Confessions of a researchaholic

I thought about James Simons every time Stony Brook was mentioned, so I always assume it is a perennially decent institution. Thus, I was surprised to find out its math department was “lousy” when Simons started there (and he wanted the job and it sounded like fun).

What we can do counts more than whom we are affiliated with.
Those who can succeed only with top people probably are not all that top.

[I would like to know how Simons built the department, aside from the fact that he is brilliant all by himself. Thanks in advance for potential sources.]

One of my computers has been extremely slow. After some investigations I found the culprit lied on the security software.

It was so slow as though the security software is checking every program execution and every network connection. So I just disabled it and the machine ran like a breeze.

I know I am supposed to get my computer protected, but what is the point if the protection will significantly cripple performance?

This bears analogy to how some nations (including two of the biggest and most important ones) trade off their liberty and security.

“They who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

PS
I installed another security software a while later. It seems to work fine so far, but I would not hesitate to uninstall if it cripples performance.

Last night I saw this Facebook post from a friend who is a CS professor in a top university:

Gag ugh gun ml K LnmNqnN ‘m

I spent some time deciphering the profound meaning and encoding of that post, to no avail.

Later on, the friend commented that this is the first Facebook post of his 2 years old daughter.
🙂