New digikam-1.4.0 for the KDE krazy

After tidying up the Gentoo libpgf and libclapack patches for digikam-1.3.0, I realized with surprise that they now apply to digikam-1.4.0 without any problems! So, earlier than expected, we have now in the kde overlay a shiny new digikam ebuild for the krazy kde-4.5 users. Test and enjoy!

The Mathematical Secret of Viking Jewellery

One of the really valuable online resources for a physicist who wants to extend his horizon every now and then is the arXiv blog - picking out the gems from the hundreds of daily fresh preprints. Today, the blog editors have found a really nice one again. "The Mathematical Secret of Viking Jewellery" points us to an article connecting Viking gold and silver bracelets with the theory of maximally twisted wires. "Hidden Beauty in Twisted Viking Neck Rings", arxiv:1008:4306. Worth a look!

New blog

Yes, this is the obvious "New blog" post. It has taken me a long time to accept the usefulness of this web-2.0 feature. But maybe I've got someting interesting to tell after all...

A quick note on the name of this blog. "dilfridge" is lab slang for "dilution refrigerator" - a pretty complex (and expensive) apparatus, that has anyway become something of a standard tool in low-temperature physics labs worldwide, for reaching the temperature range 0.003K - 0.3K (degrees above absolute zero). My research experiments take place at these temperatures, and after some years I find the technology still fascinating...