Jfnovak's Weblog

Family Christmas Pictures (Watch the cat)

jfnovak — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:46:43 +0000

He's being patient, he's even looking at the camera

My wife and I were taking the annual family picture by the Charlie Brown tree, and like usual, our cat Storm was expected to participate. He apparently doesn’t find it sufficiently engaging.

Also, the lady is my wonderful wife.

He's starting to get bored. I'm trying to keep his attention.

it's working for the moment, he looks at the camera

Oh, something else caught his eye

Now he's really found something that looks interesting

One paw out

And another

He's making a break for it...

How'ld he end up over there?

Qumana

jfnovak — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:26:02 +0000

So, really, this post is just a test to see if this new little peice of free software actually works. I just downloaded Qumana which is a free desktop blog publishing application. I picked qumana principly because I was too cheap to pay for MarsEdit. So far, this seems okay. However, I did run into a snag getting set up with my WordPress blog. It kept taking my blog, username, and password then spitting out:

javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target

when I hit enter. If you ran into the same problem that I did, here’s how to fix it:

go back one pane and you’ll see that qumana should have auto-recognized that it was a wordpress blog. It’ll have selected wordpress in a list menu, it also added a little bit of jiberish to the end of your site name. First you’ll want to change the selection from wordpress to MovableType. WordPress works on MovableType so I don’t think it should cause problems in the long run. Also, check the site name, I noticed that they had changed

http://

https://

deleate the ‘s’. And then it worked for me, but maybe I’m just a lucky fool.

Powered by Qumana

SimpsonRec.m

jfnovak — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:33:30 +0000

Okay, this is another m-file post. This is three m-files used to compute the value the integral of f on (a,b). it computes the values recursively on sub intervals until a desired accuracy is reached. By the way, it doesn’t work. I’ll update this when it does. EDIT: it works now.

function S=simpsonrec(f,a,b)
%this function recursively computes Int(f,a,b) using simpsons rule given a functionf, and end points-a,b.
tol=1E-5;
n=10000;
t1=simpsonrecsub1(f,a,b,n);
s1=simpsonrecsub1(f,a,(a+b)/2,n);
s2=simpsonrecsub1(f,(a+b)/2,b,n);
if abs(t1-(s1+s2))<(15*tol)
S=(s1+s2);
else S=simpsonrecsub2(f,a,(a+b)/2,tol/2,s1)+simpsonrecsub2(f,(a+b)/2,b,tol/2,s2);
end
end

function s=simpsonrecsub1(f,a,b,n);
%simpson(X,Y) approximates the integral of a function using the complex simpson method, given a function-f, endpoints-a,b, and a step size-n
X=a:(b-a)/n:b;
Y=f(X);
l=length(X);
N=n/2;
h=(b-a)/n;
s=0;
for k=1:N
i=(k-1)*2+1;
s=s+Y(i)+4*Y(i+1)+Y(i+2);
end
s=h*s/3;
end

function S=simpsonrecsub2(f,a,b,tol,g)
%This function is a subfunction of simpsonrec. It recursively computes Int(f,a,b) using simpsons rule given a functionf, and end points-a,b.
n=3;
t1=g;
s1=simpsonrecsub1(f,a,(a+b)/2,n);
s2=simpsonrecsub1(f,(a+b)/2,b,n);
if abs(t1-(s1+s2))<(15*tol)
t1=(s1+s2);
else
% t2=simpsonrecsub2(f,a,(a+b)/2,tol/2,s1)+simpsonrecsub2(f,(a+b)/2,b,tol/2,s2); t1=simpsonrecsub2(f,a,(a+b)/2,tol,s1)+simpsonrecsub2(f,(a+b)/2,b,tol,s2);
end
S=t1;
end

Romberg.m

jfnovak — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:17:40 +0000

Another m-file post. This is three functions which together performs Romberg integration to approximate the integral of f(x) on (a,b) to within a prescribed accuracy.

function R=romberg(f,a,b,tol)

%romberg(f,a,b,tol) This function performs Romberg intergration given a function-f and endpoints-a,b

n=2^17;

T(1)=rombergtrap1(f,a,b,n);

S(1)=rombergtrap1(f,a,b,n/2);

S(2)=rombergtrap2(T,S,1);

n=n/2;

while abs(T(length(T))-S(length(S)))>tol

T=S;

n=n/2;

S(1)=rombergtrap1(f,a,b,n);

for k=2:length(T)+1

S(k)=rombergtrap2(T,S,k-1);

end

R=S(length(S));

end

function R=rombergtrap1(f,a,b,n)

%This function generates a Trapezoidal approximation the the integral of f on (a,b) with n subintervals

X=a:((b-a)/n):b;

Y=f(X);

R=0;

for k=1:length(X)-1

% R=R+(f(a+((b-a)/n*(k-1)))+f(a+((b-a)/n)*k)*((((b-a)/n)*k))/2);

R=R+(Y(k)+Y(k+1))*((X(k+1)-X(k))/2);

end

function R=rombergtrap2(T,S,k)

%This function generates higher order trapezoidal approximations for Romberg integration

R=S(k)+(S(k)-T(k))/(4^(k+1)-1);

%R=((4^(k+1))*S(k)-T(k))/(4^(k+1)-1);

end

GaussCheby.m

jfnovak — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:10:23 +0000

Alright, this will be the first of several m-file posts. This is two functions the first calls on the second (that will be the general way of things). Together they compute the value of an integral of f(x)/sqrt(a^2-x^2) on the interval (-a,a) using a modified Gauss-Chebyshev method.

function G=GaussCheby(a,f)

%This function is a modified Gauss-Chebyshev to evaluate Int(-a,a,f(x)/sq(a^2-x^2)) given a value-a and a function-f

tol=1E-5;

A=GaussChebysub(4,a,f);

B=GaussChebysub(5,a,f);

n=5;

while (abs(A-B)>tol)

A=B;

n=n+1;

B=GaussChebysub(n,a,f);

end

G=B;

end

function quad=GaussChebysub(n,a,f)

%This is a sub-function which generates the gaussian quadrature for a modified Gauss-Chebyshev given a number of nodes-n, a value-a, and a function-f.

k=1;

quad=0;

while k

x=cos((pi()*(2*k-1))/(2*n));

quad=quad+f(x*a);

% quad=quad+f(x);

k=k+1;

end

quad=(pi()*quad)/n;

end

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

jfnovak — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:46:06 +0000

I just recently finished reading an absolutely great book, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. I would highly recommend it, not just because it’s free (because Doctorow is cool like that), but because its one of those books that you can’t set down and it really makes you think. As enjoyable as the book is, I’ll second something that I heard somewhere else: it’s not a happy book. Also, I would recommend what I did, read it on your iPod. There was something that just felt so Bitchun about reading it on an iPod, it felt like a handheld, I kept wanting to ping people’s whuffie….

Hmm, curious…

jfnovak — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:20:21 +0000

I performed an little experiment a few minutes ago and found the result both satisfying and unsatisfying. I typed in the address johnnovak(dot)blogspot(dot)com (I put in the “(dot)”‘s because I don’t wish to direct any traffic to the site) and I found it actually existed. It is a blog created in 2002 with only one very short post which in summary says, “That guy, John Novak, he is a loser, I hate him, he will never has any friends.” Wow, there is a blog all about someone with my name! I really hope it isn’t me…

(and yes, it says “will never has any friends”)

Rules When Attacking Science

jfnovak — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:45:20 +0000

Any theory that is based on a misinterpretation is no better than a theory that is completely made up.

Any metaphysical theory that does not affect physical reality can be logically tolerated if it is interiorly logically consistent.

Any metaphysical theory that affects physical reality can be tolerated as long as it does not contradict observation.

Any metaphysical theory that affects physical reality cannot be proven, because the metaphysical aspect cannot be measured and correlation cannot be made.

Science does not, and cannot, provide philosophical arguments; including ontological defense for observation.

Because a theory does not provide an ontological argument does not mean that one that does is superior.

Not all theories are created equal.

Because a theory is incomplete does not mean that any other hypothesis is equally likely to be true.

I had to read a selection of texts for a holistic medicine class. I have nothing against holistic medicine, but as a physicist, reading some of it was painful. When I got done I felt compelled to say this.

Why this blog is here/how it came to be

jfnovak — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:05:10 +0000

I had a comforting experience earlier today. About a year ago, I was forced by an English professor to write a blog for his English class. I had two blogs, one for class, and one where I would post comical news articles and make unedjucated commentary on them. They were both updated regularly for about 3 months, until it was no longer required of me. While killing time earlier today I remembered that some where on the Internet there resided a series of articles with my name on them and I was overcome with curiosity.I couldn’t even remember the web adress right away, but when I did, I found with great satisfaction that it was rather fun to read, comical, and entertaining. I guess I’ll give it a try again.

Why BBC?

jfnovak — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:10:00 +0000

I was digging through my bookmarks today and saw this article from a few weeks back. I found it notable not just for the content, “Man hurt using gun to change tyre“, but for the fact that it happened in Washington state, yet I found it on BBC. The story is a simple one, a man is trying to loosen the bolts on his tire and he tries his shot gun. I would argue that one of the best lines in the article is:
“The man – who police say was on his own and not intoxicated – was taken to hospital with severe, but not life-threatening, injuries.”
The part I like was, “who was not intoxicated”. Thankfully, he was using buckshot and didn’t get a slug in the chest. I’m just wondering though, how did the tire turn out?