Monthly Archive for December, 2009

Godless carols

Published on December 23, 2009 in Personal and Reading. 0 Comments

I’m not sure if there is anything Christmassy about the universe, but I guess the stars can sometimes look like tinsel or baubles floating in the inky depths of space. Following the excellent Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People (marred only by the unexpected – I hadn’t read the small print – and slightly unwanted sales pitch for the New Humanist magazine / credo), here are some links to the Hubble ultra deep field and the known universe in perspective along with the nano scale. Wondrous stuff.

Finally, if you want to be blown away by the Nocebo effect, the paper is available in its full glory.

CRU data is not “suspect”

Published on December 17, 2009 in Science. 0 Comments

Now this is how to carry out an argument. Are the CRU data “suspect”? An objective assessment. Take the publicly available raw data set, chose two arbitrary subsets and see how the CRU data compares with it. Answer: the CRU adjustments (for entry errors, changes in recording station practice, outliers) fit the raw data subsets, showing that the CRU adjustments have created a representative sample of the raw data.

To be fair, the CRU probably did this during its work, but the fact that anyone who understands the mathematics can do it as well is critical.

10 Android Apps (for students)

Published on December 16, 2009 in IT. 0 Comments

10 Android Apps For The Tech-Savvy Student has some crackers. I particularly enjoy having a periodic table on the beast. I’m not sure when I will use it first, but I’m sure I will. More seriously, ColorDict looks excellent.

McLurgi (I’m hating it)

Published on December 15, 2009 in Asides. 0 Comments

Don’t recommend the current lurgi. Sure it will be over soon, though.

Twitter Updates for 2009-12-12

Published on December 12, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Not sure how I should feel about our fortune cookies from lunch today. http://yfrog.com/35jj6j #

Ten rules for web startups

Published on December 11, 2009 in Business. 0 Comments

Twitter’s co-founder has some Rules for Web Startups to complement Saul’s.

Seedcamp: thoughts on its evolution

Published on December 11, 2009 in Business. 1 Comment

Saul writes a fascinating and open summary of how they got Seedcamp off the ground. Interesting to see a meta / self-referential startup get going. Lots of lessons in there.

Venture Navigator

Published on December 11, 2009 in Business. 1 Comment

Maybe I should try the business viability test. An interesting idea, though, to build a small business self-help community around online assessments.

[Update: it's run by a consortium of universities and has a nasty IP clause: "We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it." Does that include my stuff that I put up there?]