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-rw-r--r--tmp/SCUBA83
-rw-r--r--tmp/Saccade7
-rw-r--r--tmp/Teaching CS97
-rw-r--r--tmp/Topics of Curiosity50
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diff --git a/tmp/SCUBA b/tmp/SCUBA
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+============
+SCUBA Diving
+============
+---------------------------------------------
+Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
+---------------------------------------------
+
+SCUBA stands for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus".
+One of the primary organization regulating recreational SCUBA diving is
+PADI (the Professional Association of Diving Instructors).
+
+Equipment
+---------
+
+:BCD: The buoyancy control device is basically an inflatable live vest
+ that you can inflate using the regulator (or by mouth) to control
+ your buoyancy. Your buoyancy changes as you use up air (tank gets
+ lighter for same volume displaced), inhale/exhale, swim in water
+ of different temperature or salinity, or change depth: increased
+ pressure compresses any flexible air pockets, including the BCD
+ itself, neoprene foam, or a dry-suit.
+ Most BCDs have their own pressure hoses coming from the first stage
+ regulator that supply air.
+ Sometimes there is only one vent valve, which has to be at the
+ highest orientation or air will not vent out of the bladders.
+:Tank: Most tanks are made of steel or aluminum and can store compressed
+ air of up to 3000psi. They are stored at pressure to prevent moisture
+ from leaking in. There is a valve built into the tank itself that
+ usually gets taken apart and repaired every two years. Tanks
+ can last for decades even with heavy use; they are pressure tested
+ for fatigue and leaks.
+:Regulator: The first-stage regulator is connected to the tank and steps
+ the pressure down to about 250psi above the surrounding/ambient
+ pressure. Hoses carry air at this mid-level pressure to the second
+ stage regulator/mouthpiece, which steps the pressure down to
+ about what is in your lungs. Depending on the regulator they can
+ be stiff (you have to suck a bit to get air, but then it rushes
+ in with force) or very natural feeling (air comes very smoothly
+ on inhalation and doesn't press into your lungs).
+:Alternate: These days almost everybody carries a second regulator mouthpiece
+ for emergencies. These are always on and ready to breath from,
+ but usually stiffer so they don't free-flow as often.
+:Dive Computer:
+ A dive computer monitors time and depth to give you an accurate picture
+ of how much excess nitrogen is in a diver's bloodstream. By
+ continuously integrating they usually "give more time at depth" than
+ hand calculations using tables (which err towards safety).
+:Dry Suit: A dry suit is a sealed and air tight, keeping the diver's skin dry.
+ Extra insulation is needed to give warmth underneath. Some dry
+ suits are made of compressed neoprene.
+ A dry suit has to be constantly adjusted with tank air just like
+ the BCD to maintain inflation and buoyancy.
+:Wet Suit: Wet suits work on the principle of holding water against the skin:
+ a diver's body warms this water and stays cozy as long as water
+ flow is restricted enough. Even little bit too much flow through
+ wrist or ankle openings can be very cold.
+
+
+Depths
+------
+A PADI Open Water Diving course gives a recommended limit of 20m/60ft.
+A "deep dive adventure course" gives a recommended limit of 30m/100ft,
+and additional experience gives a limit of 40m/130ft.
+
+With careful decompression stops and enriched compressed air (higher oxygen
+content) it's possible to reach depths of hundreds of meters. Sometimes
+commercial divers will dive for many hours using surface supplied air,
+then live at the surface in a compression chamber overnight between dives
+to stay at the same pressure [*]_.
+
+History
+-------
+I'm pretty sure `Jacques Cousteau`_ invented the aqualung, which is the basis
+for modern diving, but I'll have to check.
+
+.. _Jacques Cousteau: /k/jacquescousteau/
+
+Flying
+------
+After a regular no-decompression dive, wait at least 12
+hours before flying (or going to high altitude, eg over 300m).
+
+.. [*] Need a citation, heard this word of mouth
diff --git a/tmp/Saccade b/tmp/Saccade
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+Saccade
+-------
+
+Saccades are small movements of the eye which generate a delta in our stream
+of vision. Similar to the phenomena of "only seeing movement".
+
+(based on Jeff Hawkin's book "On Intelligence")
diff --git a/tmp/Teaching CS b/tmp/Teaching CS
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+====================================
+Notes on Teaching Computer Science
+====================================
+
+:author: Bryan Newbold <bnewbold@mit.edu>
+
+.. note:: Incomplete, just a structure of starting topics
+
+.. contents::
+
+In thinking about how to teach somebody new "how to program" or "about
+computers", it seems like getting the rough big picture is the best first step.
+
+
+Engineering and Scientific Philosophies
+-----------------------------------------
+keywords: computation, computability, hierarchy, interface, implementation
+
+In approaching computer science it is important to note an arbitrary division
+of the field between "computation" and "computability" that has arisen over
+the years. Similar to the "theory" vs "experiment" schisms in other scientific
+fields like physics, "computation" puts emphasis on actually generating
+hardware and software to run in the real world, while "computability" focuses
+on what can be computed and generalizations of specific computations. Of course
+they are two sides of the same coin and should be appreciated together.
+
+It is almost impossible to deal with computer systems (hardware or software)
+without breaking them up into modules and layers. Perhaps more so than in any
+other field, conceptual barriers are reflected in the actual design and
+implementation of systems, which can make it hard to learn how things work
+because their inner workings are shielded from view both literally and
+figuratively. For example, a software developer writing a web browser doesn't
+have to know about what kind of monitor the user is sitting in front of,
+what kind of physical link to the internet they have (or even how this
+connection is managed), the details of their computer architecture, how their
+application is delegated computing resources, what kind of mouse is being used,
+etc etc.
+
+A more formal example is the ethernet protocol, which is used to
+pass data between nodes in a relatively unstructured network. The ethernet
+protocol itself lies above the physical "link layer", which means the same
+protocol can be used for wireless radio communications or with conducting
+wires. It lies below any sort of higher network layers and far below the
+"application layer", so large amounts of data can be streamed over it between
+two nodes, or messages between dozens of nodes can be passed over it, or it
+can be only one link in a very large web of interconnections. This flexibility
+has made it ubiquitous and is the protocol most network devices use without
+a hitch, but occasionally it's imperfections can lead to problems at higher
+levels which are hard to track down.
+
+Turing Completeness
+-----------------------------------------
+keywords: finite state machine, deterministic
+
+Personal Computer Hierarchy
+-----------------------------------------
+keywords: CPU, RAM, hard disk, peripherals, network, BIOS, motherboard,
+ operating system, serial, parallel, interrupts, multicore, register
+
+UNIX Operating Systems
+-----------------------------------------
+keywords: file system, kernel, driver, threading,
+
+UNIX is the Latin of operating systems: there were operating systems that came
+after, and the average user isn't running a UNIX operating system, but it's
+design is simple, functional, and has represents the dominant paradigms for
+modern (non-experimental or special use) operating systems.
+
+As some context, Microsoft Windows is not directly based on UNIX. Apple OSX
+and subsequent versions is built on top of a UNIX core. Linux is an open source
+implementation of UNIX. BSD was the free UC Berkeley distribution of UNIX which
+has branched off into open source implementations like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and
+NetBSD. "UNIX" got started as a Bell Labs research project in the 70's (?)
+
+
+The Internet
+-----------------------------------------
+keywords: IP (internet protocol), ARP, MAC, routing, servers, backbone,
+ protocol, email, http, html
+
+
+Software Development Tools
+-----------------------------------------
+keywords: compiler, lexical analysis, library, language, interpreter
+
+
+Data Formats, Structures, and Algorithms
+-----------------------------------------
+keywords: string, integer, bit, list, pointer, tree, sort, P/NP
+
+
+Design Paradigms
+-----------------------------------------
+keywords: server/client, object oriented, wrappers, KISS, parallelization,
+ resource locking, serialization, buffer
+
+
diff --git a/tmp/Topics of Curiosity b/tmp/Topics of Curiosity
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+---------------------
+Topics of Curiosity
+---------------------
+
+*or, list of future knowledge items*
+
+* United Nations
+* List of International Treaties
+
+ including signatories
+
+* Ethernet
+* Benthic Biology
+* Antarctica
+* Kyoto Protocol
+* Sensory Deprivation
+* Beat Authors
+* Harvey Mudd
+* National Science Foundation
+
+ And other US national science organizations
+
+* Iraq War
+
+ Strategy, costs, political figures, history, technology, prospects, companies, etc.
+
+* Recycling
+* Pollution sources in the United States
+* US Education System
+* US Judicial Branch
+* Kennedy School of Government
+* Democratic Party
+* Republican Party
+* Green Party
+* Bob Dole
+* Al Gore
+* Obama
+* Book Publishing
+* Internet
+
+ Power consumption, user numbers, global connectivity, core and backbone services
+
+* One Laptop Per Child
+
+ Bundled knowledge, regions, implementation plans, new software concepts, connectivity
+
+* Paul Dirac
+* LaTeX
+* vim
+* pykrete