” … but I didn’t realise it was so completely worthless it counted as litter.”
Archive for June, 2009
“I knew the pound has been falling in value …”
Friday, June 12th, 2009When you wish upon a star
Friday, June 12th, 2009… better hope it doesn’t go kaboom.
I find this interesting, and suspect that many, if not most, people alive today may actually get to see this happen … as Betelgeuse shrinks, gravity effects will force the shrinkage to occur more rapidly. How exciting to be an astronomer when this occurs! Normally, we don’t know of nova before they explode; this time it appears that we’ll get to watch it on 600-year “tape delay.”
At that distance, I’d expect that we’d be ok, as long as it doesn’t send a death beam in our direction.
Update: You know, most 14-year-olds don’t get to discover their own supernova, let alone one that’s a new type of stellar phenomenon.
How to describe this gentleman?
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Cynical fits, I think. Bitter, too, I’d say.
Words of Wisdom
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Lifehacker links to an article on dangerous search terms – ones which often lead to malware sites that will attempt to subvert your computer. The most dangerous search terms might not be the ones you’d think would be dangerous (which makes them all the more dangerous).
I also got a good laugh from commenter JimmyOnTheBlock, who said:
Also be aware that Dicks Sporting Goods does not reside on dicks dot com I have made that mistake exactly once.
I never made that mistake, but I have made comparable ones once or twice.
Wanna build a guitar?
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Lots of good links here.
I read the news today, oh, boy
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009And I didn’t do badly on the test (I got an 82%, with 11 of 12 questions correctly answered – I haven’t been able to save a copy of the result plot). It’s been about a year since I’ve done this. My score was better then, but since I only missed one question, I have to believe that there were more questions back then. Explanation of the results is here.
Mucho miscellany
Monday, June 8th, 2009Slow day so far. This expresses my feelings about it:
I’ve heard of saving yourself for marriage, but this is ridiculous.
Bohemian Rhapsody has never been a real favorite of mine, but there’s something about this performance …
Two resource sites for learning foreign languages.
How effective has the stimulus been? Not at all. Why? Because there’s been no stimulation yet. Looking at the graph at the first link, it’s obvious that we have two choices:
1. We can believe that the Obama administration has absolutely no idea how an economy works.
2. We can believe that the Obama administration (and the media) have been lying their asses off about the economy.
Personally, I’d try to get a look at the seat of their pants, but I’m not ruling out #1, either – they’re not mutually-exclusive options.
Apropos of that, two sites for freelance work (one general, one specifically software). From what I’ve seen over the years, a lot of people expect really cheap work out of freelancers. For example, one job offer I noted at Guru.com is to develop a multiplayer poker game for between $500 and $1000. I can’t link it directly, because I haven’t signed up for a membership yet. Not to mention that I’d expect project links like this to have a short “shelf life.” I don’t expect them to get too many responses – you might get such a game for that price if it’s already been developed, but I wouldn’t expect exclusive rights.
Yesterday’s breakfast bonus (See also: Buy 2, Get 1):
I got 16
Monday, June 8th, 2009Thieving tree rats
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009I appreciate their patriotic decorating scheme, but they really shouldn’t be stealing from gravesites.