posts for may 2011. | spielwiese.
latex: image files with dots.
may 21, 2011 at 18:29 by felix. no comments.
today i had a problem with latex. i'm working on graphical output of computational results, and created graphical representation of certain large matrices using libpng, and wanted to include these graphics into the automatically generated .tex files which present the results. it turned out that latex got stuck when image file names such as 1.4-0.362578-10.transform.png turn up, complaining that 4-0.362578-10.transform.png is an unknown file extension. after doing a little research, i found the grffile latex package. including it solved the problem right away… maybe some more people find this useful.
may 14, 2011 at 17:56 by felix. no comments.
(theoretically) infinite pendulum fun with a period of 60 seconds (since gcd(51,52,…,65)=1)!
may 4, 2011 at 20:37 by felix. no comments.
some time ago, a friend borrowed me his copy of logicomix, a comic on logic i heard a lot of good about from various friends. yesterday, i finally got around to start reading, finishing it today. i must admit, the idea of telling the quest for finding a foundation of logic, of mathematics, in a comic sounds somewhat strange, like a hopeless endeavor. but my friends were right: this comic is excellent! telling a story in a story in a story, sometimes with less layers, introducing all important characters of this quest, whose names are familiar to most people interested in mathematics, logic and philosophy, this comic manages to present the quest for foundation of logic and mathematics in a nice, easy accessable way. lots of explanations here and there, hidden as story elements, as well as an appendix containing more information on certain topics as well as the involved persons, hopefully help readers with less background than me.
if you get a chance, read it! even if you are no mathematician, logician or philosopher. it's worth it.