Infinite Interface

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77416369653188598522009-09-26T20:00:56.091-07:00Infinite InterfaceAn Outpost on the Frontier of ConsciousnessK V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-62999550878548806032008-12-20T17:42:00.001-08:002008-12-20T17:42:45.803-08:00Somebody get that man a cough drop.

I finally saw The Dark Knight, and wasn't disappointed.I was struck, however, by the poverty of dialogue quality throughout the feature. The film as a whole was intelligently structured, played well with the tropes of "heist" and "serial killer" and featured one of the best villains of the decade. Perhaps it is only in contrast to Ledger's Joker that the rest of the characters fall so flat, their

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-45758633223840716072008-10-27T23:04:00.000-07:002008-10-27T23:07:42.552-07:00

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-56359602690302343442008-09-15T00:15:00.000-07:002008-10-07T10:15:58.332-07:00Stripes

A brief photo roundup of the past couple of months.No, I am not dead.If I haven't returned your calls, it doesn't mean I don't love you. I don't even return my mother's calls and trust me - I love her more than I love you. And I love you a lot. Lately, I've been working on: building a computational model of the basal nuclei, mesencephalic locomotor region and spinal pattern generator (

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-25598960122203873972008-08-31T23:41:00.001-07:002008-08-31T23:42:56.218-07:00Obligatory August Entry

Rand came home from Burning Man early!He surprised me on Thursday night. I even had a leftover pork chop for him, hot off the grill, and peaches for dessert.I wish I could say that I sprained my neck in the throes of intense homecoming passion. But that would be a lie. I sprained it YAWNING.This morning, I stretched and sprawled and rolled my head back just so - whereupon I heard a POP and

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-53968737779353695552008-07-21T20:56:00.000-07:002008-12-12T00:06:13.133-08:00The green fairy.

We had absinthe tonight.

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-56868159646341371532008-07-08T17:47:00.000-07:002008-07-08T17:50:32.752-07:00I love living in the future.

Today, I was able to go online and, via MIT Open Courseware and Itunes U, download an entire semester's worth of lectures by the guy who wrote the textbook I'm using.Yes, I know. Massive nerd.

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-90809994090386302008-07-01T08:38:00.000-07:002008-07-01T09:05:50.521-07:00Gratitude

I got some real exercise yesterday, and the day before. It had been a long time.So long, that I had forgotten the benefits. I experienced such a pervasive sense of well-being that even my dreams were delightful.I slept so well, and in the course of my sleep encountered three dear friends, all in the same compound where they live (although in one brief episode there was a beach - don't ask).

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-62821073920341123062008-06-21T21:10:00.001-07:002008-06-21T21:10:44.716-07:00So right on.

This is the most accurate AP headline I've seen in years.

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-65943733870487140562008-06-20T01:33:00.001-07:002008-06-20T01:33:49.017-07:00Accuracy in Scientific Prediction:

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons. - Popular Mechanics, 1949

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-3213916386061390792008-05-08T10:02:00.001-07:002008-05-08T10:02:40.208-07:00Chris Thile! The Punch Brothers! Confusion at the Opry!

How much do I love Chris Thile? I know not everybody shares my passion for Bluegrass, but with young bands coming up and writing songs that expand the heartbreak and yodeling genre to include tunes about getting dumped via text message and the occasional Strokes cover, its getting easier to understand, right?Ok ok, heres the Strokes cover.

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-81692099634111709752008-05-02T22:45:00.001-07:002008-05-02T22:46:58.256-07:00Frightening, and Inspiring at the same time...

This Here is a fantastic analysis of the tech bubble, mortgage crisis, and the new American Economy.

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-44282097635015084542008-04-29T11:04:00.000-07:002008-04-29T11:10:07.565-07:00He was 102 years old!

I've just received news, via the internet grape vine, that Albert Hofmann passed away today.I'm looking forward to a time when psychoactive chemicals can be used as tools for research and exploration, and are controlled in a responsible way.In the meantime, I'm grateful for the pioneers who have risked careers and reputations on their study.

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-86704987713986977142008-04-25T12:27:00.000-07:002008-04-25T13:35:11.202-07:00China in 2008

My thoughts on the Chinese Olympics are thus:Yes, the government of the People's Republic of China is brutal. But nobody suffers more from its brutality than the people under its jurisdiction.They have endured so much. Crushing poverty, isolation, gory revolutions, disappearances, the destruction of their own beautiful culture from the outside in.Now, finally, people are getting a taste of wealth

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-35157136796569651442008-04-17T10:36:00.000-07:002008-12-12T00:06:13.452-08:00The Luke Arm

This is a thing of beauty:One way to control an upper limb prosthetic is to make clever use of spared nerves. These can be surgically re-embedded in, say, healthy pectoral muscle. Although the signals sent by the nerves are small indeed, the electrical activity of the muscles is sufficient to control a device such as the Luke Arm. In a sense, the re-enervated muscles act as an amplifier!I wonder

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-85567881966798540412008-04-12T18:38:00.000-07:002008-04-12T18:55:24.201-07:00I keep it like this and like that and I:

lately have been basking in Dr. Dre's 1992 opus, The Chronic.If you grew up in LA in the 90's -white, black, latino, whatever - you probably have this album memorized.I understand why people may find its content objectionably misogynistic and violent. But isn't The Godfather? Isn't Scarface?I am sometimes embarrased to cop to this, since I scarcely listen to enough politically "conscious" hip hop

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-14502346145451989752008-04-04T08:54:00.000-07:002008-04-04T08:55:24.908-07:00Surprisingly Intelligible.

Keith Richards vs. Hunter S. Thompson

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-16703402984483010722008-03-28T10:43:00.000-07:002008-03-28T10:44:43.149-07:00No, really.

Mathematics' highest honor conferred upon Tits, for symmetry.

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-22532458307353881762008-03-20T18:10:00.000-07:002008-03-21T14:04:48.309-07:00And all of a sudden, it was Spring.

Sometimes I find my greatest challenge to be balance. Doing everything at once requires composure.Let me recap:Three weeks ago, I delivered a talk about highly gifted education at an awesome un-conference in a town 6 hours away as the Honda rolls. The day after Rand and I returned, I began a new course (alongside my existing courses) through USC's Keck School of Medicine. Like many (if not most)

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-69787603237927379652008-03-03T12:53:00.000-08:002008-03-03T12:58:29.365-08:00BIL

BIL was fantastic. I'll write more a little bit later, since today is my first day on a new campus and things are little nuts - you know how it is, when you leave town only to come home to an extraordinarily busy week.I would like to mention, however, my talk got a nod in Wired. W00t!If anybody can direct me to good video, I will post it here.

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-22450362752886432362008-02-26T19:22:00.000-08:002008-02-26T19:43:55.686-08:00Countdown to BIL, and a busy week.

Initially, I wanted this journal to be a repository of Big Thoughts and Good Ideas, each flowing naturally from the next on a stream of Graceful Prose.As it stands, I am happy just to be updating. BIL is coming up, and most of my Graceful Prose is being funneled into my Saturday address. BIL has already gotten some press from Boing Boing and Wired, and the registration list is longer every day.

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-87189539670579671562008-02-21T23:47:00.000-08:002008-12-12T00:06:13.854-08:00When I Grow Up:

Today was career day at the Viterbi school.Engineers are, by and large, a deeply casual people. Which is why it was so amusing to see everyone turn out in their best suits to meet with hiring corporations.Everyone was represented - aerospace, telecommunications, homeland security, department of water and power.Here is my friend Nanda in his suit!One of the perks of USC is the diverse student

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-64557028676418948022008-02-12T09:44:00.000-08:002008-02-12T10:00:56.346-08:00Opening Remarks:

The problem of building a good footing for the study of cybernetics is difficult. I think the unusual procedure I have seen work best is for a man to know one field very thoroughly and then to learn a second field as far removed as possible - such as biology and mathematics. After that, learning a third is easy.-Warren S. McCulloch

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-85000065987672014342008-02-08T06:50:00.000-08:002008-02-23T11:39:21.659-08:00More politics, some brains.

Every single one of these images is an indictment.Support our troops by bringing them home - don't force them to do this any more.Vote for the candidate who will end the war.Ok, enough politics out of me for the moment. It's not an anti-war blog, I'm just an anti-war person.More about brains!As of this week, I've become involved in a new research project. Based on new information about

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-5229566870665692642008-02-02T16:22:00.001-08:002008-02-02T17:24:28.351-08:00Traumatic Brain Injury, PTSD, and people born in 1983.

Today I passed a guy near a freeway onramp. His sign read,US Marines 1st and 3rdHome From Iraq - SeizuresI want to workWill give 110%The guy looked all of 24, maybe.The New England Journal of Medicine has published a study, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in US Soldiers Returning From Iraq, which reports an increased incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in soldiers who have suffered

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7741636965318859852.post-47811183391926979852008-01-31T15:33:00.000-08:002008-01-31T16:31:21.095-08:00Speaking of games,

I've encountered a new one that's absolutely delightful. Go forth and enjoy Chain Factor.It's beautiful to look at (the music is lively without being irritating and the pastel disks look like mentos) and of course fun to play. What I really admire, though, are the sentiments expressed in the faq:" The games industry is poised on the brink of a profound transformation. Games have the potential to

K V FitzpatrickKVFitz@gmail.com0