Mixed feelings

Another crisis our generation had to have, meet the new kid in the block, the ebook.

Will printed books survive?

Likely for a short while, unlikely in the long haul.

I now own a Kindle as I no longer have space left in our apartment to put new books in. Unfortunately the ebook has no personality but admittedly it is incredibly practical.

English is my second language so the online dictionary is a blessing, just point your cursor and there you go, the word is translated. Everything is so much easier, taking notes, bookmarks, searching, reading on the train, packing, unpacking, and the fact that I can sync with the Kindle desktop application on my Mac, these are all fantastic stuff. I can't tell you how much my reading efficiency increased. I can even read while I am standing in a crowded train as my ebook is extremely light and well designed to be held with one hand.

Alas I hate to see bookshops disappearing as for me a library or a bookshop is the warmest place on Earth. There is definitely an intimate sensation of proportionality tied between an author and its work when you touch and browse a printed book, certainly amiss in ebook form. And how we would come into terms of losing such a wonderful experience I don’t know but this is a reality we will have to live with I am afraid.

Evocom

I have been quiet for a while totally immersed myself into evolutionary computing.

I have developed a computer program named evocom to solve The Eight Queens Problem. I have also written a paper quantitively analysing and demonstrating fundamental aspects of biological evolution.

You can download evocom program and related paper at:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~coruh/evocom/

I have used great open source tools and free products in my work. Here they are:

• TextWrangler : A brilliant text editor for Mac. Simple, fast, reliable, user friendly, got syntax-coloring.
• Python: Mac comes with Python, free to download for Windows at http://www.python.org/
• LaTeX: LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents.
• TeXShop: Award winning LaTeX editor for Mac, robust, simple, easy to use, reliable.