tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-267212822024-03-24T04:49:55.647+11:00fully functional androidUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger267125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-49838732626031330292007-12-09T09:07:00.000+11:002007-12-09T09:35:07.709+11:00ZeitgeistI started this with a massive outpouring of self-indulgent angst and realised I have a whole other thing going on for that crap. <br /><br />This blog is all about the facts. And so forth. <br /><br />Starting with Star Wars Tattoos.<br /><br />I realised when I saw it that I would probably do this myself given half a chance:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://data.tumblr.com/BoMMfb1VC2njywoslj7NvcKe_500.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://data.tumblr.com/BoMMfb1VC2njywoslj7NvcKe_500.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Then I realised that would be kind-of mental and I should just focus on the scarification I want to have done. See also: kind-of mental. <br /><br />All the bacteria living inside you would fill a half-gallon jug; there are 10 times more bacterial cells in your body than human cells, according to Carolyn Bohach, a microbiologist at the University of Idaho (U.I.), along with other estimates from scientific studies. (Despite their vast numbers, bacteria don’t take up that much space because bacteria are far smaller than human cells.)<br /><a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-humans-carry-more-bacterial-cells-than-human-ones&sc=WR_20071204">Humans Carry More Bacterial Cells than Human Ones: Scientific American</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.treefingers.com">Treefingers</a> is like an anonymous group Twitter. Or something.<br />"Welcome to the first release of Treefingers, a site that allows you to post, well, anything. The site is an experiment of what people would say in a (mostly) unmoderated environment that does not focus on a central topic."<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth_shuffle">Fisher/Yates (Knuth) Shuffle</a>: Not a dance, but "an algorithm for generating a random permutation of a finite set — in plain terms, for randomly shuffling the set".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/news/2007/12/nuclear_qa">Former ‘No Nukes’ Protester: Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Power</a>. Obviously somewhat biased, but interesting:<br />"A family in four in France, where they reprocess nuclear fuel, would produce only enough waste to fit in a coffee cup over a whole lifetime. A lifetime of getting all your electricity from coal-fired plants would make a single person’s share of solid waste (in the United States) 68 tons, which would require six 12-ton railroad cars to haul away. Your share of CO2 would be 77 tons."<br /><br />I think I support Nukes. Just so you know. As an interim until we get solar working properly. But we have to stop using coal NOW. We can argue about that another time.<br /><br /><a href="http://trac.rubyonrails.com/2007/12/7/rails-2-0-it-s-done">Rails 2.0 has been released</a>. I know you're as excited as I am. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.maniacworld.com/death-star-cafeteria.html">Death Star Cafeteria</a>. Oh the joy.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sas.upenn.edu/home/news/trans_Kors.html">Human History in less than 100 words</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.juixe.com/techknow/index.php/2007/12/03/favorite-programming-quotes-2007/">Favourite Programming Quotes 2007</a>. <br />Just so you know the types of things we're talking about:<br /><br />To Iterate is Human, to Recurse, Divine. – James O. Coplien<br />My contribution "You're all so embarassing". I also like "Recursion is Funny". Because it ~IS~ funny.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_3:16">John 3:16</a>. John 3:16 (chapter 3, verse 16 of the Gospel of John) is one of the most widely quoted verses from the Christian Bible. It has been called the “Bible in a nutshell” because it is considered a summary of some of the most central doctrines of traditional Christianity:<br />"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."<br /><br />The post election afray continues. It's been like some sort of weird multiple orgasm that just keeps going and going and eventually is a little bit painful. They lost, he lost, he quit, they fought over the leadership, everyone now thinks he's been quite bad for the country, and so on. <br /><br />The End.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-69024100565376798382007-12-03T09:12:00.000+11:002007-12-03T09:16:47.399+11:00Welcome to Planet Earth<a href="http://suicidegirls.com/news/culture/22750/">Welcome to Planet Earth - The Sunday Hangover - Warren Ellis</a><blockquote>Welcome to planet Earth, where, within a few years, we will all have been entrained to raise robot babies that we have designed to feel pain. Soon, they will reach their toddler years, powered by a vast array of monkeys wired up to the internet. We will send them out into the world, where they too will go on to the internet and show the world their chrome nipples and the sleek pink hatches of their robot vaginas before being shanked to death in motel rooms by vengeful, pregnant sea lions.</blockquote><br />Warren Ellis channels the future. He is 42 types of awesome.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-61567792194953238912007-12-01T10:47:00.000+11:002007-12-01T11:27:07.330+11:00ZeitgeistThis week I have been mostly thinking about <strong>Hypothetical Megastructures</strong>, as most of my Facebook friends are probably already aware because I've been spamming them mercilessly.<br /><br />My other obsession is sniggering when I ever I see or hear news about the Liberal party. Sucked in. <br />Way to implode.<br /><br />This is like, totally all about the science, I am sorry ... I've been hoarding.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megastructure">Megastructure</a><br />"A megastructure, in science fiction and speculative (or exploratory) engineering, is an enormous self-supporting artificial construct.[citation needed] The definition is often informal and varies from source to source, but generally requires at least one dimension to be in the hundreds of kilometers.[citation needed] Other criteria such as rigidity or contiguousness are sometimes also applied, so large clusters of associated smaller structures may or may not qualify.[citation needed] The products of megascale engineering or astroengineering are megastructures."<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrioshka_brain">Matrioshka Brain</a><br />"A matrioshka brain is a hypothetical megastructure, based on the Dyson sphere, of immense computational capacity. It is an example of a Class B stellar engine, employing the entire energy output of a star to drive computer systems. This structure has clear structural analogies to Russian Matrioshka dolls, from which the concept derives its name."<br /><br /><strong>Matrioshka Brain</strong> is also an AWESOME band name. <br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere ">Dyson Sphere</a><br />"A Dyson sphere (or shell as it appeared in the original paper) is a hypothetical megastructure that was originally described by Freeman Dyson as a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture its entire energy output. Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the long-term survival of technological civilizations, and proposed that searching for evidence of the existence of such structures might lead to the detection of advanced intelligent extraterrestrial life."<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_engine">Stellar Engine</a><br />"Stellar engines are a class of hypothetical megastructures which use a star's radiation to create usable energy. Some variants use this energy to produce thrust, and thus accelerate a star, and anything orbiting it, in a given direction. The creation of such a system would make its builders a Type-II civilization on the Kardashev scale."<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale">Kardashev Scale</a><br />"The Kardashev scale is a general method of classifying how technologically advanced a civilization is, first proposed in 1964 by the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev. It had three categories, based on the amount of usable energy a civilization has at its disposal and increasing logarithmically"<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/news/2007/11/dissection_1126">The Decline and Fall of the Animal Kingdom</a><br />"The animal kingdom's decline came in the form of a three-page paper that appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Its lead author, Carl Woese, had spent the previous few years trying to find a way to figure out the relationship of all living things, including microbes. A taxonomist can classify a giraffe, a bat and a human as mammals simply by looking at them. They have hair, for example, and they nurse. But microbes are harder to make sense of. They might simply look like a rod or a sphere."<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E8_polytope">E8 Polytope</a><br />"The E8 polytope is a semiregular polytope, the highest finite (and nonprismatic) semiregular figure. It was discovered by Thorold Gosset, who described it in his 1900 paper as an 8-ic semi-regular figure, with "semiregular" meaning that all of its facets are regular polytopes: 2,160 7-orthotopes and 17,280 7-simplices."<br /><br /><a href="http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/outtake-112107-nuke-to-the-future.php">Nuke to the Future</a><br />Discussions about building what is essentially a nuclear battery. Insane. <br /><br /><br />Anyway, I am off to continue testing my Mongrel cluster for capacity. Two instances can handle about 30 requests a second. Cool.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-596037137790146812007-11-30T10:31:00.000+11:002007-11-30T10:32:46.510+11:00First PostI am starting the Zeitgeist again. <br /><br />It will be intermittent, rather than on Wednesay. Just so you know.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-46275652434900368602007-07-15T19:21:00.000+10:002007-07-15T19:22:19.125+10:00Last PostThis is the last post. <br /><br />See you elsewhere on the internet and in the real world. <br /><br />The End.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-79413659517959258432007-07-11T09:16:00.000+10:002007-07-11T14:02:39.358+10:00ZeitgeistHello. <br /><br />Not at WorkWork today, so feeling much better, thanks for asking.<br /><br />I think I've had too much coffee. <br /><br />I was wondering the other day, while re-reading "Gun, Germs and Steel" for the millionth time, what would have happened if the giant marsupials had not become extinct when humans settled Australia. <br /><br />What would happen if the Aboriginal people could have fought the English on Giant Armoured Wombats?<br /><br />Yep, definitely had too much coffee. <br /><br />“Jamie Langridge, the 2007 Bud Light USARPS champion, made use of several well-known strategies during his Final Sixteen run, but combined and utilized them in a manner uniquely his own. His style of play can best be described as "complex adaptive," as he switched effortlessly between runs of alternating and repeated throws.” - <a href="http://www.usarps.com/tourney-info/roshs-blog/article/view/master-roshs-expert-analysis/14/">USA Rock Paper Scissors League > Article</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.worldrps.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=256&Itemid=37">How to beat anyone at Rock Paper Scissors</a><br /><br />“ITS ROCK-HARD surface can take a full- on assault from a baseball bat, yet remains flexible enough to allow you to kick, leap and roll with perfect ease. Crafted from cutting-edge science, its unique molecular structure means that while providing armoured protection against crude concrete and even barbed wire, it remains light enough to allow you to run at high speed.” - <a href="http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1528394.0.holy_batcapes_the_age_of_the_superhero_suit_is_upon_us.phpDon%5C't">Holy Batcapes The Age Of The Superhero Suit Is Upon Us</a><br /><br />See what I did there with the segue?<br /><br />“A Millwall or Chelsea brick is an improvised weapon made of a manipulated newspaper.” - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millwall_brick">Millwall brick - Wikipedia</a><br /><br />Oh, a rock made of paper you say? <br />Did you like what I did there too?<br /><br />In my mind I increasingly sound like Stewie from the family guy.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/w95eCmyLl6U"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/w95eCmyLl6U" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/5123455_500.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070622-000002.xml">Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature</a>. Not sure about some of them. <br /><br />Crazy Icelandic people drive up a hill for fun:<br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0diPLyQDhP4" width="400" height="318" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hunchback">USS Hunchback - Wikipedia</a>. Best name for a ship ever. <br /><br />“The investigators at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Cost Analysis Improvement Group say its more like $203 billion to $234 billion in inflated dollars. likely to grow, And remember, that's just for a third of the Army. So the final cost could be closer to three-quarters of a trillion dollars.” - <a href="http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/03/in_2003_when_th.html">Danger Room - Wired Blogs</a><br /><br />“Extra-terrestrial life may well be so weird we would not immediately recognise it, space experts said yesterday.” - <a href="http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegraph/story/0,,22033976-5006003,00.html?from=public_rss">Aliens exist, not as we know it </a><br /><br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/5032496_500.jpg"> <br />This stunning false-color view of Saturn's moon Hyperion reveals crisp details across the strange, tumbling moon's surface. Differences in color could represent differences in the composition of surface materials. The view was obtained during Cassini's close flyby on Sept. 26, 2005. (via <a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/?IDNumber=PIA07740">Catalog Page for PIA07740</a>)<br /><br />Aw, cute:<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/5032117_500.jpg"><br /><br />Stacy, Attack of the School-Girl Zombies. OMG:<br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HX4t8XYJgS0" width="400" height="318" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br /><br />The EndUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-34319534341265281902007-07-09T12:18:00.000+10:002007-07-11T14:03:23.162+10:00---<!--Inspiration at WorkWork this morning was an email from the general manager saying: <br /><blockquote>Basically, there is no benefit to us for you to be on contract ... </blockquote><br />So inspiring!<br />My only thought: the benefit is that I work for your crappy company.<br />Only 3 and a bit months on my contract and I am out. Top Secret Project will have launched by then. <br />--><br /><br />My father just got a cat. A 12 wk old burmese kitten called Haiku.<br />He's slightly mental. My father, not the cat. Although the cat may well be soon. <br /><br />I won first prize in a Blogging competition. Not for this blog, but for my other blog, which is so geeky you can't even have the link (even though you would then learn all about Transactional Full-Text Search in MySQL 5). I won three tech books from Apress. <br /><br />The End.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-13499319775053416672007-06-28T11:41:00.000+10:002007-07-04T10:42:21.452+10:00ZeitgeistWednesday.<br /><br />I lack focus, I'm afraid. Working on the TopSecretProject ... a bit bored of it, still waiting for various components to come together. I just want this sucker launched. End of July for a beta is the goal. <br /><br />In the meantime I am playing with the Facebook API ... it's rather cool. <br /><br />Other than being code geek, not a lot going on.<br /> <br /><br />This is incredible: <a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/33">Thomas Barnett: The Pentagon's new map for war and peace</a> A new doctrine for waging war and, crucially waging peace and a system for managing politically bankrupt states. The failure in Iraq is because although the US can wage war, it cannot transition a state. The question is: What happens between war and peace? <blockquote>International security strategist Thomas P.M. Barnett outlines a post-Cold War solution for the foundering US military: Break it in two. He suggests the military re-form into two groups: a Leviathan force, a small group of young and fierce soldiers capable of swift and immediate victories; and an internationally supported network of System Administrators, an older, wiser, more diverse organization that actually has the diplomacy and power it takes to build and maintain peace.</blockquote><br /><br />“Hasty pudding, also Indian pudding, is a porridge-like dish of cooked grain.”<br><br> - <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasty_pudding">Hasty pudding (Indian pudding) - Wikipedia</a></em><br /><br />Hasty Pudding is a band waiting to happen.<br /><br />And if you are making a Hasty Pudding or some Porridge, you may need a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spurtle">Spurtle</a><br /><br />“An M2M system would enable machines to make intelligent choices, execute self-guided adjustments, and communicate with one another, all without human intervention, in a way that they presently cannot. As envisioned, an M2M intelligence system will work with a broad spectrum of machines, from wireless tools and sensors to robots, spacecraft, and computer grid systems. The goal is nothing short of machine self-dependency.” - <a href="http://appel.nasa.gov/askoce/node/578">Partnership to Develop Machine-to-Machine Intelligence System </a><br /><br />“15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense Opponents of evolution want to make a place for creationism by tearing down real science, but their arguments don't hold up” - <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000D4FEC-7D5B-1D07-8E49809EC588EEDF&pageNumber=1&catID=2">15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense: Scientific American</a><br /><br />“Flying saucer -- the term -- was coined 60 years ago, when salesman and pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in a "V" formation over Mount Rainier, Washington. Arnold told a reporter on June 24, 1947 that the UFOs flew erratically, fluttering and tipping their wings, like "a saucer if you skip it across water" -- and a worldwide subculture was born.” - <a href="http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/06/flyingsaucer_anniversary">Out of This World: 60 Years of Flying Saucers</a><br /><br />“Life-sized Gigantor memorial to be erected” - <a href="http://blog.newsarama.com/2007/06/25/life-sized-gigantor-memorial-to-be-erected/">Life-sized Gigantor memorial to be erected</a><br /><br />“Archaeologists have revived the debate over whether a spectacular Bronze Age disc from Germany is one of the earliest known calendars.” - <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6722953.stm">BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Calendar question over star disc</a><br /><br />Drawing with HTML (via leclercalexis2). <br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NqFOB77jLaE" width="400" height="318" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br />What the hell!?<br /><br />“Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language?” - <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto?currentPage=all">A Reporter at Large: The Interpreter: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061000915.html">New Theory on Old Debate: Comet Killed the Mammoth - washingtonpost.com</a><br /><br />“(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. <br> (ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do. <br> (iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. <br> (iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active. <br> (v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. <br> (vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.” <a href="http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm">George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946</a><br /><br />“Scholars have come to learn that there was more to the culture of Kush than was previously suspected. From deciphered Egyptian documents and modern archaeological research, it is now known that for five centuries in the second millennium B.C., the kingdom of Kush flourished with the political and military prowess to maintain some control over a wide territory in Africa.” - <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/science/19kush.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&hp&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1182209959-w9o3I3TlFT7FD9FuOw0hyA&oref=slogin&oref=slogin">Archaeology - Kingdom of Kush - Egyptian Civilization - New York Times</a><br /><br />The River by Bruce Springsteen.<br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Lgx-zlXeEEs" width="400" height="318" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br />That's some good Blues Harp ... and the <a href="http://www.electricbluesclub.co.uk/text/harptab.txt">Harp Tab</a> if you want it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-61793029425070698312007-06-28T11:20:00.000+10:002007-06-28T11:52:23.440+10:00ZeitgeistHi.<br /><br />Not a lot to say. I was going to post this weeks Zeitgeist and then realised that I can't post my usual links of levity. The government has invaded the Northern Territory to complete the dispossession started two centuries ago. It's all pretty f*cked. <br /><br />We're not sending doctors or counsellors or medicine or food or shelter. Just troops and police. <br /><br />Oh, and the plan has <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pms-got-it-wrong-on-abuse-plan/2007/06/28/1182624002936.html">come under strong attack from the man whose report inspired Howard to act</a>.<br /><br />Given what we know about the Stolen Generation, and paternal approaches to our indigenous communities in general, this is a shameful period in our history. <br /><br />And all to get elected one more time.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-11855717280042167052007-06-20T09:50:00.000+10:002007-06-20T10:10:23.902+10:00Wednesday ZeitgeistAn actually-on-Wednesday Zeitgeist. Good for me. <br /><br />Nothing to report. WorkWork. TopSecretWork. Usual stuffs. <br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo">Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo - Wikipedia </a>: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated constructs.” <br /><br /><A href="http://www.clientcopia.com/">ClientCopia</a> - stories about stupid clients. Stuff gets boring fast, but still a few amusing moments for a lunch hour.<br /><br />From the Department of the Obvious: <br />“What happens when you take a 40-year-old CIA memo on losing a war and replace the word “Vietnam” with the word “Iraq”? The result is a set of conclusions that are just as true today.” <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3866">Foreign Policy: The FP Memo: The Endgame in Iraq</a><br /><br />I'M IN YOUR NEWSPAPER WRITING MAH COLUMN:<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/3861295_500.jpg"><br /><br />Tommy and I invented LOLporn last week. Oh yes. Imagine some rude pictures with captions like "YOU HAS A FLAVOUR" and "I AM IN YOUR ****" and ... well, probably something about a "BUKKITS" but I am not touching that one. <br /><br />Work gets a little boring. <br /><br />Artifacts from the Future - Fido Fusion:<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/3799162_500.jpg"><br /><br />Jesus holding a dinosaur proves creationism. Or something:<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/3795777_500.jpg"><br /><br />For making your blog much betterer:<br /><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/fifty-50-tools-which-can-help-you-in-writing.html">Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you in Writing</a><br /><br />I like this one:<br /><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060523223009/www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=62027">Writing Tool #1: Branch to the Right</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.critbuns.com/">CritBuns - Supporting creativity where others can't</a>. It's a chair cushion thingy for sitting on the floor. <br /><br />I want this:<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/3743375_500.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/15-06/st_best">The Best Thought Experiments: Schrödinger's Cat, Borel's Monkeys</a><br /><br />“Suppose that, many years from now, we have constructed a computer that behaves as if it understands Chinese. In other words, the computer takes Chinese characters as input and, following a set of rules (as all computers can be described as doing), correlates them with other Chinese characters, which it presents as output. Suppose that this computer performs this task so convincingly that it easily passes the Turing test. In other words, it convinces a human Chinese speaker that the program is itself a human Chinese speaker. All the questions the human asks are responded to appropriately, such that the Chinese speaker is convinced that he or she is talking to another Chinese-speaking human. The conclusion that proponents of strong AI would like to draw is that the computer understands Chinese, just as the person does. Now, Searle asks us to suppose that he is sitting inside the computer. In other words, he is in a small room in which he receives Chinese characters, consults a rule book, and returns the Chinese characters that the rules dictate. Searle notes that he doesn't, of course, understand a word of Chinese. Furthermore, he argues that his lack of understanding goes to show that computers don't understand Chinese either, because they are in the same situation as he is. They are mindless manipulators of symbols, just as he is — and they don't understand what they're 'saying', just as he doesn't.” - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searle%27s_room">Chinese room - Wikipedia</a><br /><br />Some space thing that I can't remember (Galaxy M81, maybe?):<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/3721477_500.jpg"><br /><br />This article is AWESOME. Read it!<br />“As Bruce Sterling puts it: "I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people settling the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach. Nobody ever writes "Gobi Desert Opera" because, well, it's just kind of plonkingly obvious that there's no good reason to go there and live. It's ugly, it's inhospitable and there's no way to make it pay. Mars is just the same, really. We just romanticize it because it's so hard to reach."” - <a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/06/the_high_frontier_redux.html">Charlie's Diary: The High Frontier, Redux</a><br /><br />The gist:<br />Space is basically really really BIG. The amount of energy it would take to get someone and some equipment to the nearest star is REALLY REALLY BIG too. And it gets worse from there. <br /><br />“Zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move", IPA: [ˈtsuːk.tsvaŋ]) is a term used in combinatorial game theory and in other types of games (particularly in chess). Zugzwang means that one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move — the player would like to pass and make no move. The fact that the player must make a move means that his position will be significantly weaker than the hypothetical one in which it is his opponent's turn to move. In combinatorial game theory, it means that it directly changes the outcome of the game from a win to a loss.” - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugzwang">Zugzwang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a><br /><br />Joy Division live:<br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4rncRusrr88" width="400" height="318" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-70712020538004141282007-06-18T10:56:00.000+10:002007-06-18T11:34:32.791+10:00MondaySomeone felt as average as I did this morning and went on a shooting rampage through the city. Or something. News is garbled. At a train station, which should come as no surprise ... murder in Melbourne is much more likely to occur at a Connex-related venue. <br /><br />It's not actually funny. <br /><br />On a lighter note. Terrribly unenthused about WorkWork this morning ... I am desiging some software by saying "make it work like this other software that's really good and open source and anyone can download and use for free". If you look up "Pointlessly Futile" in the dictionary there would be a picture of my sad face and a note to "See also: Tautology".Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-69088155944922618062007-06-14T10:52:00.000+10:002007-06-14T13:38:42.699+10:00Thursday ZeitgeistThursday. Normally Thursday is my Friday, but today Thursday is just Thursday. Working tomorrow. Work-work not TopSecretProject-Work. <br /><br />Right. <br /><br />My brother and his girl are staying with us at the moment, he's in town touring with <br />Bobby Flynn ... Idol runner-up from last year. Saw them play live and they are very very good. Bobby is incredibly talented. And my brother is an extraordinary drummer. Check em out. <br /><br />Not so many links this week, but the whale one is pretty amazing. How old do those things get?<br /><br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070612/ap_on_re_us/century_old_whale">19th-century weapon found in whale</a><br /><br />“A Krasnikov Tube is to create a space warp behind the space ship as it travels at near lightspeed to some distant star system, and then use the "tube" thus created for the return trip. This distortion of space has an interesting property for the return trip: it gets you back home shortly after you left, no matter how far you go.” <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnikov_Tube">Krasnikov Tube - Wikipedia</a><br /><br />“Tay al-Ard (طی الارض or طيّ الارض or طیّ الارض - literally "folding up of the earth") is the name for thaumaturgical teleportation in the Islamic religious and philosophical tradition.” <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_al-Ard">Tay al-Ard - Wikipedia </a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007/06/07/astronomers-find-most-massive-star-ever-discovered/">Astronomers find most massive star ever discovered</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/06/01/colorful-beauty-in-nature-butterflies/">Colour schemes of Butterflies</a><br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/4253849.stm">Woman jailed for testicle attack</a><br /><br />"Testicle Attack" would be a great metal or punk band name. If you're into such things. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.akamai.com/visualize">Visualizing Global Web Performance with Akamai</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/06/05/google-pagerank-what-do-we-really-know-about-it/">Google PageRank: What Do We Know About It?</a><br /><br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/3080906_500.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1890354.ece">Muhammad is No 2 in boy's names in the UK</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-78565897674170488852007-06-12T09:50:00.000+10:002007-06-12T09:54:03.927+10:00Thought for Monday<blockquote>When you are sitting right on the edge of something daring and scary and creative and powerful and perhaps wonderful... and you blink and take a step back.<br /><br />That's the moment. The moment between you and remarkable. Most people blink. Most people get stuck.<br /><br />All the hard work and preparation and daring and luck is nothing compared with the ability to not blink.</blockquote><br />From my mate <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/123991933/that_moment.html">Seth</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-60159488561267459742007-06-08T10:47:00.000+10:002007-06-08T10:51:41.879+10:00Keating<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1945485.htm">Transcript of interview on lateline last night with Paul Keating</a><br /><br /><blockquote><br />The real question today with the economy growing so rapidly and unemployment so low is why doesn't the tinder box go off? That is, why don't we get the big bang? The big bang in inflation and in wages back into the old dismal cycle? The answer is because of the structural changes. Nothing to do with Mr Costello's economic management ... nothing to do with Peter Costello and everything to do with Labor's structural changes from the '80s.<br /><br />The great lie of the Howard Government in respect of workplace changes, they are simply a set of arrangements to keep unions out of workplaces. They've got nothing to do with productivity and the quicker we move away from that kind of discriminatory structure to a truly trust based co operative sharing of work and workloads, then we get back to reasonable levels of productivity and again, reasonable rates of growth in real wages.<br /></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-47300823542255406382007-06-07T09:20:00.000+10:002007-06-07T09:39:25.931+10:00Wednesday ZeitgeistDay late, because the script I use to parse the RSS of my Tumblr link blog and generate the HTML for the Zeitgeist is not on my laptop and I couldn't be bothered writing another script. Sorry about that. <br /><br />And yes, I am that guy ... parsing RSS to generate HTML for your edification. I am sure you're jealous of my elite hacking skills, because we all know that chicks dig skills. <br /><br />Nothing much else to report. Working on stuff, hanging out. Usual. <br /><br />Oh dear. First rule of boxing - don't just stand there. Need to fast-forward to the 30 second mark. And ignore the bad music. It's a weird thing that people do to these fight videos. <br /><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/24h7mzPO7dwec5Fe9" width="425" height="335" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br /><br />That's Don Frye, who looks suspciously like my father-in-law. He is awesome, over 40 and still fighting. Like some sort of MMA Rocky ... brawler with a magic chin. He's also mental. There's a fight we're the ref stops it before he taps out in an arm-bar because it looks like he WON'T tap out. Am arm bar is basically where you get someone's arm between your legs and bend it the wrong way with your bodyweight. If you don't submit your elbow snaps. The guy must be nuts. <br /><br />My occasional addiction to MMA (now through the unified UFC and Pride) continues unabated. I must be nuts.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ship_types">Category:Ship Types</a><br /><br /><a href="http://nymag.com/news/features/2007/profit/">The Profit Calculator</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/underwater_guns">Splash, Splash, You're Dead: The Military's Next-Gen Water Gun</a>: The SPP-1 flying-nail pistol came into service in 1971. It is more compact than the Underwater Defense Gun and half the weight, and even now is standard issue for Russian combat divers, including a section of the Presidential Security Service that patrols the flooded sewers connecting the Kremlin to the Moskva River.<br /><br />“Number of stars in the visible universe = 30 billion trillion (3x10²²)” - <a href="http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/universe.html">The Universe within 14 billion Light Years - The Visible Universe</a><br /><br />Or our nearest neighbours: <a href="http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/12lys.html">The Universe within 12.5 Light Years - The Nearest stars</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=7750A576-E7F2-99DF-3824E0B1C2540D47&pageNumber=1&catID=2">The Traveler's Dilemma</a>. Game Theory <br /><br /><a href="http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/06/cyberwar.html">Schneier on Security: Cyberwar</a><br /><br />Steam Trek: The Moving Picture (Star Trek Parody)<br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Y39gHihP74" width="400" height="318" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br /><br /><a href="http://www.tk560.com/m41a.html">HowTo: Make your own M41-A Pulse Rifle, the rifle from Aliens</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/business/yourmoney/03google.html?ex=1338523200&en=f003aaab287c0a72&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine</a><br /><br />“Russia has repeatedly claimed that the majority of these manufacturers produce AK-47 without a proper license from IZH.[17][18] The Izhevsk Machine Tool Factory acquired a patent in 1999, illegalising manufacture of the Kalashnikov rifle system by anyone other than themselves.[19]”: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK_47#Licensing">AK-47 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a><br /><br />Nessie caught on tape (via goochcamper)<br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aB_c2RwpbXU" width="400" height="318" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br /><br />Further investigation has reveleaed that Nessie was caught on tape by a guy who thinks Aliens talk to him. May not be reliable, is all I'm saying<br /><br /><a href="http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/spotlight/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003591177">Q&A: Seth Godin Says 'Know When To Bail'</a><br /><br />“Speedy solar storms carrying a billion tons of charged gas through space let out a thunderous scream before they unleash satellite-stopping radiation storms that slam into Earth's magnetic field.”- <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070530/sc_space/radioscreamsforecastdangeroussolarstorms;_ylt=AkggM8KYGO0OYJnCwRqRXrMPLBIF">Radio ‘Screams’ Forecast Dangerous Solar Storms</a><br /><br /><a href="http://startupsearch.org/">Startup Search. Directory of web technology startups.</a> I am not in there. Yet. <br /><br />The LOLs never stop: <a href="http://www.lolbots.com/">LOL BOTS</a><br /><br /><a href="http://gigaom.com/2007/05/27/desktop-tower-defense/">Desktop Tower of Money: 3 tips to profit from casual games</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/why-creativity-can-kill-your-copy/">Glyphius Copywriting Software Review</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-23334296234485381032007-06-06T14:33:00.000+10:002007-06-06T15:50:56.257+10:00The Office and OthersSpending so much time at MagNation that I've started to refer to it as "the office" ... as in "heading to the office, now".<br />When this project is launched, it will be thanks to this place as much as anything else. At least the free coffees have stopped, I was starting to get insomnia. <br /><br />The project is coming along quite nicely. Learning many new things about Ruby On Rails, and generally enjoying myself.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-39690571990530178522007-05-31T11:22:00.000+10:002007-05-31T11:30:54.630+10:00Out of contlolSomeone has made a programming language from LOLCatese: <a href="http://lolcode.com/home">lolcode</a><br /><code><br />HAI<br />CAN HAS STDIO?<br />I HAS A VAR<br />IM IN YR LOOP<br /> UP VAR!!1<br /> VISIBLE VAR<br /> IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10? KTHXBYE<br />IM OUTTA YR LOOP<br />KTHXBYE<br /></code><br />I cannot tell you how amusing <strong>I AM IN YR LOOP</strong> is to me (Not to mention AWSUM THX and OH NOES as Try/Catch blocks).<br /><br />There is a promise by a <a href="http://www.manifestogames.com/">game developer</a> that if the language becomes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing-complete">Turing Complete</a> he'll develop a game using it. <br /><br />KTHXBYEUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-10608059230354612942007-05-30T14:03:00.000+10:002007-05-30T14:58:53.076+10:00StartupI love being a Startup.<br /><br />In MagNation in the city, free coffee, cutting code, working on Empire. <br /><br />Magazines if I get bored. <br /><br />DelightfulUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-45091664592926742822007-05-29T12:58:00.000+10:002007-05-29T23:00:45.406+10:00Wednesday ZeitgeistI humbly present to you the biggest Zeitgeist ever. Somewhat of a backlog of links. Some of these might be duplicates, I guess. My links are a bit all over the place.<br /><br />I continue to work on my Hare-Brained Scheme(tm), it's coming along nicely thanks for asking ... and it's not that hare-brained either, I am very excited about it all. Other than that ... Mrs Android is busy as a bee on her thesis, which is not very much fun at all.<br /><br />I am slightly addicted to World of Warcraft. So much fun. I've been playing with some people from work, hanging out and grinding away, killing the wildlife and collecting items. <br /><br /><a href="http://modblog.bmezine.com/2007/05/27/gunpowder-scarification/">Gunpowder Scarification</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.wetanz.com/holics/index.php?itemid=13&catid=4">Weta Originals Rayguns - GOLIATHON 83Infinity Beam Projector</a> - I want one so bad. but $1000 ...<br /><br />$1000!?<br /><br /><a href="http://sean.treadway.info/articles/2006/05/29/iframe-remoting-made-easy">IFRAME remoting made easy</a><br /><br /><a href="http://khamsouk.souvanlasy.com/2007/5/1/ajax-file-uploads-in-rails-using-attachment_fu-and-responds_to_parent">AJAX file uploads in Rails using attachment_fu and responds_to_parent</a><br /><br /><a href="http://bandit.pc.cs.cmu.edu/sax/">Sax Solos</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_830.html">NASA - Crescent Rhea Occults Crescent Saturn</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.mycoolbutton.com/">Web 2.0 free buttons maker!</a><br /><br />Blaine Cook on Scaling Twitter (via Google Video)<br /><embed style="width:400px" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-7846959339830379167&hl=en" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br /><br /><a href="http://www.vassalengine.org/community/index.php">VASSAL is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. </a><br /><br /><a href="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11864-strange-alien-world-made-of-hot-ice.html">Strange alien world made of 'hot ice' </a><br /><br />Sacrelicious!<br /><a href="http://www.adultswim.com/games/biblefight/">Bible Fight</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.current.tv/pods/controversy/PD04399">Waterboarding</a><br /><br />Line Rider Super Mario Bros. 1-1 (via shadon1nja)<br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rn8ULJGboOE" width="400" height="318" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br /><br /><a href="http://www.hacknot.info/hacknot/action/showEntry?eid=94">Hacknot - The Three Ages of The Developer</a><br /><br />Kardashev scale<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale">Kardashev scale</a><br><br>The <b>Kardashev scale</b> is a general method of classifying how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology" title="Technology">technologically</a> advanced a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization" title="Civilization">civilization</a> is, first proposed in 1964 by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer" title="Astronomer">astronomer</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Kardashev" title="Nikolai Kardashev">Nikolai Kardashev</a>.<br /><br />Things I learned setting up my new server<br />Using J and K for navigation in Google Reader comes straight out of VI (and probably other pointy-headed *nix apps).<br /><br />Zombie Last Supper via www.myconfinedspace.com<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/1924938_500.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18628591/site/newsweek/">'Cheese': The New Cheap, Deadly Street Drug</a><br /><br />May 14, 1939: A 5-Year-Old Becomes Youngest Mother on Record<br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/05/dayintech_0514">May 14, 1939: A 5-Year-Old Becomes Youngest Mother on Record</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.glumbert.com/media/highpower">High Power Job</a><br /><br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/1847424_500.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-add-search-to-google-reader.html">Google Operating System: How to Add Search to Google Reader</a><br /><br />gears of war (mad world) (via gears0fwar)<br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ccWrbGEFgI8" width="400" height="318" allowScriptAccess="never"></embed><br /><br /><a href="http://particletree.com/notebook/the-underbelly-of-a-web-app/">The Underbelly of a Web App</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/72">Chris Anderson: Technology's Long Tail (video)</a><br /><br />Infinite Loop:<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/1721389_500.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://www.longfocus.com/firefox/gmanager/">Gmail Manager - manage multiple Gmail accounts from Firefox</a><br /><br /><a href="http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs">Cool business card designs</a><br /><br />“A new study suggests that culture may shape the way our brains process visual information.”<br><br> - <em><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11785&feedId=online-news_rss20">Can culture dictate the way we see? - being-human - 04 May 2007 - New Scientist</a></em><br /><br /><a href="http://www.kottke.org/07/05/growth-of-twitter-vs-blogger">Growth of Twitter vs. Blogger</a><br /><br />Octopus-Dumpling soda via news.3yen.com<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/1602362_500.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://nanoweb.si.kz/">Nanoweb - The PHP Web Server</a><br><br>Because sometimes evil wins.<br /><br />It's Pikachu!<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/1503564_500.jpg"><br /><br />LOLTrek<br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/1466026_500.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://edibleanus.com/">The Incredible Edible Belgian Chocolate Anus</a><br /><br />Web 2.0 Map. There be dragons ... <br /><img src="http://data.tumblr.com/1459817_500.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://universe.daylife.com/">Universe - Using the metaphor of an interactive night sky, Universe presents an immersive environment for navigating the world’s contemporary mythology, as found online in global news and information from Daylife.</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/05/army_tests_figh.html">Army Tests Fighting Robot</a><br><br>"Designed to fly on a Black Hawk, the [MULE] will carry two 7.62mm machine guns and two Javelin anti-tank missiles and feed camera data from its on-board sensors."<br /><br />“Notifications, the way you want them”<br><br> - <em><a href="http://brightkite.com/">brightkite.com</a></em><br /><br /><a href="http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/4/14/1">Quantum physics says goodbye to reality</a><br /><br /><a href="http://shirky.com/writings/group_politics.html">Shirky: Social Software and the Politics of Groups</a><br /><br />Code Guardian Part 1 (via CeeGeeProductions)<br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NWBKSO4DvWk"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NWBKSO4DvWk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://www.openthefuture.com/2007/04/the_early_signs_of_the_long_to.html">Open the Future: The Early Signs of the Long Tomorrow</a> - "IBM researchers James Frye, Rajagopal Ananthanarayanan, and Dharmendra S. Modha assembled a simulated mouse cortical hemisphere (that is, a functional half of a mouse brain) on one of the smaller BlueGene/L supercomputers. They then ran the simulation -- at ten seconds of computer processing equal to one second of brain function."<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://earthnow.usgs.gov/earthnow_app.html?sessionId=65584dcdec1c646c9a7d1c8fd28b6b0058685">EarthNow! Landsat Image Viewer</a><br /><br /><a href="http://topfunky.com/baseline-rhythm-calculator/">Baseline Rhythm Calculator</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-42039714220604692522007-05-22T10:25:00.000+10:002007-05-22T11:26:56.969+10:00...Some days are just like this I guess. <br /><br />Only trouble is that so many of my days have become like this.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-83250457809886527152007-05-15T13:38:00.000+10:002007-05-15T13:42:27.408+10:00Worst Movies Ever!In lieu of a real Zeitgeist, I give you this:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/joADFkh48TY"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/joADFkh48TY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br />The horse stunt is incredible. <br /><br />I saw Shark Attack 3 at Blockbuster ages ago. I knew it would be awesome.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-54045872941240187082007-05-07T12:05:00.000+10:002007-05-07T12:22:57.936+10:00ShameI don't know if you see the news about the "Honour Killing" videos put on the web. Don't watch it. <br /><br />Just know that the world can be a pretty fucked-up place. <br /><br />What can we do about it?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-59117966655375985332007-05-02T12:16:00.000+10:002007-05-02T12:27:03.946+10:0090 9F 11 20 9D 63 D4 5B C7 42 56 C5 63 56 88 C0You might see a Hexadecimal number somewhat similar to this: <br /><br />90 9F 11 20 9D 63 D4 5B C7 42 56 C5 63 56 88 C0<br /><br />popping up on the internet.<br /><br />It's the encryption key for HD-DVD players. <br /><br />"90 9F 11 20 9D 63 D4 5B C7 42 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" ... isn't actually the key, because sites are being taken down for publishing it, despite the fact that there is no way of protecting a number or string. But anyway, I don't want Google to block my blog. <br /><br />The whole exercise demonstrates the futility of trying to block access to media. If you can access the hardware (and we all have to in order to play the stupid video or music), you can break ANY encryption. That's just the way it is. <br /><br />It's all just maths!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-50724375846487471122007-05-02T10:10:00.000+10:002007-05-02T11:11:44.323+10:00ZeitgeistGreetings. Wednesday is the new Friday. Or at least it is if you are me and only work 3 days a week. Rest of my week is work on Top Secret Project. Hopefully ready to launch pretty soon. How excitement. <br /><br />Otherwise, nothing to report. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070430_duckgenital_evolution.html">A sexual arms race waged with twisted genitals has been discovered in waterfowl</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.jazzmutant.com/lemur_lastupdate.php">Jazz Mutant</a> - some weird-ass music console mixing effects pad thingy. Bjork has one. <br /><br />I want a Kaoss Pad. Just so you know. <br /><br />For your perusal and edification: <a href="http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&pid=482160">Dragon Precinct</a>. Fantasy Crime Fiction. I kid you not. <br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Carinae" class="link">Eta Carinae - the most massive star that can be studied in detail</a><br /><br /><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/EtaCarinae.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/EtaCarinae.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The Homunculus Nebula surrounds Eta Carinae. The Homunculus was created in an eruption of Eta Car whose light reached Earth in 1843.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus">Homunculus</a>.<br /><br />I just love that word.<br /><br /><a href="http://data.tumblr.com/1349445_500.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://data.tumblr.com/1349445_500.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I read "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" and all I learned was this word:<br /><br />Revanchist<br />1. The act of retaliating; revenge.2. A usually political policy, as of a nation or an ethnic group, intended to regain lost territory or standing.<br /><br /><a href="http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/4/14/1"> Quantum physics says goodbye to reality</a>: "physicists from Austria claim to have performed an experiment that rules out a broad class of hidden-variables theories that focus on realism -- giving the uneasy consequence that reality does not exist when we are not observing it"<br /><br />On that note ... <br /><br />The End.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26721282.post-14891882795286100792007-04-27T14:14:00.000+10:002007-04-27T14:17:21.304+10:00Reflections on one's last day of full-time workChange one line<br />Run compile task<br />Run jar task<br />Run run task<br />Test<br />****<br />Still doesn't work<br />Change one line<br />Goto 0<br /><br />------------------<br />The End.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1