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Languages, Linux, Soviet History
Dec. 6th, 2017 06:09 pmCourtesy of a suggestion by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thefon I have rather foolishly thrown myself into learning Mandarin as part of my long-term goal of picking up the basics of the languages of the United Nations, plus a few others for aesthetic and lifestyle reasons. After all, it is unfortunately not possible to learn all the languages in the world, and indeed it probably would be functionally best if everyone just used Esperanto. But that's not going to happen. To be honest I am finding learning the Chinese characters unpleasant and the argument for rote learning is not encouraging, and it adds by my existing appreciation of the pinyin romanisation.
Tuesday night have a presentation at Linux Users of Victoria on A Tale of Two Conferences: ISC and TERATEC 2017 where I made the point that European industry and government understands the role of high performance computing a lot better than what we're doing in Australia, and with the expected results. Also of news in this world Linux journal has ceased publication, after being around since 1994. I've managed to pick up a digital copy of all the back issues. It's a certain irony that their closure comes at the same time as it is announced that every single one of the Top500 computer systems in the world is a Linux system. The Big Iron is ours.
I have written an article on The 1917 October Revolution for the 100 year anniversary of this event, which will be first in a series on the subject - I'm thinking about ten in all - with the next being on the civil war and the founding the Soviet Union. I don't want to spend too much time on this because it is very much after the fact, but partisan intepretations of history which are contra-factual do get up my nose. As a related aside, I've been doing a lot of recent research on North Korea which will also find its way into an article in the new year - apart from being a supplement and scenario in Papers & Paychecks.
thefon I have rather foolishly thrown myself into learning Mandarin as part of my long-term goal of picking up the basics of the languages of the United Nations, plus a few others for aesthetic and lifestyle reasons. After all, it is unfortunately not possible to learn all the languages in the world, and indeed it probably would be functionally best if everyone just used Esperanto. But that's not going to happen. To be honest I am finding learning the Chinese characters unpleasant and the argument for rote learning is not encouraging, and it adds by my existing appreciation of the pinyin romanisation. Tuesday night have a presentation at Linux Users of Victoria on A Tale of Two Conferences: ISC and TERATEC 2017 where I made the point that European industry and government understands the role of high performance computing a lot better than what we're doing in Australia, and with the expected results. Also of news in this world Linux journal has ceased publication, after being around since 1994. I've managed to pick up a digital copy of all the back issues. It's a certain irony that their closure comes at the same time as it is announced that every single one of the Top500 computer systems in the world is a Linux system. The Big Iron is ours.
I have written an article on The 1917 October Revolution for the 100 year anniversary of this event, which will be first in a series on the subject - I'm thinking about ten in all - with the next being on the civil war and the founding the Soviet Union. I don't want to spend too much time on this because it is very much after the fact, but partisan intepretations of history which are contra-factual do get up my nose. As a related aside, I've been doing a lot of recent research on North Korea which will also find its way into an article in the new year - apart from being a supplement and scenario in Papers & Paychecks.
