Rant: We Count Wrong

We count wrong.
 
OK, so integral base-10 works pretty well for most human endeavors, and floating-point base-10 covers most of the rest.
Kinda like Newtonian physics: good enough for small orders of magnitude.
 
Then there’s π.
 
Here’s a fundamental mathematical constant which is simple and ... untidy.
For all practical purposes it’s a perfect random-number generator – it’s that untidy.
We are amazed at the “transcendental” nature of such a simple and fundamental ratio.
We pick some arbitrary number of digits and make do with that approximation.
We try calculating it, and are amazed at the elegance of the patterns within the equations.
We obsess over how “cool” π is.
 
We’ve got it backwards.
It’s not that π has an infinite number of digits seemingly random yet produced by elegant equations.
It’s that our number system is grossly inefficient.
It’s not that π is irrational.
It’s that we are irrational.
We count wrong.
 
Consider:
e = 2.71828182845904523536…. in base-10.
Like π, e is transcendental and fundamental, with many of the same characteristics.
Many years ago I stumbled across someone’s observation that e – akin to π – could be expressed in “base-factorial” notation in a very clean way. Rather than each digit being a simple order-of-magnitude multiplication, it represents a factorial multiplication. Follow the link for more confusionclarification.
e = 10.011111... in base-factorial.
Expressed in the right terminology, it’s very simple.
π exhibits much of the same behavior, lacking only suitable simple expression.
 
One of the great failings of humans is the insistence on forcing everything to fit within our prejudices.
Great success oft comes from getting over those prejudices and accepting what is as it is.
We have a profound ingrained prejudice born of our DNA-influenced number of extremities.
Methinks the great hindrance to human mathematical progress is our stubborn insistence on mapping the universe to our fingers.
This works fine for small orders of magnitude – just like Newtonian gravity works fine for falling apples.
This gets untenable for large orders of magnitude – just like Newtonian gravity doesn’t work for apples falling at speeds near that of light.
Approximations to a few decimal places work fine for most cases.
To be correct, however, we find the theory of base-10 counting just doesn’t work.
Computing π to any significant degree takes enormous amounts of effort; figuring any given digit requires figuring all the digits before it.
When we took a change in counting seriously, by embracing and following base-2, we changed the nature of human knowledge in a few years.
Computing π in base-2 is, in fact, easy; figuring any given bit can be calculated directly, independent of bits before and after.
Our counting, and by extension our math, is wrong.
We count wrong.
Computers demonstrate it.
π proves it.
 
I now return you to wondering what the he11 I just wrote and why.
 

Movie: The Book of Eli

Blade meets The Road, minus the vampires.

Post-apocalyptic action thriller, featuring a supercool neo-samurai figure on a mission to deliver a book across a dry barren wasteland. Great action, great visuals, twist ending that doesn't trust the audience to step beyond an old cliche.

A point for discussion (not a spoiler; will make sense after watching): in the end, he doesn't have to be ___ for the rest to work.

Rant: Bandwidth

Of late I’ve been mulling the “price per bit” over time (not in depth, nothing to show for the thoughts yet). The price has plummeted. Where we used to treasure every byte received, we now have a “cloud” serving vast piles of data which we give a scant glance then discard.
 
With this iPad thingie, I moved an average of 10kb/sec all last month – one bit every 0.0001 seconds. Small wonder AT&T is throttling users on the large-but-limited bandwidth 3G network. They’re getting $0.000001/bit (or less).
 
So...
-          The iPad is a hit, moving huge volumes of product. Apple sold 2 million in two months, and that was just to the “early adopters” in the USA. About half of those run 3G.
-          The iPhone 4 is due soon (today?). That front-facing camera will open the floodgates of videophone calls, magnifying the data demands of otherwise normal calls.
-          Google just announced GoogleTV – another huge draw on internet video. Expect a revamping & push of Apple TV in response.
-          4G wireless is gearing up, with Verizon about to throw the nationwide on switch, AT&T soon to follow, and Clear & Sprint already running it. Lots more bandwidth to cover the aforementioned load, once we consumers upgrade our hardware.
 
Tangent while I’m blathering:
The fight over Flash on the iP* makes me think we’re on the cusp of a “Tower of Babel” moment. So far all internet-connected devices speak pretty much the same language and follow the same technosocial protocols. There may be “dialects”, but everyone kinda gets along.
At some point some faction (*cough*Apple*cough) will choose to stop supporting some part of the “internet language” outright (*cough*Flash*cough*), causing a sharp separation of network participants, a separation which cannot be bridged without concerted effort. New cultural divides will form, defined by users’ inability to “just go there”; millions of iP* users won’t give up their uber-mobile life-changing devices, and TimeWarner/NBC/CBS/whaever won’t give up Flash just for a small fraction of their customers ... a division which just won’t be bridged.
 
Let the balkanization of the “exascale web” begin. There’s enough bandwidth & data out there to support it.
 
BTW: Google is about to introduce their outright replacement for Windows. They expect a million users on day one.

Rant: Rampage in Whitehaven

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2996697/Shooting-horror-in-Whitehaven.htm

Somebody killed a bunch of people in England.

Dave writes "How? I thought the people were all disarmed in England to make it safer?"

I ... I don't understand. It can't be. It must be untrue. It's unpossible. 
I mean ... there are words on paper somewhere that prohibit such things, right? Not that anyone but the elite keepers of the law have seen those words. I mean, really, there are WORDS ON PAPER! This can't happen! The evil nature of ... of ... I can't say the word* ... THOSE THINGS ... must be overwhelming and awful. That poor man ... somehow he ends up with ... one of those THINGS ... and he just couldn't help himself. Let's all pitch in ... I mean ALL, the police will encourage community cooperation ... to give this poor man a comfortable life to help him cope with such a dire experience. And where did that ... THING ... come from? We must scour every home to ensure there are none of those ... THINGS ... in our community. Oh, it's not a violation of "right to be secure in one's home and effects" to do such a search, it helps enhance that right by ensuring such ... THINGS ... do not threaten our community. So it's settled then? It should be unanimous, so it is. We raise taxes to pay for that poor man's retirement, and we send our kind SWAT team to search every home for those ... THINGS ... and everything will be much better. I'm feeling very sunny and cheerful now. 

My word, I'm starting to understand how people end up thinking that way. I need to go shoot something and then have a stiff drink.
 
 

Rant: ultra-low-budget movies

I have a fondness for ultra-low-budget movies.
 
Prime examples:
Blair Witch Project - Actors, with just camping equipment and mundane audio/video equipment (which was part of the story), were actually sent into the woods for 5 days, and were given cryptic directions they would find on scraps of paper lying in their path. They really did get tired, dirty, stressed & scared.
Cube - Aside from a handful of simple digital effects shots, the entire film was shot in a 10’ cube. Change of “location” was achieved by color filters on lights.
El Mariachi - Made for $7000, raised by the director/producer submitting to paid medical experimentation. Lighting was just two cheap lamps cleverly arranged. Extras included two local hostile-to-the-production talk-show hosts won over by giving them cameos. DVD includes fascinating 10-minute lesson on cutting corners.
 
Done right, the viewer has no clue there was practically no budget – because the story, directing and acting were right.
 
El Mariachi’s director, Robert Rodriguez, went on to become a major Hollywood player. He still does all post-production work in his garage.
 
All too often, when you pare a big-budget production down to the story and its truth, there’s nothing there to convey. If you don’t have a story to tell, but have to tell one, money can still buy fame.
 
 
Tangent:
I’d love to do a series of shorts that take the start of blockbuster movies, then apply a moment of realism which abruptly cuts the film short. There’s a 007 film that starts where Bond jumps off a cliff to freefall into an uncontrolled airplane, then a long blind pause reveals he has succeeded in catching up & taking control before it crashes; I’d edit in a fireball, then roll credits (backed by a slow zoom in on a dark smear on the canyon floor). Likewise a slasher movie where the first would-be victim grabs a 12-gauge, performs the indicated response, then resumes the night of fun & frolic with the others.
Edit: xkcd wins...

 
Tangent to the tangent:
The high point of Executive Decision was 20 minutes in, where a big-name actor abruptly falls out of a plane and is not seen again.

Blatant Plug: The Survivalist Blog

M.D. Creekmore over at the The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster – with articles on bug out bag contents, survival knife choices and a wealth of other survival information is giving away a Go Berkey Water Filter System (a $139.00 value)! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for the details.

Pun: 5th of May

Nearly 100 years ago, Mexicans discovered a European condiment made of whipped oil & eggs. They went crazy over  it, and would not be satisfied with homemade Central American versions of it – no, they demanded the real thing from Great Britain. Arrangements were made for a large shipment of this smooth, white delicacy via the Titanic.
 
Well, you know what happened to that shipment.
 
News of the loss of the huge and much-anticipated cargo reached Mexico on May 5. Enthusiastic expectation turned to horror and lament, so great that every year the nation remembers the loss with ... Sinko de Mayo.