December 2006 Archives
Thank you for being loyal readers of this chaos, I hope you will all have great holidays, I know I certainly will. See you in the new year!
Today is the 10th anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death. There is a world-wide event going on today to remember this master of science. I like to believe every one has stories of how Sagan impacted their lives, at least those in my generation. I remember this guy fascinated me, because he spoke so passionately and caring and full of amazement about science, much more than any teacher I had ever had. I feel that it was Sagan who was responsible for establishing my desire to see things in the right dimensions and perspective. I didn’t care that much for astronomy, but I found his methods absolutely fascinating.
Soon after I joined Cornell I was able to see Sagan in action in real life, and in those two hours he showed why he deserved to be put on this pedestal. Yes, he certainly was a show man, but he used it to connect to students and really get into their heads. Yet he wasn’t offer dogma but food for thought. He was one of the absolute master educators as there are only a few more, some of those at Cornell.
It is probably best described by Yervant Terzian, former Astronomy Chair at Cornell. "Carl was a candle in the dark. He was, quite simply, the best science educator in the world this century. He touched hundreds of millions of people and inspired young generations to pursue the sciences."
I agree.
PS. Those of you who are have recently joined the Dawkins fanclub, should revisit some of Sagan writings as they provide a less politicized view of the tensions between science and religion. The recently publicized transcript of his Gifford lectures
As you have probably have heard by now Amazon is making Sony Playstation 3 (20 GB & 60 GB models) and Nintendo Wii available to existing Amazon customers who sign up via a special edition of the Amazon Customers Vote. A random draw will then decide who will get the change to buy these ridiculously scarce game machines.
Customers who have voted on these and early promotions have asked what the odds are that they would actually be selected a winner. The Customers Vote team has done an amazing job of putting the odds in perspective with some of the other odds in life. I think this is such a great list that I am replicating it here, as it is likely to disappear from the Amazon promotions pages eventually.
| You would have gotten an opportunity to buy the tent in Round 3 if you had voted for it | 2 to 1 | |
 |
Sony PS3 20GB* | 6 to 1 |
|
Nintendo Wii* | 16 to 1 |
| Your letter to The New York Times will be published (source) | 20 to 1 | |
| You'll get hemorrhoids (source) | 25 to 1 | |
|
Sony PS3 60GB* | 29 to 1 |
| You'll hunt small game next year (source) | 54 to 1 | |
| You'll seek hypnotic therapy (source) | 79 to 1 | |
| You'll get Botox next year (source) | 102 to 1 | |
| You would have gotten an opportunity to buy the Zune in Round 4 if you had voted for it | 122 to 1 | |
| Your tax return will be audited by the IRS (source) | 175 to 1 | |
| The person you're dating is a millionaire (source) | 215 to 1 | |
| Your book will be a New York Times bestseller (source) | 220 to 1 | |
| You go to a tractor pull or mud racing every month (source) | 311 to 1 | |
| You'll catch a baseball at a Major League Baseball game (source) | 563 to 1 | |
| You'll get botulism next year (source) | 2,300 to 1 | |
| You happen to be a private investigator (source) | 3,700 to 1 | |
| You'll pick a four-leaf clover on the first try (source) | 10,000 to 1 | |
| You'll die as a result of a major asteroid hitting Earth (source) | 20,000 to 1 | |
| You'll ever be a pro athlete (source) | 22,000 to 1 | |
| You'll ever date a supermodel (if you're a man) (source) | 88,000 to 1 | |
| Despite your efforts to avoid it, you'll actually get the plague next year (source) | 299,999 to 1 | |
| You'll be hit by lightning (source) | 576,000 to 1 | |
| You'll get bit by a shark (source) | 6,000,000 to 1 | |
| You'll win a Power Ball lottery with just one ticket (source) | 105,938,000 to 1 | |
| * These were the odds at Sunday morning 9 AM. This number will continue to change until the sign-up period ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, December 17. | ||
Vist the Amazon Customers Vote page to get updated numbers on the ongoing votes.
Note to self: buy generator
There will be lots of stories remembering Al Shugart as “Uncle Al”; these stories will be filled with love and fun, and lots of good laughter. They will portrait Al as a good natured loving mentor and an unconventional industry maverick, but there was so much more to this man.
We also have to remember that it wasn’t just the love and fun that brought Al Shugart to the absolute top of the computer industry. Al was a fearless leader, very, very smart, with a deep understanding of the storage industry and the needs of its customers. He created a company that took the number one position from IBM in the eighties and maintained that ever since. In the fiercely competitive storage market that must mean something. Anyone worth its grain of salt in storage wanted to work for Al, as he would seriously invest in you to make you grow. Al strongly believed in roaming the engineer’s workspaces to keep in contact with the real world. Many Seagate customers still carry his personal phone number to “call any time with any question”. In the end there was the “revenge of the MBA’s” and Seagate was streamlined into a fast and efficient production machine, with Al looking on from afar.
From his autobiography, when discussion his advise to leave your car radio off while commuting, such that you would have some time to think:
Everybody needs thinking time. It helps balance your life. That’s one reason I don’t carry a laptop computer. When I go on trips it’s depressing to see everybody in the first-class sectionpecking away at their keyboards, searching obsessively for that last little kernel of information. They remind me of chickens in a barnyard scurrying after chicken feed
“What are you doing?”
“I’m checking my email.”
Right. As though that e-mail won’t be waiting for you when you get to your hotel. It’s sick. Why not relax in your seat, have a glass of wine and think.
Thinking is one of the great pleasures of being human and despite the fears of some futurists it won’t be usurped by computers. They are machines, that’s all. Good at mechanical tasks, but devoid of emotion. As a wise person once said: “asking if a computer can think is like asking if a submarine can swim”.
Al published 3 books: one autobiography, one about his attempt to let his dog run for congress (he hated bureaucracy) and one about his restaurant adventure with Piere Bain.
