Open Library Project

Open library, a non-profit Internet Archive, is now up and running in beta, which can be found at: http://openlibrary.org/

Basically, they are trying to scan (every) books (with permission) and have it open to the public. It's a great project to get and store books into a digital domain for preservation.

The content is wiki-editable, so if there is content that is wrong or missing, like the format, length, table of contents, etc.. this can be fixed.  Currently they have over 13.5 million books, making a large digital library the size of 13.5 peta-bytes!!!

I did a "scanned books only" search on Mark Twain and found his auto-biography. The images are real nice and I like the animated page turning.

 

What is also nice, is that they did a OCR scan, which means that we can also do a search on the book. I decided to do a search for "Elmira".

The highlight text of my search word can be found through out the book with yellow tabs as short cuts to the other pages.

Take a look at the site, what do you think of it?

Google Health

Out of curiosity I checked out Google Heath. You can enter information into your profile from basics such as height & wight to more detail information about your personal health being. An example would be your conditions, medications, allergies, etc..

One nice feature is the automatic updates of your records (if you belong to one of the following)

Google Health also offers heath services (ex: "Heart Attack Risk Calculator"), Medical Contact (you doctor information), and Find a doctor based on speciality.

Google Health gives the user a better handle on their health if they choose to have their information stored in a single location. It's a nice feature, I probably won't need to use it until I become older and close to retirement.

Checking out WorldWide Telescope

So Microsoft Research finally has released WorldWide Telescope (beta) to the public.

Ok, lets see what the hype has been about. The first thing I checked out was my astrological sign, the Taurus (Collections > Constellations > Taurus) and zoomed in on the left horn of the bull to Tien Kuan:

Next, I checked out the planet Neptune (Collections > Solar System > Neptune)

Then I checked out some Hubble Space Craft images. (Collections > Hubble Images > Composite Image of Galaxy Cluster MS 0735

You can also take guided tours where some guy with a PH.D will walk you through, such as the Milky Way's Black Hole.

You can download it at:

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/experienceIt/ExperienceIt.aspx?exp=true

The requirements will require a decent computer:

• PC with Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 gigahertz (GHz) or faster, recommended
• 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM; 2 GB RAM recommended
• 3D accelerated card with 128 megabytes (MB) RAM; discrete graphics card with dedicated 256-MB VRAM recommended for higher performance
• 1 GB of available hard disk space; 10 GB recommended for off-line features and higher performance browsing
• XGA (1024 x 768) or higher resolution monitor
• Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing and scrolling device
• Microsoft® XP SP2 (minimum), Windows® Vista® (recommended)
• Microsoft® DirectX® version 9.0c or later and .NET Framework 2.0 or later
• Required for some features; Internet connection at 56 Kbps or higher through either an Internet service provider (ISP) or a network. Internet access might require a separate fee to an ISP; local or long-distance telephone charges might also apply

Need to post something....hmmm how about MeatWater?

“High Efficiency Survival Beverages” as Dirty Hot Dog, “an authentic taste of the Big Apple you can sip through a straw!”

From: http://dinnerinabottle.com/ with other drink options such as:

Beef Jerky, Beef Stroganof, Cheese Burger, Chicken Teriyaki, Fish'n Chips, Hungarian Gulash, Italian Sausage, Peking Duck, Tandorri Chicken, Texas BBQ, Wiener Schnitzel, etc...

 

This might be a joke, but this is nothing new.

http://www.jonessoda.com/ back in 2004 made the "Turkey and Gravy" soda that people could buy as a joke gift for the holidays.

 

Well, hoped I grossed you out, especially the vegans and vegetarians. 

Up to this point in my life.

So my dreaded birthday is coming up again; which, means I start over analyzing my life and lack of achievements.

 

WORK:

I now, currently have 2 years of technical experience in which 1.5 are focused in .Net Programming. I have now worked for and consulted for 11 companies, and 2 government agencies. I still haven't applied for my certifications and have lots of new technologies to learn.

 

LIFE:

Still a loser. No girlfriend or friends within a 100 mile radius that I can hang out with on the weekend, but it's not like I'm looking or going to make a point of trying anytime in the future. I will always be an introvert and stay in my cave (dark bedroom).  I basically talk to only 2 of my friends from college, via online chat, on occasions.

Definitely been gaining weight, even though some of the gain is muscle, most of it is fat. I'm now seeing the effect of aging has on the body with some joint pain mostly in my feet. I really need to change my life and get healthier.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

I'm starting to get bored; hence for the reason for buying a Wii, XBox 360, and World of Warcraft with expansion pack. Video games are just not as fun as they use to be, but it helps pass the time.

I have now watched 3,342 movies and tv-series. I now subscribe to 29 podcasts and visit Digg.com more often then I should.

 

Well, I predict that not much will change within the next year or so.

Microsoft Research: MySong

Another interesting concept coming out of Microsoft called MySong, and who says Microsoft isn't innovated? Check it out : http://research.microsoft.com/~dan/mysong/

So basically what MySong does is help make a melody of notes for your song based on your criteria (happy factor and jazz factor) and factors in your voice. Take a look: http://research.microsoft.com/~dan/mysong/mysong_1.swf

The software uses Hidden Markov Model as it's Artificial Intelligence approach to select the best melody sequence and notes to harmonize with the user's voice.

My complaints about Netflix

I really love how Netflix has revolutionize the video rental industry, no late fees, a self containing rental queue, ease of setup and returns, etc.. But, there is one major annoyance, beyond the scratchy DVDs I get, and that's the lack of showing me what are the good movies.

Recently I have notice is that the "New Releases", that it never shows any new popular released DVDs.

  The movies that are currently shown in the list are "Becoming Jane", "Beowulf", "Away From Her", "Jane Austin Book Club", "Sweet Land", and so on (mostly down hill from there if you can believe it). Where the f*** are the new movies like "No country for old men", "There will be Blood", "American Gangster", "The Mist", "30 days of Night",  etc...

What it seems to me, is that Netflix is only showing the least popular movies in the "Popular New Releases" category to offset buying these crappy DVDs. I first started thinking this when I viewed the "Movies you'll love" category. A category in which it is suppose to guess what movies I might like based on the ratings of my other movies. The suggestions are way off mark on what might be considered good, and I know that there are a few that should be listed instead.

I'm not too hard to figure out, heck I give most movies a 3 out of 5, 99% of the time, but the only movies I have in this section are very lacking any interest to me.

The worst section of them all is the "Watch Currently" section. This  is suppose to be a customer grabbing, new feature that gives the option to watch some movies instantly online. The thing is, the selections of movies are most often ranked under 3 stars. It is rare to find anything above.

To sum up, Netflix please stop jerking us around and give us better knowledge of the real popular movies and better choices. You will lose popularity real quick if there was any real competition (blockbuster doesn't even count).

Slacking on my postings.

Okay, its been awhile since I posted to my blog. What's up with William, you (lack of people who read my blog) may ask.

Here is what I been doing lately that has made me a slacker:

• Playing lots of World of Warcraft. I started playing with Venk, and moved my characters over to the Lightbringer server. My cartoons: Cursacerdos and Pallaton . It's weird playing on PvE server now, I don't get jumped and every time I see an Alliance player I almost instinctively want to attack them.
  
• Reading and Programming from "Essential Windows Communication Foundation" and "C# 3.5 in a Nutshell". Really love how WCF has improved the way of communication. It is also interesting reading some of the interesting ways (==) is not the same as .Equals and the complications of DateTime vs. DateTime Offset.
  
• Watching TV, hoping for something that isn't a repeat. Unfortunately the only thing worth watching is The Daily Show, Lost, Biggest Loser, and Eli Stone.
  
• Listing to tons of Podcasts. My favorites so far are:
Grammar Girl , Math Grad , Math Factor , Diggnation , 60-Second Science . I keep slacking off listing to the Japanese Podcasts.

In local news: Qwest to Workers - Pee in a Urinal Bag

Qwest told 25 workers to piss in a bag instead of stopping somewhere, claims union reps.  I would be just pissed if I was working at Qwest. Ugh bad pun, booo I suck. here's another one :)

"One local administrative director said that while the union deals with a "a lot of silliness in corporate America," this one takes the [urinal] cake."

 

Source: http://consumerist.com/371011/qwest-to-workers-pee-in-a-urinal-bag

IE 8 dilemma "Backward Compatibility vs. Web Standards"

An interesting read from Joel Spolsky's blog 'Joel on Software', I think he hit the nail on the head about the new IE 8. The tough decision Microsoft has to make on "backward compatibility vs. web standards" is damning to Microsoft.

I been beta testing the new browser and reporting any errors I come across, except for web sites that are not correctly displayed anymore, as I will explain. (Ex: Google Maps)

I categorize myself as an "idealist" (according to Joel), I think that IE should "treat all sites that claim to be 'standards-compliant' as if they have been designed for and tested with IE8". In another word, if a site is broken, then they should fix it themselves, and leave the new IE as clean as possible.

Even though I'm an "idealist", I do have my heart out to the "realist" who believe there should be some way of applying backward compatibility.

Joel's prediction on what is going to happen is probably true, but I like to add one addition. I think this beta version might last a lot longer then what most believe. This will end up hurting Microsoft in the beginning, but it is necessary to get IE back on the right track.

Food Court Musical by Improv Everywhere

The group that brought us the "Frozen Grand Central" is back again, this time with a food court musical.

I always love watching the people's reactions when this stuff happens.

http://improveverywhere.com/2008/03/09/food-court-musical/#more-221

Well my home town is in the news. (Elmira, NY)

"Christians ordered to pay big bucks – for praying!" - http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57757

Summary: 4 christian Elmirans were fined $100 for praying at a gay fest, by getting in the way "public order".

I'm not a religious person, actually I'm a atheist, but to impede on someone's right to free speech is just ethically wrong and this seems like something the right wing conservatives would do. The thing is since it was a small group of people, they could of protest near the church which is across the street (north) from the park.

Wisner Park

Sergeant Moyer

Hilarious: Children Science Projects

Fat Man To Mars

Great, I have a chance to go to mars. At least that is what I hope he concluded.

Extreme Wood

Don't even want to know what the graph represents.

Moon Babies

Great!! more reasons why you should use more protection on the moon.

Crystal Meth Friend or Foe

I hope it's good news, can't wait to try the benefits of meth.

 

See more other experiments at the source.

-Source: http://www.photobasement.com/41-hilarious-science-fair-experiments/

Usability of Apple and Window products.

Just noticed something I could rant/discuss about. <^_^>

I always hear people, mostly Microsoft haters -- you know the ones that use the archaic M$ and think they are original and/or funny, complain about Office 2007's Ribbon and basically write the whole suite off as crap because of it.

Well, one day after my father asked me to help him with his iPhone, I finally realize I hated there usability. Maybe, Apple users have no problems finding what they are looking for in a few clicks instead of searching around, but when they use a Microsoft product, like Office, they might have the same difficulty and become frustrated with the product. (The same can probably be said about Linux)

I guess there is a certain expectation on where each type of user (Apple, Windows, Linux) expect to find what they want in different areas.

I bet this would be a cool study to do research on. Give a set of different users some simple tasks like changing the font type, using the thesaurus, etc.. and see where they instinctively go for their first few clicks. I would hypothesis that the majority of each group of users have different patterns. 

I will admit, my first use of the Ribbon, in Office 2007, was difficult in the beginning. Now it just makes more sense and I'm glad for the change. Rewriting someone's instinctively learned behavior is never easy at first but change in behavior is possible.

Now, I only wish it was that easy with Golf!

Learned from college

One of the first classes that I had in college was a communication's course on Usability. Being an avid computer and Internet user I would expect some concepts to be obvious, but as pointed out by the professor -- not everybody is familiar with the unwritten rules of conduct. How would someone new to the Internet know that a blue underlined text might be a link to more information. I hated that I had to make my class project ugly by putting information like this:

Click here to go back to the home page --> Home Page

The project, learning about rainbows, had a focus group for 4-6th graders. I would expect that they can pick up minor nuances quicker, because their behavioral learning is a blank slate.

Lesson Learned

• Designers - try to keep in mind of your main users, if not all of them. Never design based on your personal preferences and then expect everyone to like it.
• Haters - don't trash something because you feel like a 2 year old. Give it some time.

How not to ask a question

How not to ask a question

An interesting collection of post from the blog The Old New Thing in which Eric Lippert's blog summarizes into a nice set of bullet points:

• Use a difficult or meaningless subject line.
• Ask a grammatically unclear question.
• Forget to actually ask a question (this is a personal favo[u]rite of mine; back when I was working on scripting I would practically daily get an email consisting of a stack trace and a crash report, with no indication whatsoever of what the sender wanted me to do with it. Investigate it? Commiserate? Give career advice?)
• Ask an unanswerable question over and over again.
• phrasing the question in terms of the attempted solution rather than the underlying problem

I will be more careful when asking questions to follow these sets of "Do Not" rules. There have been a few customers who would give me a complex, difficult to read/understand contract that spells out their services, expectations, and rules. I would then have to decipher a set of business rules out of them.

I then come to a situation where I would ask a large set of questions via email and never hear a response. Like I sent the question to a large festering black hole, expecting never to hear anything about it. One of these bullet points might have been the problem, or they just like ignoring the difficult to answer questions. Anyway, what I usually end up doing after complaining to my managers is just guess what they were hoping for. If they have a problem with it later:

1) I already asked, so don't blame me for overages in the estimates hours and

2) It would only take a few seconds to fix in the code (hopefully). 

Call Jockey - funny fake call emulator

This is just too good but very sad and pathetic. We are, so cell phone dependent that there is now a tool that can be used to make a fake phone call from anyone at anytime. Most likely use for this is to make an excuse to leave a party/meeting or seem more important.

 

Free until March 1, but I'm guessing the price of the software will be $6.95 to buy afterward. Take a look: http://www.connectivetools.com/calljockey.html

Zune

So, I finally bought myself a new MP3 player. As you can guess it's a Zune. I bought the small 8gb red, thinking I can buy a arm band and use it during my workouts later.

Moving to the Zune has many benefits.

1. Don't need to worry about batteries, at least not for the next 2 years.
2. Podcasts - the Zune software is really nice when it comes to podcasts. Just subscribe to huge list of podcasts and tell it to download the newest content when it becomes available. The next time I connect my Zune to my computer it deletes already watched podcasts and uploads new ones.
3. You can also view videos, listen to the radio, and save pictures onto it. There is also a wifi feature but need to find someone else with a Zune to see how "social" works.

What I miss a little:

1. There is no current time and date. Not really a big deal as long as I have my cell phone.
2. Equalizer.  I can live without, but they should add one.

What would be cool:

• Visualization: if they added a visualization for the screen when listening to music or the radio. This should also include the possibility to download others so we can customize.
• Streaming: if a wifi connection is available, maybe the option to listen to a streaming site like an online radio station or television. 

 

I am so far having fun playing with my new toy. I keep subscribing to new podcasts. <^_^> Visit my Zune profile to see what I'm listening too: http://social.zune.net/member/avgbody

 

Technorati Tags: microsoft,mp3,music,pictures,player,podcast,video,zune

Evolution of Tech Companies Logos and their meaning. Plus a look at my university's logo.

Logo changes

An interesting read on how and when some of the current tech companies got started and the transition of their logo throughout the years.

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/07/the-evolution-of-tech-companies-logos/

Concept behind the logos

So what is the meaning behind of these famous logos?http://www.tmsgraphics.ca/tmsgraphics/pages/logo.html , shows where and what the ideas behind them are. The thought behind Apple's logo for example is now obvious:

Apple Based on its company name, they selected an apple as its main form of branding. Initially, the very first logo depicted a small apple shape sitting under a tree with Apple Computer Co set into the frame of the picture. It is this apple that has continued to be used. This initial logo design was perceived to be a bit too complex and hard to view, so Regis McKenna worked on the logo some years later and added a “bite mark" into the apple to symbolize the concept of seduction of the customers and the marketplace in general. Next, the monochrome version was replaced with the rainbow–colored logo as a reference to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in which the apple represents the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. It brings to mind that people must pursue their dreams. While this was not initially a deliberate goal, it did encourage business and consumers to consider the Apple brand for the first time and was successful in generating increased profits.

My University Logo

Around 2002 my college, SUNY-IT, was going through another logo change (3rd or 4th change). They went to some company to do "research studies" and "focus groups" to find a logo that would work for our school. The logo they came up with was:

Not bad, unfortunately, I and some others didn't care for the Nike like swoop. The old logo, which resembled a bikini

actually had some meaning behind it and it was sad to see the history erased. If you look closely you will see that the old logo consisted of three letters U, D and C ;which stood for Upper Division College (until 2003, the college was upper division only, consisting of junior, seniors and grad students since 1966)* ** ***.  

Making a significant change to any logo is a tough job. I'm sure the transition made many people angry at the time, but the new logo is  better for marketing.

The earliest logo, which can be found on a flag at the college, consisted of the SUNY logo

   on a blue background with the name of the college on it.

*Another fun fact: The college actually started in the city of Utica, at a refurbished Mill factory.

**Even more interesting: The reason why the Donovan building   
seems so strange and confusing from the outside and definitely the inside is because it was modeled after the old Mill factory where the college originated from.

*** One of my favorite things about the college was that classes, before the change, were only Monday through Thursday. (an extra day of partying)

Technorati Tags: sunyit,suny-it,state university of new york,institute of technology,logo,nokia,ibm,apple,canon,history

David Blaine

Well, its a slow news day and couldn't find anything new and interesting. I decided to embed 3 funny clips from Funny or Die that show how scary David Blaine can be as a magician. It gets funnier on part 2 and 3.

Technorati Tags: david blaine,funny or die,comedy

Old habits never die

One of the things I could never stand was reading code that had the parenthesis on the same line as the function declaration, and couldn't understand why people even bother with this format still. I finally found why this is so.

public void MyMethod (int arg1, string arg2, bool arg3) {
      DoSomethingHere ();
} 

"Notice in above code the parenthesis is inline with the method declaration. And apparently the reason for that was that back in the days the monitors didn't have high resolutions and writing the parenthesis in the same line saved you one line on the monitor screen.




[...]

Let me end this post with a short story that could apply to the above text. I read this in Steve Maguire's book Debugging the Development Process. The story goes like this:

'A boy asked his mother how come she cuts off the edges of a pot roast when putting it into the pot. Mother told him that that's how her mother taught her to do. So, boy went to his grandmother and he got the same answer. Then he went to his grand-grandmother and ask her the same question. The answer was: Well, back then my pot was to small and the meat didn't fit inside.'" - http://blogs.msdn.com/peterj/archive/2008/02/05/on-code-formatting.aspx

One thing I do notice and find interesting are peoples habits and sayings/proverbs that were past down generations ago. Sometimes I would watch a old movie, and hear them say a phrase that will catch my attention -- thinking -- how old is that saying?




I found a web site that shows the sources of some of these weird sayings: http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayindex.htm 

 

Some samples:

• Balls to the wall - This is not a reference to the male anatomy, as some would believe, but an expression from the world of aviation. On an aeroplane, the handles controlling the throttle and fuel mixture are often topped with ball-shaped grips, referred to by pilots as (naturally) balls. Pushing the balls forward, towards the wall of the cockpit, is to apply full throttle and the highest possible speed.
  
  



• Go off half-cocked - The hammer of 17th century flintlock muskets was often very ornate and resembled a rooster or cock. To fully cock a gun was to prepare it for firing. The half-cock position was a 'safe' position to which the hammer or cock was drawn to permit access to the priming pan to charge and load the weapon. Pulling the trigger of a flintlock musket at half-cock will not fire the weapon. The hammer, which contains the flint, will not strike the frizzen with sufficient force to produce a spark and the primer charge in the pan will not ignite. This will only happen when the hammer is fully cocked, that is, completely drawn back.
  
  



• Cut and run - An old nautical expression. In an emergency, it was sometimes necessary to cut the anchor cable, instead of going through the time-consuming business of winching up the anchor, in order to get away quickly ('run' before the wind, at full sail). The Armada was said to have done this off Calais on the approach of English fireships.
  
  



• Cold Turkey - In the state of drug withdrawal an addict's blood is directed to the internal organs, leaving the skin white and with goose bumps and thus resembling a frozen plucked turkey. This expression goes back to the 1930s.
  
  



• Give the bird - From theatrical slang; originally 'get the big bird', i.e. the goose, which hisses as people do when they make traditional sound of disapproval at a bad public performance.

Technorati Tags: sayings,proverb,tradition,habit

Super Bowl XLII

Nowadays I don't watch sports, grew bored of them; however, I do watch during special events.

I routed for the Giants, since my friend (Mike Usselman) is a huge fan and I really don't care for the Patriots. Giants defense did well, keeping the Patriots scoring low through out the game.  Really nice last minute touchdown to pull it ahead for the win.

Final: NYG 17 / NE 14

What ever happen to changing the venue for the Super Bowl. I'm sick of the games being played in good weather stadiums only, it's soooo boring. I would love to watch a mud or ice bowl once in my life time. Also give some of the other cities some of that large cash flow (approx. $540 Million).

 

Lets talk ads, which can be viewed at: http://www.myspace.com/superbowlads

Found some to be mildly humorous, but nothing hilarious. Don't have a favorite, since none of them made me do more then a chuckle.

Favorites:

• FedEx's pigeon, 
• Cars.com commercials (stone circle death match and witch doctor),
• Bud Light commercials (gives you fire breath and flying ability),
• amp's car starter.

Microsoft might buy out Yahoo for $44.6 Billion

 &

Heard this little tidbit on the way to work today. At a price of $31 per share, for a total of approximately $44.6 Billion, Microsoft is looking to buy Yahoo.

I wonder how my friend, Venkatesh Tatineni, will take the news, as long as they don't switch over to .Net anytime soon -- he should be okay with it -- I think.

Microsoft is hoping on the fact that Yahoo will double in value within the next 3 years. They believe that the two companies will be able to pull out better R&D, media, and better advertisers.

Hope Steve Ballmer knows what he is doing.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-01CorpNewsPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

Technorati Tags: microsoft,yahoo,buy

World's Largest Swimming Pool

This is one pool, where swimming 1 lap would be more then enough of a work out. This pool, found in Chile, is 1 Km long and 35 meters deep.

 

 

Technorati Tags: world,largest,swimming,pool

Flight canceled other then weather? Invoke rule 240

This is just a good FYI found on http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22900119/.

"Rule 240 — which states that in the event of any flight delay or cancellation caused by anything other than weather, the airline would fly me on the next available flight — not their next available flight, which might not leave for another 24 hours.
[...]
Of course, in today's deregulated environment, when airlines no longer have to post tariffs, the argument can be made that Rule 240 therefore no longer exists. Officially, that's true, but in practice a majority of airlines still honor the old rules, 240 among them. The newer carriers — those that do not have interline agreements with the major legacy airlines, like JetBlue, Southwest and Air Tran, never had Rule 240 to deal with, and thus don't, as a matter of company policy, endorse tickets over to other carriers (although JetBlue has been known to outright buy tickets on other carriers to accommodate some of its passengers).
[...]
United Airlines changed its language to say that in the event of a delay or cancellation, it would still fly you on a competitor, but not necessarily in the same class of service as on your original United flight. Delta still has a Rule 240 in its contract of carriage, but conveniently omits the section in which it used to say it wo[u]ld fly you on another carrier in the event of a "flight irregularity." American only promises to get you out on one of its own flights. Alaska and Northwest airlines have stayed with most of the original paragraph 240 language. "

 

I really like the idea that the old airlines still honor this. 

 

Technorati Tags: rule 240,airline,travel,delayed,cancel

Anonymous Hackers vs. Scientology

The past week or so there has been many stories about a group of hackers attacking scientology web sites. This is becoming very interesting and epic with statements from Anonymous.

"By now you have certainly become aware of us and our actions"

"We have commenced our assault upon your institution and would like to take this moment to enlighten you. We are Anonymous, you might now think of us as merely a hacker group, but we are much more. We are the protectors of knowledge, we are the '[I]nternet hate machine'."

 

 

ANON?MOUS

Propaganda. EST 2008

Hello. Scientology. We are Anonymous.

Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind--for the laughs--we shall expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell.

You cannot hide; we are everywhere.

We cannot die; we are forever, We're getting bigger every day--and  solely by the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as they often are. If you want another name for your opponent, then call us Legion, for we are many.

Yet for all that we are not as monstrous as you are; still our methods are a parallel to your own. Doubtless you will use the Anon's actions as an example of the persecution you have so long warned your followers would come; this is acceptable. In fact, it is encouraged. We are you SPs.

Gradually as we merge our pulse with that of your "Church", the suppression of your followers will become increasingly difficult to maintain. Believers will wake, and see that salvation has no price. They will know that the stress, the frustration that they feel is not something that may be blamed upon Anonymous. No -- they will see that it stems from a source far closer to each. Yes, we are SPs. But the sum of suppression we could ever muster is eclipsed by that of the RTC.

Knowledge is free.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us.

                                                                    -- Anonymous

Its a little fun to watch with a touch of scariness. Anonymous reminds me of the group in the 12 Monkeys who went around setting animals free from the zoo, or better yet Fight Club. I guess you could of seen this coming -- two awesome (geek favorite) movies. 

 

Some Sources:
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showpost.php?p=57816&postcount=1
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/424/anonymoussp5.gif
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23107452-5014239,00.html
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3993733/

Just go to Digg for many many more interesting stories about this.

Image Recognition Search Engine

I thought this would be cool to develop, if I ever had time to do the coding and research.

 

Concept:

Upload an image to the search engine, in which it would gather all the main points of the image and run a image recognition search. The search engine then would display back in a list from most to least relevant matches.

 

How this can be used:

New companies: Do a search on potential logos, making sure not to infringe on other companies.

 

People searching: Find all pictures of yourself or someone else taken from other people. Maybe even find yourself walking in the background of someone else's pictures.

 

Location searching: Find all pictures of some popular spot, like the Eiffel Tower. 

 

So I did a search on Google to see if there is anything out there yet. I did find something about Google inquiring Neven Vision & Image Recognition which also had another great idea of using cell phones because most of them already have cameras built in.

I'm a little sad and happy now. Sad that I can't make millions now, like that would of happen. I just can't wait until this becomes real. They had some other cool and interesting ideas on how this could be used as well.

For example, I take a photo of a cute girl, or group of people at a bar. And what does Google now know about these people?

*Which bars or restaurants they frequent?
* Where is the location of that bar?
* Whether they prefer beer, wine or liquor.
* What kind of clothing they purchase & wear?
* Whether or not they smoke.
* Do they wear eye glasses or not?
* Who are they connected to in the real world and what is that connection?
* Which college did they attend?
* What sports teams do they follow?
* How much makeup do they wear when they go out?
* Whether they use tanning lotion or not.
* Do they have a full head of hair, balding or bald?

 

Good resources for Computer Science students

This site gives some good sites to use, if you're a computer science student. http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2008/50-killer-online-resources-for-computer-science-students/

The site categorizes the information into the following sections:

• Advice
• Money
• Organizations
• Careers
• Artificial Intelligence
• Hacking and Security
• Programming
• Information Sources
• Tools & Assistance

 

Here are some of my favorites:

http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~bthom/advice.html has some nice advice if you are considering graduate school, and the truth about job searching for unemployed students.

 

http://dobrev.com/AI/definition.html a nice write-up from PC Magazine on what is AI.

 

http://www.acooke.org/andrew/writing/lang.html  a really nice read on the several must know terminology found in the world of programming.

 

http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net/ a humorous and interesting concept. Instead of a list of "Hello World" in every language, this site writes out the lyrics to the song.

 

http://www.nist.gov/dads/  a dictionary of computer science terms, algorithms, and data structures.

 

http://www.geocities.com/ikind_babel/babel/babel.html - list of acronyms, because in computer science we just love making new ones all the time just to confuse people.

Who Calls Me?

I just received a phone call from a country code of 851
(851 961 8531). I looked the number up and see that it is not even registered with any country (any more - used to be with Italy).

 

I then, hoped with luck, just Google it and came up with this site: http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8519618531, where other people also complained about being cold called from this number.

 

Just wondering how they got my number, or they using a machine to cycle through and see if there is an answer for use later on?

What technology should teachers know?

An interesting article http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=614 show some questions that should be asked during interviews for teachers interested in teaching at a 21 centaury school that has some focus on teaching technology to their K-12 students.

Each question goes into detail on why the question is being asked. The first few questions are just to get a ball park area of knowing what experience the teacher has using a computer. Have they used a program on a computer before? Have they use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, e-mail, etc....

Other questions basically look to see if they know how to do research on the Internet, if they read blogs, belong to online communities, etc...

I'm glad to see that technology is playing more of a role in the school.

 

What about Computer Science in the Classroom?

At my schools K-12 the computer was hardly ever used as a teaching instrument, but this was before the popularity of the Internet. I was unfortunate to go to a school where they did not teach any programming classes in the high school, so about time I started programming in college I had no experience compared to others. This at the time made me a little jealous, since I had to start from scratch.

The thing is I became the best in the class real fast and ended up help the professors in giving more complex examples of programs. Before becoming a computer science major I was a math major; which at first did not have much in common other then some discrete/finite math. The thing is many computer science professors believe the use of a computer to teach computer science is actually a hindrance.

I believe that computer science should be a new curriculum in K-12 school. Computer science is an excellent example on how math and physics are used in the every day real world, and should be taught without using computers.

The students can learn how binary, cryptography, sorting, etc.. works without a computer. Here is a video showing how this might be done.

 

Game Reviewers

Finding a good game reviewer is just as difficult as finding a good movie reviewer who is not pretentious (Ebert & Roeper) or idiotic (A. O. Scott from the New York Times ). I've been playing video games, religiously, since Atari 2700 and been a big fan ever since.

The problem is, most games these days are crap and can't hold my attention (ADD?) span long enough for me to crave it. The thing is that I'm not the only (28-33 year old gamer) who thinks this way. It just apparent to us, that most games these days are mind numbing boring.

I take home Halo 3 expecting to be a game that can hold my attention, only to find that I can beat it in one day. Mario Galaxy did a decent job, but after a week I got bored of jumping from planets to planet collecting stars and shit . 

That last good game that I've played was World of Warcraft, but I forced myself to give that up since it was too addicting and was all that I can think about. 

Now, some of you might think, "Awww, Willie is growing up and doesn't like games any more", HELL NO!!! this is not the case (Peter Pan Syndrome?). I just need a game like Counter-Strike (circa 2001), but more modern graphics to hold me off.

Anyway, I really like the game reviewer "Zero Punctuation! (AKA Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw)" at Escapist Magazine. His reviews, so far, are dead on and funny -- even with a British/Australian accent. I think his review of Assassin's Creed hit every nail on the head

 

Potpourri of info:

IE 7 Pro

http://www.ie7pro.com/ 

[A] must have add-on for Internet Explorer, which includes a lot of features and tweaks to make your IE friendlier, more useful, secure and customizable. IE7Pro includes Tabbed Browsing Management, Spell Check, Inline Search, Super Drag Drop, Crash Recovery, Proxy Switcher, Mouse Gesture, Tab History Browser, Web Accelerator, User Agent Switcher, Webpage Capturer, AD Blocker, Flash Block, Greasemonkey like User Scripts platform, User Plug-ins and many more power packed features. You can customize not just Internet Explorer, but even your favorite website according to your need and taste using IE7Pro.

A nice add-on. Just glad to see that there is scripting on another browser.

 

Wall-Socket PC

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39272166,00.htm

A interesting concept developed in the UK and it doesn't run on Linux. For £209 without a monitor and keyboard, you get a computer that runs on 5 watts and the following:

• Windows CE
• IE 6
• 500MHz AMD RISC processor (~1.2GHz  x86)
• 64MB of flash memory
• 128MB of RAM
• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• 16 bit audio
• 24 bit color with 1280x1024 graphics
• wireless connection

New Years Resolutions

1. Lose weight (obvious) - start running and staying at the gym longer while eating less.
2. Get Microsoft Certifications
3. Save more money for raining days.
4. Stop being lazy!!!!! Get up and do some work for god-sake.

Life Videopedia

5min - Life Videopedia - a really nice site for viral tutorials ranging on several subjects. I watched several on making sushi, and think I'm ready for it now. :)

Facebook Statistics

Some interesting statistics found on http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/01/02/2008-statistics-on-american-politics-on-facebook/

 

• 8% of the adults in the U.S. are on Facebook.
• 47% of the adults in Washington, DC are on Facebook.
• Of the American adults on Facebook, 40.9% call themselves liberal, 28.4% moderate, and 30.7% conservative.

 

It is always obvious to me, that most tech-savvy sites like Facebook, Digg, etc... are going to be over whelming liberal. Too bad a 8% sample is a very poor bias sample of the population of the U.S. in this case.