Archive for the ‘random’ Category
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Today I finished up at class and I went to the computer labs to do some printing. Every now and then, left-behinds are found on, in and around the workstations. Rarely are they as interesting as the one I found today. A 1G USB flash disk the size of half of my thumb was snuggly wedged into the usb port. I always have a peek around these things to be good and try and find the owner’s email address or some contact method.
I found a whole lot more than I bargained for. Photos, videos, personal information - CV (including comprehensive information on schooling, employment and family details), financial information, insurance details and car information. To make matters worse, there is a collection of “portable” applications, such as FirefoxPortable, and MirandaPortable. Not only does Firefox contain a comprehensive history, but it might also have stored passwords (I didn’t check, and I don’t care). The multi client messenger, Miranda, contains a list of all as well as stored passwords for AIM, Yahoo! and MSN Messenger.
I detract, however. This post has nothing to do with my ethical/moral standings (everyone knows that morals boundaries are stretched in direct proportion to humour, anyway). The point is, that you should never put such a concentrated quantity of personal information in one place. Especially not if you are going to lose it. Is facebook the same? Maybe, but at least I don’t put my finances up for scrutiny.
I’ll just secretly anonymously post the USB stick back to the listed address. Maybe I’ll include an anonymous letter with all personals listed just to hope for the priceless reaction.
Anyway, don’t be stupid like this person.
Posted in random, tech | 4 Comments »
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
According to this article, viewing this spinning image can tell you which side of your brain dominates your cranial activity. Do you see the image spinning clockwise or anticlockwise?
I see the image spinning clockwise, but I can’t say that the “functions” which I am prone to are all so accurate for my day-to-day activities. See if you can convince your brain to view the image spinning in the opposite direction.
| Left Brain Functions |
Right Brain Functions |
| uses logic |
uses feeling |
| detail oriented |
“big picture” oriented |
| facts rule |
imagination rules |
| words and language |
symbols and images |
| present and past |
present and future |
| maths and science |
philosophy & religion |
| can comprehend |
can “get it” (i.e. meaning) |
| knowing |
believes |
| acknowledges |
appreciates |
| order/pattern perception |
spatial perception |
| knows object name |
knows object function |
| reality based |
fantasy based |
| forms strategies |
presents possibilities |
| practical |
impetuous |
| safe |
risk taking |
Posted in photos, random, tech | 38 Comments »
Friday, September 14th, 2007
It’s good to be subscribed to lots of different mailing lists, just for the absolutely wonderful pockets of air which exist around all the traffic. On the kde-imaging mailing list there was a thread about image resizing algorithms. My interest was piked and it paid off - the video explains a dynamic image resizing technique by removing paths of least enery. This is probably done by some complicated Fourier transform, and the results are phenomenal. Resize an image by removing redundant parts of the image, not by making everything smaller. Furthermore, this technique can be also used to remove particular elements of an image by applying negative energy weights to an area. Fascinating!
Planet KDE readers: The embedded video doesn’t show on p.k.o, so you can just watch the video here
Update: The original work is done by Dr. Ariel Shamir and Shai Avidan from the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science in Israel.
Posted in photos, random, tech | 13 Comments »
Thursday, September 6th, 2007
I’ve been playing way too much of Frets on Fire lately. If hacking becomes too much, just lift up your keyboard and use it as a guitar and thrash it! Infact, I’m enjoying it so much that I’ve stopped rebooting to play Bioshock. The default package comes with just three obscure songs, but you can import songs from Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II, which is great. For those of you without the game, I’m sure you are resourceful enough to get a copy of the data.
I’ve discovered that my fingers can hit the keys faster and in stranger patterns than I’ve ever thought possible. I think that I should slow down a bit on the axe-grinding since my vision becomes distorted after playing it - a frequency modulated effect as objects quickly drift up and down in front of my eyes!
Eric Clapton - I challenge you to a duel!
Posted in music, random, tech | 2 Comments »
Monday, August 13th, 2007
received a great present on the weekend :-). This book of pure comic gold introducing a Where’s Wally style search for Bin Laden and his cronies. There are hundreds of hilarious pop-culture (or maybe politically incorrect) references to look for, such as “Hugh Grant paying off another hooker” in London or “a pair of bunny slippers” at the Al Qa’ida pajama party in Afghanistan. I’ve already had a number of really good laughs browsing through the book, and I’m looking forward to many more.
Posted in random, tech | 2 Comments »
