Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Weasel sent me this link to a paper describing the Coulomb explosion cited as the source for this heatless phenomenon. Apparently, the "vaporize" in this context describes breaking the atomic lattice into what could be called atomic dust and does not refer to actually converting matter to energy ala e=mc^2 style (which would be quite powerful). A read through the paper seems to indicate that the speed at which the atoms are bombarded, coupled with the short duration of contact, leads to a strong electromagnetic field instead of the heat that would usually occur. Too bad the article didn't mention this, as it is much more plausible.
A recent article floating around suggests there is a new laser that has been developed that can vaporize matter without creating heat. I have to wonder what the caveats of this claim are as it seems to violate some pretty fundamental rules of physics. If the matter is vaporized, it must take some form of energy - heat, sound, light, etc., but this is not mentioned. With so little to go on, this sounds like a "where does the poo go?" type of claim to me and wholly unscientific.
Friday, June 15, 2007
This is probably one of the funnier pranks (and pretty ballsy) I have seen in awhile. Members of "The Yes Men" managed to infiltrate a Gas and Oil convention and deliver the key note. Sarcastic hilarity ensues...
Monday, January 29, 2007
Users of Windows Vista (of which I am) are entitled to receive 90 free days of T-Mobile Wifi access at any HotSpot location starting today. Since there are like 2.8 billion Starbucks locations in the US alone (all of which are HotSpots), this means you have pretty good chances of being able to redeem this offer (at least in Seattle where approximate 1.3 billion of those Starbucks are located).
I signed up today thinking there would be an elaborate process to confirm that I was running Vista. I was imaging some applet like that horrid WGA (Windows Genuine pain-in-the-Ass) that keeps popping up everywhere. Luckily, no such garbage. In fact, it appears that T-Mobile is validating eligibility by a simple browser agent check. While the average user might not know how to change that browser string, you can bet a number of users do know how (Firefox has some great ones). I suppose T-Mobile doesn't really care too much at this point or they would have done it differently.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
One of the downsides of consulting is that there is no permanence in what you do. By permanence, I mean that I never get too comfortable with whatever I am working on or even where I am located. They just change too much. Unlike 'normal' jobs, where your title and responsibility remains the same for long periods of time, consulting is inherently about change. I suppose one might argue that this lack of permanence might be a good thing as well - especially if you hate your job or situation and desperately need change.
I have never had an office. I have never had an admin (or secretary as we used to call them). I have never worked in the same role or with the same client for longer than 18 months. Even at longer engagements, my role on the project is constantly changing according to needs. One day I will be writing code and another I will be writing business cases.
My latest project comes with an unexpected perk - an office. Well, not really an office as much as a phone booth. It is approximately 6' by 4' in dimension with a table, phone and a window. However, this piece of real estate has a door and is not a cube for once. Today was my first day in my new phonebooth office.
My excitement at having a semi-private working space was dampened a bit this afternoon as I discovered what my view consisted of. I look directly over some train tracks nestled between a building to my right and a scrubbrush covered hill and highway overpass to my left.
I don't know what it is about train tracks that attracts bums and filth, but there is an unmistakable association between all three. Throw in a highway overpass nearby and you have a regular cesspool (though, not in an Indian-train-depot kind of cesspool way). Today I was reminded of this even more as I unavoidably had to watch the homeless man under the overpass walk into the scrub brush, lower his drawers, and presumably drop a deuce.
Perhaps offices are overrated...
Friday, January 19, 2007
Raymond today blogged about the aftermath of the big windstorm that hit the Puget Sound area*. While devastating to this area, it is not as interesting to as the mini-storm that followed about 3 weeks later. A little over a week ago, the area had a small spackling of snow. I have never really understood how < .5" of snow will actually grind the entire area to a halt**. A normal commute of 1 hour from Bellevue to Seattle went to 4+ hours. Even worse, Tmobile was unable to handle the call volume of all the people now parked on I-5, I-405, and I-90, so if you were actually in an emergency you were pretty much SOL. What does this tell you? Mainly, forget about getting help here if god forbid there is an actual crisis. The cell phone infrastructure can't handle half an inch of snow, let alone a major disaster.
* - My mother, who live about 20 miles outside of Seattle, was without power until something like 10 days after the storm. However, I can almost understand that. After all, she lives in a state with lots and lots of trees. This is also a state that is rapidly expanding, so people cut down the trees. However, people don't want to cut down all the trees, so they leave a few standing. These trees now get to take the brunt of the wind and consequently fall-over on roads, houses, and yes, power lines.
** - To be fair, they don't salt the roads here and have minimal investment in road equipment to plow or sand the streets. However, this doesn't excuse the piss poor driving of the majority of drivers.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
I have a particular dislike for most Chrismas music. I hate how commercialized and derivative everything has become today. In fact, I think I would rather stab myself than listen to someone like Beezlebub bastardize another Christmas carol.
That is why I found this particular article engaging in a rather tongue-in-cheek kind of way:
Government asked to investigate Christmas music torture
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Mmmm….
teleportation. Is this cool or what?
Friday, September 08, 2006
I am a pretty big fan of PB&J sandwiches, though I don’t get to eat them that often. The most annoying part of making one of these suckers is that the container is poorly designed for the building process. I don’t know who thought it would be a great idea to put a fairly viscous substance into a plain jar and expect easy extraction as the jar nears completion.
It is a timeless ritual really… digging your hand into the jar with the pathetically thin butter knife and trying to scrape some significant peanut butter mass onto the knife for deposit onto the bread of choice. This usually culminates (at least for me) with peanut butter all over the handle of the knife and my knuckles along with a resignation to throw away the last half-sandwich’s worth of the light brown gold (now decorated with swirls everywhere from futile attempts get on knife).
As I pondered this problem today, I came up with simple, yet elegant solution that I would submit to the manufacturers of this tasty treat to try: the peanut butter gun.
As you can see, this would solve all the problems described. No longer would you need to scrape the bottom of the jar and make a mess. No longer would you leave any measurable amount of the peanutty mana to trash. By choosing a wide enough nozzle, you could easily apply just the right amount on your sandwich. An even wider nozzle could accommodate the chunky variety amongst the more scatologically adventurous. In fact, just by varying the gauge of the nozzle, you could even direct the peanut butter into more delicate treats, such as crackers or celery (or tortillas with apple butter).
If Taco Bell can make the sour cream gun, why can’t we have the peanut butter gun? You hearing me Jif?
Friday, May 05, 2006
Ed Felten has
a scathing review of Newsweek’s methodology for ranking the ‘top’ high schools in America. Apparently, the dumber you are, the better the high school.
Monday, April 24, 2006
I forgot to update this earlier, but after some people reminded me, I thought I would share what really happened with our bird suicide. It turns out that after I got him down out of the tree, he had a very thin nylon net wrapped around his neck that had caught and securely hooked him to the small branch. It was the type of netting you see surrounding gardens to keep out pests. From the vantage point of the ground and window where the picture was taken, you could not see it – which led to the distinct impression that the bird had hung himself. I am not sure if he flew into the tree and got caught by the net, or was already about to expire and got caught when he fell. I would suspect the latter, but who knows. Poor birdie…
Friday, April 07, 2006
Sure, the weather has been kinda rainy here the last few days and not particularly warm. It is just so sad when it gets to the wildlife and they feel there is no other way out. I encourage you to reach out to the wildlife when you see the warning signs: swooping in front of cars, taunting the neighborhood cats, and later, just sitting there and not even singing.
I failed to act… and well, I found out too late about it. Please. Think of the birds!
I can only imagine the depression that would drive this poor little Robin to wrap the little branch around his neck and jump.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Oh man… this one speaks for itself.
via Hack a Day
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
I suppose this fuel could be confusing here in the US. When your buddy tells you he is ‘getting 20 mpg’ these days on the road, perhaps he is measuring in “meows per gallon”. Regardless, what a way to reduce foreign oil dependency…
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/09/14/germany.catfuel.reut/index.html
I am not a huge Sun fan or anything (at least not after my Roth shows -98% gain since I bought them in ‘99), but their ‘rejected ads’ are pretty funny.
http://www.sun.com/emrkt/rejected/index.html