Interesting Links for 02-01-2023

[andrewducker]

1. After nearly 30 years, there's finally a new issue of Miracleman by Neil Gaiman

(tags:comics Miracleman history )

2. I've found my New Year's Resolution!

(tags:resolutions grammar funny )

3. Terraria's Steam success is the fruit of unmatched long-term support

(tags:games )

4. Maintenance of FORM, the 1980s software that's used for the particle physics' hardest calculations, rests almost entirely with one septuagenarian physicist.

(tags:physics software Doom )

5. Yesterday was the 40th birthday of the internet!

(tags:internet history )

6. Andrew Tate fuelling misogyny in UK schools, teachers warn

(tags:misogyny homophobia LGBT bigotry OhForFucksSake school children )

Comments

[fub]

Looking in from the outside, it feels like (parts of) FORM's development would make an excellent subject for a MS or even PhD in Computer Science. If you have to design unique solutions to unique computing problems, then those are publications waiting to happen -- not in particle physics, but in computer science.

[channelpenguin]

Or simply analysis and development by software developers. We are used to doing that after all ;-)

I suspect the tricky part is understanding the requirements if you are not a particle physicist. But in this big wide world there must be > 1 particle physicists with whom the developers could usefully speak / use as business analysts / UAT testers.

Also, FORM is the working prototype - which is always extremely useful.

[andrewducker]

Or get the source on GitHub with a decent license!

[fub]

While that ensures that the code is available for those who want it, it does not seem very probable that a rando volunteer group will automatically create the features that are needed in the field of particle physics.

[andrewducker]

I just don't tend to think of "Write an application" as being worth a PhD in computing. Computing at that level isn't very much to do with individual applications, as it is to do with the theory and study of computing - it'd be like having your PhD biologists look after the football team's tiger mascot.

[fub]

From the article I get the impression that it's not "just an application". Instead of "write an application to do calculations", it is "write an application that can deal with a combinatorial explosion, while working with finite resources, and giving an answer in acceptable time." That, I think, is a whole different beast.
But maybe too low-level for a PhD? Then maybe the right level for a Masters thesis? That has the added bonus that there is a steady stream of 'em. :)

[andrewducker]

That's a fair point - it does seem to have interesting aspects - and there are a variety of levels to assign it to!

[channelpenguin]

True

[fub]

But then the problem becomes one of getting the funds to hire those software developers, and that might be an equally big problem. But there is a very big chance that the universities engaging in particle physics at this level also have a computer science department with many smart people who can be put on the problem at no extra cost -- and potential extra gain.

(I say "no extra cost", but of course it costs something to have a PhD work on something. But those departments are going to have PhD's anyway, so...)

[channelpenguin]

Hmm, I see your point

[drswirly]

Fortunately, I am a more grammar pedant, not a less grammar one.

[darkoshi]

#5 my first thought: It's only 40 years old?! It feels like I've had at least a hundred years of internet in my life even though I'm only half that old.

[channelpenguin]

Haha. I'm not only older than the internet, I've been programming longer than has existed (as defined in the linked article).

On my ZX Spectrum in about that year, I wrote my own 'diary' software (like a private blog), using lots of "references" (based on refs in academic books) that worked pretty much like hyperlinks. I had a primitive database going too, though I can't recall if I built any searching (likely not).

I didn't think this was anything special - which is I guess why I'm not some famous or rich geek.

[melchar]

Holy heck! I've been online since 1980, originally with BBS message rooms to DM text/response rpg games, since I couldn't referee live table games 24/7.

Most of my players were programmers, software nerds & engineers, so it wasn't -that- odd, except that I was none of the above.

But the idea that the acknowledged age of the internet is only 40 years old still surprises me.

[andrewducker]

It does rather feel like it's been around forever, even if it was only ten years old when I first used it!

[cellio]

Oh, I thought you were going to say that your new year's resolution is 2048x1152. :-)

[andrewducker]

If the joke had been new to me then probably!