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I have just realized that I have some chance to be alive at the turn of hexentury, for in just 26 years we will be reaching the symbolic year 800 and I will be (if alive) 45 year old --- a ripe old age, but not at all elderly by today's standards.
I really love my new place of work, but their insistence on using barbarian paper sizes, like letter and legal, instead of civilized ones, like the ISO 216 A series, is starting to get on my nerves.
It is already funny that we have reached that critical mass where every mishap has the potential to become an instant worldwide phenomenon:
But even more astonishing is that we have a sufficient pool of collective spare time to turn those events into real artwork:
Maybe the Z generation is right... "the lulz" is a powerful motivator.
Now that I am shedding my winter fur, I am finding that white ceramic was a really poor choice for the floors...
By Florence Ehnuel, very interesting read, this little excerpt translated by me: "Perhaps to justify myself, I propose a comparison: I really like the mount of Midi d'Osseau, one of the peaks of the Pyrénées, I find it wonderful and I dream of climbing it often. In spite of this enthusiasm, I would not like to be told that this would be the one and only hiking that I will be allowed to do in my life (or even in the next ten years). I would hate to be confronted to the choice: either you climb it and you consacrate yourself to it, or you give it up. I realize that this mount of Midi d'Osseau is grandiose. I can easily believe that as much as one may visit it, one will find new wonders, new details that one will quiver in retrospect of having missed them. I have no doubt that the more we walk it, the more we become able to appreciate it, but nevertheless, despite all this, in my guts, in my heart, in the liveliest part of my brain, the desire to meet other mounts is irresistible. In the same way, the desire of meeting much more of one single man. And not necessarily one after the other, if life, which is so parcimonious in true encounters, happens to put them on my way in quincunx or simultaneously." Tue, 29th Sep. 2009, 15:26
Gay Youth
Very interesting article on the NYTimes about queer middle-schoolers. I particularly enjoyed this paragraph: “I told Austin he could go if either me or his dad went with him,” she recalled. “So he chose his dad, probably because he knew it would be the thing his dad would want to do least in the world. But off they went, and I give my husband credit, because he will do anything for his son. He doesn’t totally understand why Austin is gay, or how he can know for sure at his age, but he’s trying to be there for him. And he’s rarely seen Austin happier than at the parade. Austin warned his dad, ‘You can’t get mad at me when I scream at cute guys in Speedos!’ And boy, did Austin scream. He was in gay teenage heaven.”
This one is fun-tas-tic: 
...not only you have the unique privilege of walking the right way (that is, with your heads above your feet), but also you'll get a perfect view of the Perseid Meteor Shower.
...whatever happened to Prof. Slughorn moustache ?!
The HP Mini 1000 microphone/headphone jack is also non-standard...
...and you've guessed right ! The microphone or adapter that would make its use possible is not yet available.
Hewlett-Packard --- turning electronics into bricks.
Recipe for a disaster, by Hewlett-Packard: - Create a computer with a non-standard port to connect an external monitor ; - Make sure that it is a netbook, with a tiny screen ; - Require your customers to buy an adapter from your non-standard port to a vga port, don't put it on the bundle ! (Apple, we are learning with you!) ; and grand finale... - Months after release the product, make sure that this adapter is yet not released ! * * * I'm done with HP. From my very first inkjet printer to my latest laser multifunction I can't remember a single product of them I haven't regretted buying. This HP Mini VGA adapter fiasco is the last drop.
If were, in a crazy whim, to sell my soul to Apple how much would it cost ? | What | In Brazil (R$) | In USA (US$) | To carry around -
Apple Macbook Pro MB990BZ Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz 2048 MB 160 GB | 4.9k | 1.2k | To perform my experiments -
Mac Pro MB535BZ / A Intel Xeon Dual Quad Core 2.26GHz 6GB 640GB Superdrive, Bluetooth, GeForce GT120 512MB | 13k | 3.3k | To use as a media client -
Mac Mini MB463BZ / A Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz 1GB 120GB Superdrive, Bluetooth, Wi - Fi, GeForce 9400M 128MB | 2.3k | 0.6k | To have wifi and safeguard my data -
Time capsule 1TB | 2k
(est.*) | 0.5k | To code those wide Java lines and dock my notebook -
Apple LED Cinema Display (24" flat panel) | 3.6k
(est.*) | 0.9k | To avoid repetitive strain injury... -
Apple Wireless Keyboard | 0.5k
(est.**) | 0.08k | ... and tangled cables -
Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse | 0.4k
(est.**) | 0.07k | To call people and listen to music on the road -
iPhone 3G*** 16 MB | 1.8k | 0.2k | Total
| 28.5k | 6.9k |
* couldn't find the price, extrapolated from the price of the boxes
** couldn't find the price, extrapolated from the price of the wired versions
*** the 3G "ass" is not available yet
R$ 28.5k = US$ 14.2 (at the current exchange rate). Conclusion: when I decided to reincarnate in a third world country, I must have overlooked this 106% charge on everything invented after bronze age.
...but it definetely has become a funny place. The proof ?! How about this new meme of sarcastical Amazon.com product feedback ? E.g.: - The 6 K$ audio cable - The wolves shirtDon't waste your time on the products, just roll to the bottom of the pages to where the customer feedback --- real comedic gold --- is.
Thu, 21st May. 2009, 20:28
Missing link
From the Urban Dictionary word-of-the-day:
Missing Link:
A man who is covered head to toe with thick and wiry hair. He's so hairy, he's the missing link that connects humans to apes.
Sounds like my kind of guy. ;-)
“How cool would it bee if the entire atmosphere was filled by candy floss ? A very sparse, very thin candy floss… like one strand per cubic meter…how much sugar would that be ? The edge of space is officially 100 km, and the surface of Earth is… is… I must be able to estimate that… the circumference of earth is… I can’t remember… 12.000 km? I remember having heard that light is able to make round the Earth 8 times and a half in a second, that would be 300.000km / 8.5 which is about… well if it were 300.000 km / 10 it would be… zzzzzz… 30.000km. Ah! 36.000 km ! I think I remember that number. Sounds reasonable, São Paulo–Paris is about 10.000 km and that is about one third of going round the World… Now, that makes the radius of the Earth to be… 2 times pi times the radius = 36.000 km, so 6 times the radius = 36.000 km, so the radius = 6.000 km, I think I remember this number as well. So the surface is four times pi times the square of the radius, which is 12 times 36… well 360 + 72 = 400 +32 = 432.000.000 km². What a drag those zeroes, I should put this in scientific notation, which would be... zzzzzzzzzzzz.... 432 times 10 to 6 km²... zzzzzzz I should put this in meters, will help me later… zzzzzzz I km² is 1000 m², no, 1000.000 m² zzzzzzz so I had 6 zeroes and now I have more 6.... 432 times 10 to 12 m²… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… the atmosphere… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” (But I'm not the only only one with nerdy insomnia:)
Wed, 15th Apr. 2009, 15:14
Twitter
This whole #amazonfail stuff has put me in contact with Twitter, which is just like a train wreck: you can't stop looking at it. Its potential for mob mentality is amazing. * * * There are dystopias and then there are Dystopias. The worst nightmare of most people is a borg-like future, with people absorbed in an anonymous and coherent hive mind. But I am much more afraid of this chaotic collective action, where people retain just enough individuality to act in a general brownian motion, with occasional bouts of clockwork orange-y destructive fury.
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saintcahier's journal
