Google's Singularity machine

Epeus' epigone - Kevin Marks weblog, on Google's Singularity Machine


Map/Reduce

"Map/Reduce" evokes The Connection Machine and Star-Lisp. (Danny Hillis wrote a beautifully clear book about the CM architecture in the late 1980s.) Would there were time enough in the day to get hands-on with parallel and distributed algorithms.

Ceviche

What is ceviche?

Sadly, this reminds me of my neighbor across the hall at Los Piñones apartments. He was not much older than me, in his early 40s I think. He was fond of seafood. In late summer of 2003, when my job and the health of my parents both took bad turns, he began to lose his life.

Suddenly taken ill, my neighbor was hospitalized with what was, for the first month, an unknown but deadly serious infection. The hospital staff in Albuquerque did what they could. Finally one doctor, after a flash of insight, walked in and bluntly asked whether my neighbor had recently eaten seafood.

From that point it was clear how to treat him, but it was too late. The infection had done too much damage. I can't remember all of the complications he suffered; I believe pneumonia and kidney failure were among them. Just before Thanksgiving, he died.

The restaurant was not shut down. As far as I know, they didn't even remove uncooked seafood from their menu, or add any cautions to it. Granted that would have been bad for business. And life is full of risk anyway. But some indication of regret would have been nice.