[FRIAM] A Sound of Thunder
Hi you all Docs. Let me recommend you to read a story titled A Sound of Thunder. This story is part of Ray Bradbury's book The Golden Apples of The Sun. Tell me if the story makes you think in some familiar concepts. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Desktop & Laptop Coordination
> > On Tuesday 26 September 2006 13:20, Owen Densmore wrote: > >> > So the question comes up: for FRIAMers having both a laptop and a >> > desktop: what is your strategy for keeping the two in synch? Or do >> > you bother -- instead doing some sorts of things on the desktop, and >> > other stuff on the desktop, with a small intersection. >> I put code and technical documents in Subversion, and sync via that (via a WebDAV/Subversion apache module). Unlike CVS, Subversion handles renaming of modules without much hassle, and handles binaries. Btw, a few years ago I played around with the Inter-Mezzo filesystem (http://www.inter-mezzo.org). Idea there is to have the kernel keep a transaction record of all reads and writes against a file(system) and store them in a log. Resyncing is then just a matter of replaying the transactions to the target machine (e.g. the desktop). It worked pretty well, but unfortunately it isn't maintained much these days. The developers moved on to work on the Lustre distributed file system. Marcus FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Desktop & Laptop Coordination
I just keep stuff I need on an external 80GB WD passport usb drive, which works with 2 desktops and one laptop. And keep all email and calendar on gmail and google calendar. Sometimes I end up with files on the laptop when I need it in the office, but most of the time it works out fine. No elaborate syncing though. On 9/26/06, Tim Densmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tuesday 26 September 2006 13:20, Owen Densmore wrote: > > So the question comes up: for FRIAMers having both a laptop and a > > desktop: what is your strategy for keeping the two in synch? Or do > > you bother -- instead doing some sorts of things on the desktop, and > > other stuff on the desktop, with a small intersection. > > I use rsync for things I want on both - I also ssh to my workstation > frequently for access to stuff I don't really need on my lappy, but need > access to. > > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
[FRIAM] ** tomorrow* Sept 27, Lecture: Joshua Thorp - Getting the Point: Homography and the Directed Self
*** Reminder tomorrow *** SPEAKER: Joshua Thorp TITLE: Getting the Point: Homography and the Directed Self TIME: Wed Sept 27, 2006 12:30p LOCATION: 624 Agua Fria Conference Room 15-minute micro talk then we're off to El Tesoro for lunch ABSTRACT: More art-induced madness as Josh messes with laser-pointer user interaction. This will be a quick 15-minute micro talk on a homographic method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homography) to map camera space to LCD projector space so that laser pointers and other object can be used as input devices to our simulations. Be there or be projected to a square. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Desktop & Laptop Coordination
On Tuesday 26 September 2006 13:20, Owen Densmore wrote: > So the question comes up: for FRIAMers having both a laptop and a > desktop: what is your strategy for keeping the two in synch? Or do > you bother -- instead doing some sorts of things on the desktop, and > other stuff on the desktop, with a small intersection. I use rsync for things I want on both - I also ssh to my workstation frequently for access to stuff I don't really need on my lappy, but need access to. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Origin of Life (was: Rugged fitness landscapes)
David Breecker writes: > Phil, indulge a layman for a moment: isn't auto-catalysis > widely considered to be the origination of life, and thus evolution? Harold Morowitz and Eric Smith have a very approachable working paper on Origin of Life: http://www.santafe.edu/research/publications/wpabstract/200608029 ABSTRACT: Life is universally understood to require a source of free energy and mechanisms with which to harness it. Remarkably, the converse may also be true: the continuous generation of sources of free energy by abiotic processes may have forced life into existence as a means to alleviate the buildup of free energy stresses. This assertion -- for which there is precedent in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and growing empirical evidence from chemistry -- would imply that life had to emerge on the earth, that at least the early steps would occur in the same way on any similar planet, and that we should be able to predict many of these steps from first principles of chemistry and physics together with an accurate understanding of geochemical conditions on the early earth. A deterministic emergence of life would reflect an essential continuity between physics, chemistry, and biology. It would show that a part of the order we recognize as living is thermodynamic order inherent in the geosphere, and that some aspects of Darwinian selection are expressions of the likely simpler statistical mechanics of physical and chemical self-organization. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Rugged fitness landscapes
Phil, indulge a layman for a moment: isn't auto-catalysis widely considered to be the origination of life, and thus evolution? David dba | David Breecker Associates, Inc. www.BreeckerAssociates.com Abiquiu: 505-685-4891 Santa Fe:505-690-2335 - Original Message - From: "Phil Henshaw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'" Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 5:52 AM Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Rugged fitness landscapes > Well, it seems to open up to a wide variety of probably both feasible > and infeasible mechanisms. I think for small changes to have large > effects there needs to be developmental process, i.e. a form of feedback > of some sort. There are a *great* many possible means of establishing > process feedback. That that mechanism, having results stimulate causes, > has been ruled out of evolution theory for over a century seems to me to > indicate a lack of imagination. > > > Phil Henshaw .·´ ¯ `·. > ~~~ > 680 Ft. Washington Ave > NY NY 10040 > tel: 212-795-4844 > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > explorations: www.synapse9.com > > >> -Original Message- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jochen Fromm >> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 6:59 AM >> To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' >> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Rugged fitness landscapes >> >> >> >> Yes, his work contains interesting ideas. I especially >> like the appealing idea of correlating interdependencies >> in the genotype with the ruggedness of fitness landscapes, >> although it is probably to simple. Are interdependencies >> between modules in the genotypes a reason why small changes >> in the genotype could have large effects on reproduction >> rates ? It seems plausible, but hard to prove. >> >> The fitness function depends in general on the >> success of the phenotype (reproduction rates), and the >> relationship between genotype and phenotype is very >> complex and non-linear. The fitness of a phenotype >> is easy to determine, but hard to calculate from the >> genotype. This is similar to NP-complete problems: >> the quality of a solution is easy to verify, but the >> solution itself is hard to calculate. Therefore it is >> probably hard to say how rugged the fitness landscape is >> dependent on changes in the genotype, because the fitness >> is an unpredictable emergent property of the whole system, >> including the environment. >> >> One recent concept in this area seems to be "Epistasis" >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistasis >> >> Epistasis and Shapes >> of Fitness Landscapes http://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio.PE/0603034 >> >> -J. >> >> >> >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> >> > > > > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Desktop & Laptop Coordination
Here's a usability point I forgot about. I much prefer writing code on the desktop than on the laptop because I can rotate the screen from landscape to portrait. My code tends to be long rather than wide, so I get to see more of it at once this way. R FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Desktop & Laptop Coordination
I've got three machines that I use regularly for work: a laptop and a desktop in the office and a desktop at home. I don't need to worry about synching my email, contacts or calendar as I use Gmail for all those; I keep the projects I'm working on synched up by using MS's SyncToy and an external 60GB drive I carry around with me (hardly weighs anything - it gets its power off the USB port). I also use a fourth machine (tiny & old laptop) as a dumb terminal onto my desktop via MS Remote Desktop. It means I can hang out on the deck and still monitor any processor intensive runs I've got going. R FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Desktop & Laptop Coordination
Owen, I have given up on desktops at work and at home. First, I've used a succession of laptops as my only computer for about five years at work. I've had a desktop available for most of that time, but never had the simultaneous time and motivation to configure the desktop and get it to sync nicely with the laptop. My goal was to have one set of data that is my work that would be available to both desktop and laptop. Of course, my requirements are different from yours - I travel a lot and need my "stuff" to be with me and I frequently use my laptop as an "attack" system when doing live discovery or assessment. I just upgraded my old Mac dual-G4 desktop (which died) to a 17" MacBook. I will use that as my primary system and my old 17" G4 as my secondary and not have a desktop. At home, I still have a desktop, but I haven't powered it up in months. I have a monster desktop replacement laptop that I use instead. I would have to upgrade the motherboard, GPU, and disk on the old desktop to get it up to the performance level of the laptop. I find that as I get older, I enjoy fiddling with hardware and even software less and less. I want the computers to work so that I can get on with my work (or fun). -- Ray Parks [EMAIL PROTECTED] IDART Project Lead Voice:505-844-4024 IORTA DepartmentMobile:505-238-9359 http://www.sandia.gov/scada Fax:505-844-9641 http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:800-690-5288 FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
[FRIAM] Desktop & Laptop Coordination
Well, its time to get a new mac. I've got a 17" powerbook, so the obvious solution is to get a macbook pro when the next batch comes out. But I'm kinda thinking about a desktop instead. I can keep the powerbook chugging along for another year, maybe two. And get now a killer desktop. So the question comes up: for FRIAMers having both a laptop and a desktop: what is your strategy for keeping the two in synch? Or do you bother -- instead doing some sorts of things on the desktop, and other stuff on the desktop, with a small intersection. A lot of my work is could really benefit by having great performance. For example, here's a prototype applet for studying stadium evacuation: http://www.backspaces.net/models/Stadium/applet/ You can change the settings via the keyboard, and navigate the 3D space via the mouse. To really make it struggle, type "f" to bring in a real stadium, then "0" to make a 100K agents. I get about 1.4 fps. To really slow it down further, hit "s" twice which makes the shape be a 3D box. This can crawl along at around .5 fps or so. I went into our local apple shop and it seemed to me that I could double that with the latest hardware, with the desktops doing even better. So just interested what folks do who still have desktops and laptops both. -- Owen Owen Densmore505-988-3787 http://backspaces.net Redfish Group: 505-995-0206 http://redfish.com http://friam.org/ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Rugged fitness landscapes
Well, it seems to open up to a wide variety of probably both feasible and infeasible mechanisms. I think for small changes to have large effects there needs to be developmental process, i.e. a form of feedback of some sort. There are a *great* many possible means of establishing process feedback. That that mechanism, having results stimulate causes, has been ruled out of evolution theory for over a century seems to me to indicate a lack of imagination. Phil Henshaw .·´ ¯ `·. ~~~ 680 Ft. Washington Ave NY NY 10040 tel: 212-795-4844 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] explorations: www.synapse9.com > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jochen Fromm > Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 6:59 AM > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Rugged fitness landscapes > > > > Yes, his work contains interesting ideas. I especially > like the appealing idea of correlating interdependencies > in the genotype with the ruggedness of fitness landscapes, > although it is probably to simple. Are interdependencies > between modules in the genotypes a reason why small changes > in the genotype could have large effects on reproduction > rates ? It seems plausible, but hard to prove. > > The fitness function depends in general on the > success of the phenotype (reproduction rates), and the > relationship between genotype and phenotype is very > complex and non-linear. The fitness of a phenotype > is easy to determine, but hard to calculate from the > genotype. This is similar to NP-complete problems: > the quality of a solution is easy to verify, but the > solution itself is hard to calculate. Therefore it is > probably hard to say how rugged the fitness landscape is > dependent on changes in the genotype, because the fitness > is an unpredictable emergent property of the whole system, > including the environment. > > One recent concept in this area seems to be "Epistasis" > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistasis > > Epistasis and Shapes > of Fitness Landscapes http://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio.PE/0603034 > > -J. > > > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
Re: [FRIAM] Rugged fitness landscapes
Yes, his work contains interesting ideas. I especially like the appealing idea of correlating interdependencies in the genotype with the ruggedness of fitness landscapes, although it is probably to simple. Are interdependencies between modules in the genotypes a reason why small changes in the genotype could have large effects on reproduction rates ? It seems plausible, but hard to prove. The fitness function depends in general on the success of the phenotype (reproduction rates), and the relationship between genotype and phenotype is very complex and non-linear. The fitness of a phenotype is easy to determine, but hard to calculate from the genotype. This is similar to NP-complete problems: the quality of a solution is easy to verify, but the solution itself is hard to calculate. Therefore it is probably hard to say how rugged the fitness landscape is dependent on changes in the genotype, because the fitness is an unpredictable emergent property of the whole system, including the environment. One recent concept in this area seems to be "Epistasis" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistasis Epistasis and Shapes of Fitness Landscapes http://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio.PE/0603034 -J. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
