Surpassing expectations? - 28 March 2007
Mar. 29th, 2007 01:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptWell, that was definitely interesting. I have been vindicated in at least one way - I get at least one interview in this round. I got that call today, but the interview itself doesn’t happen for a few days yet. Hopefully it goes well, regardless of whether there’s a job being offered to me. My school work moved ahead as well, today, as I spent quite a few hours making my Rails project do AJAX. Somewhere along the line, though, one of the features that worked in the first release got broken. Maybe the update I did to the base material did it. If that’s the case, I’ll have to figure out how to make it work it again in the constraints of the new material. I’ll be asking that in lab tomorrow. Most likely, I’ll also be continuing to try and tighten up my code and make it less repeating. If things really go well, I could think about starting in on the CSS, which is really, really, neat and puts me well ahead of schedule. (Although I do have another code release arriving next Wednesday, so we’ll have to see whether I need to engage the printers again.) So, the work looks like it’s coming along pretty well. Which is very nice to know.
In trying to push the national discourse somewhere close to what the real center, and maybe, just maybe, even to the left a little bit, Department of Peace versus More Pur Baby Sausage Steps is optimistic that the conservative machine and the Republicans are vulnerable, and thus the country might be able to move away from its particular insistence on strong conservatism. The example about the possible creation of a Department of Peace (and not in the Orwellian sense) that drew significant fire in Minnesota, though, doesn’t necessarily make me optimistic about the possibility of moving the country to the left. With rumors of an attack against Iran still swirling (this one even has a prediction date in the near future), there could be a rather hard conservatism line coming up soon. But if Devilstower over at Daily Kos is on target (or anywhere near it) when he says the Executive Branch has seceded from the United States and claims that the legislative branch holds no authority over them, then it could be a really rough ride from here on out. With waves being made in the UK about getting the Government to accept the 600,000+ death figure and do something about it, because despite best attempts, it still holds up as being methodologically sound, there could be quite a clamor coming from several places on this matter.
Oh, and apparently Diebold is suing the state of Massachusetts because the Secretary of State didn't pick their machine to use. Yes, that’s right, suing the state because they didn’t get the contract for voting machines. I mean, if people started using other companies’ machines, Diebold couldn’t promise the election to the Republican candidate in 2008! What a travesty.
Certainly not lacking in courage, a woman was stopped at the Gaza-Egypt border for looking "strangely fat", whereupon it was discovered that she had three crocoidles strapped to her. The article speculates that it was to sell to private owners or other places in Gaza. The crocodiles’ mouths were closed, but that’s still takes some fortitude to carry three of them on your person.
Once again showing that the ancients had rhyme and reason to some of their madness, theater design in ancient Greece may have been done to emphasise higher-pitches, like speaking, and muffle lower pitches, like background noise. Even if not deliberately constructed in such a manner, the acoustic set-up of the seats makes it possible for someone to hear the performance clearly sixty meters back in the very back. This was apparently optimized for a standing-room-only show, though, so in terms of application to modern times, it might take some doing before the rows start cancelling out the shuffling of the feet in front of you.
The Wii and the technology involved is being put to a lot more uses than just game playing. In addition to Half-Life 2, there are things like Wii Bot - a robotic arm controlled by Wiimote gestures, as well as an entire home that can be controlled by a Wiimote. Most impressive. Wii is obviously going to be useful for a lot of things to come.
Visualizing some very different things is a set of guidelines for those that want to fit into a nice bikini for the summer - the Bikini Diet uses the garment inspired by nuclear armageddon as a way of controlling portions so that nobody has to look at Cathy comics and think how true they are.
Those of us who are tea-drinkers have a look at the design of Ineeka Tea, which has the bag fold out into a freestanding filter, and nod appreciatively. I’m not spending that kind of money on things that I can do myself, but for people who enjoy the novelty, that’s probably a pretty good parlor trick to use.
Mr. Potter’s adventures are making the headlines again today. The covers for the seventh and final book of the series have been released, causing much Potter-speculation with three months left before the release of the book. In Germany, however, Mr. Potter was subjected to challenges again, resulting in a school in Chemnitz pulling the book from its syllabus and substituting something else. If people are worried that this is somehow a gateway into much more nefarious things, I offer the following response: Go take a look at the bookstore’s sections on New Age material. Even if you get terrified at all the “satanic material” out there, at least you learn a couple things about what’s being said.
In cardiovascular matters, stents and drugs are apparently on equal footing, according to a study done by researchers at the University of Buffalo. This is in times before things like bypass surgery would be needed. Even so, while the drugs were helpful, the researchers noted that a lot of people in the drug group did get stents because symptoms worsened, and that the stents were quite good at reducing symptoms.
Staying in the realm of small things - Tufts researchers are trying to manufacture useful caterpillar-like robots, with both small size and great flexibility working for them. They could be useful for ferreting out explosives and mines or making repairs in hard-to-reach places.
Going microscopic, University of Massachusetts researchers are looking to trick viruses into binding to cells that they can't take over. In places like red blood cells, viruses don’t find DNA to hijack, and so they could all die out without replicating. It’s preliminary work, and I wonder whether the red blood cell also dies in the exchange, or whether it can hold the virus until the slated destruction of red blood cells.
Taking an interlude between this, that, and another things, a tale of encounters with Sasquatch (I suspect that’s the plural as well as the singular form - this is a plural encounter). Quite comprehensive, certainly, and details and describes quite a bit. Of course, it’s your call as to whether you wish to believe what is there or to dismiss it as the product of an imaginative mind.
Looking out into space, a hexagonal cloud formation has been photographed on Saturn. The oddity of the matter is not lost on astronomers, who scratch their heads trying to puzzle this one out.
In attempting to explain to us the benefits and costs of such proposals as carbon offsets, a Wired Lifestyle commentary proposes the ideas of ugly, stupid, and jerk offsets, so that people who are offenders in those socially awkward areas can do good for the rest of society by offsetting their faults. (This is satire, d00ds. Angry mobs will be re-directed to a place where they can do some good. Possibly 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.)
Something to keep in mind as one travels the Internet - many reasons why it's a good idea to be polite in your fandoms. Several of them are variances on “What goes around, comes around, d00d.”, which is pretty solid advice.
A nice story to read before going to bed. Much like many stories of life, it starts with the words Once upon a time a young girl was walking... If that’s not the thing you’re looking for, maybe then the concept of Buddhism trying to get people away from concepts will help you find a way out of the spiral.
Anyway, having wasted sufficient amounts of your time, I’m going to take some of my own and go to bed.
In trying to push the national discourse somewhere close to what the real center, and maybe, just maybe, even to the left a little bit, Department of Peace versus More Pur Baby Sausage Steps is optimistic that the conservative machine and the Republicans are vulnerable, and thus the country might be able to move away from its particular insistence on strong conservatism. The example about the possible creation of a Department of Peace (and not in the Orwellian sense) that drew significant fire in Minnesota, though, doesn’t necessarily make me optimistic about the possibility of moving the country to the left. With rumors of an attack against Iran still swirling (this one even has a prediction date in the near future), there could be a rather hard conservatism line coming up soon. But if Devilstower over at Daily Kos is on target (or anywhere near it) when he says the Executive Branch has seceded from the United States and claims that the legislative branch holds no authority over them, then it could be a really rough ride from here on out. With waves being made in the UK about getting the Government to accept the 600,000+ death figure and do something about it, because despite best attempts, it still holds up as being methodologically sound, there could be quite a clamor coming from several places on this matter.
Oh, and apparently Diebold is suing the state of Massachusetts because the Secretary of State didn't pick their machine to use. Yes, that’s right, suing the state because they didn’t get the contract for voting machines. I mean, if people started using other companies’ machines, Diebold couldn’t promise the election to the Republican candidate in 2008! What a travesty.
Certainly not lacking in courage, a woman was stopped at the Gaza-Egypt border for looking "strangely fat", whereupon it was discovered that she had three crocoidles strapped to her. The article speculates that it was to sell to private owners or other places in Gaza. The crocodiles’ mouths were closed, but that’s still takes some fortitude to carry three of them on your person.
Once again showing that the ancients had rhyme and reason to some of their madness, theater design in ancient Greece may have been done to emphasise higher-pitches, like speaking, and muffle lower pitches, like background noise. Even if not deliberately constructed in such a manner, the acoustic set-up of the seats makes it possible for someone to hear the performance clearly sixty meters back in the very back. This was apparently optimized for a standing-room-only show, though, so in terms of application to modern times, it might take some doing before the rows start cancelling out the shuffling of the feet in front of you.
The Wii and the technology involved is being put to a lot more uses than just game playing. In addition to Half-Life 2, there are things like Wii Bot - a robotic arm controlled by Wiimote gestures, as well as an entire home that can be controlled by a Wiimote. Most impressive. Wii is obviously going to be useful for a lot of things to come.
Visualizing some very different things is a set of guidelines for those that want to fit into a nice bikini for the summer - the Bikini Diet uses the garment inspired by nuclear armageddon as a way of controlling portions so that nobody has to look at Cathy comics and think how true they are.
Those of us who are tea-drinkers have a look at the design of Ineeka Tea, which has the bag fold out into a freestanding filter, and nod appreciatively. I’m not spending that kind of money on things that I can do myself, but for people who enjoy the novelty, that’s probably a pretty good parlor trick to use.
Mr. Potter’s adventures are making the headlines again today. The covers for the seventh and final book of the series have been released, causing much Potter-speculation with three months left before the release of the book. In Germany, however, Mr. Potter was subjected to challenges again, resulting in a school in Chemnitz pulling the book from its syllabus and substituting something else. If people are worried that this is somehow a gateway into much more nefarious things, I offer the following response: Go take a look at the bookstore’s sections on New Age material. Even if you get terrified at all the “satanic material” out there, at least you learn a couple things about what’s being said.
In cardiovascular matters, stents and drugs are apparently on equal footing, according to a study done by researchers at the University of Buffalo. This is in times before things like bypass surgery would be needed. Even so, while the drugs were helpful, the researchers noted that a lot of people in the drug group did get stents because symptoms worsened, and that the stents were quite good at reducing symptoms.
Staying in the realm of small things - Tufts researchers are trying to manufacture useful caterpillar-like robots, with both small size and great flexibility working for them. They could be useful for ferreting out explosives and mines or making repairs in hard-to-reach places.
Going microscopic, University of Massachusetts researchers are looking to trick viruses into binding to cells that they can't take over. In places like red blood cells, viruses don’t find DNA to hijack, and so they could all die out without replicating. It’s preliminary work, and I wonder whether the red blood cell also dies in the exchange, or whether it can hold the virus until the slated destruction of red blood cells.
Taking an interlude between this, that, and another things, a tale of encounters with Sasquatch (I suspect that’s the plural as well as the singular form - this is a plural encounter). Quite comprehensive, certainly, and details and describes quite a bit. Of course, it’s your call as to whether you wish to believe what is there or to dismiss it as the product of an imaginative mind.
Looking out into space, a hexagonal cloud formation has been photographed on Saturn. The oddity of the matter is not lost on astronomers, who scratch their heads trying to puzzle this one out.
In attempting to explain to us the benefits and costs of such proposals as carbon offsets, a Wired Lifestyle commentary proposes the ideas of ugly, stupid, and jerk offsets, so that people who are offenders in those socially awkward areas can do good for the rest of society by offsetting their faults. (This is satire, d00ds. Angry mobs will be re-directed to a place where they can do some good. Possibly 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.)
Something to keep in mind as one travels the Internet - many reasons why it's a good idea to be polite in your fandoms. Several of them are variances on “What goes around, comes around, d00d.”, which is pretty solid advice.
A nice story to read before going to bed. Much like many stories of life, it starts with the words Once upon a time a young girl was walking... If that’s not the thing you’re looking for, maybe then the concept of Buddhism trying to get people away from concepts will help you find a way out of the spiral.
Anyway, having wasted sufficient amounts of your time, I’m going to take some of my own and go to bed.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 04:45 pm (UTC)