20061023
Robin Hoo?
Have been watching the not particularly exciting new Robin Hood adaptation. Most of all I was struck that one of the outlaws seemed to sound exactly like Vic Reeves. I was having one of my usual "is it just me?" moments, but according to the custard, it's not just me. Thank goodness for that.
20061021
So that's how it works
I've had the following link sitting around in a tab for a while, so I want to write it up and get rid of it:
For a very long time I have wondered how Lucent made its money, and I think this is probably as close to an answer as I'm likely to get.
They figured that over the time their grandmother rented the phones, she spent $14,000 in rental fees.
It turns out that the widow is not alone. Some 750,000 people continue to rent rotary phones from Lucent, the AT&T spinoff that now manages the phone service.
For a very long time I have wondered how Lucent made its money, and I think this is probably as close to an answer as I'm likely to get.
The time, the place
Last email related mining malarkey for a year or so, I promise. With the sent mail, I was also interested to see when I sent it. The breakdown by day is as follows:
Monday: 17%
Tuesday: 18%
Wedneday: 17%
Thursday: 17%
Friday: 16%
Saturday:5%
Sunday: 9%
(rounded, so they may or may not add up to 100). Conclusion: I really do seem to slack off on the weekend. Or else no one sends me anything worth replying to on weekends.
By hour, using my patented text based histograms:
What's interesting is that there is a non-zero amount of email sent 2am -- 7am, when I am usually very much asleep. A very unscientific check suggests that this is almsot entirely messages sent from my US based email system when I am in a different timezone and so local time is much closer to something reasonable. I really don't like to stay awake late into the night.
From these numbers, you can also deduce that I tend to go for lunch somewhere between 12 and 1pm, and that I have dinner around 8 or 9pm, before making another onslaught on my inbox around 10pm. Yes, I really am that predictable apparently. I therefore claim that the dip around 4pm is due to me making a concerted effort to get some work done in the afternoon without distractions.
Anyway, that's enough of that for now.
Monday: 17%
Tuesday: 18%
Wedneday: 17%
Thursday: 17%
Friday: 16%
Saturday:5%
Sunday: 9%
(rounded, so they may or may not add up to 100). Conclusion: I really do seem to slack off on the weekend. Or else no one sends me anything worth replying to on weekends.
By hour, using my patented text based histograms:
10.00
9.75 ##
9.50 ##
9.25 ##
9.00 ##
8.75 ####
8.50 ####
8.25 ## ## ######
8.00 ## ## ######
7.75 ## ## ######
7.50 #### ## ######
7.25 #### ## ######
7.00 #### ##########
6.75 ###### ##########
6.50 ###### ##########
6.25 ###### ##########
6.00 ##################
5.75 ####################
5.50 ####################
5.25 ####################
5.00 #################### ##
4.75 #################### ##
4.50 #################### ##
4.25 #################### ##
4.00 ##########################
3.75 ############################
3.50 ############################
3.25 ############################
3.00 ############################
2.75 ############################
2.50 ############################
2.25 ############################
2.00 ##############################
1.75 ##############################
1.50 ##############################
1.25 ##############################
1.00 ##############################
0.75## ################################
0.50## ################################
0.25## ##################################
0.00################################################
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91011121314151617181920212223
What's interesting is that there is a non-zero amount of email sent 2am -- 7am, when I am usually very much asleep. A very unscientific check suggests that this is almsot entirely messages sent from my US based email system when I am in a different timezone and so local time is much closer to something reasonable. I really don't like to stay awake late into the night.
From these numbers, you can also deduce that I tend to go for lunch somewhere between 12 and 1pm, and that I have dinner around 8 or 9pm, before making another onslaught on my inbox around 10pm. Yes, I really am that predictable apparently. I therefore claim that the dip around 4pm is due to me making a concerted effort to get some work done in the afternoon without distractions.
Anyway, that's enough of that for now.
Annual email trawl
As regular readers may recall and detest, about once a year I like to scan over all the email I've receive in the past twelvemonth, and try to see if I can detect any interesting or notable trends. I did this in 2003, again in 2004, and did the analysis in 2005, but didn't get around to posting the results, being somewhat distracted by the repeated failure of my computer to keep working without rebooting itself.
Anyway, another year is drawing slowly to a close, and so it's time to post yet another interminably tedious analysis of my own email. It's mostly bad news, you'll be delighted to hear. Firstly, spam is up dramatically in the last year. My definition of spam, crude though it is, is email where i received one message from that email address. So at best it's an approximation, but it seems to work tolerably well. Aynyway, I seem to be receiving 1000 to 1500 spam messages a month, way up from only a few hundred a month a year or so back. That equates to upto 50 spam a day, and I'd say that this was fair. Certainly, whenever I go away for a few days, there's typically upwards of a hundred messages waiting for me to deal with on my return. Mail as a whole is up, a total of 3000 messages a month (including spam), up from a mere few hundred (500+) a couple of years back.
So, some of the rise is spam, some is surely reflective of the fact I'm generally busier these days, but part is also explained by some particuarly high traffic mailing lists. The totals of all received email are as follows:
2002/03: 7093
2003/04: 12245
2004/05: 16452
2005/06: 29884
But for mailing lists, the totals were:
2002/03: 1500
2003/04: 5500
2004/05: 8800
2005/06: 8000
So at least the initial increae in email over the last few years can be attributed to heavy traffic mailing lists; however, the near doubling of mail in the last year, an extra 13000 emails a year, seem to be almost entirely due to spam. It's almost enough to make me want to install some kind of spam filter.
for the first time this year, i also looked at sent email. I have records going back to 1995, but decided to just look at the last four years since arriving in the US. The numbers look as follows (by calendar year, this time):
2001: 1309 messages sent
2002: 1110
2003: 1249
2004: 1724
2005: 2265
2006: 1286 (so far)
My theory for the big jump starting mid 2004 and going through 2005, is that this is when I first got a 'proper' job, and had a load of work related email. This is pretty plausible, since I have separate records for work and other work: my old email stayed about constant, new mail sent through work added about 100 messages a month. Now, there's actually some quite considerable undercounting going on here, since I've just counted messages in my sent-mail folder, whereas mail to some specific people goes into sorted folders based on redicipient for future convenience. Throwing those into the mix adds about another 5000 messages to the total for the last four years, making an average of about 10 emails sent per day for the last four years. Going back to 1995, I have records of a total of approaching 20,000 messages (a long term average of about 5 per day). Plotting these numbers month by month shows a very variable curve, but one with a fairly clear linear upward trend. This does not bode too well, but shouldn't be too surprising. Going back to 1996, there's the occasional break of a month which reads 0. This isn't a data quality, there was genuinely a time when I didn't send any email for a month because I was at home, and we didn't even have dial up at home. Hard to imagine now, I know...
Anyway, another year is drawing slowly to a close, and so it's time to post yet another interminably tedious analysis of my own email. It's mostly bad news, you'll be delighted to hear. Firstly, spam is up dramatically in the last year. My definition of spam, crude though it is, is email where i received one message from that email address. So at best it's an approximation, but it seems to work tolerably well. Aynyway, I seem to be receiving 1000 to 1500 spam messages a month, way up from only a few hundred a month a year or so back. That equates to upto 50 spam a day, and I'd say that this was fair. Certainly, whenever I go away for a few days, there's typically upwards of a hundred messages waiting for me to deal with on my return. Mail as a whole is up, a total of 3000 messages a month (including spam), up from a mere few hundred (500+) a couple of years back.
So, some of the rise is spam, some is surely reflective of the fact I'm generally busier these days, but part is also explained by some particuarly high traffic mailing lists. The totals of all received email are as follows:
2002/03: 7093
2003/04: 12245
2004/05: 16452
2005/06: 29884
But for mailing lists, the totals were:
2002/03: 1500
2003/04: 5500
2004/05: 8800
2005/06: 8000
So at least the initial increae in email over the last few years can be attributed to heavy traffic mailing lists; however, the near doubling of mail in the last year, an extra 13000 emails a year, seem to be almost entirely due to spam. It's almost enough to make me want to install some kind of spam filter.
for the first time this year, i also looked at sent email. I have records going back to 1995, but decided to just look at the last four years since arriving in the US. The numbers look as follows (by calendar year, this time):
2001: 1309 messages sent
2002: 1110
2003: 1249
2004: 1724
2005: 2265
2006: 1286 (so far)
My theory for the big jump starting mid 2004 and going through 2005, is that this is when I first got a 'proper' job, and had a load of work related email. This is pretty plausible, since I have separate records for work and other work: my old email stayed about constant, new mail sent through work added about 100 messages a month. Now, there's actually some quite considerable undercounting going on here, since I've just counted messages in my sent-mail folder, whereas mail to some specific people goes into sorted folders based on redicipient for future convenience. Throwing those into the mix adds about another 5000 messages to the total for the last four years, making an average of about 10 emails sent per day for the last four years. Going back to 1995, I have records of a total of approaching 20,000 messages (a long term average of about 5 per day). Plotting these numbers month by month shows a very variable curve, but one with a fairly clear linear upward trend. This does not bode too well, but shouldn't be too surprising. Going back to 1996, there's the occasional break of a month which reads 0. This isn't a data quality, there was genuinely a time when I didn't send any email for a month because I was at home, and we didn't even have dial up at home. Hard to imagine now, I know...
20061020
Homer Alone
Catching up with Veronica Mars season 3, episode 2 features a cameo from none other than Dan Castellaneta. I'm sure at the end of his penultimate scene in the show there is a just audible (Annoyed grunt!) from some member of the cast...
Chris Ashcroft
Someone has obviously put a lot of effort onto this video on you tube, yet it has only garnered a scant smattering of viewers. So why not take a look?
Incidentally, I have no idea what it is about. Do you?
Incidentally, I have no idea what it is about. Do you?
Super Cheap Shipping Super Fast!
I seem to buy something off of the internet every month or so. It's something to do with the ill-gotten gains that keep pouring into my account. Being an inveterate cheapskate, I invariably seem to end up plumping for the "super shipping" option, which offers free delivery in return for a promised delivery date of 12-14 days. Unfortunately for the e-commerce e-merchants, they seem unable to keep to this promise. Instead, the goods seem to show up at my front door 2-3 days later. For example, I ordered my 17" LCD monitor on a bored saturday afternoon, checked 'free shipping (may take a long time)', and was about to leave for work on wednesday morning when I was accosted by a delivery agent with the new device. The same thing happened this week, when I decided to grab 400Gb for $90 purely on the grounds that I'll be bound to need it at some point. I casually stuck in an order on monday night, only for the thing to show up on my doorstep while I was out at work today.
If they want me to spring the extra $10-20 for super speedy delivery, they really out to try to make a service differential. Not that it would bother me too much. Once you aren't too bothered about fast delivery, it just makes the rapidity of turnaround something to be casually impressed by.
Remember, that delivery fees are sometimes the lifeblood of e-businesses. I've made something of a habit of buying items from Amazon marketplace for $0.01, the kicker being the fixed $3.49 delivery fee, which allows them to eek out some kind of a profit from the transaction. But, there's something delightful about claiming that you bought a book written by that guy in the year below you from Uni for $0.01. Well, there is for me, anyway.
If they want me to spring the extra $10-20 for super speedy delivery, they really out to try to make a service differential. Not that it would bother me too much. Once you aren't too bothered about fast delivery, it just makes the rapidity of turnaround something to be casually impressed by.
Remember, that delivery fees are sometimes the lifeblood of e-businesses. I've made something of a habit of buying items from Amazon marketplace for $0.01, the kicker being the fixed $3.49 delivery fee, which allows them to eek out some kind of a profit from the transaction. But, there's something delightful about claiming that you bought a book written by that guy in the year below you from Uni for $0.01. Well, there is for me, anyway.
20061014
More YouChoob antix
a long time ago (about two years ago, in fact) I wrote about the glories of K9 and company, worth the effort to seek out if only for its ker-azy opening titles sequence.
Well, thanks to the wonders of the internet and callous disregard for copyright (not on my part, I hasten to add), you can see the whole thing split into ten minute pieces (that's pieces of ten minutes in duration, not... oh, never mind) on youchoob.
$1.65Billion for this, Google? Really?
Anyway, expect yet more updating of old posts with links to youchoob in the future. Because apparently I have nothing better to do.
Well, thanks to the wonders of the internet and callous disregard for copyright (not on my part, I hasten to add), you can see the whole thing split into ten minute pieces (that's pieces of ten minutes in duration, not... oh, never mind) on youchoob.
$1.65Billion for this, Google? Really?
Anyway, expect yet more updating of old posts with links to youchoob in the future. Because apparently I have nothing better to do.
Lazy web request
Given that youchoob has just been bought for $1.6M dollars (a lot of cash, I'll warrant, but you would have thought google could have stumped for a few dollars more to make it the round $2M), I thought that I'd throw out a brilliant idea that someone else can take and be the next internet paper millionaire, because I'm too lazy to do it myself.
The issue is the following: there are loads of web comics out there that I'd like to get around to reading: something positive, sinfest, heck, even doonesbury has thirty something years of back story that I'd like to catch up on.
But I don't have the time or patience to sit down and work through the entire archives of a web comic in an afternoon or twenty. And whenever I've tried to click through a few comics in a few spare minutes, I inevitably forget where I got to last time, and then lose the tab that had the comic in it in an overzealous tab closing attack.
So what I want to do is harness the power of RSS, which is how I deal with the rest of my information overload, and how I keep up with the latest editions of Doonesbury and Dilbert.
So what I need is a way to create an RSS feed for archived material, that drip feeds me little chunks of comics on a daily basis, so I can slowly catch up. A feed that gives me five episodes of doonesbury a day, say, and I'll be all caught up in, ooh, 6 years or so. But at least it will be manageable, and my rss reader can then keep track of what I've seen already.
I even have a name for my invention: the Archive RSS Serialization Engine. So if you want to take my idea for an ARSE, and make yourself possibly hundreds of dollars when Google or Microsoft finally buy it, then please help yourself.
If no one else does it, then I might get onto it myself. When I finally get around to building my household server, it surely can't be that difficult to set up a cron job to run a perl script that will automatically generate an RSS XML file that I can feed into my favourite RSS reader? I'd just much prefer someone else to do it for me...
The issue is the following: there are loads of web comics out there that I'd like to get around to reading: something positive, sinfest, heck, even doonesbury has thirty something years of back story that I'd like to catch up on.
But I don't have the time or patience to sit down and work through the entire archives of a web comic in an afternoon or twenty. And whenever I've tried to click through a few comics in a few spare minutes, I inevitably forget where I got to last time, and then lose the tab that had the comic in it in an overzealous tab closing attack.
So what I want to do is harness the power of RSS, which is how I deal with the rest of my information overload, and how I keep up with the latest editions of Doonesbury and Dilbert.
So what I need is a way to create an RSS feed for archived material, that drip feeds me little chunks of comics on a daily basis, so I can slowly catch up. A feed that gives me five episodes of doonesbury a day, say, and I'll be all caught up in, ooh, 6 years or so. But at least it will be manageable, and my rss reader can then keep track of what I've seen already.
I even have a name for my invention: the Archive RSS Serialization Engine. So if you want to take my idea for an ARSE, and make yourself possibly hundreds of dollars when Google or Microsoft finally buy it, then please help yourself.
If no one else does it, then I might get onto it myself. When I finally get around to building my household server, it surely can't be that difficult to set up a cron job to run a perl script that will automatically generate an RSS XML file that I can feed into my favourite RSS reader? I'd just much prefer someone else to do it for me...
Jury Rigged
Excitement in the mail today. A letter, which looks actually pretty much identical to the kind of circular advertising credit cards and which I tend to throw away immediately turns out to be an entirely genuine state of New Jersey summons to serve on a jury. My excitement at the prospect of being a cog in the wheels of justice is tempered only by the fact that I am not a US citizen and cannot, unlike Veronica Mars, become one of 12 angry young men.
There's a box to tick if you are not a US citizen. There's also a box to tick if you are insane or mentally incapable, under 18 or unable to understand english, which I suppose means that I am exempted. Alas.
If I ever get called for jury duty in England while I am in the US, I wonder if I am legally required to attend. Or if they will pay my travel costs.
There's a box to tick if you are not a US citizen. There's also a box to tick if you are insane or mentally incapable, under 18 or unable to understand english, which I suppose means that I am exempted. Alas.
If I ever get called for jury duty in England while I am in the US, I wonder if I am legally required to attend. Or if they will pay my travel costs.
20061006
Foley-o and Pages
Oh, come on -- which of us hasn't indulged in explicit banter with naive junior minions some thirty something years younger than us? I know have. Why, only this evening I was having this perfectly innocent IM conversation:
[19:29] M: hello
[19:30] hughanchor6969: hey
[19:30] M: How's you?
[19:30] hughanchor6969: ok
[19:32] M: I should probably obey you re: Veronica Mars at some point.
[19:32] hughanchor6969: kep scrounging
[19:32] M: I'm such a late adopter of TV shows.
[19:32] hughanchor6969: bo dude
[19:32] M: er
[19:32] M: you okay?
[19:32] hughanchor6969: i am in pensecola…had to catch a plane
[19:33] M: hmm
[19:33] hughanchor6969: indeed
[19:36] M: A plane where?
[19:36] hughanchor6969: now in my hotel room
[19:36] M: which is where?
[19:37] hughanchor6969: for the campaign
[19:37] M: What campaign?
[19:37] hughanchor6969: not yet
[19:38] M: are you a real person?
OK, so M. got suspicious before I managed to get around to asking him what he was wearing, and if he wouldn't minding slipping it off, but you get my point.
Which gave me an idea. We all know Eliza, the automated psychological chat bot. I decided to feed the honourable gentleman's comments into Eliza to see what came out. Here's the result:
I am the psychotherapist. Please, describe your problems. Each time
you are finished talking, type RET twice.
Maf54: now in my hotel room
ELIZA: What makes you believe now in your hotel room?
Maf54: for the campaign
ELIZA: Is it because of the people you hang around with that you say for the campaign?
Maf54: not yet
ELIZA: Is it because of problems at school that you are going through all
this?
Maf54: how my favorite young stud doing?
ELIZA: Is it because your favorite young stud doing that you came to me?
Maf54: from what?
ELIZA: Are you sure that from what?
Maf54: tahts good
ELIZA: Earlier you said your favorite young stud doing?
Maf54: you need a massage
ELIZA: Do you really think I might want to have this massage?
Maf54: must have
ELIZA: How do you reconcile any hobbies you have?
Maf54: love to watch that
ELIZA: What makes you think you love to watch that
Maf54: those great legs running
ELIZA: Is it because of your sex life that you say those great legs running?
Maf54: well dont ruin my mental picture
ELIZA: Don't tell me what to do. I am the psychiatrist here! Perhaps this has something to do with hangups you have?
Maf54: nice
ELIZA: I need a little more detail please.
Maf54: youll be way hot then
ELIZA: You mentioned that your favorite young stud doing?
Maf54: better be
ELIZA: Possibly your inhibitions are related to this.
Maf54: well i better let you go do oyur thing
ELIZA: Why do you say you better let I go do oyur thing?
Maf54: did any girl give you a haand job this weekend
ELIZA: What makes you believe I would like to have this massage?
Maf54: are you
ELIZA: Is it because of some problems in your childhood that you are going
through all this?
Maf54: good so your getting horny
ELIZA: Do you get horny often?
[...]
Maf54: i am sure
ELIZA: Are you sure that you are sure?
Maf54: why not
ELIZA: Can you be more explicit?
Maf54: at your age it seems that it would be daily
ELIZA: Does it bother you that it would be daily?
Maf54: thats a good number
ELIZA: You mentioned that I would like to have this massage?
Maf54: in the shower
ELIZA: Maybe this is related to your life?
Maf54: in the bed
ELIZA: Is it because of the people you hang around with that you say in the
bed?
Maf54: on your back
ELIZA: Do you really think you were horny?
Maf54: love details
ELIZA: Perhaps problems at school could have caused this
Actually not a bad diagnosis. Although, despite ELIZA's wishes, it's tough to see how he could be any more explicit...
[19:29] M: hello
[19:30] hughanchor6969: hey
[19:30] M: How's you?
[19:30] hughanchor6969: ok
[19:32] M: I should probably obey you re: Veronica Mars at some point.
[19:32] hughanchor6969: kep scrounging
[19:32] M: I'm such a late adopter of TV shows.
[19:32] hughanchor6969: bo dude
[19:32] M: er
[19:32] M: you okay?
[19:32] hughanchor6969: i am in pensecola…had to catch a plane
[19:33] M: hmm
[19:33] hughanchor6969: indeed
[19:36] M: A plane where?
[19:36] hughanchor6969: now in my hotel room
[19:36] M: which is where?
[19:37] hughanchor6969: for the campaign
[19:37] M: What campaign?
[19:37] hughanchor6969: not yet
[19:38] M: are you a real person?
OK, so M. got suspicious before I managed to get around to asking him what he was wearing, and if he wouldn't minding slipping it off, but you get my point.
Which gave me an idea. We all know Eliza, the automated psychological chat bot. I decided to feed the honourable gentleman's comments into Eliza to see what came out. Here's the result:
I am the psychotherapist. Please, describe your problems. Each time
you are finished talking, type RET twice.
Maf54: now in my hotel room
ELIZA: What makes you believe now in your hotel room?
Maf54: for the campaign
ELIZA: Is it because of the people you hang around with that you say for the campaign?
Maf54: not yet
ELIZA: Is it because of problems at school that you are going through all
this?
Maf54: how my favorite young stud doing?
ELIZA: Is it because your favorite young stud doing that you came to me?
Maf54: from what?
ELIZA: Are you sure that from what?
Maf54: tahts good
ELIZA: Earlier you said your favorite young stud doing?
Maf54: you need a massage
ELIZA: Do you really think I might want to have this massage?
Maf54: must have
ELIZA: How do you reconcile any hobbies you have?
Maf54: love to watch that
ELIZA: What makes you think you love to watch that
Maf54: those great legs running
ELIZA: Is it because of your sex life that you say those great legs running?
Maf54: well dont ruin my mental picture
ELIZA: Don't tell me what to do. I am the psychiatrist here! Perhaps this has something to do with hangups you have?
Maf54: nice
ELIZA: I need a little more detail please.
Maf54: youll be way hot then
ELIZA: You mentioned that your favorite young stud doing?
Maf54: better be
ELIZA: Possibly your inhibitions are related to this.
Maf54: well i better let you go do oyur thing
ELIZA: Why do you say you better let I go do oyur thing?
Maf54: did any girl give you a haand job this weekend
ELIZA: What makes you believe I would like to have this massage?
Maf54: are you
ELIZA: Is it because of some problems in your childhood that you are going
through all this?
Maf54: good so your getting horny
ELIZA: Do you get horny often?
[...]
Maf54: i am sure
ELIZA: Are you sure that you are sure?
Maf54: why not
ELIZA: Can you be more explicit?
Maf54: at your age it seems that it would be daily
ELIZA: Does it bother you that it would be daily?
Maf54: thats a good number
ELIZA: You mentioned that I would like to have this massage?
Maf54: in the shower
ELIZA: Maybe this is related to your life?
Maf54: in the bed
ELIZA: Is it because of the people you hang around with that you say in the
bed?
Maf54: on your back
ELIZA: Do you really think you were horny?
Maf54: love details
ELIZA: Perhaps problems at school could have caused this
Actually not a bad diagnosis. Although, despite ELIZA's wishes, it's tough to see how he could be any more explicit...
20061002
Joy of Tech
I feel like a proper grown up computer user now that I have a 17" LCD monitor (it was worried it would be just a bit too big -- I think ideally I would have a 16" monitor, but funnily enough, no one makes these). And I have it set up in portrait mode. Yes, portrait. Eat that, all you landscape viewing fools. I have seen the future, and it has an aspect ratio less than 1. Or more than one. I suppose it depends what you divide by what.
Anyway, I thought that portrait would be a gimmick, but the majority of things I do work much better in this orientation. The only exception is watching videos, but most of that gets sent out to a CRT TV (19", anything bigger is just silly, and gloriously standard-def). So I'd recomment everyone give it a try. I'm very happy with the HP L1740, which pivots and swivels like a break dancer (note: check cultural currency of break dancing. Replace with body popping? Or doing the robot?).
I also seem to have fixed the problems I was having with my laptop overheating. Partly this is because autumn has come and the ambient temperature is lower (the problems began during the heatwave, and I think it may have been connected).
The answer is the underrated art of underclocking. That's right. Instead of these speed demons who increase the speed of their processors to get every last ounce of high speed power from their machine, I've been reducing the speed of the processor in the laptop. I mean, all I ever use it for is for checking email, surfing the web when I should be writing high powered academic treatises on the fundamental computational complexity of computing various classes of functions, and writing high powered academica treatises on the blah blah blah. Anyway, since then I haven't had any problems. Maybe this is just superstitious voodoo. But, I feel almost environmentally friendly because of the reduced depletion of my processor's natural resources. Plus, I've always thought that it must be really boring to be a CPU: I mean, you spend most of your time idle, waiting for data to be fetched from disk at a rate which seems beyond glacial. Hopefully, this underclocking makes the time seem to pass a little faster for the little Athlete...
Anyway, I thought that portrait would be a gimmick, but the majority of things I do work much better in this orientation. The only exception is watching videos, but most of that gets sent out to a CRT TV (19", anything bigger is just silly, and gloriously standard-def). So I'd recomment everyone give it a try. I'm very happy with the HP L1740, which pivots and swivels like a break dancer (note: check cultural currency of break dancing. Replace with body popping? Or doing the robot?).
I also seem to have fixed the problems I was having with my laptop overheating. Partly this is because autumn has come and the ambient temperature is lower (the problems began during the heatwave, and I think it may have been connected).
The answer is the underrated art of underclocking. That's right. Instead of these speed demons who increase the speed of their processors to get every last ounce of high speed power from their machine, I've been reducing the speed of the processor in the laptop. I mean, all I ever use it for is for checking email, surfing the web when I should be writing high powered academic treatises on the fundamental computational complexity of computing various classes of functions, and writing high powered academica treatises on the blah blah blah. Anyway, since then I haven't had any problems. Maybe this is just superstitious voodoo. But, I feel almost environmentally friendly because of the reduced depletion of my processor's natural resources. Plus, I've always thought that it must be really boring to be a CPU: I mean, you spend most of your time idle, waiting for data to be fetched from disk at a rate which seems beyond glacial. Hopefully, this underclocking makes the time seem to pass a little faster for the little Athlete...
20060929
More lost mail
A few more messages sent to my gmail account that were presumably intended for someone else:
September 25th
hi i have lost you number im in dub ? wanna catch up... xxx vinny ..
sorry for not chatting to you prop in the g was with friend
September 27th
hi its vinny ... sorry but i have lost your number im just trying to
get in touch with you so we can catch up !!! im in dublin for a while so
just mail me your number so i can call you ..
Poor Vinny.
September 14th
Alan ABC Parcel Back-up
Hi,
Please pull CMAs on the attached property numbers.
Alan,
More info to follow.
V/R
Paul
And here's the attached spreadsheet in full. Maybe it's a secret code.
September 25th
hi i have lost you number im in dub ? wanna catch up... xxx vinny ..
sorry for not chatting to you prop in the g was with friend
September 27th
hi its vinny ... sorry but i have lost your number im just trying to
get in touch with you so we can catch up !!! im in dublin for a while so
just mail me your number so i can call you ..
Poor Vinny.
September 14th
Alan ABC Parcel Back-up
Hi,
Please pull CMAs on the attached property numbers.
Alan,
More info to follow.
V/R
Paul
And here's the attached spreadsheet in full. Maybe it's a secret code.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parcel Number | Address | City | ZIP | Owner | Appraised Value 2006 | Appraised Value 2007 | Lot Area | Zoning | Improvements | |||||||||
| 2 | Number | Street | Land | Improvement | Land | Improvement | SqFt | Acres | Min Building Size | Dimensions | Sewer | Water | Power | ||||||
| 3 | Parcel A | ||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | O185000100 | Vacant | Julio G and Bella F Martir | $2,000 | $0 | 2000 | 0 | 6,000 | 0.14 | 5000 | R-6P | ||||||||
| 5 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Parcel B | ||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | 3750605520 | Vacant | Julio G and Bella F Martir | $4,000 | $0 | 4000 | 0 | 4,800 | 0.11 | 5000 | R-4 | ||||||||
| 8 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 11 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 12 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 13 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 14 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 15 | Parcel C | ||||||||||||||||||
| 16 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 17 | 3751606809 | Vacant | Julio G and Bella F Martir | $25,000 | $0 | 30000 | 0 | 114,127 | 2.62 | 1 acre | R-1 | ||||||||
| 18 | 3751606811 | Vacant | Julio G and Bella F Martir | $37,000 | $0 | 45000 | 0 | 118,274 | 2.72 | 1 acre | R-1 | ||||||||
| 19 | 3751606817 | Vacant | Julio G and Bella F Martir | $31,000 | $0 | 38000 | 0 | 78,843 | 1.81 | 1 acre | R-1 | ||||||||
| 20 | 3751606821 | Vacant | Julio G and Bella F Martir | $37,000 | $0 | 33000 | 0 | 30,600 | 0.70 | 1 acre | R-1 | ||||||||
| 21 | 3751606823 | Vacant | Julio G and Bella F Martir | $28,000 | $0 | 33000 | 0 | 30,720 | 0.71 | 1 acre | R-1 | ||||||||
| 22 | 3751606825 | Vacant | Julio G and Bella F Martir | $34,000 | $0 | 39000 | 0 | 25,938 | 0.60 | 1 acre | R-1 | ||||||||
Veronica is back
Just watched a rather fuzzy version of the first episode of the new season of Veronica Mars (try this link which may or may not work). It's superb; all the best characters are back (Mac is now a regular), and the best part is that new viewers can just jump right in. New year, new start. Sure, regular fans will be well rewarded. But this is something that everyone can get into. And then realize that they should rush out and buy the first two seasons on DVD (only $30 for season 1 on amazon.com) and catch up.
20060927
Blue!
I've probably posted versions of this before, but now thanks to Flash and youtube, you can view the wonderful Blue without leaving the comfort of your browser.
Opera users: must remind you to install the script on this page to get embedded youtube videos to work...
Opera users: must remind you to install the script on this page to get embedded youtube videos to work...
Useless Gadgets
I've long been a fan of silly gadgets, but during my visit to Korea I think I managed to find the most useless gadget yet. It's a solar powered LCD keyring. Basically, it's a tiny LCD screen that displays a small picture of a korean flag. It's powered by solar panels on the side. If it doesn't get enough light, then the picture goes off. When it is on, it never changes. So, most of the time it shows a static picture, and occasionally it goes blank. So slightly less effective than a coloured piece of card, then...
20060926
Bad Dreams
For a long time, I've had the occasional (maybe a couple of times a year) had an Exam Dream. The situation was usually that I had to take an exam, but for whatever reason I was unable to do it -- not because I didn't know the material (it never even occurred to me that I wouldn't. but rather for whatever reason external factors meant that I couldn't get started: maybe there was something distracting me so I couldn't begin, or I didn't have any pens that worked, or something like that. These have become more infrequent over the years, not overly surprising since I haven't had a real eam for many years.
I had an exam dream at the weekend. The twist was, this time I was giving the exam. I needed to get the exam papers out to the students. But, I hadn't finished putting the questions together. Or the photocopier wasn't working properly. Or something. And time was running out!
Plus ca change, as they say in Nice, plus c'est la meme chose...
Update:
nicholas adds the following:
I tried to post this on your web log but it kept demanding that I type
in the words displayed in an image that it refused to show me, so I
thought I'd email you instead.
About a fortnight before my MSc exams (nine and a half years ago) I had
a dream where I'd overslept and missed the beginning of an algebraic
topology exam. (In my dream) I leapt out of bed, hurriedly got dressed,
and legged it across campus to the Paranoia Room. I burst in through
the door just as Colin (who, six months later, was to become my PhD
supervisor) said "OK, everyone stop writing now, please". I did the
whole slow-motion "Nooooo!" thing as I rushed into the room, at which
point Colin turned to me and said "Oh I wouldn't worry about it - nobody
else could do the exam either", and I woke up.
Post your own scary exam dreams, if you can get past the evil comments system.
I had an exam dream at the weekend. The twist was, this time I was giving the exam. I needed to get the exam papers out to the students. But, I hadn't finished putting the questions together. Or the photocopier wasn't working properly. Or something. And time was running out!
Plus ca change, as they say in Nice, plus c'est la meme chose...
Update:
nicholas adds the following:
I tried to post this on your web log but it kept demanding that I type
in the words displayed in an image that it refused to show me, so I
thought I'd email you instead.
About a fortnight before my MSc exams (nine and a half years ago) I had
a dream where I'd overslept and missed the beginning of an algebraic
topology exam. (In my dream) I leapt out of bed, hurriedly got dressed,
and legged it across campus to the Paranoia Room. I burst in through
the door just as Colin (who, six months later, was to become my PhD
supervisor) said "OK, everyone stop writing now, please". I did the
whole slow-motion "Nooooo!" thing as I rushed into the room, at which
point Colin turned to me and said "Oh I wouldn't worry about it - nobody
else could do the exam either", and I woke up.
Post your own scary exam dreams, if you can get past the evil comments system.
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