A4 paper format / International standard paper sizes

A4 paper format / International standard paper sizes by Markus Kuhn.

I just checked a PDF to see if I'd be able to print it and needed to find which paper size is 216 mm wide by 279 mm tall. A quick Google returned the page linked above. It includes an explanation of the ISO paper size standard, points out the regularity of the ISO sizes, their relation to other ISO units and the utility of such regularities.

It also explains just how brain-damaged the North American formats really are. I hadn't realised that North Americans can't enlarge documents properly as their paper sizes have several height to width ratios. I also didn't realise just how wide spread the ISO paper sizes are. According to Kuhn, the United States of America, Canada and Mexico are the only industrialised nations which don't use the ISO sizes widely.

I just wish that all the papers, books and theses that they produce came as A4 formatted PDFs.

The Trees Deserve It

I ordered another book today: Purely Functional Data Structures by Chris Okasaki.

I downloaded a PDF of his PhD thesis (PDF, 616K) and had a brief flick through. It looks as though some of the structures will be just what I need. One of the main differences (that I am aware of) between the thesis and the book is that the book includes the source code in both ML and Haskell, whereas the thesis only uses ML. The book will, therefore, be of a lot more use to me than the thesis and at less than $AU70, it'll hardly break the bank.

Deriving Backtracking Monad Transformers

I started reading Deriving Backtracking Monad Transformers, by Ralf Hinze, this afternoon (or, rather, yesterday afternoon). It's already been valuable, though that was more of a side effect.

I've haven't read too much of it yet, but I've been able to understand what I have read, which means either

• I'm learning; or
• Hinze is a good writer; or
• deriving backtracking monad transformers is simple.

I hope that it's due to an increase in my understanding, but either of the other two cases might be true as well.

Next on the list is Backtracking, Interleaving, and Terminating Monad Transformers by Oleg Kiselyov, Chung-chieh Shan, Daniel P. Friedman and Amr Sabry.

The Matrix is in the Eye of the Beholder

The NotYASS session on the Matrix was interesting. A lot of people (or, rather, more than usual) showed up, including a lot of philosophers (from RSSS and the Department of Philosophy I suppose). There wasn't much more than the various points, arguments and objections raised in the various papers at www.simulation-argument.com, but the discussion was interesting.

I'll be missing the next session (I think it's been cancelled anyway due to a conference or some such), but there are a few more philosophical topics scheduled for the next few session after that. They should be interesting if nothing else.

There is no spoon

Today's NotYASS session is entitled The Matrix as metaphysics. According to the blurb, we'll be discussing the various bits and pieces of work about the matrix as reality, the likelihood of this being the matrix, how one ought to live given that this is probably a simulation, etc.

Some of the papers on this topic (many can be found at www.simulation-argument.com) are quite interesting and many of them specific to The Matrix require surprisingly little prior knowledge.

Sounds like it'll be fun.

Death, Jr.

Death, Jr.

I've just read issue two of Death, Jr. and it is even better than the first. Ted Naihef's art is brilliant; the contrast between Death (Jr.'s dad) and the rest of their suburban existence if wonderful.

Run out and grab a copy now, you [probably] won't be disappointed.

[Edit: Issue #2 got a fairly bad review at Comics Should Be Good. I agree with everything said there, but I still liked it.]

Word of the Day

Today's Word of the Day is: unbosom.

Some words derived from archaic or specialised usage, like disrobe perhaps, have evolved to have a more general meaning. Unbosom, though sounds contrived, a little bit naughty and, to me at least, gives not the slightest hint of its meaning: to confide (one's thoughts or secrets).

Finding the Muse

Finding the Muse

Recently I've been on a Harry Potter fan fiction trip. Specifically, I've been revisiting my fascination with Pumpkin Pie, or the Harry and Hermione "ship". While it has been wonderful rereading some of my favourite stories, I've also discovered some brilliant new stories.

Finding the Muse is, while not strictly speaking Pumpkin Pie, one such gem. While lots of Harry/Hermione stories have plots reminiscent of Days of our Lives, Eastenders or Home and Away, this is a truly wonderful story that explores an aspect of Harry Potter's world that I, for one, had never even considered but not seems glaringly obvious: the lack of music.

I'm sure that echoes of Finding the Muse will be appearing in my thoughts and writing on Harry Potter for a long while.

MegaTokyo - [724] already broken

MegaTokyo - [724] already broken

I love Megatokyo.

Parsing stuff in Haskell

I've just started looking parsing in Haskell with Parsec. After a few hours of reading and poking at examples, I've got a prototype working