
Physics
- Right now I have two roles at Nevis Labs.
- I'm a "Network Engineer", which means I help maintain the
computer systems network.
- I'm working on physics simulation software for the NuSOnG experiment.
Here's a talk I
gave on NuSOnG to the Nevis REU
students on 30-Jun-08.
My Contributions
I've been lucky enough to have made, and to continue
to make, some small contributions to scientific research.
They are listed below with my most recent work first.
- Here's a talk I
gave on NuSOnG to the Nevis
REU
students on 30-Jun-08.
- I worked on software development for simulations
that make use of the Reactor
Analysis Tool.
- I prepared a hands-on
tutorial on ROOT for
the REU
students at Nevis during the summer of 2001. I've
taught it annually since then.
- My work at Nevis included working with the
ATLAS collaboration
to simulate the
liquid-argon calorimeter using Geant4.
- I helped to produce two parts of the Nevis publication Matter and Energy:
Introduction and
On Particle Physics.
You will need the
Adobe Acrobat Reader to see these documents.
- The CCFR
experiment collected the data I used in research, and
I'm developed their web site. If it were ever
finished (unlikely as of Sep-1999), I would have
explained my analysis
in terms that (I hope) most people would understand.
Unfortunately, I never had the time to finish this
site.
- NuTeV is the current incarnation
of the physics experiment in which I collected my data. The experiment probes
the detailed structure of matter using a neutrino beam on an iron target.
You can see pictures of some of the
collaborators.
- The 6-page technical article
I wrote on my analysis results was published in
the 18-Aug-97 issue of
Physical Review Letters 79: 1213-1216 (1997)
- The thesis errata were last updated on 18-Oct-1999.
- You can see the numerical results of my
analysis, including my
475-page thesis
"A Next-to-Leading-Order QCD Analysis of Neutrino-Iron Structure Functions at
the Tevatron."
- I received my Ph.D. in high-energy
physics from Columbia University on 24-Nov-96.
Particle Physics in General
- Want to learn the basics of high-energy physics? The
Particle Data
Group maintains the Particle
Adventure site.
- Nevis Labs
is the high-energy physics research facility operated by the
Columbia University
Physics Department. It's where I work.
- Fermilab has the highest-energy particle
accelerator in the United States. It's where I collected the data for my
doctoral thesis.
- Spires is a
search engine for locating research papers related to high-energy physics.
- The Los Alamos e-print archive
contains TeX and postscript files of many high-energy physics research papers.
- CERN is the major European particle
accelerator. When they complete the
LHC,
they'll have the highest-energy
accelerator in the world. They maintain the world's standard
physics-analysis
software.
- If you want to see some programs that demonstrate some fundamental
principles of physics, check out
Yves Pelletier's site.
- Of course, let us not forget the foundations
of high-energy physics.

Daily
- These are the sites I check every day.
- MacInTouch contains lots of useful
information on the care and feeding of Macs.
- MacFixIt has hints and
tips for keeping the Mac in shape.
Right now I'm at Mac OS X 10.4.
- To stay informed, I try to read the
New York Times daily.
It's even better than the print edition, because you get
cartoons.
You have to register, but otherwise it's free (in the US).
- And speaking of all the 'toons that are fit (or
unfit) to read:

UNIX
- My formal title at Nevis Labs
is "Network Engineer." Basically, I'm a UNIX systems administrator (though my
Mac has proved itself to be enormously useful on the job).

Macintosh
- I'm a Macintosh fan... or haven't you figured that out yet?
Resources
I used to keep lots of resource links on this page, but why bother?
These people do it better, and they keep their stuff up to date.
-
Tucows is a major shareware repository.
Information
- MacSurfer's Headline News
is an effective summary of many Mac news sites.
- But it's a long time since I looked at MacSurfer. This approach
looks interesting, I may visit it more often: Alltop.
- I've learned quite a few tricks from
Mac OS X Hints.
- MacLife magazine is for
the true Mac believer.
- MacWorld is a
monthly magazine. Mac fan that I am, I admit
that let my subscription lapse because I found
that it was a waste of time to subscribe to
both MacLife and MacWorld.
Note: When I last
visited the MacWorld web site (02-Feb-07),
half the page was missing: my
ad-blocker (Privoxy)
blocked much of the content.
- TidBITS
is a weekly free on-line Mac magazine with lots of tips.
Software support
- To make the plots for my physics analysis and my
thesis, I use IGOR. Aside from
its excellent plotting
and macro capabilities, it's also a good quick-and-dirty
mathematical programming language.
- Everyone should have one general-purpose graphics program.
Mine used to be Canvas 3.5.4 --
but I haven't needed to use it in over six years, so I haven't
upgraded to Canvas for OS X.
- BBEdit is a nice
text editor and a fine way to prepare Web pages.
- Scripting
is a way to create automated procedures for Mac programs.
Applescript
is the primary scripting tool for the Mac.
- My financial software package is
Quicken 2005 -- which I only got to keep
up the downloading of some investment data before
Intuit shut it off.
No version of Quicken released
since 1996 has had any new features I wanted.

Astronomy

Pagan
- I came out of the broom closet the modern way... by including the following links
in this web site.
- The Witches' Voice
is a good all-around information site.
- If you're looking for lots of pagan-related links, or some basic
information on paganism, check out
Isaac Bonewits' Web Pages and the links therein.
- There are a lot of pagan resources on the 'net now. I've found
many interesting things in the
Pagan Library.
- Four Quarters Farm
is an amazing place in the Alleghenies. They're building a
megalithic circle there, one giant stone each year. It will take
twenty years to complete. Come to Stones Rising in September to
help raise the next stone.
- Moving a little to the east, in Maryland we have
Free Spirit Alliance,
which puts on the excellent Free Spirit Gathering and the Free Spirit Healing
Retreat every year.
- Heading north, EarthSpirit is a
pagan community and resource in the New England area.
- Burning Man, in Nevada, isn't
specifically a "pagan" festival, but it does have a pagan energy to it.
I like their list of
novelties; I'm a sucker for glow-in-the-dark stuff.
- They're making a movie entitled
Drawing Down the Moon.

The Written Word
- I've had a life-long fascination with books and references. Here are a few
good references I've picked up while browsing through the Internet.

SF
- I've been a science fiction fan since about 1966, when my third-grade teacher
gave me a copy of Eleanor Cameron's
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet.

Personalities
- People I know, people I've met, people I've seen... and people with cool web sites.

Shopping on the Web
- On the rare occasions I can afford to buy something, here's where I look.
- The main places to buy books on the Internet are
Amazon
and
Barnes & Noble.
- O'Reilly
publishes the best series of books on UNIX and
related software I've seen.
- When it comes to computer supplies,
I trust MacMall so much,
I actually bought my Power Mac by mail from them.
- MacResq
has used hardware and software for older Macs.
- I buy my RAM from
Small Dog Electronics.
- The deal-Mac
web site is good for finding out about special prices.
- Before I buy any goodies, I check out the information in
Accelerate Your Macintosh
to learn if they'll do me any good.
- If you're looking for some real deals on computers or supplies, you can try:
- I rent a lot of DVDs though NetFlix.
After a rocky start (a lot of DVDs got lost in the mail) I find it to be an
inexpensive and convenient way to become acquainted with old and rare films.

Fun and games
- All work and no play... raises my productivity.
Medieval Recreation
- I enjoy Live-Action Role-Playing (in fact,
I was director of LAIRE for two years).
From 1997 to 2003 I played in
Mystic Realms.
- During the summers, I usually work at the
Ren Faire in Tuxedo, NY. I can occasionally be seen at
other
fairs as well.
- I'm often asked where I get the costumes I wear to the Ren Faires.
Moresca sells Middle-Age,
Renaissance, and fantasy costumes, as does
Gypsy Moon,
Knightly Endeavors,
Authentic Wardrobe, and
Renstore.
- If you play in LARPs, you'll need
masking tape and duct tape in exotic colors.
Television
Movies
- For movie reviews, I check out
James
Berardinelli's and
Roger
Ebert's sites. By the way, the job of a critic is not to tell
you whether the movie is good or bad. The job of the critic is to give
you just enough information to judge whether you'd enjoy the film.
- The Internet Movie Database
is the standard reference for information about movies on the net.
- I once said, "Until someone comes up with a
Casablanca home page, the
only movie-related Web Page I've seen and liked is
Star Wars."
Did you notice that the word "Casablanca" is now highlighted in that
sentence? Did you notice that "Star Wars" no
longer is? Things change...
- 2001:
A Space Odyssey
remains the greatest SF film ever made.
- Which film is the box-office champ? No,
it's not the one you think -- because you have
to take inflation into account. According to
BoxOfficeMojo,
the number one in ticket sales is actually
Gone
with the Wind.
| Argothald
| Argothald is both my table-top fantasy role-playing
world and the name of the custom
system I created to run the game. I've been running
Argothald irregularly since 1978, and the game has an interesting
background.
|
Note: At this point the Argothald section of this site is
completely dormant. The last time I ran an Argothald expedition was
in 1989. I must acknowledge that my life is not heading in a
direction that includes playing table-top fantasy role-playing games.
I regret this, since I enjoy playing them and I still have interesting
ideas and stories about Argothald. One day, perhaps...
Copyright © 1996 by Bill Seligman with these exceptions
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