest Reporter article is out! Here’s an extract:

We are used to thinking that internet applications are always and everlasting. If it’s online, it’s going to be there forever. Period. What if, all of the sudden, your favored site goes offline indefinitely? Do you have a backup strategy? Oh, you think that’s nonsensical? Jocular perhaps? Not for the many people who tried to access Gmail a few weeks ago, just to realize Google’s famous free mail service was unavailable.

The downtime lasted several hours. As one would expect, the public outcry was rampant and merciless. How is it possible that Google, arguably one of the most powerful IT companies in the world, experienced such an abnormal, incredibly long downtime? Alas, they are not alone in this department.

You can get the entire piece here (if you like it, please vote for it). You can also get this week’s Reporter as a PDF file.