Pixel Blocks - I want some! They look to be a fun desktop toy. You can get the sets at toystores listed on the pixelblocks website or at the puzzlezoo pixelblocks store.
February 2004 Archives
Dictionary.com/meme
/meem/ n. [coined by analogy with 'gene', by Richard Dawkins] An idea considered as a replicator, esp. with the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them much as viruses do. Used esp. in the phrase 'meme complex' denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organized belief system, such as a religion. This lexicon is an (epidemiological) vector of the 'hacker subculture' meme complex; each entry might be considered a meme. However, 'meme' is often misused to mean 'meme complex'. Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has superseded biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.
One big difference between memes and genes is that memes are processed and possibly improved by the people that hold them - something that cannot happen to genes. It is this advantage that the memetic algorithm has over simple genetic or evolutionary algorithms.
These algorithms are useful in solving complex problems, such as the "Travelling Salesman Problem," which involves finding the shortest path through a large number of nodes, or in creating artificial life to test evolutionary theories. Memetic algorithms are one kind of metaheuristic.
Don't you learn something new every day.
All this meme-ness can be laid at Alex's and Bbora's doorsteps.
Brad Choate: MT-Textile 2.0.2 retouch
For some nifty stuff. What you can do with MT-Textile.
The Recent Links Module has been tried and found guilty of Massive Rebuild Slowdown and has been taken off the website. Commenting and rebuilding is lightning fast now!
So, just so you know!
Don't use the LinksMentioned plugin unless you're prepared to wait an extra two minutes for rebuilds!
Someday I'll figure out a way to get around this. In the meantime, well, you'll have to live without the handy list of mentioned links in the sidebar.
The speed versus usability evaluation says the site should rebuild in less than 60 seconds. Usability, while it was nice, the links are included in the entry bodies, after all.
It takes how long to post?
I've been using furl.net to capture/bookmark what I've been perusing. It actually makes a snapshop and bookmarks what you were reading. It also has space for a clipping (just highlight the text you want, click the button, and it shows up in the clipping section) that furl can search through. So say you remember some piece of news you furled but not the name. Do a search and it'll go through the keywords (and I think the clipping) to find that article/website you're looking for.
My furled sites are now in the sidebar, but if you're wondering what I've furled in entirety, you can subscribe to my furl list or take a look at my furl.net site. It also comes in email and RSS format so go ahead, invade my privacy.
Once again, Mike Lee of Computer Science at UCD fame has come up with some great music. My fave is Red Sunset. Good goin Mike.
Post a comment if ya like it!
I wasn't quite happy with audiomatch's lack of ability to display shoutcast stations so I've implemented the latest version of the winamp hover playlist. I've limited the current list to three entries, so those of you that felt it was cluttering up the landscape should be happy. It doesn't do anything fancy until you mouseover it (If you hadn't figured that out yet).
Virtual Venus's Winamp Hoverable Playlist isn't the easiest plug-in to install. If this is your first or second plug-in and you don't feel up it, remember to make backups of all your files and a free weekend to get this one working. If you're decent with this kind of stuff, I seem to recall (I already had the first version implemented) that it took me a few hours. Definitely NOT plug and play.
Amazon.com: Books: 1,000 Places to See Before You Die
Run out of travel destinations or looking for some diversity? Check out this book.
My magnet board is looking bare. It doesn't help that the Pottery Barn teen catalog came in today. My eagle eyes spied Paul Frank Magnets.
They're on ebay! I'd love a set as a birthday gift! And those tiny magnets. Those are cool too. meomi has some extra cute magnets. I won't have room left for the papers!
Now if I could only find my smaller white board pens... (where'd they go?)
You are either a Bat or a Otter personality.
But you may also be a Snake personality.
Oh joys.
Take the test for yourself
Read more about the types below. I think the otter is the least icky animal and probably the most accurate (besides I refuse to be an icky animal).
I think I've finally found out where most of my time goes... Or rather you know, it becomes 1:58 pm and you say to yourself, crap, I have all this work I haven't finished and I've got to be somewhere by 5 with this work.
So having figured it out I think it's two inter-related things. 1. Sleep. I sleep around 6-8 hours which by no means is a lot or a little. 2. late to bed and late to rise but I usually knockoff around 10. So if I go to bed at 2, that gives me 4 hours of fun time. There's a lot I can accomplish in 4 hours but most likely fun time means chatting with friends, watching some anime, or reading a book. Maybe all three.
Lost time is bad. Now I know where it's going but it's still not productive time. Which is even worse. BACK TO WORK, PEON!
Structured Design by W.P. Stevens, G.J. Meyers, and L.L. Constantine
Oldie but a goodie. Modularity from 1974. And Ray Kehoe's, my professor for Software Engineering, favorite four words after saying good in Mandarin (HAO!) and Hindi (can't spell this) are "High Cohesion, Low Coupling". His panacea.
These are so cute. Now that I have a magnet board I can get some... or someone could get a pack for me as a birthday gift!
hehehe.
Okay, I have a bone to pick with math teachers who allow students to use graphing calculators on tests. More specifically, those who even teach how to use the calculator. Point A- Most standardized tests do not allow calculator usage. You may have relied on it since your sophmore year in high school but your trusty TI/HP isn't getting you into college/ grad school. Point B- Most students learn how to use the calculator, plug and chug, instead of learning the properties of math, like where a sine curve hits.
I'm severely guilty of both points, which is why it's kinda pathetic that I think students should be taught math instead of how to rely on $100 gizmos (that's another sad point we won't get into- me and my unslakeable techlust). Yes, it's extremely handy when you're in college and calculating complex equations. However, I went to OfficeMax today and noticed that the TI-83 actually made "More pre-loaded Apps for subjects from Algebra and Chemistry to Language Arts and History" a advertiseable feature. Okay, given that my lazy butt thinks more algebra equations by just kinda picking a type of problem and plugging in a few numbers is good, I wouldn't have a single idea of the actual equation.
Right after the more pre-loaded apps is "10 times more memory and a faster processor, so you can play more games (outside the classroom, of course)". Uh-huh. Can you feel the waves of cynicism rolling off me?
As for my own lamentable calculator addiction, it was a TI-82 in high school and a HP 49G through college. The HP is awesome but complex; there are days when I need the manual for just about everything. However, I'm seeing that as a good thing. It means I'm doing math instead of having the calculator do it for me.
Amazon.com: Books: The Highly Selective Dictionary For The Extraordinarily Literate
Other than a book Kalyan would probably read and memorize so he could seem exceptionally erudite, this looks fun and amusing. Of course you may never use these words since most people aren't so well read, but quoting James "Penultimate!"
As you can see, I've reverted back to the two column format and changed the template. Hope you think it looks nice. Haven't edited the scrollbar as I'm undecided about what to do with that. Sometimes I like the scrollbar to match, sometimes it's the root of all evil.
There's enough badly designed websites out there so I t hink I'll just leave the scrollbar alone for now.
There's plenty of templates from the same place I got this one. Many are nature related and/or somewhat feminine.
Wow, it's been a month, huh? I didn't lose my dsl or anything drastic like that. Just been really busy.
Time just flies by.
later 'gator