Sunday, December 16

The Obligatory Year in Review Post

   I hope you've enjoyed the year's B-List posts.  Have a Merry Christmas
   and a Happy New Year.

   1. "Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2007"
     <http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/07words.htm>

   2. "Google 2007 Year-End Zeitgeist"
     <http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2007/>

   3. "50 Top 10 Lists of 2007" [Time]
     <http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/0,30576,1686204,00.html>

   4. "Best & Worst tech of 2007" [c|net]
     <http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-13753_7-6809816-1.html>

   5. "Behind the Lines 2007: The Year's Best Cartoons"
     <http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/behind_the_lines_2007_
        the_years_best_cartoons/>

   6. "Wikipedia: 2007"
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007>

Sunday, December 9

Odds and Ends, Sun 9 December 2007

   1. "Tube announcer sacked after prank messages"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/27/2101973.htm>
   "An official announcer for London's Tube system has been sacked after
    making spoof messages mocking American tourists, peeping Toms and
    sweaty commuters."

   The sacked announcer has put audio samples of the announcements on her
   website:
     <http://www.emmaclarke.com/fun/mind-the-gap/spoof-london-
        underground-announcements>

   2. Strange Maps blog
     <http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/>

   Examples:
   * "The Blonde Map of Europe"
     <http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/214-the-blonde-
        map-of-europe/>
   * "A Simplified Map of London"
     <http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/199-a-simplified-
        map-of-london/>

   3. Lost Cities
     <http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/Highlights/LostCities.htm>
   Photos of the remains of ancient civilisations around the world.

   4. Cartoon physics
   * Wikipedia entry:
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartoon_physics>
   *  "Cartoon Laws of Physics"
     <http://funnies.paco.to/cartoon.html>

   5. "Salzburg shoppers to put husbands in 'creche'"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/30/2106812.htm>
   "Women in the Austrian city of Salzburg will this year again be able to
    pursue their shopping with abandon over the Christmas period, free from
    sourpuss boyfriends and husbands."

   6. "What If Gmail Had Been Designed by Microsoft?"
     <http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-11-20-n35.html>

   7. "Exploded iPod (still works)"
     <http://anerroroccurredwhileprocessingthisdirective.com/2007/11/10/
        exploded-ipod-still-works/>

Sunday, December 2

Zeno's Conscience + The Trial + Shakespeare + Are Your Lights On?

   Reviews of books I've read in the past month ...

   1. "Zeno's Conscience" aka "Confessions of Zeno"
      by Italo Svevo (Original Italian title: "La coscienza di Zeno")
     <http://www.amazon.com/Zenos-Conscience/dp/0375727760>

   Zeno Cosini is a wealthy man, living in Trieste in the late 1800s and
   early 1900s.  However, his wealth was inherited rather than earned.  In
   his old age he wants to rid himself of his various neuroses, so he
   decides to go to a psychiatrist.  The doctor suggests that Zeno writes
   his memoirs to help with his treatment, and Zeno obliges.  The novel
   consists of key episodes in Zeno's life, as he sees them.

   Zeno is a bit of an anti-hero.  He stumbles through life, with no real
   plans or ambitions.  He abandons studying chemistry to study business,
   then promptly abandons that too.  He's a born quitter, and proud of it.
   He has even quit smoking - not once but many times in fact.

   When his father dies, Zeno inherits the family business.  But he lacks
   the necessary skill (or desire), so he leaves the day-to-day running of
   the business to his father's accountant.  He is taken under the wing of
   a successful businessman, who has four daughters.  Zeno is attracted to
   the eldest of the daughters (Ada), but, in an amusing tale of courtship
   gone horribly wrong, Zeno ends up marrying the wrong sister (Augusta).
   Later, he declares he has fallen in love with his wife, despite her
   "defect".  He manages to find a mistress too, and while he does feel
   guilty at times for this, he manages to rationalise it.

   Zeno ends up forming a business partnership with his former rival for
   Ada's affections, Guido.  Guido is a more flamboyant character, and Zeno
   is quick to point out his flaws.  For example, when Guido also takes
   a mistress, Zeno privately condemns him for it.  According to Zeno, when
   he was with his mistress, he was conscious of the fact that he was
   betraying Augusta, and it bothered him.  In contrast, according to Zeno,
   Guido felt no guilt whatsoever about betraying Ada.  So, Zeno thinks,
   his betrayal is somehow more noble (or at least, less dishonourable)
   than Guido's.

   The book opens with a note from Zeno's psychiatrist.  According to the
   doctor, Zeno abruptly stops the treatment just as it gets interesting.
   Out of spite, the doctor says he has to published the memoirs.  This
   short (fictional) preface gives a good sense of what to expect in the
   rest of the book.

   A reviewer on Amazon compares Zeno to a "turn-of-the-twentieth century"
   "proto-George Costanza" (from the TV show Seinfeld).  I think he/she is
   onto something.  In some ways the novel appears to be a book "about
   nothing".  You like the characters despite their obvious defects.  And
   you find yourself smiling or laughing at things you shouldn't be.  A
   very enjoyable book.

   A note a the author.  Svevo, like Zeno, lived in Trieste in the late
   18th and early 19th Centuries.  He had a couple of books published
   by his late thirties, but they weren't great successes.  Then, a decade
   later, he became a student of James Joyce, who was teaching English in
   Trieste.  Joyce read Svevo's earlier novels and encouraged him to take
   up writing again.  Eventually he did, and the result was "La coscienza
   di Zeno", which was published in 1923 and received critical acclaim.


   2. "The Trial" by Franz Kafka
     <http://www.amazon.com/Trial-Franz-Kafka/dp/0805210407>

   Joseph K wakes up one morning to find he is under arrest.  He is not
   told why he is under arrest, and during the trial itself the crime
   itself is never mentioned.  But he is free to go about his life while
   his trial is in progress.

   As the trial proceeds, lots of strange things happen to Joseph K.  The
   first session is held on a Sunday (so as to not interfere with his work)
   in an unmarked apartment building.  The court proceedings are more like
   a circus.  He later gets a big-shot lawyer to defend him, but he is
   concerned at the lack of progress.  His best bet seems to get on good
   terms with the court painter, who also prepares portraits for the
   judges.

   The legal system described in the novel is extremely arbitrary.  Guilt
   or innocence is not determined by the facts and presentation of the
   case, but rather by the amount of influence you can bring to bear on
   the court officials, either directly or through your lawyer.  Three
   "positive" outcomes that an accused person can hope for are: definite
   acquittal (extremely difficult to achieve and thus very unlikely),
   ostensible acquittal (possible but the accused can be re-arrested and
   re-tried on the same charge at the whim of the court) or indefinite
   postponement (the final verdict is delayed but the accused remains on
   trial).

   There have been many interpretations of "The Trial".  Is the novel a
   metaphor for the arbitrary nature of the world we live in?  The  bureau-
   cratic and corrupt legal system described in the novel represent all
   instruments of power, and the futility of trying to stand up to them.
   Is Kafka warning people to be vigilant against emerging totalitarianism
   (the book was published in the 1920s)?  Or is K's "crime" a restatement
   of the concept of original sin, and the "trial" is actually a metaphor
   for life itself?  All the trials and tribulations experienced culminate
   in an "execution".  Maybe it's simply a horrible nightmare with no
   specific meaning intended?

   Whatever the interpretation, this is not an upbeat story.  I recommend
   reading it when the sun is shining and birds are singing, otherwise it
   might depress you.

   It's not only the the subject that makes this a difficult book to read.
   The manuscript was incomplete when the author died.  The edition I read
   included an appendix of deleted passages, referenced in the body of the
   text by numbered footnotes.  There are also fragments of incomplete
   chapters.  The suggested reading order for the chapters has been
   disputed by academics, and the edition includes an alternative running
   order for the chapters and fragments.


   3. "Shakespeare: The World as Stage" by Bill Bryson
     <http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-World-Stage/dp/0060740221>

   Despite William Shakespeare's great success, not a lot about the man
   himself is known.  Bill Bryson has put together a brief biography of
   the playwright, based on the little hard information available from
   public records and the history of the times he lived in.

   I'm not really into Shakespearean theatre, but I am interested in some
   of the themes and inspirations in his works.  Unfortunately, this book
   didn't shed much light on the works themselves.  The chapter on "The
   Plays" was too brief and general.  The last chapter, on the speculation
   that Shakespeare's play were really written by someone else, was quite
   interesting, however.

   This book is probably only for fans or students.


   4. "Are Your Lights On?: A treatise on the definition of diverse problems"
    by Donald C. Gause and Gerald M. Weinberg
     <http://www.amazon.com/Are-Your-Lights-On/dp/0932633161>

   This is a humorous book about how to approach problem-solving.  It uses
   anecdotes and illustrations to help teach that, sometimes, part of the
   problem is finding the real cause rather than merely identifying the
   symptoms.

Sunday, November 25

Articles by the Undercover Economist

   Some interesting "everyday economics" articles and blog entries by
   the author of "The Undercover Economist", Tim Harford.

   1. "Starbucks Economics"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2133754>
   "Here's a little secret that Starbucks doesn't want you to know: They
    will serve you a better, stronger cappuccino if you want one, and they
    will charge you less for it. Ask for it in any Starbucks and the
    barista will comply without batting an eye. The puzzle is to work out
    why."

   2. "Beauty and the Geek"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2160481/>
   "Economists have found evidence that voters prefer a pretty face in the
    United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Germany, and the United States."

   3. "Desperate for a Wii"
     <http://blogs.ft.com/undercover/2007/11/desperate-for-a.html>
   "The economists' question, of course, is why on earth Nintendo doesn't
    raise the price until supply equals demand?"

     "The Great Xbox Shortage of 2005"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2132071/>
   "Why you can't buy the one present you really need."

     "Xbox Economics, Part 2"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2132988/>
   "More reasons Microsoft isn't charging enough for the season's hot
    game console."

   4. "The Renter's Manifesto"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2161834/>
   "Wherever people seem particularly keen to own their own homes - as in
    the United Kingdom, Spain, and some U.S. states - employment suffers
    as a result... Renting your home and staying flexible do wonders for
    your chances of always finding an interesting job to do."

   5. "Why the Stock Market Rises in January - and why it shouldn't"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2156844/>
   "The January effect is a challenge to the efficient markets hypothesis.
    A reasonably bold version of that hypothesis is that you can't beat the
    market without inside information. All publicly available information -
    including corporate accounts, price history, and what month of the year
    it is - is already taken into account in the market price. A rule that
    says 'buy on Dec. 31 and sell on Jan. 31' just shouldn't yield
    spectacular returns. Yet it has."

   6. "The Conjurer's Dilemma - how magicians protect their tricks"
     <http://www.slate.com/id/2175616/>
   "Intellectual property law does not protect magical tricks very well,
    and it does not help much in high fashion or in haute cuisine, either
    - all areas that Loshin describes as a 'negative space' for intellect-
    ual property ... For the fashion industry, a lack of intellectual
    property protection may not be a problem: The trickle-down of high-end
    fashion helps create obsolescence and the demand for more high-end
    fashion. But chefs and conjurers need a little help protecting their
    ideas. Lacking legal protection, they resort to professional norms."

   7. "Match-fixing"
     <http://blogs.ft.com/undercover/2007/11/match-fixing.html>
   "[G]ambling should only be allowed on results that really matter. That
    might help, and although some players have been accused of match-fixing
    in a more dramatic way, such a rule would certainly reduce the
    temptation."

   8. "Price fighters"
     <http://timharford.com/2007/08/price-fighters/>
   "[W]hy do central bankers aim to keep it above zero, rather than trying
    to eradicate it?"

Sunday, November 18

Some Interesting Lists

   Via Bspcn.Com, "The Best Article Every day"

   (Some urls are quite long, so may be broken up by email programs -
    you may need to cut-and-paste them manually in your browser.)

   * "19 Things I Learned From Movies"
     <http://treebeard31.wordpress.com/2007/08/25/things-i-learned-
        from-movies/>

   * "6 Things STAR WARS Teaches Us About Our Money"
     <http://www.alanhaft.com/blog/2007/10/09/what-star-wars-teaches-us-
        about-money/>

   * "5 Awesome Sci-Fi Inventions (That Would Actually Suck)"
     <http://www.cracked.com/article_15655_5-awesome-sci-fi-inventions-
        that-would-actually-suck.html>

   * "9 creative staircases"
     <http://deputy-dog.com/2007/11/05/9-creative-staircases/>

   * "Eight of the World's Most Unusual Plants"
     <http://divinecaroline.com/article/22167/37205>

   * "14 of the Worlds Strangest Alarm Clocks for Those Early Morning Risers"
     <http://topsecretblogger.com/14-of-the-worlds-strangest-alarm-clocks-
        for-those-early-morning-risers/>

   * "13 Billboards (I laughed, I cried, I posted.)"
     <http://onemansblog.com/2007/09/13/13-billboards-i-laughed-i-cried-
        i-posted/>

   * "Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future"
     <http://www.2spare.com/item_50221.aspx>

Sunday, November 11

Odds and Ends, Sun 11 November 2007

   1. "How to Win at Monopoly® - a Surefire Strategy"
     <http://www.amnesta.net/other/monopoly/>
   "Monopoly is a game of luck, strategy, and people skills. No strategy
    will guarantee you a win; that's one of the reasons Monopoly is so
    interesting. In any given game, a newcomer can beat a lifetime
    champion. Still, there are a few strategic tips that came out of the
    computer simulations that will help you best play the odds."

     "St Albans is new Mayfair in Monopoly"
     <http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,2176446,00.html>
   "Two historic market towns and a village have ambushed Britain's
    biggest cities by pushing them into lowly positions on a new version
    of the Monopoly board."

     "Monopoly swaps cash for cards"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1695966.htm>
   "Property board game Monopoly is swapping its iconic bank notes for
    debit cards and replacing the dog and iron playing counters with a
    burger and a mobile phone in a bid to catch up with the times"

   2. "Supermodel 'rejects dollar pay'"
     <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7078612.stm>
   "The world's richest model has reportedly reacted in her own way to
    the sliding value of the US dollar - by refusing to be paid in the
    currency."

   3. "The Subjectivity of Wine"
     <http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/11/the_subjectivity_of_wine.php>
   "What these experiments neatly demonstrate is that the taste of a wine,
    like the taste of everything, is not merely the sum of our inputs...
    In other words, we shouldn't be surprised that different people like
    different bottles of cheap wine."

   4. "The Handbag: Finding the right one can be as complicated as keeping
       track of what's inside"
     <http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article10170701.aspx>
   "The very idea of my needing a handbag is puzzling. How is it that men,
    of whom I am the equal in all other respects, seem to be well served
    by their back pockets or (if they're European) sleek little manpurses?
    Why can't I manage as well? All I have to carry is lipstick, eyeliner,
    pressed powder, reading glasses, sunglasses, small perfume spray,
    sunscreen, Kleenex, small brush, tic tacs, ..."

   5. "German steeple takes Pisa's leaning tower title"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/08/2085698.htm>
   "Although its tilt angle is greater than Pisa's tower, it is less than
    half its height and has none of its ornate beauty."

     "Photo in the News: Leaning Church Topples Pisa's Record"
     <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071107-leaning-picture.html>
   Which would you pay money to see up close?

   6. "Eiffel Tower staircase up for sale"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/02/2079518.htm>
   "Part of the Eiffel Tower's stairway is to be sold at auction later this
    month."

   7. "Jedi Academy in New York"
     <http://www.neatorama.com/2007/11/03/jedi-academy-in-new-york/>
     <http://www.nyjedi.com/>

Sunday, November 4

Il Disprezzo + Sostiene Pereira

   A couple of book reviews ...

   1. "Il Disprezzo" ("Contempt") by Alberto Moravia
     <http://www.amazon.com/Contempt/dp/1590171225>

   This is the story from the point of view of a man, Riccardo Molteni.  He
   is shocked when his wife (Emilia), after two years of marriage, declares
   that she doesn't love him anymore.  In fact, she says she despises him.
   And she won't tell him why.  Riccardo is obsessed with trying to work
   out why Emilia despises him.

   The book is set in the 1950s, a time when Italy was experiencing an
   economic boom.  Riccardo wanted to write plays, but he sacrificed this
   to work as a script-writer for a big movie producer, Battista.  He wants
   to buy a nice, fully-furnished house for himself and his wife.  It's
   clear how much of a creative sacrifice this is for Riccardo, when he
   describes how the role of the script-writer is always subordinate to the
   role of the director.

   Riccardo is offered the opportunity to write the screenplay for a film
   version of Homer's "Odyssey".  The producer is convinced that Italians
   have had enough of neorealism, and wants the film to be in the style of
   Hollywood Biblical epics.  Rheingold, the old German director, wants to
   take a completely different approach.  He believes that Ulysses (the
   main character in the Odyssey) was in no hurry to get back to his wife,
   Penelope, after the Trojan War.  In fact, all the obstacles that Ulysses
   encountered in his ten year journey had their origins in his sub-
   conscious desire to avoid returning to his wife.  Riccardo feels trapped
   (like Ulysses caught between Scylla, a sea monster, and Charybdis,
   a whirlpool?).  He wants the film to be more faithful to the classical
   interpretation of Homer's poem.  But he does see some interesting
   parallels between Rheingold's view of the marriage between Ulysses and
   Penelope, and his own marriage.

   Riccardo, Emilia and Rheingold are invited to the producer's house on
   Capri to work on the script.  Riccardo hopes that the stay on Capri will
   help him and his wife resolve their problems.

   When I started reading the book, I initially felt some sympathy for
   Riccardo.  But he is the narrator after all, and may not be the most
   reliable witness to events.  His egotism seems to prevent him from
   seeing the consequences of his actions.  At times I almost felt to
   urge to say "wake up" to Riccardo.

   While the subject matter may appear a bit depressing on the surface, the
   book is a very interesting read.  The author, Alberto Moravia, has a
   knack for writing in great detail about the inner workings of the human
   mind.  Recently I reviewed "The Conformist" by the same author, which
   was another forensic psychological investigation of a member of the
   middle (or, dare I say, the aspirational?) class.


   2. "Sostiene Pereira: una testimonianza" ("Pereira Declares: a
       testimony") by Antonio Tabucchi
     <http://www.amazon.com/Pereira-Declares/dp/0811213587>

   This novel is set in Portugal in 1938.  Like some of its more notorious
   European neighbours, the country has been ruled by a right-wing dictator-
   ship for a while.

   Pereira lives in Lisbon and is editor of the culture page for a weekly
   paper called the "Lisboa".  He's middle-aged, is overweight and suffers
   from a heart condition.  His wife has died recently, and he is still
   grieving.

   The paper's director is away on holidays, and Pereira decides to hire an
   assistant, Monteiro Rossi, to help prepare obituaries for the paper.  But
   Pereira deems that Monteiro Rossi's pieces are not publishable in the
   current political climate, and so he files them away in a folder, though
   he knows he should bin them.  He persists with Monteiro Rossi, paying him
   out of his own pocket in the hope that eventually he will write something
   useful.  Perhaps he admires the young man's idealism, or sees him as the
   son he never had.

   It becomes clear that Monteiro Rossi is living dangerously.  He and his
   girlfriend seem to be actively recruiting volunteers to fight against
   Franco's regime in Spain.

   Meanwhile Pereira is concerned that his fondness for fried food and
   sugary lemon drinks is affecting his health.  He spends some time at a
   clinic by the sea.  The clinic's doctor suggests there is a link between
   the state of a person's mind and body.  He also has a radical view of a
   person's soul: according to some French philosophers, within a person
   there is not one soul but in fact a confederation of souls, each vying
   for supremacy.  At any time their may be a ruling ego which dominates.
   Pereira seems to have accepted a less controversial variation of this
   idea (the existence of multiple personalities within a single soul) even
   though it is at odds with his traditional Catholic upbringing.

   When Pereira returns to Lisbon, events proceed to their inevitable
   conclusion.  Monteiro Rossi is caught by the Secret Police, and is
   beaten up and murdered.  But this is not Monteiro Rossi's story, so
   it is Pereira's response that matters.

   It was interesting to find out a bit about Portugal's political history.
   I wasn't aware that Portugal had been ruled by a right-wing regime for
   almost fifty years from the 1920s.  It's also interesting to compare
   Pereira's actions in this novel with those of the main protagonist in
   Moravia's "The Conformist".  Both novels are set around the same time,
   and both of the central characters are living under right-wing dictator-
   ships.

   Like some reviewers on Amazon, I found the often-repeated phrase
   "Pereira declares" a bit tiresome.  But it's a short book, and well
   worth the read.

Sunday, October 28

It's About Time

   Hooray, daylight saving has started again.  The idea of having "more
   daylight hours" is great - but can be achieved without forcing everyone
   to change their clocks.  The switch to and from DST stuffs me up for a
   few days :(  Oh well.

   There are supposed economic benefits, e.g. people can stay up later and
   buy things.  And it provides us with more daylight hours for recreation.
   But if that's the case, then why move the clocks back just as winter
   approaches?  The days are getting shorter, so why take another hour of
   daylight from the end?  Here's an interesting article, about the change
   from summer time back to "normal" time in the US last week, which argues
   that maybe we have this daylight savings thing backwards.

   "We should turn the clocks forward, not back"
     <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ccaaef30-8181-11dc-9b6f-0000779fd2ac.html>

   Some quotes ...

   "[W]e experience more darkness than necessary. An adult with normal
    habits who lives far from the equator will usually be asleep during
    several hundred daylight hours, almost all of these in the morning.
    Midday is not really the middle of anyone’s day. It is not even the
    middle of most people's working day."

   "[W]hy do our days make such inefficient use of daylight? We get more
    pleasure out of sleeping late and going to bed late than from the
    opposite and perhaps centuries of this bias have accumulated. Rich
    people always lived later in the day than poor people: they needed
    to wait till their shaving water had boiled and they could afford the
    light and heat needed to play cards into the night. Only in modern
    financial markets did many rich people feel obliged to begin work in
    the dark."

   "Enforced time-shifting is an intrusive yet effective piece of economic
    and social engineering. Next week, even people free to rise when they
    choose, such as retirees and newspaper columnists, will get up later
    and go to bed later. Who would believe they could be induced to do
    this by government decree?"

   Here's a thought: if daylight saving is really about making more profits
   for businesses, and given that inflationary pressures are stoked by
   booming business, perhaps we could sacrifice daylight saving to avoid
   another interest rate rise next month?

   Anyway, that's economics.  Here are some scientific and philosophical
   views of time.  A warning though - they might mess with your head :)

   1. "Newsflash: Time May Not Exist"
     <http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jun/in-no-time?>
   "The problem, in brief, is that time may not exist at the most funda-
    mental level of physical reality. If so, then what is time? And why is
    it so obviously and tyrannically omnipresent in our own experience?"

   2. "How long is a split-second? It's all relative"
     <http://space.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11080>
   "How does the mind tell the time when it is too brief for us to
    register? Researchers think they have discovered the brain's stopwatch
    and, along with it, a clue to conditions like dyslexia."

   3. "No paradox for time travellers"
     <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7535>
   "Some solutions to the equations of Einstein's general theory of
    relativity lead to situations in which space-time curves back on
    itself, theoretically allowing travellers to loop back in time and
    meet younger versions of themselves."

   4. "Everything you wanted to know about Time Travel"
     <http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/John_Gribbin/timetrav.htm>

   5. Wikipedia articles
   * "Time"
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time>
   * "Philosophy of space and time"
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_space_and_time>
   * The End of Time
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Time>
   "In The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Physics, published in 1999,
    Julian Barbour denies that time exists as anything but an illusion."
   * "Time Travel"
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel>
   Includes examples of paradoxes related to time travel.

Sunday, October 21

National Geographic Magazine - Flashback Archive

     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/archive.html>

   Many cafes provide magazines for customers to read.  Usually the
   magazines are not my cup of tea, but one cafe in Grenfell Street had
   National Geographic magazines.  I think they only had one or two year's
   worth, but I flipped through each issue at least once.  My favourite
   section was the "Flashback Archive" ...

   "'We try to come up with funky stuff that is full of surprises,' says
    illustrations editor Susan Welchman, who picks the images each month
    for National Geographic's most popular feature. 'They have to be light,
    related to the stories in the magazine, and, if possible, funny.'"

   A selection from the Flashback Archive:
   * "Cold Comfort"
     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/0502.html>
   * "We Love Lucy"
     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/0408.html>
   * "Sounds Fishy"
     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/0309.html>
   * "Hell's Swells"
     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/0308.html>
   * "Soar Subject"
     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/0312.html>
   * "The First Fast Food?"
     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/9604.html>
   * "Dream On"
     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/9706.html>
   * "Basket Cases"
     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/9709.html>
   * "Remembrance of Things Pasta"
     <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/9803.html>

Sunday, October 14

Odds and Ends, Sun 14 October 2007

   1. "Warning: Joke Ahead"
     <http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/warning-joke-ahead/>

   I'm not pointing this out for the video mentioned (which is mildly
   humorous), but rather for the reaction it got.  If you have access to
   YouTube, here's the video:

   "Windows Vista did not steal ideas from Mac OS X!"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaIUkwPybtM>

   2. "25 of the World's Most Interesting Animals"
     <http://www.quedat.com/2007/09/02/25-of-the-worlds-most-interesting-
        animals/>

   3. "Nikon's Small World Contest: A Gallery of Beautiful Tiny Things"
     <http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2007/10/
        gallery_small_world>

   4. "Virtual Slide Rule"
     <http://www.engcom.net/index.php?option=com_sliderule&Itemid=73#>

   When I was a kid I would often visit my older cousins.  They were girls,
   so none of their toys interested me much.  But they did have these
   strange things called slide rules.  They said they used them to do
   calculations.  I was intrigued, but they never showed me how.  And
   when I asked if I could have one since they had finished school, they
   said no :(  Later, when I went to high school, we were introduced to
   electronic calculators and I don't remember slide rules even being
   mentioned.  I felt like I missed out on something.  Now, thanks to
   this site, I have a chance to scratch that itch from long ago.

   More info via Wikipedia:
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule>

   5. "Leopard Tanks free to good homes in Army giveaway"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/14/2032842.htm>

   "The Defence Department is urging war veterans and historical groups
    to write in and tell them why they deserve a free decommissioned
    Leopard Tank."

   6. "Official prototype of kilogram mysteriously losing weight"
     <http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_6872313>

   "The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the
    metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is
    mysteriously losing weight - if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard
    Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres,
    southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50
    micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies."

Sunday, October 7

2007 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

   2007 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
      <http://improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2007>

   "For achievements that first make people LAUGH, then make them THINK"

   A selection of this year's winners:
     + PHYSICS
   L. Mahadevan and Enrique Cerda Villablanca, for studying how sheets
   become wrinkled.
     + BIOLOGY
   Prof. Dr. Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk, for doing a census of all the
   mites, insects, spiders, pseudoscorpions, crustaceans, bacteria, algae,
   ferns and fungi with whom we share our beds each night.
     + CHEMISTRY
   Mayu Yamamoto, for developing a way to extract vanillin -- vanilla
   fragrance and flavoring -- from cow dung.
     + LITERATURE
   Glenda Browne, for her study of the word "the" -- and of the many ways
   it causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical
   order.
     + NUTRITION
   Brian Wansink, for exploring the seemingly boundless appetites of human
   beings, by feeding them with a self-refilling, bottomless bowl of soup.

Monday, October 1

Assorted Pics And Flicks

   1. "The World Beard & Moustache Championships 2007 - The Winners"
     <http://www.handlebarclub.co.uk/wbmcwinners.shtml>

   2. "Face Illusions - Everywhere Around Us"
     <http://www.tricks-and-illusions.com/2007/09/face-illusions-
        everywhere-around-us.html>
     <http://www.bspcn.com/2007/09/29/face-illusions-everywhere-around-us/>

   3. "My Top 5 Simpsons Sofa Gags"
     <http://www.sofa-so-good.co.uk/2007/09/13/my-top-5-simpsons-intros/>
   Includes link to a compilation of "Every single simpsons intro. Ever.
   In Order. Seasons 1 - 10."

   4. "23 Album Covers that Changed Everything!"
     <http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/8093>
   One person's opinion.

   5. "Cassette tape culture"
     <http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/cassettes.html>
   New uses for an old music format.

   6. "Machine Shed of Horrors"
     <http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2007/08/machine-shed-of.html>
   Scary-looking, real farm equipment from the past.

   7. "Second Life" Parodies
   * Real life imitating se
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flkgNn50k14>
   * "Get a First Life"
     <http://getafirstlife.com/>

Sunday, September 23

Spook Country + First Among Sequels

   Reviews of two brand new book releases ...

   1. "Spook Country" by William Gibson
     <http://www.amazon.com/Spook-Country/dp/0399154302>

   William Gibson is the so-called "father of the cyberpunk" - a genre of
   science fiction that mixes streetwise characters with high tech, usually
   set in the future.  Unlike much of his earlier work, "Spook Country" is
   set in the present.

   Hollis Henry, former member of cult band "The Curfew", is writing an
   article about "locative art" for Node magazine (an emerging European
   rival to Wired).  She interviews a locative artist, who introduces her
   to a reclusive geek responsible for the technology used to generate
   geographically-specific, virtual reality-based installations.

   Meanwhile, a family of Cuban-Chinese New Yorkers is involved in the
   traffic of sensitive information.  Tito, a young member of this family
   of spies (one of the "spooks"), is asked to do the legwork, passing
   iPods with encrypted data to a co-conspirator.

   Meanwhile, a man called Brown is part of another less-than-official
   organisation that is trying to work out what Tito's family is up to.
   He's keeping a drug-addict translator named Milgrim (a reference to
   the Milgram experiment?) as a sort of willing captive.  Milgrim wants
   to escape, but that would deprive him of a steady and free supply of
   his drug of choice.

   These three threads eventually merge as the story reaches its climax.
   But it's a rather slow burn.  Compared to Gibson's frenetic earlier
   work, this is a thriller on sedatives.

   As Gibson gets older, he seems to be tracking further from the future
   and back into the present.  This would be ok, except that there seems
   to be more style than substance in his latest work.  And that style is
   becoming rather tiresome.  He name-drops so many brands that the
   references seem like the product placements you see in many Hollywood
   movies.  Here's an example: "The door opened like some disturbing
   hybrid of bank vault and Armani evening purse, perfectly balanced
   bombproof solidity meeting sheer cosmetic slickness."  Whatever.

   The three-star average rating on Amazon is about right.  I would only
   recommend this book to ardent Gibson fans.  His early books were more
   abstract and inventive.  Try "Neuromancer" (which was written in 1984
   using a typewriter) instead of "Spook Country".


   2. "First Among Sequels" by Jasper Fforde
     <http://www.amazon.com/First-Among-Sequels/dp/0670038717>

   As the title suggests, this book is a sequel.  In this case, it's the
   latest in the Thursday Next series.

   It's been 14 years since Literary Detective and Jurisfiction agent
   Thursday Next last saved the world from imminent destruction.  She and
   her husband now have three (or is it only two) children.  Cheese is
   still outlawed.  After years of responsible rule by the Commonsense
   Party, the nation has an ominously large "Stupidity Surplus".  Reading
   rates have dropped off alarmingly.  In a desperate attempt to reduce
   the Stupidity Surplus and hopefully get people reading more, it is
   agreed to dumb down great works of literature by turning them into
   reality TV programs.

   Meanwhile, a recipe for "unscrambled eggs" left in one of Uncle
   Mycroft's old jackets is the key to the invention of time travel.
   ChronoGuard, the government department responsible for keeping time
   ticking smoothly, will not exist unless time travel is invented.
   ChronoGuard operatives from the future are co-operating with the
   Goliath Corporation to make sure the recipe is found.  (Don't even
   try working out the logic of that.)

   Thursday wants to save literature from becoming reality TV fodder.
   She must also make sure the unscrambled eggs recipe remains locked
   away in BookWorld and out of ChronoGuard's reach.  As an added degree
   of difficulty, she has to cope with training the BookWorld versions of
   herself to become Jurisfiction agents.  It turns out that the Thursdays
   portrayed in the "Thursday Next" books of her reality are quite
   different to the "real" Thursday, so they are more of a hindrance than
   a help.

   Another enjoyable Thursday Next adventure.

Saturday, September 15

Programmer Day(?) + 404 Error Pages: Reloaded

   1. Apparently, September 13 was Programmer Day...

   "The Official Unofficial Programmer Day Home"
     <http://programmerday.info/>
   "Programmer Day is celebrated on the 256th day of the year"
   Note: Geeks will notice the logo is 1111 1111 (255 in binary).
   January 1st is day 0 (0000 0000) - programmers start counting at 0.

   I pursued a career as a programmer because I think its a fun way to
   earn a living.  Solving problems, using cool tools, learning new
   stuff and making things virtually out of nothing.

   Surprisingly, there was a time when I felt guilty about programming as
   a career.  Work isn't supposed to be fun, right?  That's partly why I
   got an accounting degree.  But I didn't like working as an accountant,
   so I became a professional programmer after all.

   Perhaps I'm ignoring the darker side of the profession?  Here's a
   critique of programming as a career:

   "Programming Can Ruin Your Life"
     <http://devizen.com/blog/2007/09/11/ruin/>


   2. "404 Error Pages: Reloaded"
     <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/17/404-error-pages-reloaded/>
     <http://www.bspcn.com/2007/09/13/collection-of-awesome-404-pages/>

Sunday, September 9

APEC 2007 = Comedy Festival?

   Sydney-siders would no doubt be relieved that APEC 2007 has finished.
   But APEC may not be what it purports to be.  On paper it looks like a
   serious forum for the discussion of matters affecting the countries of
   the Pacific rim.  Cynics would say it's just a succession of photo-
   opportunities.  Maybe the true purpose of APEC is to be a showcase of
   the comedic talents of World Leaders, especially George W. Bush?

   * "Bush backs 'Austrian troops' at 'OPEC'"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/08/2027414.htm>
   "Gaffe-prone US President George W Bush confused APEC with OPEC and
    transformed Australian troops into Austrians in a series of blunders
    in Sydney on Friday"

   The Chaser Strikes Back.  Was the highly-publicised security breach
   by The Chaser an attempt to steal back the comedy spotlight from the
   encroachments of the World Leaders?

   * "Chaser stunt raises questions about APEC security"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/07/2026566.htm>
   "This is the most significant security event in Australia's history.
    It's the most significant, international, diplomatic event in
    Australia's history and therefore is extremely serious."

   * "Aussie bin Laden penetrates APEC security"
     <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/06/apec_security_breach/>

   Of course the annual class photos have been visually entertaining for
   years now:

   * APEC 2007: Leaders Official Photographs
     <http://www.apec2007.org/lwgallery.aspx?event=AELM>

   The photo gallery is available via the above link on the official site,
   but the direct url is ridiculously long.  Try this instead:
     <http://tinyurl.com/26j9cu>

   Don't they all look impressive in their blandly-coloured smocks, er,
   Dryzabones?  Actually, I'm a bit disappointed at how bland and smock-
   like the coats look on those leaders.  Nowhere near as colourful as
   recent APEC efforts, highlighted in last year's B-List post:
     <http://b-list.blogspot.com/search?q=apec+2006>

   Perhaps they should've asked Ken Done to add some colour to the
   drabfest?
     <http://www.kendone.com.au/current_exhibition/flash.ASP>

Sunday, September 2

Beautiful Evidence + Naked Economics

   A couple of non-fiction books I've read recently ...

   1. "Beautiful Evidence" by Edward R. Tufte
     <http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Evidence-Tufte/dp/0961392177>

   Another interesting look at the presentation of information by Edward
   Tufte.  It brings together a lot of his earlier research, with the
   focus on how to present "beautiful evidence".  He draws examples from
   art and science over the past centuries, from Galileo and Newton to
   the modern day.

   There's an interesting critique of how Microsoft PowerPoint corrupts
   the very information it is used to present.  He cites the example of
   how PowerPoint slides adversely affected the assessment of the damage
   to the space shuttle Columbia on launch.  Excerpts from the book are
   available on the author's web site:
     <http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint>
     <http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1>


   2. "Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science" by Charles Wheelan
     <http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Economics/dp/0393324869>

   Yet another book on economics.  I've been reading a few books on the
   subject lately, if only to reassure myself that the subject I learnt
   and enjoyed at Uni has been corrupted and perverted by modern
   politicians.

   This book tackles the basics: how markets work, and also how they can
   fail.  It looks at the role of incentives, human capital, trade and
   the supply of money.  The goal is to make economics accessible to the
   average person, and I think it succeeds quite well without getting overly
   political.

   There's a great discussion on the goals of real estate agents.  You
   would think that since they get a percentage of the final sale price,
   agents would always try to get the highest price for their client.  Not
   necessarily so, since working for a higher price will take time, and
   prevents the agent from selling more properties.  So turnover is more
   profitable for them, but that conflicts with the objective of the
   individual sellers.

   Another standout for me was that the book reminded me of the
   "Efficient market hypothesis":
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_market_hypothesis>

   It "states that it is not possible to consistently outperform the
   market by using any information that the market already knows, except
   through luck. Information or news in the EMH is defined as anything
   that may affect prices that is unknowable in the present and thus
   appears randomly in the future."  If this is true, then all those stock
   market analysts are are effectively gambling other people's money
   in a global casino.  Unless they have access to special (inside?
   information, they appear to be just riding hunches.  Read the article
   for a critique.

   If you want to start reading about economics (the so-called "dismal
   science", this is a good start.  Here are a couple more interesting
   books:

   * "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of
      Everything" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
     <http://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics/dp/0061234001>
   Looks at the economics of the unusual, such as gangs, Sumo wrestling,
   the Ku Klux Klan, the naming of children and those sneaky real estate
   agents.

   * "The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor
      Are Poor--and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!"
     by Tim Harford
     <http://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Economist/dp/0195189779>
   Looks at the price of coffee, used cars, health insurance and how
   supermarkets price products.  More focussed on the everyday things,
   it also ties everything together a bit more than Freakonomics.  Like
   "Naked Economics", the book also covers the wider economy as a whole.

Il Conformista + Silk + The Fourth Bear

   Reviews of novels I read in the past month ...

   1. "Il Conformista" ("The Conformist") by Alberto Moravia
     <http://www.amazon.com/Conformist-Alberto-Moravia/dp/1883642655>

   Set in Italy during the Fascist era, the novel focuses on three crucial
   points in the central character's life: when he was about 13 years old,
   when he was 30 years old, and when he was 36 years old.

   Marcello Clerici is the only child of a well-to-do family.  As a child
   his parents have little time for him as they lead their busy lives.  In
   fact, Marcello seemed to spend more time talking to the maid and the
   cook.  A slightly effeminate boy, he was teased at school.  Perhaps
   this lead him to overcompensate, for example he is obsessed with guns
   and cruelly kills lizards he found in his backyard.  When reflecting
   on the latter, he fears that he may not be "normal".  He tries to get
   reassurance from the kid next door that the idea hunting for and killing
   lizards is acceptable, but Roberto is appalled.  His fascination with
   guns leads to an unfortunate accident where he shoots a man (Lino) who
   had offered him a revolver in return for his company.

   Fast forward to when Marcello is 30.  Having believed for 17 years that
   he killed the man, Marcello resolves to become a "normal" person.  He
   thinks that this will be achieved by conforming to society's norms.  He
   will get married to his girlfriend, Giulia.  They will buy a grand house
   and fill it with fine things, and eventually start a family.  He will
   work hard to get his career on track, no matter what it takes.

   Marcello works for the Secret Service of the Fascist government, and he
   is asked to betray his former professor who is suspected of agitating
   against the regime.  He sees this as a normal thing to do, since it is
   for the greater good of the society into which he so desperately wants
   to fit.  The bulk of the story revolves around his mission, which takes
   place while he is on his honeymoon in Paris.  Marcello experiences more
   concerns about being "abnormal", especially when he compares his
   behaviour to that of his wife.  Repressed feelings, doubts about the
   mission and his futile attraction to the beautiful young wife of his
   former professor (Lina) combine to torment him further.

   The final part of the story takes place just as the Fascist regime is
   overthrown.  Marcello feels he has backed the wrong horse.  He is
   worried his past will be exposed and fears he and his family (now
   including a baby daughter) will pay the ultimate price.  He heads off
   with his family to lay low in the country. There's a major twist which
   makes Marcello question his choices and actions.

   A deep and fascinating story about a man struggling to be a "normal"
   person in the world, whatever that is.  By confusing conformity with
   normality, the outcomes may be very different to those desired.  And
   society's current norms may not always be acceptable or normal.


   2. "Silk" by Alessandro Baricco
     <http://www.amazon.com/Silk-Baricco/dp/0375703829>

   This is a short but satisfying novel.  It's set in 19th Century France.
   The local supply of silkworms has become infected, so Hervé Joncour is
   asked to make a dangerous voyage to Japan ("the end of the world") to
   buy healthy silkworms to supply the silk factories in the town.

   After the first successful mission, he repeats the voyage each year.
   Each time he finds himself falling further in love with a companion of
   the local ruler.  However the "affair" only occurs in their respective
   minds, and in fact he never even hears her say a word.

   A lot happens in this book, but the writing style is simple and
   economical.  If it weren't for a rather racy bit towards the end of
   the book, involving the translation of a love letter, this would be
   a story for young and old to enjoy.


   3. "The Fourth Bear" by Jasper Fforde
     <http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Bear/dp/0143038923>

   The second in the Jack Spratt/Nursery Crimes series by Jasper Fforde.
   If you're a fan of Fforde's work you'll probably enjoy this too.

   The plot revolves around the death of Goldilocks, of "Goldilocks and
   the Three Bears" fame.  She's an investigative reporter who has stumbled
   upon the link between mysterious explosions around the world.

   I found it slightly more enjoyable than "The Big Over Easy", perhaps
   because it wasn't quite as twee.  The usual plot twists and clever
   characters are present as Jack Spratt and the Nursery Crime Division try
   to solve the case.  A couple of things that stood out for me in this
   book.  Jack bought an unusual car from a "Dorian Gray", which came with
   a framed picture of the car.  The damage from any accidents the car was
   involved in would be fixed magically, and mysteriously become visible
   on the car depicted in the painting.

   There's also a rather plausible rationalisation of why, if they were
   supposedly prepared at the same time, Papa Bear's porridge was too hot,
   Mama Bear's was too cold, yet Baby Bear's was just right.  The
   explanation, along with the explanations of other events that occur in
   the Goldilocks story, ties in well with the plot.

Sunday, August 26

Paul Graham Essays, Hackers & Painters

   Paul Graham is a programmer, painter and author.  He usually writes
   about programming, but he writes general stuff too, such as a piece
   on procrastination I posted recently.

   He's written a couple of interesting pieces lately:
   * Stuff
     <http://paulgraham.com/stuff.html>
     ... which is about having too much of it
   * Holding a Program in One's Head
   Ôøº  <http://paulgraham.com/head.html>
     ... which gives an insight to non-programmers how programmers work
   (and why we get cranky when interrupted)

   Other great essays are on his website:
     <http://paulgraham.com/articles.html>
   including:
   * How to Do What You Love
     <http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html>
   * What You'll Wish You'd Known
     <http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html>
   * How to Make Wealth
     <http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html>
   * Great Hackers
     <http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html>
   * Hackers and Painters
     <http://paulgraham.com/hp.html>

   He wrote a book a few years ago, "Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the
   Computer Age":
     <http://paulgraham.com/hackpaint.html>
     <http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters/dp/0596006624>
   Some of the essays in the book are also published on the site.  I read the
   book last year and enjoyed it.

Sunday, August 19

Odds and Ends, Sun 19 August 2007

   1. "The world's strangest laws"
     <http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegraph/story/0,,22261278-5012895,00.html>
     <http://www.bspcn.com/2007/08/18/the-worlds-strangest-laws/>
   Examples:
   * In England, it is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing
     the British monarch upside down.
   * In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon.
   * In Eureka, Nevada, USA, it is still illegal for men with moustaches to
     kiss women.

   2. "When insults had class - Sticking in the daggers"
     <http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2006/class-insults-p1.php>
   Examples:
   * "He is a self-made man and worships his creator." -- John Bright
   * "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
      -- Oscar Wilde
   * "A modest little person, with much to be modest about."
      -- Winston Churchill

   3. "Venice charges rude tourists extra"
     <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/09/wvenice109.xml>
   "A 'significant proportion' of the city's bars and restaurants are now
    operating two or even three price lists: one for tourists, another for
    locals, and a third for 'sympathetic' tourists who make more effort
    than the usual grunted demands."

   4. "Super name for NZ baby"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/08/1999997.htm>
   "A New Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son Superman -
    but only because their chosen name of 4Real has been rejected by the
    government registry."

   5. "Giant Lego man washed up on Dutch beach"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/08/1999202.htm>
   "A giant, smiling Lego man has been fished out of the sea in the Dutch
    resort of Zandvoort."

   6. "Ten Reasons To Throw Away Your Cellphone"
     <http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/07/ten-reasons-to-.html>

   7. "When You Absolutely, Positively Should NOT Use Email: A Civilized List"
     <http://changethis.com/36.03.Civilized>
   "For those of us email addicts who can’t quit cold turkey but are
    increasing stressed by the size of our inbox each morning, Shipley
    and Schwalbe offer advice for managing our input and output in this
    engaging manifesto."

Sunday, August 12

The Big Over Easy + Hackers

   A couple of book reviews ...

   1. "The Big Over Easy" by Jasper Fforde
     <http://www.amazon.com/Big-Over-Easy/dp/0143037234>

   After four books in the "Thursday Next" series, Jasper Fforde changed
   tack and wrote a couple of books in a series of "Nursery Crimes".  The
   first is about the investigation of the death of Humperdinck Jehoshaphat
   Aloysius Stuyvesant van Dumpty, otherwise known as Humpty Dumpty.

   As in the the "Thursday Next" series, real life and literary characters
   mix freely.  But this time the "real world" is much more like the
   world we live in, so for example computers exist and the UK still is a
   United Kingdom.  And the characters are from popular nursery rhymes.

   Detective Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crimes Division leads
   the investigation, with new sidekick Mary Mary (of Quite Contrary fame).
   Suspects include Giorgio Porgia, Randolph Spongg, Lola Vavoom, his wife
   and the many mistresses that Humpty had accumulated.

   If you found that previous paragraph too twee, then this book is
   probably not for you.  To be honest, I found it a bit lightweight and
   not as funny or as inventive as the "Thursday Next" series.


   2. "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy
     <http://www.amazon.com/Hackers/dp/0141000511>

   I've been meaning to read this book for a while now, but couldn't get
   my hands on it.  It was written over twenty years ago, and I managed to
   find a copy in the Barr Smith Library.

   The author's goal is to explore the "Hacker Ethic":
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic>
   Note that we're not talking about hackers in the sense of breaking into
   other people's computer systems.  Unfortunately the media has hijacked
   the term, which originally referred to someone who "follows a spirit
   of playful cleverness and loves programming":
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker>

   Three generations of hackers are chronicled in the book.  The first
   generation of hackers were students and hangers-on at university
   computer labs (in particular MIT and Stanford) in the 1950s and 1960s.
   These were the days of mainframes and time-share systems.  Artificial
   Intelligence was the dream.  Sharing code freely was a given, fore-
   shadowing the modern Open Source movement.

   The second generation of hackers were the "hardware hackers", who built
   their own computers following the development of transistors and silicon
   chips.  Many were members of the Homebrew Computer Club in California
   during the 1970s.  For example, a well-known member was Steve Wozniak
   who designed the Apple I and II.  Before that there was the Altair,
   and several lesser-known systems vying with Apple.  IBM was still years
   away from introducing the PC.  But Bill Gates was already cutting his
   teeth, writing an early version of BASIC for the Altair.

   The third generation of hackers looks at the games being developed for
   "home computers" in the 1980s: Pac Man, Adventure, Space Invaders, Zork,
   and Loderunner to name a few.  If you grew up during that time you would
   remember publishers like Broderbund, Sierra On-Line, Sirius and Infocom.
   Systems included Atari Home Computers (not the consoles), Commodore,
   TRS-80, and Apple.  Only Apple would survive to the present day.

   Overall, a fascinating book about important moments in the history of
   computers.  Some of the historical and technical aspects were overly
   simplistic, but that's just me nitpicking.  A sequel or update would be
   good, including discussions of the Microsoft monopoly, the Internet,
   the modern Open Source movement, and the metamorphosis of computers into
   other devices such as PDAs, mobile phones, iPods, TiVos etc.

Sunday, August 5

Visualise This! + Amazon Concordance and Text Stats

   1. Data Visualization: Modern Approaches
   <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/02/data-visualization-modern-approaches/>
   "Let's take a look at the most interesting modern approaches to data
    visualization as well as related articles, resources and tools."

   A selection:
   * Musicovery
     <http://www.musicovery.com/>
   "displays music taste connections and lets you listen to the song and
    browse through similar songs."
   Select genres and mood settings: Dark <-> Positive + Energetic <-> Calm

   * MusicMap - Visual Music Search Application
     <http://www.dimvision.com/musicmap/>
   "connections are represented as connected lines; they create a web"
   Appears to use Amazon's catalogue search and "explore similar items"
   facilities.  To start, click on "NEW SEARCH" and enter an artist or
   an album.

   * Elastic Lists
     <http://well-formed-data.net/experiments/elastic_lists/>
   "demonstrates the 'elastic list' principle for browsing multi-facetted
    data structures. You can click any number of list entries to query the
    database for a combination of the selected attributes. The approach
    visualizes relative proportions (weights) ofmetadata by size and
    visualizes characteristicness of a metadata weight by brightness."

   * Newsmap
     <http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/>
   "an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape
    of the Google News news aggregator. The size of data blocks is defined
    by their popularity at the moment."
   I posted this to the B-List 3 years ago.

   * Voyage
     <http://rssvoyage.com/>
   "an RSS-feader which displays the latest news in the 'gravity area'.
    News can be zoomed in and out. The navigation is possible with a time-
   line."


   2. Amazon Concordance and Text Stats

   Amazon has recently added Concordance and Text Stats for many books.
   When viewing a book's page, look for the "Inside This Book" section
   after the "Product Details".
   * Concordance shows the 100 most frequently used words a book.
   * Text Stats shows Readability, Complexity, Number of Characters,
     Words and Sentences, and "Words per Ounce"/"Words per Dollar".

   At the very easy level of readability is "The Cat in the Hat":
     <http://www.amazon.com/Cat-Hat-Seuss/dp/sitb-next/0679891110/ref=sbx_con>
   Interestingly, "Ulysses" by James Joyce is apparently not that as hard
   to read as its reputation would suggest, at least according to Amazon:
     <http://www.amazon.com/Ulysses-James-Joyce/dp/sitb-next/0679722769/ref=sbx_con>

Sunday, July 22

Odds and Ends, Sun 22 July 2007

   1. "Rejected Harry Potter endings..."
     <http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/987.html>

   2. "Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader"
     <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1571456988>
   I haven't read this, but it looks interesting.  Topics include:
   How we got the Dollar Part 2; History of Tipping; Story of Garlic;
   History of Chocolate; How Does Soap Work?; History of the Bra;
   Origin of the Paperclip.

   3. "Money flows free in men's toilets in Japan"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/12/1976536.htm>
   "The suburban sprawl of Saitama, north of Tokyo, does not make the news
    that often. But it is not everyday that someone visiting the toilet
    finds a box of 10,000 yen notes - each worth $A100, each wrapped in a
    traditional Japanese paper envelope."

   4. "If music doesn't move you, it's daggy"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/11/1976100.htm>
   "Why do some people feel a great affinity with songs sung by Barbra
    Streisand or Barry Manilow, while others find them downright daggy?"

   5. Make your own iPhone, out of cake or LEGO
     <http://www.tuaw.com/2007/02/02/make-your-own-iphone-out-of-cake-or-lego/>

   6. Hide-a-Pod
     <http://hideapod.com/>
   "It's really very simple. Just tell us what iPod model you want to
    protect and we provide a gutted and hinged Zune with our custom molded
    iPod casing adapter."

   7. YouTube - Microsoft Surface Parody
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY>

   If YouTube is blocked, try these alternatives:
     <http://www.glumbert.com/media/surface>
     <http://www.ifilm.com/video/2867082>
     <http://www.tubearoo.com/articles/87148/Microsoft_Surface_Parody.html>

Sunday, July 15

Palomar + Buzzati + San Sombrero + Others

   Some more book reviews ...

   1. "Palomar" by Italo Calvino
     <http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Palomar-Italo-Calvino/dp/0099430878>

   A collection of short stories where the central character, named "Mr
   Palomar" (as in the Observatory in California), makes observations about
   life, the universe and everything.  He's trying to make sense of what's
   happening around him.

   Many of the stories focus on simple things, such as waves at the beach,
   a pair of merlins singing to each other, and shopping for cheese in
   Paris.  Some have a humorous angle (e.g. about a topless sunbather),
   while many take a deeper, philosophical view (e.g. a visit to a Zen
   temple in Japan).

   In the author's words, Mr Palomar is "a man who is seeking wisdom, one
   step at a time", but "he hasn't yet attained it".

   Another great book by my favourite Italian writer.


   2. "Il meglio dei racconti" by Dino Buzzati
     <http://www.bol.it/libri/scheda/ea978880445088.html>

   This is a selection of the best short stories by Buzzati.  I read this
   for the Italian bookclub I'm a member of.  While other members seemed to
   enjoy the book, I found a lot of the stories quite depressing.  Kafka-
   esque would be one way to describe some of them.

   For example, "Sette piani" ("Seven Stories") is about a hospital with
   seven floors.  The top floor is reserved for minor ailments.  Each
   floor below is for progressively worse conditions, and those unfortunate
   to be in the bottom floor are gravely ill.  You know what happens - a
   man enters the top floor with a negligible problem.  Due to lack of
   space he volunteers to drop down to the second floor so that a mother
   and child can have his room on the first floor.  Then, through
   accidents, misdiagnoses and bureaucratic mixups he eventually finds
   himself on the bottom floor.  You could say the story is a metaphor for
   an individual's life journey.

   Later stories are not as obviously grim, but not by much.  I wouldn't
   recommended for reading at night time in winter, unless you enjoy the
   writings of Kafka and Edgar Allen Poe.


   3. "San Sombrèro: A Land of Carnivals, Cocktails and Coups"
      by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch
     <http://www.amazon.com/San-Sombrero/dp/0811856194>

   This is a parody of travel guidebooks, from the people behind The Panel
   (and The Late Show).  It's the third in the series, following "Molvanîa:
   A land untouched by modern dentistry" (loosely based on countries in
   Eastern Europe) and "Phaic Tăn: Sunstroke on a shoestring" (Southeast
   Asia).

   This time they set their sights on Central America.  As usual there are
   lots of gags written in the guise of a travel guide, usually by
   exaggerating themes and stereotypes relating to the region.  Of course
   they always focus on the worst aspects, but they're often the easiest
   to make fun of.

   Some material from the book is presented at:
     <http://www.molvania.com/sansombrero/index.html>


   4. "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward R. Tufte
     <http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information-2nd/dp/0961392142>

   Edward Tufte is an expert in information and interface design.  In this
   book he gives examples of both good and bad designs when displaying
   statistical information.

   Here's an example of a well-designed statistical graph, depicting the
   dwindling size of Napoleon's army on its Russian campaign:
     <http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/minard>
     <http://www.britannica.com/eb/art-70821>

   Pie charts may look pretty, but are considered bad because they make it
   difficult to interpret.

   Tufte provides some guidelines when presenting graphs of data.  For
   example, don't clutter your graphs with anything that detracts from
   the actual information content.  Make sure there is a high signal-to-
   noise ration.  He also provides advice on how to turn bad graphs into
   good ones.


   5. "The Affluent Society" (New Edition)
      by John Kenneth Galbraith
     <http://www.amazon.com/Affluent-Society/dp/0140285199>

   This is a revised edition of a book by a famous Canadian economist.  It
   critically examines the emphases of the economies of rich or "affluent"
   nations.  He argues that such countries have long since satisfied the
   basic needs of its people, and are actually pursuing economic growth for
   its own sake.  A lot of economic activity is now being devoted to
   "manufactured needs", created by advertising and greed.  For example,
   everyone now "must have" a huge plasma TV, a 4WD, a swimming pool, etc.
   This book predates "Affluenza" by several decades, which I read and
   reviewed previously.

   In constructing his central argument, Galbraith traces the history of
   Economics.  He cites the usual suspects: Adam Smith, Ricardo, Marx,
   Keynes and the Monetarists.  He argues that the shrinking role of
   government has lead to increased inequality in spite of the increase in
   total wealth of a country.  Powerful vested interests have made
   themselves richer while governments have reduced spending on basic
   infrastructure.  He's obviously a Socialist I hear you say!?  Well,
   you're entitled to your opinion.  Galbraith argues that to achieve a
   better society, the decline in public spending needs to be reversed -
   not by increased welfare, but rather by investing in education and
   improving infrastructure so that everyone can benefit from the
   increased economic wealth.

   While arguably some of the economic analysis is out of date, there is
   still some interesting food for thought.   For example, the first chapter
   on "conventional wisdom" highlights how ideas become and remain accepted,
   even though they may no longer be true.  Anyone who challenges the
   "conventional wisdom" faces an uphill battle.  Truth is not always
   convenient or in one's interests, so it is resisted.

Sunday, July 8

Constructive Procrastination + Some Interesting Studies

   1. Constructive Procrastination

   A couple of articles from the vault, plus a personal observation on
   the subject ...

   * "The Importance of Creative Procrastination"
     <http://www.powazek.com/2006/05/000589.html>
   "Give yourself that loose time to be creative, or you'll never get
    anything done."

   * "Good and Bad Procrastination"
     <http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html>
   "Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure
    it. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. There are an infinite
    number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on,
    you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to
    avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well."

   I learnt the wonders of positive procrastination at Uni.  I would often
   leave the writing of essays to the last weekend before due date.  Don't
   get me wrong - I would start researching early and collect lots of
   material on the topic.  I would prepare an outline pretty early too.
   But I wouldn't start writing much until everything "gelled" in my head.
   Actually, a better analogy would be the crystallisation process.   You
   get bigger and better crystals if you don't rush the process.  So, I
   was waiting for the structure of the essay to "crystallise" in my mind.
   I still try yo do that when I write computer programs nowadays, if I
   get the chance :)


   2. "Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works"
     <http://www.livescience.com/health/070629_naming_emotions.html>
   "Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the
    brain's emotion center"


   3. "Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising"
     <http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/06/23/immature_hum.html>
   "The adage 'like a kid at heart' may be truer than we think, since new
    research is showing that grown-ups are more immature than ever.
    Specifically, it seems a growing number of people are retaining the
    behaviors and attitudes associated with youth. As a consequence, many
    older people simply never achieve mental adulthood, according to a
    leading expert on evolutionary psychiatry."


   4. "Learning, or, Learning How To Learn"
     <http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000895.html>
   "The value of education isn't in the specific material you learn --
    it's in learning how to learn."


   5. "Why we blink without noticing"
     <http://www.livescience.com/health/050725_blink.html>
   "Scientists have figured out why we rarely notice our own blinking. Our
    brains simply miss it, they say."


   6. "Beauty is in the eye of your friends"
     <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10966>
   "A new study suggests that, in fact, women will look more favourably
    on the men that other women find attractive."


   7. "Study: Internet partly to blame for your lack of close friends"
     <http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/062306-internet-friends.html>
   "Increased use of the Internet, along with the number of hours people
    are spending at work, are factors contributing to a drastic decline
    in the number of close friends that Americans have."

Sunday, June 24

Odds and Ends, Sun 24 June 2007

   1. Lots of Titles
   * "May The Form Be With You"
     <http://worsethanfailure.com/Articles/May-The-Form-Be-With-You.aspx>
   "Not to be outdone by British Airways' variety of 206 different titles,
    the Atlanta Botanical Gardens wanted to make sure they covered everyone
    on their donation form's dropdown box. Who would have thought that Sith
    Lords have a soft spot for botany?"

   * British Airways' variety of 206 different titles
     <http://www.britishairways.com/travel/inet/public/en_gb>
   In the "Register" form on the right, click on the Title pull-down to
   see all the available titles.

   2. "The Baby-Name Business"
     <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118247444843644288.html>
   "Parents are feeling intense pressure to pick names that set their kids
    apart. Some are even hiring consultants. Alexandra Alter on the art of
    'branding' your newborn."

   3. "Lost in translation"
     <http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,1781004,00.html>
   "The Brits often assume that Germans have no sense of humour. In truth,
    writes comedian Stewart Lee, it's a language problem. The peculiarities
    of German sentence construction simply rule out the lazy set-ups that
    British comics rely on ..."

   4. Broken Windows in Public Places
   * Crashing Las Vegas
     <http://worsethanfailure.com/Articles/Crashing-Las-Vegas.aspx>
   * Paint at the movies?!
     <http://melissatogo.blogspot.com/2007/02/multimedia-message.html>
   * ATM Machine and Windows XP
     <http://www.geckoandfly.com/2006/07/08/atm-machine-on-windows-xp/>
   * Sometimes even PSPs get the blues
     <http://www.engadget.com/2005/05/11/sometimes-even-psps-get-the-blues/>
   * Windows Crash
     <http://www.windowscrash.com/modules.php?set_albumName=pictures&
        op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php>
   * Windows Error Pictures
     <http://www.rootsecure.net/?p=windows_error_pics>
   * What is Wrong With These Pictures?
     <http://www.drbrad.org/flight-info.html>

   5. Origin of CTRL-ALT-DEL
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPVcvWshuAM>
   Why you do what you do to fix situations like those in item #4.

   If youtube is blocked, try these alternatives:
     <http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/archives/001080.html>
     <http://www.metacafe.com/watch/29641/the_origins_of_ctrl_alt_del/>
     <http://www.devilducky.com/media/28888/>

   6. The Computer Bed "The Tale"
     <http://www.flyingbeds.com/14.Euro_BunkBed/Euro-ComputerBed.htm>

Sunday, June 17

Queen Loana and the Raw Shark Texts

   Two more books I've read recently, sharing a theme of memory loss.

   Reading these books was actually a bit difficult at times, since they
   made me think about how my mum's memory loss effectively wiped out her
   identity in the months before her death.

   1. "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana" by Umberto Eco
     <http://www.amazon.com/Mysterious-Flame-Queen-Loana/dp/0151011400>

   This is a story about Yambo, an elderly bookseller lost his memory after
   a stroke.  Strangely, he can't remember anything about his personal
   life, yet he can still remember very clearly things he's read in books and
   heard in popular songs.

   Yambo decides to retrace his life by going back to his old house in the
   country, where he grew up.  With the help of old comics, toys, posters
   and books, Yambo attempts to find out who he is/was.  The novel itself
   is described as an illustrated novel, and indeed it features lots of
   colour pictures from comics, posters and other printed material.  These
   play an integral part in the telling of the story.  Also, they provide
   a pocket pictorial history of Italy, in particular from the 1930s to
   post World War Two.

   An interesting read, especially if you're a fan of early comics like
   Flash Gordon and Mickey Mouse aka Topolino.


   2. "The Raw Shark Texts" by Steven Hall
     <http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Shark-Texts/dp/1841959111>

   Eric Sanderson wakes up realising he doesn't know who he is.  There's a
   note addressed to him from the "First Eric Sanderson", urging him to
   stay calm and contact Dr. Randle immediately.  She will tell him what's
   happened.  Apparently this has been a recurring sequence.  Dr. Randle
   tells him he suffers from a dissociative disorder, where he loses more
   and more of his memory.  The death of his girlfriend while on holiday
   was the trigger.

   At this point you'd think this story is a bit ho-hum, but then things
   start getting really interesting.  He continues to receive letters in
   the mail, apparently from the "First Eric Sanderson".  His former self
   is telling him that his memories have been taken by a Ludovician - a
   "conceptual shark".  This shark has been feeding off his memories for
   a while.  The shark must be destroyed, otherwise Eric will lose his
   identity completely.  So begins his quest to vanquish the Ludovician.

   Along the way he:
   * journeys through Un-Space (e.g. disused attics, derelict factories,
     boarded-up houses, ducting etc)
   * attempts to decode messages from himself
   * meets Scout, who remarkably shares the exact same tattoo on her big
     toe as his deceased girlfriend
   * meets the mysterious Dr. Trey Fidorous, doctor of languages and
     expert in all types of conceptual fish

   Scout has her own quest to defeat Mycroft Ward, who has found a way to
   make himself immortal via cyberspace.

   As if the narrative wasn't fluid enough, there's a 50-odd page flip book
   section describing part of the action as the story reaches its climax.

   The ending is a bit ambiguous, but then in some ways that's to be
   expected.  People have described this book as the Matrix meets Jaws.
   The letters from Eric's former self are reminiscent of Memento.

   However, I should warn you that this book can mess with your head a bit,
   and may not be for the feint-hearted.  You might question what is
   identity, and how do you know for sure that you are sane, or are you
   actually insane but think you're normal?

Monday, June 11

Pompeii + A Man Without A Country

   A couple of quick book reviews today ...

   1. "Pompeii: A Novel" by Robert Harris
     <http://www.amazon.com/Pompeii-Novel/dp/0812974611>

   This historical novel is set in 79 AD, in the days leading up to and
   immediately following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  It traces the
   actions of Marcus Attilius Primus, the newly-appointed aquarius (water
   engineer), whose job it is to make sure the Aqua Augusta is properly
   maintained.  This aqueduct supplies fresh water to many cities
   surrounding the Bay of Naples, including the the ill-fated Pompeii,
   Herculaneum, Neapolis and Misenum (an important Roman naval base).

   The new aquarius doesn't have long to settle into his new job, with some
   major problems to deal with straight away.  The water flowing to a fresh-
   water fish farm appears to be contaminated.  Worse still, the water
   supply to some cities is under threat.  Readers have the benefit of
   knowing that Vesuvius is about to blow, but at the time it was not
   generally known that it was a volcano.

   The story involves the mysterious disappearance of the previous aquarius,
   the ambitions of a wealthy developer and former slave, Ampliatus, and a
   love story between the new aquarius and the daughter of Ampliatus.  Pliny
   the Elder, a famous writer and scholar of the time, features as a cool-
   headed observer of what unfolds.

   The book also provides interesting information about volcanoes, with
   specific details of the impending eruption of Vesuvius.  Also, there's
   a lot of interesting background about the ancient Roman water supply.
   Aqueducts were built to very fine tolerances, with a gradient of only
   34cm per km.  They were constructed using cement that set even when
   wet, and many have survived largely intact for over 2000 years.


   2. "A Man Without A Country" by Kurt Vonnegut
     <http://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Country-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/081297736X>

   This is a brief collection of memoirs by Kurt Vonnegut, author of several
   novels including one of my favourites, "Slaughterhouse-Five".
     <http://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Five-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0385333846>

   Sadly, Vonnegut passed away earlier this year.

   Topics include humour, writing, humanity, politics and life in general.
   He makes some interesting observations, for example: why don't the so-
   called Christian leaders in the US say much about the Beatitudes?  In
   fact, George W. Bush and Co seem to be stuck in the Old Testament ("an
   eye for an eye"), rather than the New ("blessed are the peacemakers").

Sunday, June 3

Visualisation Sites

   A couple of sites that help you visualise things ...

   1. A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
     <http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html>

   An interesting catalogue of the many ways to represent ideas, concepts,
   data etc.  Based on the Periodic Table of chemical elements.


   2. Worldmapper
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/index.html>
   "The world as you've never seen it before"

   About the maps:
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/about.html#maps>
   "Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, using equal area cartograms
    where territories are re-sized on each map according to a particular
    variable... Every map shows the worldwide distribution of something,
    called a variable. If a particular country is larger on one map than
    another, it follows that it has a higher proportion of the world total
    of the first variable.

   Examples:
   * Wealth 2002
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=170>
   * Human Poverty
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=174>
   * Affected by Disasters
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=245>
   * Nuclear Power
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=114>
   * Coal Power
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=113>
   * Military Spending 2002
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=279>
   * Nuclear Weapons
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=289>
   * Voter Turnout
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=360>
   * Tertiary Education
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=203>
   * Books Borrowed
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=344>
   * Internet Users 2002
     <http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/display.php?selected=336>

Sunday, May 27

Odds and Ends, Sun 27 May 2007

   1. Interview: Will Friedwald, Owner Of The World's Largest iTunes
      Collection
     <http://www.glennwolsey.com/2007/04/19/interview-will-friedwald-
        owner-of-the-worlds-largest-itunes-collection/>

   That's a very long url, so if your email program mangles it, try this
   tinied version:
     <http://tinyurl.com/2lsz43>

   The stats:
   849 GB ~ 172,150 songs ~ 809.2 days ~ 2,935 artists ~ 11,561 albums


   2. "Pensa" by Fabrizio Moro
     <http://www.italylogue.com/italian-news/pensa-by-fabrizio-moro-
        song-lyrics-translated-to-english.html>
     <http://tinyurl.com/2z89sy>

   This song won the Youth prizes (popular and critical) at the recent
   Sanremo Song Festival (think slightly more upmarket Eurovision for
   Italian songs only).  I don't normally like the songs at the festival
   - I watch for other reasons.  But this one struck me as a particularly
   good song with poignant lyrics.  Definitely a song I hope to add to
   my iTunes collection.


   3. DubyaSpeak.com: What's in a Name?
     <http://www.dubyaspeak.com/whatsinaname.phtml>

   "(An abundance of terms, abbreviations and names... all messed up)"

   Some quotes from the orator of the Free World, e.g.
   "Information is moving -- you know, nightly news is one way, of course,
    but it's also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets"

   The site has lots of other funny stuff:
     <http://www.dubyaspeak.com/>


   4. Bill Gates and DONKEY.BAS
     <http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000862.html>

   Proof that Microsoft always wanted to be a Games company?


   5. "Email addicts get 12-step program"
     <http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1852683.htm>

   "Developed for cases such as a golfer who checked his BlackBerry after
    every shot, and lost a potential client who wanted nothing to do with
    his obsession, Marsha Egan's plan taps into deepening concern that
    email misuse can cost businesses millions of dollars in lost."


   6. "Department of Justice report: FBI unable to properly track 51 lost
       laptops"
     <http://www.scmagazine.com/us/news/article/632384/doj-report-fbi-unable-
        properly-track-51-lost-laptops>
     <http://tinyurl.com/2xbehm>

   "Auditors from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reported this week
    that during a 44-month period ending in September 2005, the FBI lost
    61 laptops containing either sensitive information or information the
    FBI was unable to confirm as sensitive."