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Note:These pages make extensive use of the latest XHTML and CSS Standards. They ought to look great in any standards-compliant modern browser. Unfortunately, they will probably look horrible in older browsers, like Netscape 4.x and IE 4.x. Moreover, many posts use MathML, which is, currently only supported in Mozilla. My best suggestion (and you will thank me when surfing an ever-increasing number of sites on the web which have been crafted to use the new standards) is to upgrade to the latest version of your browser. If that's not possible, consider moving to the Standards-compliant and open-source Mozilla browser.

May 31, 2009

Musical Interlude

Here’s a sample of some of the music that’s getting heavy roation on my iPod, these days.

Continue reading “Musical Interlude” ...
Posted by distler at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Followups (2)

May 26, 2009

Adams Operations

The Adams operations in K-theory are supposed to be defined by three properties

  1. ψ k:K(X)→K(X)\psi_k: K(X)\to K(X) is a ring-homomorphism.
  2. ψ k∘ψ l=ψ lk\psi_k\circ \psi_l = \psi_{l k}.
  3. Acting on a line bundle, LL, ψ k(L)=L k\psi_k(L) = L^{k}.

Between that, and the splitting principle, one is supposed to be able to crank them out, explicitly, whenever one needs them.

That’s a pain.

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Posted by distler at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Followups (6)

May 25, 2009

α to Ω

There’s been much fanfare about the debut of Wolfram α. While it’s impressive, on a technical level, I think Harvey Ω yields consistently more useful search results.

To each his own.

Posted by distler at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Followups (3)