Tuesday, July 24, 2007

the internet 1.1

of course the americans also do this:
http://www.afsc.org/iraq/movie.htm

life of a nerd 1.1

just discovered this:

http://www.informationarchitects.jp/slash/ia_trendmap_start.html

the internet

what arabs are using the internet for:
downloading amma na3eemeh ringtones

what americans are using the internet for:
using youtube to post videos of questions to presidential candidates for the 08 elections

Monday, July 23, 2007

life of a nerd

this past week i would categorize as "unleash the nerd within" week.

i installed linux and spent the week trying to make it play nice with windows. some success. some failure. try these websites out:

www.ubunut.com (linux distro for the beginners, like myself)
www.fedoraproject.com (another linux distro, nice and bluish, also for beginners)

of course, beginner here is a relative term. if you're one of those people who still right-click to copy/paste and have the need to minimize everything before opening a new window, linux is not for you. in fact, install linux without knowing what you're doing and you can kill your computer. please do. oh, and when you do, go to www.linuxquestions.org for help. you'll need it.

i also came across the internet's periodic table (pretty cool, but the name is misleading)

http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2007-06-23--periodic-table-of-the-internet.html

it is a nice place to browse if you're not internet savvy (see, there are sites other than facebook)

if you like to "see" everything, check:

http://www.technorati.com/

i found it overwhelming and confusing, but it may me your cup of tea.

my favorite nerd-quencher is:

http://lifehacker.com/

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

möbius

seriously, the following is not something from a cheesy science fiction movie:

The Shape of a Möbius Strip

E. L. Starostin & G. H. M. van der Heijden

The Möbius strip, obtained by taking a rectangular strip of plastic or paper, twisting one end through 180°, and then joining the ends, is the canonical example of a one-sided surface. Finding its characteristic developable shape has been an open problem ever since its first formulation in refs 1,2. Here we use the invariant variational bicomplex formalism to derive the first equilibrium equations for a wide developable strip undergoing large deformations, thereby giving the first non-trivial demonstration of the potential of this approach. We then formulate the boundary-value problem for the Möbius strip and solve it numerically. Solutions for increasing width show the formation of creases bounding nearly flat triangular regions, a feature also familiar from fabric draping3 and paper crumpling4, 5. This could give new insight into energy localization phenomena in unstretchable sheets6, which might help to predict points of onset of tearing. It could also aid our understanding of the relationship between geometry and physical properties of nano- and microscopic Möbius strip structures7, 8, 9.

http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nmat1929.html

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

misplaced charity

"... and how women in particular could display a sort of theoretically laudable but harmfully self-sacrificial kind of misplaced charity when they saw somebody damaged"

Monday, July 16, 2007

word abuse

a number of poor people some years ago were creative enough to invent witty phrases that people use beyond abuse.

fusion: whenever anything from the west is mixed by something from the east, fusion happens. wtf! mixing weird spices together and calling it creative fusion is not creative. gay cooks and lame musicians love this word.

this is not a science, but an art: no idiot, it's a science that you'll do as well as any artist if you practice, unless you're referring to actual art, in which case you're either that dumb or are trying to be cute. people of any craft like to brag with that phrase.

this is not a threat, it's a promise: fucker a threat is a promise, only one of injury or pain. very popular with actors who think they're bad.

compare apples to apples (more commonly combare abble to abble): i think this is the one phrase people abuse more than any other. i'm in the telecom business and for God's sake people stop using this phrase. we get it, you're smart, you've had experience in the world of business, just please, please stop using this phrase. anyone with half a brain uses this phrase.