I’m certainly no mathematician, but I found this interesting. A mathematician in South Wales has published a book that redefined trigonometry with the use of sines, cosines or tangents. I remember how difficult it was to remember all the trigonometric identities (still don’t know ‘em). I have found simple trig to be very helpful, but significantly more difficult when trying to learn Fourier Transforms or integral calculus, which all use the concepts from “basic” trig.

For an audio engineer with a natural curiosity for all things that help me to better understand the nature of my job, I have looked long and hard at trig functions in relation to audio and wave propagation. The notion that maybe some of that pain involved in trig can be simplified to something that looks a lot like 5th grade fractions is appealing.

I do wonder if the concepts can be applied to other areas of calculus, and that I might actually be able to understand the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) sooner rather than later.

There is a sample chapter available on N J Wildberger’s web site.

Slashdot | Trigonometry Redefined without Sines And Cosines

Latin: Audio, video, disco

Translation: “I hear, I see, I learn”

Believe it, or not… Latin Phases on Wiki

I have written about I, Cringely before. I really like what he has to say about technology, and he’s entertaining to read as well. A few months ago I read something about his efforts to start build a show based around his musings about technology, computers, and opinion. It has finally some to fruition. NerdTV went live yesterday. What is NerdTV?

NerdTV is essentially Charlie Rose for geeks - a one-hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology.

His first guest is Andy Hertzfeld, who was one of the original Macintosh systems programmers, and now a big proponent of Open Source Software. Upcoming guests include, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, Internet publisher Tim O’Reilly, and TCP/IP inventor Bob Kahn. As well as a host of others.

Andy also has a great web site, Folklore.org, that focuses on stories from the original Macintosh development team. It too is a great read. Andy has also just released a book of stories from Folklore called Revolution in The Valley.

Other nerdy aspects of the show include the fact that it is distributed on the internet in a multitude of formats, from mp4 video and audio formats for podcast including ogg vorbis, aac, mp3 and it’s also available as a straight up transcript.

It’s nerdy, and I found it very entertaining.

I, Cringely . NerdTV | PBS

Technorati Tags: Media, Nerd, Computers, PBS

From “For Your Entertainment”: The author, and fellow audio engineer, John Sibley, is my hero. In the midst of a cross country trip, returning to Vegas from a job in Detroit, decided to point his car to the south, and go to Houston instead, to assist the Red Cross with their efforts to help the hurricane victims.

I’m proud to know you…

You can read his account in his Blog:
For Your Entertainment: A Brief Departure From The Funny