December 2007
31 posts
Thoughts on France
Paris is synonymous with intense traffic Speaking in english with a french accent does not equate to speaking french. Holy crap azerty is really odd to type with. Who the fuck decided that to access numbers you need to hit shift? Did they really need µ to be on a key by itself? What about ¤? Personally, Portuguese qwerty is still the keyboard of choice for romance languages. We have no idea...
Despite growing up here, I’ve never really identified with Portugal, outside of misplaced nostalgia once I immigrated to Canada. However, everytime I leave my grandparents house as my holidays come to an end, I always feel like I’m leaving an entire world behind me.
Coding Horror: Size Is The Enemy →
Meta Meta Meta. On a personal note, start programing more.
Shoes, a Tiny Toolkit →
Hot. Now item #1 hojilion on my programming projects list.
My girlfriend is a treasure trove of music theatre...
Apparently Tim Burton fucked up terribly, at least in the eyes hardcore Sweeney Todd fans. Compare (susceptible of getting DMCA’d, of course): with: and the original, of course: I have to admit, these other versions are so much fun! And, then Amelia says, “I love Angela Lansbury”. Who? So, it turns out the nice little old lady in Murder, She Wrote was also the teapot in the...
I don’t think my grandparents are capable of understanding how marvellous 14ºC weather is for us, although they’ve spent several months in Canada. God forbid I walk around without socks. My grandmother constantly chases us with robes and blankets for our legs. Apocalypse will shortly ensue, otherwise.
» Winter cyclist profile — Jakub the IT worker •... →
Winter Cyclist Profile: Totally fucking crazy.
2008, year of Ubuntu
I think 2008 will be the year for desktop Linux. By this I mean we’ll be finally seeing a distro that doesn’t feel like someone slapped a bunch of packages together and sprinkled misc. branding, i.e. that is capable of competing for mindspace with the other ‘real’ OS’. Of course, I’m referring to Hardy. So, to be precise, 2008 will be the year for desktop...
Amelia: These [inner city Lisbon] buses are like a wet dream for the Spacing people. They have no ads!
So, Lisbon is alright. Typing this into a laptop my uncle lent me for the week, The mobile computing experience is terrible. Closing the screen makes it go into hibernation, which works some of the time (and takes forever when you reopen it), you have to fumble with the touchpad (the clit mouse is somewhat better), and hibernating because I closed the lid while it was shutting down is a terribly...
Amelia: Europe is unfairly beautiful.
Toronto->Philadelphia->Paris->Lisbon->Paris->Philadelphia->Toronto 20071216->20080107
Compare and contrast: the wiki page for SR, the programming language, with, say, brainfuck. I’m of the opinion that the length and depth of a given computer-related topic’s wikipedia page is a good indicator of how useful it may be. ML just about beats Whitespace. Lord knows a language whose main features refer to ports on NeXTs, SGI Iris’ and Decstations has to be relevant....
hello, google
My internet always starts with Google Mail and Google Reader, always the leftmost tabs in my Firefox. In fact, my favourite feature in Firefox 2 just breeds this behaviour. My browser sessions last weeks. I really can’t say recommend Google Reader enough, though. It’s in my view the first really good implementation of an RSS reader and, surprisingly (I’ve been using this internet...
Focus stealing, or god forbid, modal, start-up flash screens should be prohibited.
alexis: oh man thats wonderful!
alexis: i forgot
alexis: you will have a blast
alexis: i hear there are sugar cubes in coffee shops in france
alexis: and that they're individually wrapped
alexis: could you please bring me back one?
alexis: also, a french postcard ;3
phill: haha yes, if i find them
alexis: even if it arrives a month after you do!
alexis: if you find the time
alexis: and its not a big pain in the ass
alexis: i've never gotten a postcard from you in france
alexis: and you know i've kept all your postcards! they're in my collection
phill: aww
alexis: yess
alexis: but only if you have time
alexis: its like a france scavenger hunt ;p
phill: well i plan on going to many cafe's :P
alexis: of course!
phill: shit i should start writing these down.
phill: I can't remember if anyone has asked me to bring anything back.
phill: I think someone may have.
alexis: postit notes
phill: im thinking of obsessively cataloguing my holidays
phill: my dads camera is pretty small, so just take a few shots of every meal, a new portrait every morning, every significant thing we see
phill: the thing holds like 2000 photos
phill: or was it 1000? maybe that one
alexis: do that!
alexis: that sounds amazing
alexis: too bad polaroids are too expensive
I’m still not 100% on the “meaningful semantics” on === in ruby, but I’m sure it’ll come to me after a few more readings.
Facebox 1.0 →
I’m fascinated by fancy hacks. Look, it fades! Someone actively worried about that.
I want a Nintendo DS MMORPG
I just picked up Geometry Wars: Galaxies for the DS. It’s a fairly solid, brightly coloured shooter that took me a couple days of constant infatuation to get tired of. Unlike every other game I own for the system, I don’t have to: Remember the plot in semi-excruciating detail so I can have a meaningful objective to accomplish the next time I open the game, instead of wandering...
"Sorry. The first hundred pages of my shit list... →
I can empathize.
Cognitive Daily: Kids' misconceptions about... →
Opfer and Siegler argue that a “rapid and broad” change like this can occur in a variety of different types of knowledge, ranging from fractions to biology. They claim that there are certain concepts which, when grasped, open up a whole different understanding or representation of how a system works. Oh, totally! This is a constant feeling for me, as part of the regular Computer...
understanding technology
Idea: an intensive 4 week course on technology, covering all of the basics, say 2 hours/weekday or something ridiculous like that. People walk out knowing how things “work”. In a chance encounter, I was approached yesterday by a business-student acquaintance of mine who was seeking some basic advice on some iPod add-on he envisioned. I hope I impressed him with my intimate knowledge of...
Bruce Schneier Blazes Through Your Questions -... →
Most people use passwords. Some people use passphrases. Bruce Schneier uses an epic passpoem, detailing the life and works of seven mythical Norse heroes.
"need" is the new "want" →
IBM ThinkPad Butterfly keyboard - Wikipedia, the... →
Played with one years ago, and it’s still my favourite laptop design. The physical click you got unfolding the thing totally fulfilled all of my aesthetical computing expectations. Admittedly, a 10” screen would kinda suck nowadays.
How America Lost the War on Drugs : Rolling Stone →
on business ethics
The deal epitomizes what Zell always seeks: potential for great profit, acceptable risk, and an ingenious tax advantage. To quantify the risk, Zell evaluated each of Tribune’s assets and concluded that in a worst-case scenario the company was worth about fifty dollars a share. (Under the terms of the deal, Zell will pay shareholders thirty-four dollars a share.) Had Tribune’s employees been...
“You look at the menu and think, You don’t go there to eat; you go there to die.”
– New Yorker, Dec 3 2007