2005

March 2

Wikipedia in the Pink

Daniel H. Pink has written a very good article, which considers various viewpoints, for Wired on Wikipedia, a sort of “open source” encyclopedia. Recently, while implementing the Collidoscope applets, I found Wikipedia most useful as a reference for the coordinates of the vertices of the Platonic and Archimedean solids.

posted @ 07:56 AM EST

Princess Zella

Zella

posted @ 08:26 AM EST

March 4

Google Maps - Wow!

Google Maps

If you’ve used other road map services on the net, but haven’t tried Google Maps yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. In addition to high quality images and good performance, there’s a great innovation: you can click and drag the map to re-center it. Wow!

posted @ 08:06 AM EST

Teaching Math

A note about myself: I’m now teaching math—pre-algebra, algebra I, algebra II, and geometry—at Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy, a new charter high school in Dover, NH.

posted @ 06:04 PM EST

March 14

π Time

March 14 1:59:26.536 (to the nearest millisecond).

posted @ 01:59 AM EST

William Dunham

Again and again I find myself returning to William Dunham’s wonderful books, Journey through Genius: Great Theorems of Mathematics and The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities, for inspiration and material to pass on to students others.

posted @ 07:54 AM EST

March 16

The Word of the Day

olio

posted @ 11:13 PM EST

March 18

Spirit and Opportunity Keep On Keepin' On

Sky & Telescope has an article on the amazing longevity of the Mars rovers, which have been surveying the planet’s surface for almost five times as long as their designed minimum operating lifetime. “Wednesday marked Martian day (sol) 427 of Spirit’s scheduled 90-sol mission.”

posted @ 08:57 AM EST

March 19

The Beginning of Spring

From the Information Please Almanac, this year’s vernal equinox occurs tomorrow at 7:34 am EST.

posted @ 08:42 AM EST

La Primavera

More important than any esoteric astronomical alignment are the traditional human events of spring, such as the 96th Milan - San Remo (294 km) professional cycling road race now underway.

posted @ 09:16 AM EST

March 22

Rover Games

Reading The New York Times article “Unexpectedly, the Mars Rovers Are Still Going Strong,” it occurred to me that there might have been quite a bit of gamesmanship going on in the specified, designed lifetime of the Mars rovers as well as the funding of a surface exploration period longer than 90 days. NASA may have been unwillingly to commit to an extended support schedule at the same time that the science and engineering team was cautious of claiming high confidence in a greater longevity. And all along, all parties might have known that, barring unforeseen catastrophe, the rovers’ design made surface operations lasting a couple of years very likely. Now, project “managers have requested that the mission be extended up to another 18 months.”

posted @ 09:33 AM EST

March 24

Upgraded to PhpGedView 3.3

The Dolben Family software has been upgraded to version 3.3 of PhpGedView.

posted @ 01:26 AM EST

March 30

Don't Panic

The release date of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has been moved to April 29th, 30 days away. Check out my favorite new trailer (in QuickTime).

Spoiler: the answer to the really big question—you know, life, the universe, and everything, i.e., “What is six by nine?”—is 42 (base 13).

posted @ 07:47 AM EST

On the Road Again

Looking back I see that last year my first day of biking on the road was March 26th; four days earlier than this year’s first, not counting the rides on New Year’s Day and January third this year. Those were in some hyperseason.

posted @ 02:10 PM EST