My Candidacy

Fellow Nabooans,

In the last few years, we have seen the image of a strong Naboo undermined by repeated mistakes on the part of the global government. A severe lack of leadership has led to chaos, invasion, and stalled growth, and this has affected all of us. We need new leadership focused on progress, removing government intervention in growth, and a strong military to defend us in a republic that constantly grows more complacent. It is for this reason that I feel compelled to offer myself as a candidate for the Queen of Naboo.

The tragic events of the Trade Federation Invasion shocked and saddened us all. As the robotic TF Army swarmed our beautiful planet, murdered our citizens, and destroyed our economy, we could do little but sit and watch. Why was that?

First, Queen Amidala and her predecessors made repeated cuts to our military. Using the argument that we are a peaceful planet (and we are), they shrank the size of our military until we could no longer protect ourselves. When the TF invaded, the Queen fled for Coruscant, leaving the planet without any leadership resistance; the dozen or so fighter craft used not to defend us, but to allow the Queen to traipse across the galaxy. There are reports that before arriving at Coruscant, the queen enjoyed a multi-day holiday (at taxpayer expense) to watch podracing on Tatooine, and even bet her (or rather, our) royal spacecraft on a race, and purchased a slave boy. The Queen has refused to comment on these reports, citing planetary security, but I feel that the public deserves to know the truth about these so-called "lost days".

On Coruscant, the Queen spent days bickering in the Senate of the Republic about the legality of the TF blockade and invasion. While they may not have been legal, the blockade and invasion were facts. Wishing them away with legal maneuvers could not change reality, and even if the Republic had declared them illegal, what military force could they possibly offer?

The only workable solution, the Queen found, was right under her nose. She organized the Gungans to fight off the invaders, it's true, but why couldn't she have done that when the TF invaded? What incentive did she offer the Gungans? She claimed that she inspired them with respect and planetary spirit, but those fish-grubbing folk do not understand and cannot appreciate our way of life.

After this tragedy unfolded, I worked hard to prevent it from happening again. I believed (apparently foolishly) that the reality of the invasion would show our government the need for a strong planetary defense and other changes to our world, but I saw no such change, and from my position in private industry, I could not make the government appreciate their error. As such, I feel that to make these changes I must be elected Queen of Naboo.

I pledge that when elected, I will bring about the following platform:

Containing the Gungan Threat
The Gungans did not help defeat the TF Army out of the goodness of their hearts, they simply used the opportunity to insinuate themselves into the lives of true Nabooans. Their culture is a wastel's culture, splashing about underwater while the planet was invaded. Now they are the only trained military force on the planet, and as soon as we stop appeasing their every request, they will surely take over. We must roust the Gungans from our cities, from our waterways, and especially from Gunga City. I promise to build containment facilities that will allow the Gungans the ability to live out their lives with dignity (which they do not deserve, but which we true Nabooans could not deny living creatures).

Establish a Nabooan-Led, Gungan-Staffed Army
The invasion showed us that the need for a standing army is not in the past. However, as evolved people, we true Nabooans are not suitable for common military duty, while the typical Gungan is. He is strong, tall, and eminently leadable. As a return for the generosity of our containment facilities, young male Gungans will be required to serve in our military, and their continued obeisance will be ensured by our continued commitment to care for their friends and family. Of course, the Gungans cannot serve as officers, as that requires intellect and maturity they do not possess. Some Nabooans will need to take leadership roles in the army to serve as leaders for the Gungans.

A New Naboo Air Force
The paltry number of fighter craft we were able to field during the TF invasion had no ability to repel, and during the final revolt, most of our brave pilots were lost. Part of this was due to inadequate training, again promoted by our Queen. I have evidence that one pilot was not even ten years old! We clearly need a new Air Force, and with that Air Force we need new fighters with the latest in stealth technology, weapons, and hyperdrive. Yes, costs of the proposed new fighter have gone up, but the cost of not being prepared for invasion will always be higher.

Mine Here, Mine Now
Even had they not invaded, the TF blockade would have brought our planet to its knees very quickly. Why? We are dependent on foreign planet imports of dilithium crystals for our power needs. Dilithium power made Naboo strong, but now our government has nearly stopped all domestic dilithium mining in the name of unproven, so-called "environmental" issues. We need not be dependent; there are vast deposits of dilithium in the Lake District and under Gunga City, and we need to mine both of these areas. This activity will spur our lagging economy and make Naboo great once more.

Finally
Our Queen has failed us. Our former Senator and now Chancellor, Palpatine, has said we should turn to a Republic military, but he has not even proposed where this military will come from, and even if he could produce that military, it would be in the hands of the Republic, not of Naboo. We could only hope that our priorities are their priorities. With me as Queen, Naboo will once again take charge of its destiny.

A Vote for Queen Joshua is a Vote for a Strong, Prosperous Naboo!

Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace in 3D

Last night I decided to finally go see The Phantom Menace in 3D. I've seen the movie more times than I have seen the other two prequels combined, and despite Jar-Jar and other flaws, I think it's the best of the prequels. I'm going to rewatch Revenge of the Sith on DVD as soon as I've finished this review for a better comparison.

Some thoughts:

1. The movie is loooooooooooooooong. Too long. The entire underwater sequence could have been cut; it's not very interesting. I'm reminded of The Phantom Edit, which was apparently done by USC film students (I remember at the time that there was a rumor that Kevin Smith did it). That version cuts out a fair bit of Jar-Jar, but I never saw it. There were copies on ebay at the time for about $50, which was a little spendy for a VHS of questionable copy quality, but now I wish I had. There are no copies available on ebay. I suppose that my belief in not violating IP rights should mean I shouldn't get it, anyway; I know I could probably torrent it, but I don't do that. Buying a copy from ebay would also be no better than torrenting it...

2. The 3D effect doesn't do much for me. It looks good, but I don't really notice it after a little while. It might be that my strabismus makes it difficult for me to appreciate, but I don't think it's that. I remember seeing the podrace for the first time and being amazed, and that was a mix of novelty and the size of the screen (much bigger when I first saw it). Part of the problem, I think, is that there isn't much camera motion.

3. There was almost no one there, so if you are reading this and thinking about going, go now. Don't wait. It won't be around for long. If there were ten other people (for a Saturday showing at 6:30pm), I would be surprised.

4. The movie is decent. I always enjoy seeing Star Wars on the big screen, even if it is a prequel.

Nothing shocking; it's the same movie (with a few added bits) that's been around for almost thirteen years. It seems odd that pretty soon we'll be as far past the prequels as we were the originals when the prequels were released.

iPhone, AT&T, and Ending Calls

I have an issue that no one will take responsibility for. I have an iPhone 3GS, current iOS (4.2), and it seems to work fine, except for the minor detail of the phone bit.

Sometimes (maybe 30-50% of the time) when calls end, and the other party disconnects, my phone doesn't. Not automatically, and sometimes not even clearly when I disconnect. Then, the phone app doesn't return to its main screen; it just stays at the call-ended screen. I can exit and return to the phone app, so there's a workaround.

Is it AT&T's fault? Apple's fault? My fault? I don't know, but it's an annoyance that is also eating up minutes, and for a variety of reasons I'm wahahaaaaaaay past my minutes this month (hooray for rollover minutes!).

Verizon and iPad

A short note. You can now buy a Verizon version of the iPad; it works with Verizon's MiFi mobile data service. However, if you look at the Apple Store, they are only advertising the AT&T version. Not an accident...

Teaching Algorithms and Data Structures

I'll be teaching algorithms and data structures (A&DS) at CSUMB in Spring 2011. I have (essentially) complete freedom in teaching the class and choosing a book. So far, so good.

I always like to consider first principles, so I wanted to address three issues:

1. What A&DS will I teach, and why these?


2. How will I convey the importance of the material? What is its relevance?


3. What language will I use for teaching the course?

Address the third question, and something of the first two, I had an idea. You can script The GIMP to do just about anything, and it uses a scheme (and therefore lisp) variant as a scripting language. Brilliant. Not practical to teach, but wow, what a class that would be.

However, there's a simple problem; there is no scheme A&DS book in print. Nor a lisp book. In fact, if you want to teach A&DS, there are three language choices for books in print:

• C++


• Java, and more recently more Java, and yet more Java


• C++ and Java


• C#


• Python

("Algorithms and Data Structures in Books" from Amazon for a more complete list)

Oh, nominally there are pascal options, and MIT Press has published a pseudocode-based A&DS text. But the basic problem is that neither C nor lisp are options.

I will probably go with Java, although Python is tempting, tempting, tempting.

MacBook Air

It's been forever since I last updated. As Jim Anchower says, "Hola, amigos, it's been a long time since I rapped at ya."

I've been thinking about the new MacBook Air. It's a fantastic piece of machinery, although perhaps the word "machinery" is wrong here, as the product is entirely solid state. Wow. A modern laptop with no moving parts. Of course, this isn't the first one: the old portables from Tandy were solid state, and that was almost 30 years ago, but for a machine that suffers as much use as a portable computer, sold state is the way to go.

Hmm, I don't know if it has a fan... if so, scratch the word entirely, but the rest of the statements still apply. A fan can be replaced.

Of course, you don't get a full-fledged computer. You get a recent, but slow, Core 2 Duo. It's clocked down (obviously) to lower heat production and increase battery life. Still, it's an old processor family.

The problem is that there isn't a processor that sits between the Core i3 and the Atom. WHat that would look like might be a multicore Atom.

There's an open question here, and the answer doesn't lie in hardware: is software really ready for multicore? Regardless of what some might say, concurrency is hard to do well.

It looks like I will be teaching algorithms and data structures in the Spring, and I've decided that I MUST teach multithreading. We may not spend much time on it, and it may be toward the end, but if you can only think of algorithms in single-thread mode, then you will lose out as a developer. Sure, we can use up CPU cores with multiple applications, but when you are doing something like decompression, optimal performance will come from using as many cores as you can to preemptively decompress data. Not all that different from double-buffering, really. Does anyone remember that? Before the days of GPUs? Hmm...

NOT Upgrading my MacBook

As you know by now, Apple has released a new line of MacBook Pros (or is it MacBooks Pro?).

I'm not upgrading. Here's why:

• I want the smallest form factor (13.3")
  
• The 13" MBP still has a Core 2 Duo process
  
• That is all
  

Why do I care so much? Well, the thing is that I do intensive data processing, and the Nehalem-based Core i5 (and i3 and i7) is just that much faster. It really does make a difference.

The reason Apple is giving is, well, reasonable. The Core i5 basically doesn't fit, physically or power-wise or heat-wise. Intel is in some kind of dispute with NVidia (and others) about making a proprietary northbridge or some such dispute. Apple has publicly said that, for most users, the much faster video will show a more significant speed improvement.

My current first-gen MB has a Core Duo, which is a) not x86-64, and b) getting slow. I think I'll wait, though, another few months, before I upgrade. If you are reading this, you know I now have a sometimes-zippy little Asus Eee netbook. I think that's sufficient computing options for on-the-go. If I didn't have money constraints...