Category Archives: Mathematics

Administrative, Mathematics, Technology and Society

OK, Different Computer Question

11 Comments

I’ve got her machine set up as Windows native, installed on SSD. Her old Windows drive, with her old files, is hooked up to it. She can see it fine from Windows. But while she was using Linux, she’d been writing to an LVM drive, which was originally a backup, but now has some changes on it from the old drive.

I’m running Fedora as a virtual machine, and it seems to be running fine (so far). I’ve attached the old Windows drive to the physical machine, and it shows up in Nautilus and other file managers. But when I try to access it, I get a message that it’s an NTFS drive with problems, and I can only mount it read-only. It suggests I repair.

So, is this caused by the fact that its already mounted and in use by Windows? Seems a little strange, since the virtual machine probably wouldn’t know that. Windows doesn’t have a problem with it. Bigger question: Can/should I try to repair it as an unmounted drive from the virtual machine using e2fsck? That is, does e2fsck repair NTFS drives? And what is the risk if I don’t attempt to back it up first?

Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Neil Stephenson

8 Comments

Discusses his new novel, and the role of science fiction.

He is one of the few authors whose books I always look forward to reading, though I was a little disappointed with Anathem. But this looks like a fun read.

I should also note that one of the points I make in my book (and in op-eds) since, is that our unwillingness to use the hardware we have on hand to get into space is an indicator of how utterly unimportant human spaceflight is (a point that is accentuated by the relatively poor sales of a well-reviewed book). Stephenson describes a scenario in which it suddenly becomes very important to become as spacefaring as possible, as soon as possible, and how society reacts.

Culinary, Health, Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Cholesterol

6 Comments

Matt Wridley has a brief history of how it’s not bad for you. And this is worth repeating in the context of climate “science”:

If challenged to show evidence for low-cholesterol advice, the medical and scientific profession has tended to argue from authority — by pointing to WHO guidelines or other such official compendia, and say “check the references in there”. But those references lead back to Keys and Framingham and other such dodgy dossiers. Thus does bad science get laundered into dogma. “One of the great commandments of science is ‘Mistrust arguments from authority’,” said Carl Sagan.

Similarly, mistrust people who talk about “consensus” and quote fake statistics on how many scientists believe something.

[Update a while later]

Sorry, link is fixed now.

Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Bill Nye, Climate Guy

6 Comments

Yes, obviously the Texas flooding is caused by our SUVs:

For climate scientists like Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists, the link to a warming planet was obvious.

“When you have a warmer atmosphere, then you have the capability to hold more water vapor,” Ekwurzel explained. “When storms organize, there’s much more water you can wring out of the atmosphere compared to the past.”

So I guess that would explain all the recent flooding in California, too.

Oh, wait.