Ken's Blog

Usually when I give a talk, something goes wrong. The nature of what goes wrong can very widely.

Sometimes I forget to include something. Other times I try to do live coding and I just screw it up.

Then there are the times when I realize, only after I am in front of a live audience, that there is something wrong in the content of my talk itself. Of course by then it is too late to do anything about it.

The good thing about something going wrong during a talk is that it gives me work to do. As soon as the talk ends, I realize that there is something I need to fix, and I get right down to work proceeding to fix it.

Today I gave a talk at the ACM/SIGGRAPH conference, and nothing went wrong. It all went just great, in every way, from start to finish.

So now I have no idea what I’m supposed to work on next.

I am about to watch the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater. It is something I only get to do once a year, and it is one of my favorite things.

You should always do things that make you happy. 🙂

Today’s first day of the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference coincided with the World Cup final. I saw an attendee wearing a world cup shirt.

Trying to think of something relevant to day about the games, I said “No matter who wins today, the winner will be a Spanish speaking country.”

With a look of complete distain he replied “If it’s Argentina, then they will barely be speaking Spanish.” I realized in that moment which team he was rooting for.

Later in the day I saw the same man again. He looked very happy, and I and congratulated him. He said “I hope nobody minds that I missed a few sessions today.”

“I don’t think anyone will mind,” I said sympathetically. “After all, there are priorities.”

Some online commenters have been objecting to the casting decisions in the newest film adaptation of The Odyssey. I guess, like our current Supreme Court, they are originalists.

So I am sure they were just as horrified at the various Hollywood film adaptations of Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare was very clear about casting for that play.

As originalists, I am sure those online commenters would be as appalled as the playwright to see Juliet being played by a woman.

I imagine most people were confused by the president’s address last night. It was weird, disjointed, and filled with false statements and vitriol. In fact, it was, on the face of it, the furthest thing from a “presidential address” that one could imagine.

But if you dig beneath all of that, the underlying message was clear. I will try to summarize what he was really trying to say:

“Look folks, I’m an 80 year old man. My physical health is fading, and as you can plainly tell, so are my mental faculties. I wouldn’t survive in prison, any more than my buddy you-know-who would have.

“So I’m asking you, begging you really. Please drop this whole ‘free and fair elections’ nonsense. I need to stay in power as long as I can — ideally until I kick the bucket. The alternative is simply unthinkable.”

The man is clearly at wits end, and asking for our pity. Doesn’t that just tug at your heart strings?

In two days I will be flying to L.A. for the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference. I pointed out to someone that a nice thing about L.A. is that you can get really great Mexican food.

They responded by saying “What’s the big deal? I can make perfectly good Mexican food at home.”

I was about to reply “Yes, but in L.A. you can get Mexican food that’s all made by real Mexicans.”

But then I realized something. Right here in New York City you can get French, Korean, Japanese, Ukrainian, Chinese, Middle Eastern or Italian food that’s all made by real Mexicans.

I was having a conversation this week with some colleagues that touched on topics related to A.I. At some point we discussed where A.I. might end up going from here, as the technology continues to advance.

One thought was that A.I. will become ever better at predicting the future. In addition to being a way to query the existing state of human knowledge, A.I. might eventually become capable of looking forward to accurately predict future states of human knowledge.

As that happens, I imagine that we might collectively adopt the concept of a “predictive event horizon”. In any given year, A.I. will be able to look a certain distance into the future.

As time goes on, that event horizon will become gradually longer.

Eventually we will no longer need to make plans. We can just ask our A.I., and it will tell us what we are going to do.

I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Today I made a terrible mistake. I read the news. Every day brings yet another screw-up by our so-called administration.

I know it’s tempting just to make fun of these idiots. But this particular combination of stupidity, incompetence and just plain old fashioned meanness is kind of overwhelming.

The sheer lack of competent governance is causing a lot of needless suffering to many innocent people, both in the United States and around the world. Until the U.S. once again regains something like competent political leadership, the suffering will continue.

I guess the hope is that the sheer awfulness of this sh*t show will lead people to vote these bozos out of power. Assuming, of course, that we will actually still have free and fair elections.

Life has oh so many quirks
I never know what danger lurks
Or why I must put up with jerks
But I love it when my program works

I can bear the weight of many tons
Or the fire of a million suns
Or even put up with bad puns
As long as my darned program runs

Really, what else can I say?
Life was meant to be this way
I’m happy now, for come what may
My program ran just fine today

Today is Milton Berle’s birthday. If he were still alive, he would be 118 years old, and probably very tired.

“Uncle Miltie”, as he became known to millions of fans, has the distinction of creating mass popularity for a major new form of entertainment. By bringing a version of his wildly popular radio show to television in 1949, he caused a huge surge in popularity for the new medium.

Because of his Tuesday night weekly show, sales of television sets more than doubled, and the show had an astounding Nielsen rating of 97% percent of the viewing audience. So many people stayed home to watch that theaters, restaurants and other businesses would shut down until after the show was over.

I can’t think of another new medium whose popularity was so thoroughly associated with a single entertainer. Can you?