Computational Complexity and other fun stuff in math and computer science from Lance Fortnow and Bill Gasarch
Sunday, March 25, 2007
The End
After 4 1/2 years and 958 posts I have decided to retire from
blogging. No weblog can go on forever and I would rather end on my own
terms than let the blog peter out.
Thanks a lot Lance, I will miss your posts! Your weblog has been a nice way to keep up to date in many subjects of TCS and particularly computational complexity. But I agree with Eldar this was unexpected!
I learned a huge amount from your blog. I came to computer science from a different field, starting (by coincidence) about 4.5 years ago. I managed to pick up most of the subject knowledge I needed from books, papers, the web, other people. Some of the culture I picked up from colleagues.
But I feel like I couldn't have fully made the transition without reading your blog regularly! So thanks!
I've only been lurking here for a year (or was it two?), but oh what an enjoyable year of lurking it's been. So long, and thanks for all the great posts! I hope that Scott, Dave, Luca, and the others will continue your tradition of doling out the advice and the commentary for years to come.
Lance, thank you so much for having had a blog! It was certainly a connecting/venting point for the entire TCS community, and for me a source of inspiring technical highlights, insightful career advice, and TCS community happenings. There's nothing out there to fill that void.
I too was a daily reader of your blog, and will miss it. I am a first year graduate student now, but read your blog as an undergrad, and it influenced me both in my research directions and in my choice of school.
If this sad news is really true, the only thing that could save my day would be to get to know which similar blogs your readers or you have found interesting. (Perhaps one more entry for collecting those? Or will you just abandon us without giving us a map forwards?)
(...Not that any of those blogs could match yours, though!)
Thanks a lot for the blog. I really enjoyed it. I was probably one of the early readers of the blog and learnt a lot about TCS, research and life in general from it. As others said, "Thanks a lot for the fish".
I am really hoping that this is in spirit of what happens on APR-1st. Even otherwise, Thanks.
Amar
I think that it would be a great service to TCS if the archives are not deleted.
So long Lance and thanks for the all the posts. Enjoyed my daily visits here for sure. Thanks again for spending time in helping and encouraging people, in your own way.
What ? Are you sure ? Ok... so... nothing much to say except than thank you very much Lance for all these posts and the helpful presentation of many theoretical stuff over the years. Hope that one day you will decide to "revive" the blog...
As an educated layperson I learnt alomst everything I know about TCS fom your blog. I just want to say thanks for the last 4.5 years. It's been an eye-opener for me!
You used this tool to trigger off popularizing TCS. Because of your blog, you will be remembered by many more than just TCS people. Are you starting any such new hobbies?
I will miss that red "F" amongst my browser tabs, and all the stimulating discussions that went with it. Especially the "Click and Clack of Complexity," Lance and Bill.
Ironic, that at the time when I ought to feel speechless, I choose to make a comment for the first and, presumably, last time. Will the archives at least be available for a while?
While it is impossible to avoid coloring the blog with the personality of the blogger, I must say you elevated this blog to a professional forum for the happenings in computational complexity theory.
Thank you for the good work and I hope that you keep the website so that people may search past postings and links. This would also be helpful if you ever want to return to blogging some time in the future.
I blame it on Google's excessive use of AJAX. That the comment got posted appeared in a small box at the top of the page, which wasn't visible as I had scrolled down a bit.
I hope we will still get “Favorite Complexity Theorems” in some other form if not every month. I have few years of unread entries to enjoy - and read many things over and over again. Thanks Lance.
Shoot! Now I'll have to choose another start-up page for my browser.
Thanks, Lance, for all the thought-provoking posts, and thanks to all the rest of you who commented on them in equally thought-provoking ways. I'm glad to hear the archives will stay up. They'll be a huge asset to the community for years to come.
i am going to repeat what everyone else has been saying here.... i loved your blog. it was one of the first that i ever read.... have been reading it everyday...this was so sudden!! i will miss the blog like a lost friend... hope you start a new concept blog.... thanks for 958 posts!!!
Dear Lance---speaking as a sometime-lurker who regrets never getting active here, many thanks!
An important factor is that Lance (and Scott and Luca and others) have traveled a lot and (thus) have been able to get involved in many current intellectual discussions. More so if you consider getting into lots of e-mail discussion "traveling". But frequent travel on top of blogging is even more a time-investment! I've found it hard to do even one of those, and my re-involvement in the chess world (see my webpage) has vacuumed up much disposable time.
One thing I've always wanted to do, though, is have a "static" blog. By which I mean a series of pages that describe computational complexity theory at the general-science level, e.g. to aspiring high-school students. Some pages on this and the other blogs are suitable for this---can we make a Knuth-like "WeB" of links to navigate them?
In relation to some requests expressed above to have a "community pitch-in" here, a goal such as I suggest might lend more "Structure" to the endeavor...
I did not come by every day but had the RSS feed among my gmail headlines... only a couple of times I felt like participating! To see it optimistically (this time it IS hard), I have quite a few unread past entries to enjoy every now and then.
Thanks Lance! Reading your blog has been a daily pleasure that I will sorely miss. You have brought the theory community together in a way that annual conferences can only approximate. Here's to your fifth decade of favorite theorems...
Thank you for the wonderful blogging! You cannot imagine how important your blog is to students like me who have been fighting to do research in a university with very little theory atmosphere. Your blog let us know about everything from the right way to do research, to how the research community works, and has been extremely informative and helpful. We will all miss it, and so will you! Qiqi Yan
Lance, you should think about making yourself editor in chief of the complexity weblog and turning it into something like Lambda the Ultimate.
Even though you don't have the time/energy anymore to blog on a regular basis, feel free to keep posting your conference overviews and "breaking news in complexity" entries. They are a valuable resource.
Lance, you will be missed. Please do come once in a while to write a post. Take leisure. Write a post or two a month. At least when there is something post worthy happens such as Lance the Great retiring from blogging :)
I feel like one of those runners following Forrest Gump on his long cross country run. You spend three years running alongside Forrest, and then all of a sudden, he just stops, turns around, and says "I'm pretty tired... I think I'll go home now."
Thanks for all the insightful blog postings, Lance. I enjoyed reading it.
oh, not so soon. This blog is one I really liked. I learned a lot from these posts, and had a lot of fun. It's a great pity to learn about this. You've made my day as a bad day!
That was sudden - for how long have you been contemplating this? I have nothing more to say but thank you for the 958 (what number is that?) posts!
ReplyDeleteYes, thanks Lance.
ReplyDeleteDidn't want to make it to 1000?!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Lance !! I got very helpful theoretical insights and practical advices from your posts.
ReplyDeleteBTW, 958 is a Smith Number :)
Thanks a lot Lance, I will miss your posts!
ReplyDeleteYour weblog has been a nice way to keep up to date in many subjects of TCS and particularly computational complexity. But I agree with Eldar this was unexpected!
Luis
I learned a huge amount from your blog. I came to computer science from a different field, starting (by coincidence) about 4.5 years ago. I managed to pick up most of the subject knowledge I needed from books, papers, the web, other people. Some of the culture I picked up from colleagues.
ReplyDeleteBut I feel like I couldn't have fully made the transition without reading your blog regularly! So thanks!
Thanks for the years of great posts! Your blogging will be missed.
ReplyDelete:*-(
ReplyDeleteA week earlier than anticipated. Hopefully.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Lance.
ReplyDeleteGauss famously said "I fear the Boeotians' cries if I were to express my opinions fully."
You never feared these cries. Perhaps we will see you posting on other blogs? I hope so.
Thanks for all the great posts!
ReplyDeleteI learnt a lot from the blog.
Just a suggestion, it would be great if this blog could be continued by someone else.. That way we theoreticians will have a place to talk and fight.
Thank you for your work over the years, and for answering my questions. I'll miss reading your posts!
ReplyDeleteI've only been lurking here for a year (or was it two?), but oh what an enjoyable year of lurking it's been. So long, and thanks for all the great posts! I hope that Scott, Dave, Luca, and the others will continue your tradition of doling out the advice and the commentary for years to come.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lance for all your wonderful posts. I will miss my daily ritual!
ReplyDeleteI haven't comment you more than a couple of times but it was an obligated reading for me every day. Thanks Lance, I'm gonna miss this blog
ReplyDeleteI've been a daily lurker and an occasional anonymous commenter for several years. I'll miss this blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you Lance. It was no mean feat to make a relevant post a day (or so) regularly, for years. I will miss my daily fix.
ReplyDeleteAmit Chakrabarti
Thank You Lance. It was almost part of my daily routine to read your blog. i will miss it.
ReplyDeleteAs you already know, a lot of people will miss this blog. I've always thought of it as an example of what blogging could be for TC scientists.
ReplyDelete--
Augusto
Thank you Lance. It's been my daily routine to read your blog. I'll miss it.
ReplyDeleteHi Lance,
ReplyDeleteYour blog truly inspired me many times. I would really miss it and am sad for it.
Lance, thank you so much for having had a blog! It was certainly a connecting/venting point for the entire TCS community, and for me a source of inspiring technical highlights, insightful career advice, and TCS community happenings. There's nothing out there to fill that void.
ReplyDeleteLance, thank you for blogging. I am still have one or two years of unread entries to enjoy. I hope some day you will return.
ReplyDeleteThanks for Blogging.
ReplyDeleteI too was a daily reader of your blog, and will miss it. I am a first year graduate student now, but read your blog as an undergrad, and it influenced me both in my research directions and in my choice of school.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
ReplyDelete42 away from 1000
ReplyDeleteIf this sad news is really true, the only thing that could save my day would be to get to know which similar blogs your readers or you have found interesting. (Perhaps one more entry for collecting those? Or will you just abandon us without giving us a map forwards?)
ReplyDelete(...Not that any of those blogs could match yours, though!)
Thanks for writing. Your blog was a knowing glimpse into the research world.
ReplyDeleteLance, you have posted this too early. Apr 1 is in one week...
ReplyDeleteLance,
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for the blog. I really enjoyed it. I was probably one of the early readers of the blog and learnt a lot about TCS, research and life in general from it. As others said, "Thanks a lot for the fish".
I am really hoping that this is in spirit of what happens on APR-1st. Even otherwise, Thanks.
Amar
I think that it would be a great service to TCS if the archives are not deleted.
So long Lance and thanks for the all the posts. Enjoyed my daily visits here for sure. Thanks again for spending time in helping and encouraging people, in your own way.
ReplyDeletem.s
What ? Are you sure ?
ReplyDeleteOk... so... nothing much to say except than thank you very much Lance for all these posts and the helpful presentation of many theoretical stuff over the years. Hope that one day you will decide to "revive" the blog...
As an educated layperson I learnt alomst everything I know about TCS fom your blog. I just want to say thanks for the last 4.5 years. It's been an eye-opener for me!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the blog, this was the only blog I regulary read.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lance! We'll miss it, and hope you'll be back one day...
ReplyDeleteloved the blog, especially the podcasts.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Lance. I also learned a lot here.
ReplyDeleteYou used this tool to trigger off popularizing TCS. Because of your blog, you will be remembered by many more than just TCS people. Are you starting any such new hobbies?
ReplyDeleteThanks Lance!
ReplyDeleteCould you do something like bequeath the blog to a new person to keep it going (for example, somebody like frequent guest blogger Bill Gasarch...?)
ReplyDeleteNOOOOOO!!!!
ReplyDeleteOk, ok, I admit I didn't understand most of the stuff posted here, but "retirement" is a strong one, can't you just post once by month or something?
Well, anyway, congratulations for the blog, and thanks for all and... and... :(
Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteLance,
ReplyDeleteI will miss that red "F" amongst my browser tabs, and all the stimulating discussions that went with it. Especially the "Click and Clack of Complexity," Lance and Bill.
Ironic, that at the time when I ought to feel speechless, I choose to make a comment for the first and, presumably, last time. Will the archives at least be available for a while?
If this truly be your decision.... Thank you.
-- Fred.
5 days away from April 1st?
ReplyDeletethanks very much for writing a very interesting blog in the clinically-correct-no-wishy-washy style that most complexity papers embody.
ReplyDeletei sincerely hope the mean comment on the penultimate post (along with a few others on other posts) did not throw you off.
Lance:
ReplyDeleteWhile it is impossible to avoid coloring the blog with the personality of the blogger, I must say you elevated this blog to a professional forum for the happenings in computational complexity theory.
Thank you for the good work and I hope that you keep the website so that people may search past postings and links. This would also be helpful if you ever want to return to blogging some time in the future.
Could you do something like bequeath the blog to a new person to keep it going (for example, somebody like frequent guest blogger Bill Gasarch...?)
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps Paul Beame?
Thanks Lance!
ReplyDeleteWill the website remain up, or should we spider it ourselves?
ReplyDeletewill miss your posts. good luck and enjoy the blogless life.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the posts, Lance! All the best to you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the kind words. I feel like I have had the opportunity to attend my own funeral.
ReplyDeleteI plan to leave the weblog fully intact for the forseeable future. I put too much into the weblog to remove it all now.
Thanks for doing it. Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteThank you for years of thought-provoking, complexity-filled posts, Lance.
ReplyDeleteVictor Glazer
Lance, thank you very much for your blog. I am going to miss it a lot.
ReplyDeleteApril Fools' day?
ReplyDeleteApril Fools' day?
ReplyDeleteApril Fools' day?
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to have posted it three times.
ReplyDeleteI blame it on Google's excessive use of AJAX. That the comment got posted appeared in a small box at the top of the page, which wasn't visible as I had scrolled down a bit.
Hopefully, I will get it right in one attempt.
After being a lurker for some time I guess I'm compelled to post my first comment. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Lance! I'll miss your blog and podcast, but I appreciate the sentiment of retiring on a high note.
I am really sorry to know that this is your last post, Lance. I really hope it is April Fools' day!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for a wonderful blog!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is just a vacations now, not the real end.
I hope we will still get “Favorite Complexity Theorems” in some other form if not every month. I have few years of unread entries to enjoy - and read many things over and over again. Thanks Lance.
ReplyDeleteShoot! Now I'll have to choose another start-up page for my browser.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lance, for all the thought-provoking posts, and thanks to all the rest of you who commented on them in equally thought-provoking ways. I'm glad to hear the archives will stay up. They'll be a huge asset to the community for years to come.
Thanks, Lance.
ReplyDeletei am going to repeat what everyone else has been saying here.... i loved your blog. it was one of the first that i ever read.... have been reading it everyday...this was so sudden!! i will miss the blog like a lost friend... hope you start a new concept blog.... thanks for 958 posts!!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on a very successful and interesting blog. I am sorry to learn of its ending. Good luck with your next project!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot. Lance.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a joy, Lance. Thank you.
ReplyDelete- Cris Moore
Thanks Lance, this has been a great blog.
ReplyDeleteIt's a real pity. Please re-consider.
ReplyDeleteOh no. we will miss you.
ReplyDeletebut now we need a successor! anyone in mind?
Dear Lance---speaking as a sometime-lurker who regrets never getting active here, many thanks!
ReplyDeleteAn important factor is that Lance (and Scott and Luca and others) have traveled a lot and (thus) have been able to get involved in many current intellectual discussions. More so if you consider getting into lots of e-mail discussion "traveling". But frequent travel on top of blogging is even more a time-investment! I've found it hard to do even one of those, and my re-involvement in the chess world (see my webpage) has vacuumed up much disposable time.
One thing I've always wanted to do, though, is have a "static" blog. By which I mean a series of pages that describe computational complexity theory at the general-science level, e.g. to aspiring high-school students. Some pages on this and the other blogs are suitable for this---can we make a Knuth-like "WeB" of links to navigate them?
In relation to some requests expressed above to have a "community pitch-in" here, a goal such as I suggest might lend more "Structure" to the endeavor...
Thanks for all your blogging Lance! It was always informative, spirited, and utterly useful (I've even cited an entry in a paper).
ReplyDelete-- Ronald de Wolf
I did not come by every day but had the RSS feed among my gmail headlines... only a couple of times I felt like participating! To see it optimistically (this time it IS hard), I have quite a few unread past entries to enjoy every now and then.
ReplyDeleteLance, once more, Thank You So Much.
See you "around"!
Jose Balcázar.
Lance, please reconsider! Your wit and wisdom will be sorely missed.
ReplyDeleteSaddest.
ReplyDeleteDay.
Ever.
Lance --- kudos on your contributions here but enjoy your retirement...
ReplyDeleteThanks Lance! Reading your blog has been a daily pleasure that I will sorely miss. You have brought the theory community together in a way that annual conferences can only approximate. Here's to your fifth decade of favorite theorems...
ReplyDeleteLance,
ReplyDeleteThanks for 4 1/2 years of excellent stuff. I will miss your blog.
Best,
Piotr (Indyk)
PS. So, are you going to run for president now ?
Thank you for the wonderful blogging! You cannot imagine how important your blog is to students like me who have been fighting to do research in a university with very little theory atmosphere. Your blog let us know about everything from the right way to do research, to how the research community works, and has been extremely informative and helpful. We will all miss it, and so will you!
ReplyDeleteQiqi Yan
Lance, you should think about making yourself editor in chief of the complexity weblog and turning it into something like Lambda the Ultimate.
ReplyDeleteEven though you don't have the time/energy anymore to blog on a regular basis, feel free to keep posting your conference overviews and "breaking news in complexity" entries. They are a valuable resource.
Thanks, Lance!
ReplyDeleteBesides TCS seminars, TCS proceedings, TCS journals, etc., now we have TCS blogs! Thank you!
Thanks very much, Lance - I started reading your blog about 2 years ago, and have thoroughly enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't posted hoping this was an April Fool's.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the work, Lance!
Alex Lopez-Ortiz
Lance, you will be missed. Please do come once in a while to write a post. Take leisure. Write a post or two a month. At least when there is something post worthy happens such as Lance the Great retiring from blogging :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lance, for all that you've given us. weblog.fortnow.com is dead. Long live weblog.fortnow.com!
ReplyDelete-- Eric
I feel like one of those runners following Forrest Gump on his long cross country run. You spend three years running alongside Forrest, and then all of a sudden, he just stops, turns around, and says "I'm pretty tired... I think I'll go home now."
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the insightful blog postings, Lance. I enjoyed reading it.
-H
oh, not so soon.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is one I really liked. I learned a lot from these posts, and had a lot of fun. It's a great pity to learn about this. You've made my day as a bad day!