adding CS notes, made tmp directory for new, misc, and incomplete items

4 files changed, 237 insertions, 0 deletions

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