Moving up the hill

After about 8 months here at Amazon.com, I’m shifting groups, and offices, and buildings. Up until now I’m been working in the Distributed Systems Engineering team, focussing on scalable middleware technologies. I’ve now moved over the the Website Platform group; hopefully the name is self-explanatory.
PacMed building, Seattle
In order to be close to my new team, I’ve moved from the US1 building (next to King Street Station and the Qwest Stadium) to the PacMed building, a converted 1930s hospital with a commanding view of the city. This means an end to my ridiculously short commute:

  • US1: Walk out of the Uwajimaya, cross the street, walk into US1.
  • PacMed: Walk out of the Uwajimaya, cross the street, get on a shuttle bus, take a 3-5 minute ride up the hill, get off the bus, walk into PacMed.

I think I’ll survive 😉
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I pinched the photo from a hit on Google Images; I’m not sure if the luxuriant vegetation is authentic or “enhanced”. I’ll add some of my own pictures soon.
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UPDATE: The view from my window, 3rd floor, looking south.

Distorting history because of religion

You hear a lot about “angry atheists” these days. Speaking personally, I see many more outrageous things being done in the name of religion today than there were 10 or 20 years ago. Take this story from the UK: Schools ‘avoid Holocaust lessons’

The Historical Association report claimed: “Teachers and schools avoid emotive and controversial history for a variety of reasons, some of which are well-intentioned.
“Staff may wish to avoid causing offence or appearing insensitive to individuals or groups in their classes.
“In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship.”
The report gave the example of a history department in a northern city which decided not to teach the Holocaust as a topic for GCSE coursework.
It cited another school which taught the Holocaust, but then avoided teaching the Crusades because “balanced treatment” of the topic would have challenged what some local mosques were teaching.

Sounds familiar? Change “history” and “Holocaust” to “biology” and “evolution”. Reasons to be angry? You bet.
UPDATE: The full study can be found here. Ed Braytron has also been discussing this over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, and getting some interesting comments.

More on the Kathy Sierra blogstorm

Kathy Sierra, the writer who spoke out after a series of attacks and threats, and Chris Locke, the owner of the websites where the attacks were posted, have been talking, and have issued what they call Coordinated Statements. If you’ve been following this affair, it’s worth reading them. A couple of quotes – first from Kathy:

That my one post touched a nerve for tens of thousands of people shows just how wide and deep this problem is. People are outraged not just because of my story, but because it’s been a growing problem that’s hurt the lives of so many others online. But Chris and I felt that if we — of all people — could demonstrate that we could see past the anger, connect with each other, and learn something together, maybe we could help encourage others to have a more calm, rational productive discussion.

And from Chris:

Misogyny is real — and vile. Violence against women is wrong. It must not be tolerated. This issue should be explored and discussed, not swept under the rug, not rationalized away. At the same time, we need to look closely and carefully at the implications for free speech. […] Crucial as is the current debate about hate speech directed at women, it would be tragic if this incident were used as a weapon by those who would limit free and open exchange.

[Hat tip to Rick.]
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UPDATE: Tim O’Reilly has called for a Blogger’s Code of Conduct. As Tim Bray points out, this can really be boiled down to one simple rule: You’re accountable for what appears on your Web site. This feels right to me. A blog owner isn’t a “common carrier” or ISP, or anything like that.

Science fiction

Spurred on by the prospect of reading the new Douglas Hofstadter book, I rearranged my priorities last night. I watched just the first half of Watford vs. Chelsea*, leaving the second half until this morning; this gave me the time to finish Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. I really enjoyed this: very powerful, strangely reminiscent of Gulliver’s Travels.
On the subject of sci-fi, I’ve always been a fan of Alastair Reynold’s work, especially his “revelation space” tales. Now he’s assembled a series of short stories, more or less connected with that alternate universe, under the title Galactic North. It came out in England in hardcover last October, and the U.S. hardcover publication is scheduled for June 2007. Imagine my surprise to find a paperback edition at Heathrow Airport a couple of weeks ago! I breezed through it on the three flights that occupied the following 24 hours (LHR-ORD, ORD-SEA, SEA-RNO), and I passed it on to a colleague as soon as I was done. Good stuff, not great; I recommend that you wait for the paperback. (However if you don’t plan to fly through Heathrow, there’s no telling how long you’re going to have to wait.)
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* Chelsea just managed to scrape a win with a goal in the 90th minute. Frankly they looked unconvincing, and a bit tired. These days there are several EPFL clubs that are playing much better, and more entertaining football: ManU and Spurs are at the top of my list, with Liverpool rediscovering their form. It’s hard to imagine Chelsea retaining their title.

"I Am a Strange Loop"

Oh joy, oh bliss! Doug Hofstadter has a new book out: I Am a Strange Loop. Consciousness as a self-referential phenomenon. I saw it quite by chance in a downtown bookshop, and seized it immediately. I am going to try to behave myself, and finish The Left Hand of Darkness* before I start looping….
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* I have to confess that I hadn’t read this wonderful work by Ursula Le Guin before now. Charlie badgered me into getting a copy (along with The Dispossessed), and I’m glad he did.

The Green Zone is now Red

Recently I cited Patrick Cockburn on the increasingly dangerous situation in the Iraqi countryside. Now we find that even the Green Zone in Baghdad is at risk:

The US embassy in Baghdad circulated a memo to all Americans working for the US government in the Green Zone. It ordered them to wear protective gear whenever they were outside in the Green Zone, including just moving from one building to another. Guerrillas have managed to lob a number of rockets into the area in recent days, and killed one US GI on Tuesday.
The Green Zone is therefore actually the Red Zone. I.e., it is no longer an area of good security contrasting to what is around it. Senator McCain was more wrong than can easily be imagined. Not only can American officials not just stroll through Baghdad districts unarmed and unprotected by armor, but they can’t even move that way from one building to the next inside the Green Zone!

To extend Cocklburn’s earlier analogy, not only have the enemy occupied Reading: the corgis are now wearing flak-jackets in Buckingham Palace Gardens.

"Expressing the Intelligence that Guides Computation"

My friend Charlie just drew my attention to a wonderful website: Courses for the B.A. in Computer Science at Maharishi University of Management. Some examples of the Truly Wondrous courses that they offer:

Algorithms: The Dynamics of Intelligence — The Relationship of Structure and Dynamics as the Basis for Efficient and Practical Software Development (CS 435)
Compiler Construction: Connecting Name and Form — The Source of All Programming Languages in Grammar and Semantics (CS 440)
Computer Communication Networks: Connecting the Parts and Whole — Frictionless Flow of Information (CS 450)
Software Technologies: Advanced Principles of Natural Law in Software Systems (CS 455)

Beautiful stuff. Who knew that LALR(1) could have such cosmic significance? But the detailed course descriptions are even stranger. For example:

Nature’s Cosmic Computing: Harnessing the Organizing Power of Knowledge (CS 101)
This course investigates the most fundamental knowledge at the basis of all computing and modern computer technology, and how it is connected to principles of the Science of Creative Intelligence and Vedic Science. We will look at the structure of computing itself, of computer science, and of the wide range of computing applications that are primary to all areas of professions and life today. (4 units)

And if that isn’t enough, you can add a minor in World Peace. Cloud-cuckoo-land, through and through.

Saved by reviewers from a tedious and expensive disappointment

I was in a bookshop this afternoon (yeah, I do occasionally visit bricks-and-mortar book stores), and I came across a very large and dazzingly white volume, The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of a Universe by Michael Frayn. I’ve always enjoyed his work, all the way back to The Tin Men in 1965, and I was tempted. But it was $32.50, and I decided that I should read the reviews first and then see what Amazon’s price was.
I’m glad I waited. The reviews were, for the most part, scathing, replete with adjectives such as “meandering”, “repetitive”, “tedious”, and “naive”. Here’s one reviewer at Amazon.co.uk:

In the more technical earlier chapters he completely loses the scientific and mathematical thread, making errors such as the claim on p 41 where he states with forceful amazement that there are two square roots of negative numbers as if this is a surprise to the likely readership. What he really means is there are two square roots for any number, but he misses this obvious fact and repeats the schoolboy mistake later in the book. This simply sets the scene for a plethora of later errors of a more significant scientific nature. […] I completed the book due to my respect for the author – I would not recommend it to anyone else unless seeking a critical exercise in the poor use of logic.

For the record, the Amazon.com price is $21.45. However I spent that money on two more CDs of Jonny Hahn’s solo piano music instead. (It was a beautiful afternoon here in Seattle, and Jonny was playing in his usual spot next to the Public Market.) For my various flights over the last few weeks I loaded my iPod with Jonny’s albums Collage and Lost in the Inzone, set it on “Repeat”, plugged in my headphones, and relaxed….
UPDATE: Here’s Colin McGinn, a philosopher who knows what he’s talking about, politely eviscerating Mr. Frayn.