- Honda ad: Engaging advertising. Is that an oxymoron? Not at Honda. This is a mirror of an advertisement run by the automobile company. You'll need Flash 6, but it's highly worth it.
- Curve Ball:Highly addicitve paddle ball with a twist. Ha ha ha... I couldn't help myself.
May 2003 Archives
From google, we get the interesting and thought provoking "kind of colds". In my experience there's been the blue lips and brrr colds, the snotty colds, and being dragged over the colds. All of them are at the very least uncomfortable.
The common cold still has no cure. It can be caught through numerous methods, but according to some the most dangerous is by public transit. The common cold is caused by viruses, so it can't be cured through antibiotics. Colds can sometimes lead to ear and sinus infections. Usually, you just have to stick it out, waiting for your body to clean itself up. Some people believe vitamin C is useful in defending against and defeating a cold, however, although it has proven to be slightly effective, it can't be considered a cure.
For more information, look here, here, and here. There has also been evidence that rhinoviruses cause colds, so that may be a good search term to use when looking for more information.
From the wonders of Yahoo, we get today's second entry: "man so depressed piss his pants". I'm not exactly sure what the searcher was looking for here, but it sure as hell is funny. As if the gramattical horror it entails isn't enough, the subject matter takes us into the land of strange. 'Nough said.
I'm going to try to start something new here in the old Box: Search Nuggets. Lately I've been seeing a lot of searches from people and I don't think they're getting what they expect when they click through. In some cases, their searches are just plain retarded, in others I know I didn't say enough abou the topic that brought them here. In either case, I'd like to comment.
Today's first entry is brought to us by Google with the terms "Desktop Metaphor". Well, searcher, here you go: The desktop metaphor has been around for a while, and basically describes the idea of interacting with a computer as if the inside of our monitor contains an extension of our desktop (hence the name). This simple concept allows us to throw zeroes and ones into the recycle bin, store them in folders, and place them on our desktop. Without it countless numbers of barely literate computer users would be completely lost and the personal computing revolution would have sputtered and died like nail polish for men.
Interesting terms to add to your search in order to expand it might be Apple(first major success of the desktop metaphor) Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (home of the desktop metaphor) and Doug Englbart (inventor of the mouse, which made this whole desktop thing possible).
Our second search phrase for the day, again brought to us by Google is "how valid and worthwhile is the web"?
Well young padawan, it's my personal opinion that this here web is definitely worthwhile and valid, although the definition of valid that you use may change your opinion. In any case, worthwhile? Yes. Think about all the simple ways having web access can help you out. Curious if Kohls sells futons? They don't. Check their website before you go. Wondering how to get somewhere? Look on MapQuest. Want to change your address in Massachusetts? Go to the RMV website instead of waiting in line. And these are just a few examples. If you look around, there's a lot more than blogs out there from Geocaching to ways to contact your congressperson or governor about controversial issues. The web is letting people do a lot of things.
Is it valid? I think it's a valid medium, as good as TV, radio, or newspaper. Is a corporate website better than a TV commerical? It probably depends on your audience. As for standards compliance, that's a different thing. The entire web is far from valid if you check against the validator. Most of it still works, though, so you should be ok.
That concludes this issue of Search Nuggets. Hopefully more such insightful episodes will follow based on the wonderful search terms I find in my logs. Thanks for stopping by, and y'all come back now, ya hear!
lgf: Gentlemen, Start Your Whining
A beautiful comment at littlegreenfootballs looking at the distinction between the right and the left in modern politics. I'd have to say: I agree.
So how do you know when you're posting has slacked off? You realize you only have one post left on your page. Sheesh. Been a slow month.
In any case, the move into the new apartment has been completed. Unpacking has begun and is in progress, but you know how that goes.
In the meantime, as June rapidly approaches, my blog has/is/will become a year old. I had a soft launch so there's not a firm birthday. Who cares, though?
In the time that I've been working on this, I've learned a little, kept track of more, and not figured out a lot. That's the breaks.
One thing that concerns me in thinking back about the posts here is that many of them say nothing at all. I look at the searches that bring people here and they either a) think American Idol sucks and was rigged or b) would like to build a model warship/web server or c) view nude pictures of Kelly Clarkson (which I still don't have). I wonder if I've written anything that people care about. And truthfully, I know I haven't.
One thing I have used my blog for is meeting new people. I've made a few friends from it, and in the end that's more important than any useful content. I mean really now.
Ah well. Like many of my other posts, I don't really know what I'm trying to say here. Coming up on a year of blogging. At least it proves that I can stick with it. Thanks for reading. I love you all.
I read another article recently about using an iFrame to refresh portions of the current documents structure without refreshing the entire page. This led me to wonder: using this, couldn't you post the text of a 'currently being worked on' textarea, like the one I'm typing this entry into, to a server side spell checker, styling misspelled words as they're typed like the M$ Word spellchecker does? I think you could. Now as soon as I'm not so tired and have a little ambition, maybe I'll try it.
[T]ake a deep breath. Assume Shakespeare's account is accurate and Julius Caesar gasped "You too, Brutus" before breathing his last. What are the chances you just inhaled a molecule which Caesar exhaled in his dying breath? The surprising answer is that, with probability better than 99%, you did just inhale such a molecule.
For those who don't believe me: I'm assuming that after more than two thousand years the exhaled molecules are universally spread about the world and the vast majority are still free in the atmosphere. Given these reasonably valid assumptions, the problem of determining the relevant probability is straightforward. If there are N molecules of air in the world and Caesar exhaled A of them, then the probability that any given molecule you inhale is from Caesar is A/N. The probability that any given molecule you inhale is not from Caesar is thus 1 - A/N. By the multiplication principle, if you inhale three molecules the probability that none of these three is from Caesar is [1-A/N]3. Similarly, if you inhale B molecules, the probability that none of them is from Caesar is [1-A/N]B. Hence the probability of the complimentary event, of your inhaling at least one of his exhaled molecules, is 1-[1-A/N]B. A, B (each about 1/3oth of a liter, or 2.2 x 1022), and N (about 1044 molecules) are such that this probability is more than .99. It's intriguing that we're all, at least in this minimal sense, eventually part of one another.
The above passage comes from Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences, by John Allen Paulos. I picked it up from the Quincy library yesterday and after only thirty pages, I'm alread confused and amazed. The amount of information Paulos gleans from very simple facts, although not earth shattering is at least amazing. For instance, he claims it takes a mere 367 people to assure that more than one person will have the same birthday. Extremely interesting reading.
And yes, I know I need to update the currently reading section... Maybe I should look into using all consuming instead.
Throughout history people have written love letters to each other as part of the courting process. The effect of these on what we know of our history goes well beyond establishing relationships. These letters give us glimpses into our history; they define personal views of individual hardship, ethics and morals, and the ideals surrounding relationships.
Modern technology is changing the way we court our new significant others. From online dating to instant messages, the bricks forming the foundations of our relationships are changing, and more importantly disappearing. Have you seen the commercial where the girl forgets her cell phone in her date's car and upon going back to retrieve it finds him in text-messaging his friends? Once that conversation is over, it's gone into the ether. (If you can't remember or haven't seen how it ends, he tells his friends he's falling for her, someone responds that he shouldn't trip, and then she walks away and trips falling right on her face.)
The same thing is true with emails. Throughout college I knew many people who conversed with members of the opposite sex throughout the courting process by email and instant message. Unless a conscious effort was made to save a message or two, they're gone.
This says nothing about the content. We could argue long and hard over whether or not the content of an email, quick and hastily typed out complete with spelling and grammatical mistakes is as meaningful as a letter, handwritten and perfected on a sheet of writing paper.
Why am I even mentioning this? Today on the subway, I saw a young couple speaking quietly, holding hands and smiling at each other. The young man reached into his bag and pulled out a CD that he had made, handing it to his female friend. I caught a quick glimpse of it as she reached into her bag for her CD player. It had the word 'luuuuuuvvvvv' wrapped around the hole in the middle and small quotes and dates on it in different places. We don't sing below someone’s window in the Oughts, we create mixed CD's so someone else can do it for us.
For me, I’m not convinced that all of this is bad, but I’m concerned over the losses that can occur. Will your children find an old hard drive in the attic full of elegant and loving messages to your wife?
I spent this weekend moving to my new apartment. I don't have email or internet there yet (or for that matter, cable), so posting will be light. I did manage to attend a panel at the Boston Public Library on Saturday, and even got to meet Meg Hourihan. Comments on that soon, I hope. I miss you all!
So it's been a few days since posting, and lately the words are coming far and few between. I've been in the process of settling arrangements for a new apartment and have begun moving things. In the process, a bunch of new projects have up and died on me, and that's never fun.
Here are some things to think about. I'm not coding this semantically just to aggravate Scott.
The Celtics lost games one and two of their series with the Nets. Once again, we have drama between the two teams, this time due to the comments of a sports writer who wants to smack Jason Kidd's wife in the mouth for using her child as a prop at games. She does, but smack her? Come on now. Couldn't he just make fun of her name? "My mama? No, Joumana is so fat..."
The Red Sox have one of the best four records in all of baseball right now. Once they get their bulls back into the pen and teach them how to throw the ball, maybe we'll take our rightful spot in first place.
Cory has some issues. They help him write interesting stories. Try this one out. It rivals some of the things I read over at Mark's place.
Jonathan and I are working on a blogging community site for our area, like nycbloggers, bostonblogs, etc. I'm letting the cat out of the bag in hopes that someone will email me and tell me to hurry up and get it live so we can have our first gathering. Sometimes I need some encouragement.
Finally, if you happen to know how to use PHP or Perl to easily send secure emails please drop me a line. I'm stuck and need a solution soon.
I'm looking for ways to block referrer log spam. Got any?
If your life was turned into a book, which sections would be noteworthy? The time you won the class president spot by write in vote in eleventh grade? How about the day you met Tom Ridge? Will the time you got in the dryer at the laundrymat on low heat and tumbled over and over be in there? Maybe the time you almost got in a fight with one of your best friends while they were in a vodka bottle? Then there was that time your girlfriend walked in while you were talking bad about her and your back was to the door and your friends knew and without even skipping a beat asked about the Mets/Sox game to keep you out of trouble. Then again, it might be the time you snuck into that building to print out pictures of some guys face pasted onto a gay porn scene cause he pissed you off and he was so much bigger than you and it was the only way you could get back at him...
Man... Books can only be so long. What would be in yours?
Cats are a strange breed of animal. Like dolphins, it seems as though the only thing they lack some days in comparison to humans is the ability to talk. They're mean, spiteful, lazy; I could go on and on. Cats are basically a combination of many people's worst traits.
I haven't read anything this funny involving a cat since Mark's post about turning thirty. Definitely worth a read, as are many of the other things "Bob" writes.
There's only one master of this house, you punkass little bitch, and he's the man who buys the groceries and pays the rent. We've got less than two weeks left together, and if you can't get this through that noxious fume-emanating head of yours during that time, I may have to make my own statement.
I'm currently reading 19 Weeks by Norman Moss. It's a book about "America, Britain, and the Fateful summer of 1940". Althought the writing isn't top notch, it's a good read full of facts, history, and great insights.
For example, Moss says:
As it happens, an event occured in May 1940 that had as powerful an effect on Japan's trade in the long run as any government measure could have. The first nylon stockings went on sale. The previous year, American women alone had bought 580 million pairs of silk stockings, most made with Japanese silk. Now the great era of silk was coming to an end.
The point he's making is that because of the change in technology and materials, he Japanese economy was put into a weaker position, possibly pushing them further towards war than they might have otherwise been. It's an interesting thing to think about.
One of the other things he talks about is how quickly the Germans moved and how differently they used their tanks and armored vehicles. Hitler did things that we emulate today; there are striking similarities to how he used armor to spearhead an invasion after using aircraft to soften up defenses and what we just did in the war in Iraq.
So far, this has been a good read. Can anyone recomment other books about World War One and Two or more specifically about F.D.R.?
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