Friday, 31 August 2007

For Spring Day

Poisoning Pigeons In The Park - Tom Lehrer

Spring is here, a-suh-puh-ring is here.
Life is skittles and life is beer.
I think the loveliest time of the year is the spring.
I do, don't you? 'Course you do.
But there's one thing that makes spring complete for me,
And makes ev'ry Sunday a treat for me.

All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
Ev'ry Sunday you'll see
My sweetheart and me,
As we poison the pigeons in the park.

When they see us coming, the birdies all try an' hide,
But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide.
The sun's shining bright,
Ev'rything seems all right,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.

Lalaalaalalaladoodiedieedoodoodoo

We've gained notoriety,
And caused much anxiety
In the Audubon Society
With our games.
They call it impiety,
And lack of propriety,
And quite a variety
Of unpleasant names.
But it's not against any religion
To want to dispose of a pigeon.

So if Sunday you're free,
Why don't you come with me,
And we'll poison the pigeons in the park.
And maybe we'll do
In a squirrel or two,
While we're poisoning pigeons in the park.

We'll murder them{ all }amid laughter and merriment.
Except for the few we take home to experiment.
My pulse will be quickenin'
With each drop of strychnine
We feed to a pigeon.
It just takes a smidgen!
To poison a pigeon in the park.
Find the MP3 here

Wednesday, 22 August 2007

Dungeons & Dragons 4

I can wait


You can also see the presentation on YouTube
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Thursday, 28 June 2007

The Save Icon

I have just had a thought.
Is the "Save Icon" going to change any time soon?
I think it is already quite outdated, but even Microsoft Office 2007,
with it's amazing interface uses a 3½" floppy disk as a "Save Icon".

The problem with this is that nobody actually uses floppy disks anymore.
Should the standard "Save Icon" not be updated for something more
relevant for our time?
People could argue that everybody knows what it is, and what it means,
but what about the next generation of computer users?

Most of us grew up with Floppy Disks 3½", or 5¼". We would copy games
from our friends, that where zipped over up to 15, or even more,
floppy disks. MS-DOS, and Windows came on floppy disks, it was just a
part of life, and the save icon makes sense to us.

But, what about the next generation...
Games, and other software no longer ever come on CD-ROM anymore, they
are on DVD, and now even Blu-ray. If you want to copy something from a
friend you would use a flash disk, or download it from BitTorrent.
The next generation will never even see a floppy disk.

How can the "Save Icon" be updated to reflect this?
Can it be updated to reflect this?

Could a "Hard Disk" or "Flash Disk" Icon be used instead of a "Floppy Disk"?
I don't know if it would make as much sense.

What about using a "House Icon", like the ones often used for "Home
Directory", or "~/"?
The icon would mean "Save to home disk".

What about a "Folder Icon" like the one used for "Open"?
The "Open Icon" would then have to change, they can't both be the same.
The "Save Icon" could have an arrow going into the "Folder" while
"Open" has an arrow coming out.

I don't know what it can change to, but it must change, or else we
might as well use a "Cassette Tape Save Icon".

Tuesday, 12 June 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean Reviews

There are two podcasts I listen to which have given reviews on Pirates 3, and I agree with both of them.
The fist is the Totally Rad Show.
And the other is The Ninja.
Give them a watch.

Wednesday, 23 May 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean

I loved the first one...

I loved the second one...

Last night I watched the third one...

In the special features on the DVD for the second one there are a few documentaries on the movie. They explained how the first one was made as a single movie, then they made lots of money from it, so they wanted to make another two. The two where written together as one story. Their goal was to have it finish all pirate movies; After watching the third movie, you should not want to watch another pirate movie.

I feel they succeeded...
I don't want to watch any more pirate movies....
It was just to much.
I would not say it was awful, I just wouldn't want to see it again.
I would say go watch it, but it really is over the top.

Just my opinion... I would like to get others....

What men REALLY mean:

This is a comeback to S@M-G!RL's post:

What Woman REALLY Mean

What Men REALLY Mean:
I am hungry: I am hungry
I am sleepy: I am sleepy
I am tired: I am tired
Nice dress: Nice cleavage!
I love you: Let's have sex now
I am bored: Do you want to have sex?
May I have this dance?: I'd like to have sex with you
Can I call you sometime: I'd like to have sex with you
Do you want to go to a movie?: I'd like to have sex with you
Can I take you out to dinner?: I'd like to have sex with you
I don't think those shoes go with that outfit?: I'm gay

Friday, 18 May 2007

The Singularity: Follow Up

If you have read my post on The Singularity you would have seen a number of errors in what I said.

I am going to post some comments Dave gave on post.

Well U did ask, & i like thinking about these sorts of things, so here's my input:

>Will somebody who knows what the are talking about >please go through this next bit and correct the errors, >it is just here for the point

> Imagine throwing a ball into the air, accelerating it at 20 m/s^2.
> The starting velocity of the ball will be 0 m/s upward.

No. I think you meant to say the start *velocity* will be 20m/s. The acceleration is *always* 10m/s^2 downward, at any time after the ball has left your hand. It is at that point of leaving your hand that the velocity is 20m/s (which should actually be recorded as -20m/s, since it is in the opposite direction to the acceleration)

> After 1 Second, the ball will be travailing at 20 m/s^2 upward
> but only accelerating upward at 10 m/s^2 due to gravity*.

The velcity will have decreased, cause by the DEcelleration due to gravity. DEceleration of 10m/s/s means after one second, the velocity will be now -10m/s. The acceleration due to gravity, or deceleration due to gravity (numerically the same, only the sign changes with direction) is always 9.8m/s/s on earth.

> After another second the ball will be traveling at 30 m/s^2 upward,
> and the acceleration will be 0. It will no longer be acceleration.

After another second (2 seconds flight time) the velocity will be zero. The accelleration is still 10m/s/s downwards. That is why the ball now starts to fall back to earth - with an initial velocity of zero m/s.

> After the next second, the ball would still be traveling at 30 m/s^2
> upward, but the acceleration is now -10 m/s^2 (or 10 m/s^2 downward).
> After another second, the the ball is still traveling up, at 20 m/s^2, (and > I don't think gravitational acceleration will increase after 10*).

The above 4 lines got me totally confused!
After the ball velocity has reached zero - the top of its flight - it will return to earth. It will reach your hand with the same velocity that it left (20m/s, but this time it is +20m/s, since it is downwards). If you, or the surface of the earth were not present (do this on the edge of a canyon), the ball will continue to accelerate downward at 10m/s/s, its velocity steadily increasing until it reaches something that stops it.

> Okay back to the point. We can see that even though there is force
> in the opposite direction, it is possible for something to keep
> acceleration, although the acceleration will become gradely less

Acceleration is always in the same direction as the force. The acceleration doesn't have to be in the same direction as the velocity: if they are, you get an increase in velocity, if not, you get a decrease in velocity.

**************

I'm open to correction here but I THINK it present they have not discovered enough matter in the universe for it to be an oscillating universe, i.e., it will never cease to expand and wil not contract under gravity.

If there is not enough matter (i.e., mass), then the forces of gravity on all the particles / planets / stars is just not enough to bring the whole expansion to a standstill.

If you throw you ball into the air FAST enough, it will have enough kinetic energy to escape earths gravity altogether, and it will never come down (on earth this 'escape velocity' is 11000 metres per second). Same thing with the big bang - if the initial explosion imparted enough kinetic energy to the matter, there may be insufficient gravity to halt its expansion.

The singularity thing is kinda more complex than just the analogy of a road disappearing to a point (parallax) because it's not just that the things IN the universe were scrunched up into zero physical dimensions, it was the universe itself that had no size - there was no up/down/left/right into which it could expand - space itself expanded and took the matter with it.
Thank you Dave.

Saturday, 24 February 2007

Apple Mighty Mouse battery life

This is a follow up to the post Apple Keyboard battery life.

At the opening of the iStore at
Clear Water Mall, i purchased a wireless Mighty Mouse. Before that I had a single button wireless Apple Mouse.
The problem with that mouse was the batteries.
They would go flat every week or two.

The batteris in the mighty mouse have lasted a little longer than that.
I got the mouse on 30 September 2006, and the batteries went flat this morning, 24 February 2007. That is approximately 5 months.

Friday, 16 February 2007

2B1 ASK1

Although it's not a great photo, I was driving behind this car a few days ago.

On the bottom left, it had a compas and square, just under "Mazda" (Click for larger image).



On the top of the back of the car it had a bumper sticker saying "2 B 1 - ASK 1".
I was wondering if I would want to be one. I would be very interested to know what they all do, and talk about, but I don't know if they are as scary as people think they are. There are many stories and rumors on Freemasons controlling the planet, and worshiping the devil.

Being interested in conspiracy theories, I have read a lot saying how evil they are, and everything else I'm sure most people reading this have heard or read.

I read that the Square is to square your actions, and the compasses to circumscribe and keep you in due bonds with all mankind.

They also use buildings as symbols, pyramids, temples, obelisks. Because of the buildings, people assume they are linked to The Knights Templar, or old Egyptian religions.
A mason is a builder. A Free Mason, is a builder who dose not work for anybody, or is not a slave, like a free lance (A knight who does not serve a lord).
If a mason is a builder, using a building as a symbol should not seem strange. One things all these buildings have in common, is they are not easy to design, or build. They require careful planning, and calculation.
You could see your own life as a complex building. You need to start off with a strong foundation as a child.

If these are true descriptions of there symbols, they don't seem to be "Bad" people, but rather a society of people with good morals that you could trust.

So maybe they are a group of men who bite the heads off unborn children, or maybe people are just afraid of what they don't know, and assume that if something is kept a secret it has to be evil.

Remember companies also keep secrets. They don't let anybody come to there board meetings, and keep uncreased products a secret until they are launched.

I would really like anybody with an opinion on this subject to comment. If you are reading this and you are a Free Mason, please leave a comment as well, it would be really interesting to get comments from you on what I have written...

Friday, 09 February 2007

Silent Hill

Last night, Otaku, the Anime lifestyle magazine, took any readers who wanted to go, to watch Silent Hill, at the Sterkinekor in Rosebank. I am not going to tell you the story, just that it is based on a video game.
If you enjoy horror movies, you should go see it. Here is the trailer.

Saturday, 03 February 2007

Which editor to use?

I have an assignment to do, I and I trying to decide which editor I should use to create in, or should I use a combination of two.

The Options
1. Vim

I think this is one of the best editors to use, if you are just working on plain text documents. It is quick to use, there is little distraction with different styles, formatting, layout. Everything can be done with the keyboard, so you never have to move you hand to the mouse. It now has a spell checker, something I need, which can also be used, with just the keyboard.
2. Text Edit
Text edit is a very basic editor, which also supports rich text editing, which means headings can be made bold. Print has an export to PDF option.
3. Neo Office (Open Office)
Neo Office is an open source office suite, which is based on Open Office. It has many features, that can also become distracting. There are a few features I would use, which are...
Headers and footers. Heading and paragraph styles. Automatic table of content. Reference database and bibliography.

I have three options (I'm not going to be looking at Text Edit).

I could do it all in Vim, ignore pages numbers, and do a Table of content, and bibliography manually. The table of content would of course then not have page numbers.

I could also do it completely in Neo Office. Having nice headers and page numbers.

The third option is to do the typing in Vim, and then setting up the style in Neo Office. I could then add a header and footer, set heading styles, and add a Table of content to it. Adding bibliography referencers would be to much to do after, so I would juts type out the bibliography if I did it this way, as though I was just leaving it plain text

Please give comments on how you prefer editing documents...