Has the LHC destroyed the earth?

Twelve years ago, I worked for the Duke University Physics Department for a summer, writing a C++ simulator for the ATLAS experiment, one of six particle detector experiments at CERN's new LHC. I can't say that my simulator ever really got anywhere - that internship was not a particularly successful one - but the ( Read more... )

I ascended again last night... woohoo! The writeup is over in the nethack community.

I meant to write this up sooner: Elliott, Jon, and I discovered the best weekend activity ever for nerds of all ages. Weekend before last, we went to Robothon at the Seattle Center and it was great fun. Robothon is an annual event put on by the Seattle Robotics Society. They have vendors and demos and competitions and it runs all weekend ( Read more... )

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I ascended this weekend, for the fourth time ever, and for the first time as a barbarian. I was hoping this would mean the end of the recent obsession, but no. I'm continuing to start new random games, even though the RNG is frowning on me lately... for example, I just started a caveman who stepped on a magic trap first turn. I was blinded and ( Read more... )

Shaping the Future, a recent talk by Charlie Stross, science fiction author.

Stross talks about lots of different pieces of the future that'll be here in our lifetimes, but my favorite bits are about lifelogging: the technology that's going to make it possible, the consequences for privacy and privacy law, and the future of history.

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I just fixed our broken satellite system by re-splicing some coax cable. I realize this is not, you know, brain surgery. I am still proud.