tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post3840702045017775742..comments2024-03-28T18:17:00.135-05:00Comments on Computational Complexity: ICS I: snapshots (guest post)Lance Fortnowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06752030912874378610noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-7282952233244800602010-03-24T14:39:23.681-05:002010-03-24T14:39:23.681-05:00With regards to comment 11, this is nice to hear a...With regards to comment 11, this is nice to hear as exactly the same thought crossed my mind the first time I was invited to a ITCS event. I was actually thinking of emailing back a refusal to come under these grounds. But the the thought occured to me, can I really be sure that the same argument could not be made against an event supported by *my* government. And second, what is the logic here? That the Chinese government should only be allowed to spend money on bad things, but if they want to support science we won't let them?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-67446805849385775622010-01-27T03:37:30.653-06:002010-01-27T03:37:30.653-06:00I don't see why people are arguing about not g...I don't see why people are arguing about not going to a conference hosted by chinese government. All I see is an opportunity to spread science and educate people more about it. "Perhaps" this will only help the cause.<br /><br />Also, as scientists we should not go into how such an opportunity is created. As a human being, we should be. But that is considering the issue at a different dimension which is independent of your profession (scientists, doctors, artists, nobodies etc). And whatever steps you take for that, should be taken against everyone and not just China, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-38401978809667178832010-01-14T10:37:17.923-06:002010-01-14T10:37:17.923-06:00Venkat Guruswami -> CMU
Madhu Sudan -> Micro...Venkat Guruswami -> CMU<br />Madhu Sudan -> Microsoft<br />Boaz Barak -> Microsoft<br />Omer Reingold -> Microsoft<br />Luca Trevisan -> Stanford<br />Chris Peikert -> Georgia Tech<br />Anup Rao -> Washington<br />Yury Makarychev (I think) -> TTIAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-51183333652943498532010-01-14T09:42:52.545-06:002010-01-14T09:42:52.545-06:00Venkat -> CMU
Madhu -> Microsoft
Boaz -> ...<i><br />Venkat -> CMU<br />Madhu -> Microsoft<br />Boaz -> Microsoft<br />Omer -> Microsoft<br />Luca -> Stanford<br />Chris -> Georgia Tech<br />Anup -> Washington<br />Yuri -> TTI<br /></i><br /><br />Would you please specify the surnames:<br />Who is Yuri? Who is Venkat? Who is Anup? and who is Chris?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-70233264078215913472010-01-14T09:36:04.821-06:002010-01-14T09:36:04.821-06:00Should we scientist not care about human rights is...<i>Should we scientist not care about human rights issues in china ?<br /></i><br /><br />No, not necessarily. There are more important things than what you call "human rights" (e.g., existence, survival, etc.).<i><br /><br /><br />We should set an example.<br /></i><br />Actually, no. We <b>should</b> not be anything. Every scientist, when it comes to politics, is just as any other person. Some support China, some don't, and most just don't care; and all these attitudes are legitimate.<br /><br /><br /><i>We are all hypocrites to accept invitations from the conferences given that everything has been subsidized by a human rights unfriendly regime.</i><br /><br />No. Most ICS' attendants are not human right activists, and so there is no hypocrisy here.<br /><br />Good day.Neutral Scientistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-38976311734018247582010-01-14T04:17:21.892-06:002010-01-14T04:17:21.892-06:00Calm down children.
And why don't you have co...Calm down children.<br /><br />And why don't you have conferences in Australia if you are worried about human rights abuses, there is relatively little there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-64990085062069308802010-01-13T22:45:31.963-06:002010-01-13T22:45:31.963-06:00To Last Anon:
I guess if anyone should use his br...To Last Anon:<br /><br />I guess if anyone should use his brain, then it's u (assuming you have one). According to anon 8:54, we should also not attend U.S. conferences, maybe thus the name "where should we have tcs conferences" ????<br /><br />Apropro logic, you seem to fail to understand the logic behind your sponsorship.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-83748094685749509432010-01-13T21:39:51.285-06:002010-01-13T21:39:51.285-06:00To anon 8:54
Employing logic, one can determine t...To anon 8:54<br /><br />Employing logic, one can determine that it is a worse violation of human rights to kill other people than to communicate with another regime. So if you want to say that we should not participate in a conference sponsored by chinese government, why should we participate in a US conference, where most people are paying their conference fees with NSF grants?<br /><br />Please use your head.<br /><br />ps. Is there any evidence that by ignoring the North Koreans, and punishing all the innocent North Korean people, we are actually bringing about an end to their regime, rather than just bringing greater hardship to the people?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-56956544400452613112010-01-13T21:06:38.724-06:002010-01-13T21:06:38.724-06:00What about Israel!!!What about Israel!!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-65847718879984109232010-01-13T20:54:55.559-06:002010-01-13T20:54:55.559-06:00for mainland anon:
I would argue that we American...for mainland anon:<br /><br />I would argue that we Americans have not been the best example (lately) of Human Rights ourselves, the best example is actually not IRAQ as this is too plain and clear to see.... it is our inability to stop cooperating with regimes like China's. If we really wanted to put an end to the human rights violations, we should employ the same strategy that we employ against north korea. But why don't we do this ? MONEY talks.<br /><br />These conferences were hosted by the Chinese government, and i am at a loss for words when I see people neglecting this fact and just accepting first class tickets to Beijing, and 5 star accommodation. Are you guys blind ? This is being so hypocritical on all participants of this conference. <br /><br />WHERE SHOULD WE HAVE TCS CONFERENCES? That's not easy to answer. A country that is known not to be a human rights violator.WHERE SHOULD WE HAVE TCS CONFERENCESnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-64521673728723000652010-01-13T20:12:41.271-06:002010-01-13T20:12:41.271-06:00what? and encourage the sealers and whalers?what? and encourage the sealers and whalers?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-40030393715606523882010-01-13T20:00:53.622-06:002010-01-13T20:00:53.622-06:00Do you really think the US (that has Guantanamo an...Do you really think the US (that has Guantanamo and has killed/maimed > 1 million in Iraq and Afganistan) is not also violating human rights?<br /><br />Where should we have CS conferences? In Antartica?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-46157444057219268102010-01-13T19:15:54.211-06:002010-01-13T19:15:54.211-06:00Should we scientist not care about human rights is...Should we scientist not care about human rights issues in china ?<br /><br />if anything then we are doing the wrong thing in attending any conferences in china. We should set an example. <br />We are all hypocrites to accept invitations from the conferences given that everything has been subsidized by a human rights unfriendly regime.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-40031465994958806452010-01-13T18:09:51.753-06:002010-01-13T18:09:51.753-06:00Hello All,
I am a UC Berkeley graduate student o...Hello All,<br /><br /> I am a UC Berkeley graduate student of Luca’s that attended (and presented) at the ICS conference. The ICS conference was a big success and a lot of fun. I thank the organizers, and other participants and presenters for making it so. With regards to comparing the papers to STOC/FOCS/SODA, I think that ICS had a different objective (probably different PC members had slightly different objectives) for the papers admitted. A surprising number of the papers would be very strong STOC/FOCS submissions. Others probably would not have been accepted to STOC/FOCS, but I don’t think this makes them less valuable, just different. Many of the papers presented a new idea, area, or direction, and showed some initial results as a proof of concept of fruitfulness of the idea/area/direction, thus providing an invitation to a new line of research. In such papers, sometimes the “initial” results were rather preliminary and other times more robust. But I think that all the talks I saw did a good job illustrating that the idea/area/directly they sought to promote was compelling. As other bloggers have commented, these types of papers make for engaging talks. <br /><br />While Luca’s departure from Berkeley is sad (especially for me), Berkeley is still a great place to be for theoretical computer science and complexity theory in particular. A glance through Umesh Vazirani’s past students is one possible way to start convincing yourself. Currently, we also have a very strong cast of students that I am honored to share a hallway with (in addition to the strong list of professors). The professors have been very good at shielding the students from the effects of the financial crisis, which I personally have not felt at all (other than the big exception of Luca’s departure). <br /><br />With regards to Anon #6, disagree strongly with your conclusion that UC Berkeley is no longer the place to be for budding complexity theorists (though I will say there are other additional places to be for complexity, which is great). Additionally, I think the information you used to arrive at this conclusion may be out of date. In particular, UC Berkeley’s past yield is probably best characterized as sporadic. We have 1 fourth year, because only one person (of 7, I think) accepted that year (was that the year Berkeley cracked?) I guess not, because we have 12 second years (11 admitted, 10 accepted, one differed, two moved into theory from other areas).Granthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02407492494639217331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-31267977123564220462010-01-13T15:40:06.357-06:002010-01-13T15:40:06.357-06:00It would have been good if you could have covered ...It would have been good if you could have covered some technical part of the conference, rather than emphasizing on the arrangements etc..I am more interested to know about the papers and how would you compare their contents with traditional FOCS/STOC/SODA ?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-27473796789146564042010-01-13T15:36:31.125-06:002010-01-13T15:36:31.125-06:00Which Chris is going to Georgia Tech?
Peikert<i> Which Chris is going to Georgia Tech?</i><br /><br />PeikertAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-75566450189309136212010-01-13T15:34:24.314-06:002010-01-13T15:34:24.314-06:00Which Chris is going to Georgia Tech?Which Chris is going to Georgia Tech?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-28032822826461152682010-01-13T14:31:25.538-06:002010-01-13T14:31:25.538-06:00Anon #1 - Not Berkeley. The University of Californ...Anon #1 - Not Berkeley. The University of California system is beginning to collapse, and that's reflected in faculty moves (Luca to Stanford, CMU outbid them for Venkat, etc.).<br /><br />Berkeley has traditionally enjoyed the highest yield rate of the top 4 schools. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the year they crack.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-42470045585194811502010-01-13T14:06:01.315-06:002010-01-13T14:06:01.315-06:00Chris -> Georgia Tech
Anup -> Washington
Yur...Chris -> Georgia Tech<br />Anup -> Washington<br />Yuri -> TTIAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-73938671829535377172010-01-13T14:00:18.917-06:002010-01-13T14:00:18.917-06:00what is "post-tenure, pre-professor" exa...what is "post-tenure, pre-professor" exactly?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-31063153781410362192010-01-13T13:47:29.053-06:002010-01-13T13:47:29.053-06:00"Los Amigos" was too funny!"Los Amigos" was too funny!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-84256122824958735812010-01-13T09:44:26.364-06:002010-01-13T09:44:26.364-06:00Microsoft, clearly.Microsoft, clearly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-67887462692873647332010-01-13T09:21:59.418-06:002010-01-13T09:21:59.418-06:00The complexity landscape is going crazy in the pas...The complexity landscape is going crazy in the past year or so!<br /><br />Venkat -> CMU<br />Madhu -> Microsoft<br />Boaz -> Microsoft<br />Omer -> Microsoft<br />Luca -> Stanford<br /><br />Where should a budding complexity theorist go to grad school?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com