TV Squad
It appears the final word has been spoken on the new Futurama. It will be released November 27th on DVD as well as appearing on Comedy Central. So will it be a movie or a new season? Apparently both. Four DVD movies of Futurama will be released which will be cut up into 16 episodes to be shown on Comedy Central.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Supercomputers and Such
Top 500
So another 6 months has passed and the list of the top 500 fastest computers has been updated. BlueGene has now held the top spot longer than any other computer, 2 and half years. I found a way to see the total FLOPS of all 500 computers, which has been telling. On average, the total FLOPS the top 500 can do increases about 35-36% every 6 months. The top computer of any given year typically can do the same number of FLOPS as the total of all 500 from about 4 years earlier.
This past 6 months, there seemed to be a shift towards mass-building of supercomputers instead of building just one big one as there wasn't much change at the top of the list but over half the list are new entries. Many of these were groups of computers all running at the same number of FLOPS. It may help that the price of running supercomputers has dropped dramatically making it more cost-effective to more institutions to build supercomputers. According to answers.com, the price of performing at one GFLOPS has dropped from $30,000.00 in 1997 to $0.42. A typical PC processor can now perform 5 to 10 GFLOPS.
So another 6 months has passed and the list of the top 500 fastest computers has been updated. BlueGene has now held the top spot longer than any other computer, 2 and half years. I found a way to see the total FLOPS of all 500 computers, which has been telling. On average, the total FLOPS the top 500 can do increases about 35-36% every 6 months. The top computer of any given year typically can do the same number of FLOPS as the total of all 500 from about 4 years earlier.
This past 6 months, there seemed to be a shift towards mass-building of supercomputers instead of building just one big one as there wasn't much change at the top of the list but over half the list are new entries. Many of these were groups of computers all running at the same number of FLOPS. It may help that the price of running supercomputers has dropped dramatically making it more cost-effective to more institutions to build supercomputers. According to answers.com, the price of performing at one GFLOPS has dropped from $30,000.00 in 1997 to $0.42. A typical PC processor can now perform 5 to 10 GFLOPS.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Gay Marriage in Sweden
The Local
The Moderate Party, the leading party in the current conservative government, has decided to support gay marriage in Sweden. There have been few calls for gay marriage because same-sex couples already have many of the same rights and protections of heterosexual couples. The reason for this willingness to change the status quo may be the fact that socialist coalition has been leading in recent polls by as much as 15%. This leaves the Christian Democrats the only party in the Riksdag to oppose gay marriage.
The Moderate Party, the leading party in the current conservative government, has decided to support gay marriage in Sweden. There have been few calls for gay marriage because same-sex couples already have many of the same rights and protections of heterosexual couples. The reason for this willingness to change the status quo may be the fact that socialist coalition has been leading in recent polls by as much as 15%. This leaves the Christian Democrats the only party in the Riksdag to oppose gay marriage.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Name Trends Update
Social Security Online
Apparently I had been misinformed back in January that they would update the popular baby names list in February as apparently it wasn't updated until May. Anyway, here's how my predictions held up.
Alexander didn't make it into the top 10, maintaining its position at 12th.
Joseph was instead replaced by William.
Sophia made it to the top 10, but Mia only made it to 13th, still a strong sign in growing popularity as it was 17th in 2005.
Ashley fell out of the top 10, Samantha fell to 10th.
Ava continued its strong rise, going from 9th to 5th.
Joseph and Micheal did not switch positions.
So I'd say I got about 50/50 on that, maybe slightly less because I didn't think William would return to the top 10.
Apparently I had been misinformed back in January that they would update the popular baby names list in February as apparently it wasn't updated until May. Anyway, here's how my predictions held up.
Alexander didn't make it into the top 10, maintaining its position at 12th.
Joseph was instead replaced by William.
Sophia made it to the top 10, but Mia only made it to 13th, still a strong sign in growing popularity as it was 17th in 2005.
Ashley fell out of the top 10, Samantha fell to 10th.
Ava continued its strong rise, going from 9th to 5th.
Joseph and Micheal did not switch positions.
So I'd say I got about 50/50 on that, maybe slightly less because I didn't think William would return to the top 10.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
On the Subject of Elections
Elections Ireland
Ireland uses one of the most accurate, but mind-numbingly tedious methods of counting votes, Single transferable vote. Basically, everyone ranks the candidates and if one's favorite gets eliminated for having the fewest votes that round, then the vote goes to the second favorite candidate. This is done until all the seats are filled. Click on one of the constituencies in the first link to see an in-depth look at the voting system. It is amazing.
Ireland uses one of the most accurate, but mind-numbingly tedious methods of counting votes, Single transferable vote. Basically, everyone ranks the candidates and if one's favorite gets eliminated for having the fewest votes that round, then the vote goes to the second favorite candidate. This is done until all the seats are filled. Click on one of the constituencies in the first link to see an in-depth look at the voting system. It is amazing.
Belated French Election Update
So I never got around to updating my readers on how my prediction held up. Well, I currently predicted that the department that Bayrou originally won in and one other would shift in favor of Royal. Along with this, four other departments in which Sarkozy was originally the top candidate, switched to Royal.
Not heeding Le Pen's call to boycott, voter turnout went up during the second round, from 83.77% to 83.97%, although, the number of spoilt or null votes tripled, so the number of votes actually counted dropped.
In the end, in appears that Bayrou voters split 50.64/49.36 in favor of Royal. So the 50/50 split prediction seems to have been fairly accurate. The slight boost to Royal didn't do her much good though, she still lost.
Not heeding Le Pen's call to boycott, voter turnout went up during the second round, from 83.77% to 83.97%, although, the number of spoilt or null votes tripled, so the number of votes actually counted dropped.
In the end, in appears that Bayrou voters split 50.64/49.36 in favor of Royal. So the 50/50 split prediction seems to have been fairly accurate. The slight boost to Royal didn't do her much good though, she still lost.
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