Reed's Ruminations: The Past, Present, and Future
Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience
Category: Personal
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A Taste of Sherbet
When you lead a hardscrabble life, you learn certain things early. Life is not fair. Don’t expect things you can’t possibly have, even if others do. Don’t ever shame your parents in public – the hurt in their eyes is punishment enough. Above all, don’t dream things that can’t come true.
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SC: The Family Gathering
It’s “supercomputing week,” which means that almost everyone who can spell HPC and who can walk, drive, swim or fly will be in Austin, Texas during the week of November 16 for SC08. In short, it’s the place to see and be seen, or perhaps not to be seen if you are spending all of…
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Driving: Integers and Reals
Despite the deep and broad similarities that transend regional and national cultures, uniting us as humans, I have observed wide variation in one one deeply individualistic trait. The frequency of this trait widely varies across regions of the United States, across countries and across cultures; it is preponderant in some, rare in others, but present…
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Low Hanging Fruit: Memories of Childhood
Low hanging fruit – it’s a metaphor native English speakers often use to denote an opportunity on which one can easily capitalize, a reward readily grasped without stretching. Yet I doubt most of us, particularly those in urban areas stop to consider the agrarian origins of such phrases, when hunter-gatherers quite literally foraged for food.…
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Eudora, You Got the Love?
One summer night when I was about twelve years old, I sat watching the Dick Cavett Show on our old black and white television, the small town boy’s version of Plato’s Cave. Dick was a thoughtful and insightful interviewer, and he hosted a diverse and eclectic set of guests, from Salvador Dali to Groucho Marx.…
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Reflections on Tibet
I have been following the recent news about Tibet with great sadness and thought it appropriate to comment on my experiences last summer.