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tcpipA good portion of work in the supercomputer world over the past week has consisted of trying my level best to try to make the world's most popular programming language, Python, operate at some degree of computational performance. As a scripting language it's fine (arguably even better than bash shell scripting in many cases if things are getting a little complex), and it's certainly a great tool to learn to program. But the further I delve into it the more my engineering and efficiency heckles rise. It wasn't helped when someone came up with the line: "I can't wait for the day when computers will become so advanced that it will be possible to write device drivers, kernels, and operating systems in Python. That my friend, will be true breakthrough". "Mind your nanoseconds!" as Grace Hopper would say. Anyway, apart from that and in a quite different area I've been delving into NetCDF data formats, and GDAL geospatial data format, because that's my idea of fun.
It's been a while since I've made any mention of my business venture with Anthony L., "Avatar Mountain". Almost needless to say, we have been engaging in a variety of activities in this initial stage of the project. Our focus has changed somewhat, now more orientated to seeing what technologies we can bring to the Pacific Island nations (where Anthony has a great deal of expertise) and regularly speaking to the appropriate people in the engineering and academic communities about this, who have been remarkably generous with their time. Fiscal policy, which is our target funding is, of course, prone to dragging its feat as any macroeconomist will tell you. But when one is dealing with millions several months to a year is not a long time, even if the climate urgency is there. My main motivation remains in line with the - unsourced and attributed - quote by Carl Sagan on the climate change challenge: "Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out." Above all else, this is my life's motivation.
Appropriately, I have decided that my next degree will be a fourth Master's, this one in Climate Science and Policy at Victoria University, Wellington. This, of course, suggests an opportunity to visit my homeland which I have not done so since the start of the pandemic. Well, yesterday I booked tickets for a ten-day visit to The North Island, where I'll travel from Auckland (to visit Auckland University for my Psych degree) to Wellington (to enrol in the Climate Science degree) and return. Best of all, I will not be doing this alone, having convinced one delightful Angela D. to join me on this venture, a very dear old friend (something like 30 years) from Western Australia. I think we could both do with something resembling a holiday.
It's been a while since I've made any mention of my business venture with Anthony L., "Avatar Mountain". Almost needless to say, we have been engaging in a variety of activities in this initial stage of the project. Our focus has changed somewhat, now more orientated to seeing what technologies we can bring to the Pacific Island nations (where Anthony has a great deal of expertise) and regularly speaking to the appropriate people in the engineering and academic communities about this, who have been remarkably generous with their time. Fiscal policy, which is our target funding is, of course, prone to dragging its feat as any macroeconomist will tell you. But when one is dealing with millions several months to a year is not a long time, even if the climate urgency is there. My main motivation remains in line with the - unsourced and attributed - quote by Carl Sagan on the climate change challenge: "Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out." Above all else, this is my life's motivation.
Appropriately, I have decided that my next degree will be a fourth Master's, this one in Climate Science and Policy at Victoria University, Wellington. This, of course, suggests an opportunity to visit my homeland which I have not done so since the start of the pandemic. Well, yesterday I booked tickets for a ten-day visit to The North Island, where I'll travel from Auckland (to visit Auckland University for my Psych degree) to Wellington (to enrol in the Climate Science degree) and return. Best of all, I will not be doing this alone, having convinced one delightful Angela D. to join me on this venture, a very dear old friend (something like 30 years) from Western Australia. I think we could both do with something resembling a holiday.
