Stuff

Great little read from Paul Graham. Scooterboy sent me the link, not so much as a hint, but as a 'READ THIS AND LEARN'! :D Yes, yes, I do have a bit of stuff but they're mostly books (for which I have a 'stuff' exception - like the author), but even so, I don't have a tremendous amount of stuff.

It's just that Scooterboy's ideal home would comprise of tatami mats and maybe a cushion or two. So, as much as I agree with the author, and like the thought of Scooterboy's ideal home, I will still hold on to the stuff that gives me the little pleasures in life e.g. beautifully crafted objects that I look at every day. So, Scooterboy, nyah nyah nyah :p


"I have too much stuff. Most people in America do. In fact, the poorer people are, the more stuff they seem to have. Hardly anyone is so poor that they can't afford a front yard full of old cars.

It wasn't always this way. Stuff used to be rare and valuable. You can still see evidence of that if you look for it. For example, in my house in Cambridge, which was built in 1876, the bedrooms don't have closets. In those days people's stuff fit in a chest of drawers. Even as recently as a few decades ago there was a lot less stuff. When I look back at photos from the 1970s, I'm surprised how empty houses look. As a kid I had what I thought was a huge fleet of toy cars, but they'd be dwarfed by the number of toys my nephews have. All together my Matchboxes and Corgis took up about a third of the surface of my bed. In my nephews' rooms the bed is the only clear space.

Stuff has gotten a lot cheaper, but our attitudes toward it haven't changed correspondingly. We overvalue stuff."

Read more here.

Dangerous Ideas

"... By "dangerous ideas" I don't have in mind harmful technologies, like those behind weapons of mass destruction, or evil ideologies, like those of racist, fascist or other fanatical cults. I have in mind statements of fact or policy that are defended with evidence and argument by serious scientists and thinkers but which are felt to challenge the collective decency of an age. The ideas listed above, and the moral panic that each one of them has incited during the past quarter century, are examples. Writers who have raised ideas like these have been vilified, censored, fired, threatened and in some cases physically assaulted.

Every era has its dangerous ideas. For millennia, the monotheistic religions have persecuted countless heresies, together with nuisances from science such as geocentrism, biblical archeology, and the theory of evolution. We can be thankful that the punishments have changed from torture and mutilation to the canceling of grants and the writing of vituperative reviews. But intellectual intimidation, whether by sword or by pen, inevitably shapes the ideas that are taken seriously in a given era, and the rear-view mirror of history presents us with a warning..."

Complete essay by Steven Pinker here.

More on the topic at the Freakonomics Blog.

Star Trek--Original Series: Where no pixel has gone before

"... As I settled in, half attentive, I started noticing something was odd. First off, the crew's uniforms were brighter than I remembered. And wait, why was the image on the bridge view screen so crisp? Even odder, when the ship entered orbit around a planet, it's features, as well as those of the Enterprise, seemed much more detailed. Not only that, the planet was much larger in respect to my favorite starship; the scale seemed much more realistic..."

I'm more of a Voyager fan but I'll definitely check this out at some stage.

More on Scientific American on the new digitally remastered version of the original series.

Gimme Gadget: Electric Mini!

SHWEEEET!

"Hybrid Technologies, the power behind the SmartCar, has been showing prototypes of its Mini lithium conversion for months now. Last week the company announced that it is moving the car into production."

More at Wired Blogs

Russian students turn dorm into giant Tetris game

*LOL*

More at Wired Blogs.

Those whacky Chinese

From BoingBoing: Chinese game lets you execute corrupt officials

Ultimate Geek Birthday Cake

Gimme Gimme!

More on BoingBoing.

Shouting from the rooftop: Great Love

10 years ago today, Scooterboy and I began our adventure together. Right now, he is on a plane, on the way home, to celebrate this day on which we found each other, and the wonderful years we have spent together.

I looked for a gift to commemorate this day but everything I considered just didn't seem quite right. Nothing seemed to capture my thoughts about him, about today, about our life together, about the fact that because of him, I get to be in love every day.

Then I chanced upon this gem, The Gift of Nothing.

Perfect.

So, I shout from the rooftop, my words from our wedding last November.

The last nine and a half years have been the best of my life. You have made me so very happy.

I often find myself thinking life just doesn’t get much better. But, I find that I am wrong because every year with you has been better than the last and every year, I find myself even more in love with you.

Someone recently asked me if I believed in soul mates. I absolutely do. You are my soul mate. Who else could make me laugh pretty much every day in the last nine and a half years? Who else could make me feel this love, that gives me my understanding of what life is all about.

You are the smartest, funniest and most extraordinary man I could have ever wished to cross paths with in life.

I love you, Paul, and I hope that when we are both old and gray, we will still walk hand in hand on our adventure. You and me against the world.

I am a Tetris Nerd

Years ago, I spotted a nifty little key-chain sized Tetris gaming gadget. I bought it and showed Scooterboy. "Oh cool! Ace!" he said. "Here, let me have a go." And so began the Tetris wars.

Whenever we bested each other's score, there would be a triumphant "HA HAH!" and the bested would set out to unseat the victor. We actually developed blisters on our thumbs from keying the tiny buttons on that little gadget for ages at a time. The battery ran out eventually, which was a relief of sorts. I never replaced the batteries. We wanted our lives back.

And now, we have Facebook. I came across a Tetris application that can be embedded within my Profile. I, of course, added the app and hollered at Scooterboy about the discovery. We soon found that our Tetris hyper competitiveness had not waned since our war on the trusty little keychain gadget. We have both been wasting time jostling for poll position. I am sitting on a score of over 180,000 and the boy is on over 160,000. *HA HAH!*

Says TG, a buddy of mine, "The 'level' of nerdiness when it comes to you two is somewhat irrelevant. When you are scoring over 100,000 on Tetris you are populating a realm of nerdiness that is so far removed from everyday life that it's like trying to distinguish, with the naked eye, planets orbiting a far off sun. You both just blend into one distant nerd." :D

In the application, you can play against friends or against the top scorers. I wondered what the top score was and had a look-see. To my amazement, number 1 has a score of over 600,000! My first instinct was, 'She must be an alien' because I tell you, those blocks are FLYING when the score hovers around the 180,000 mark. It is simply not humanly possible to be able to control those suckers beyond the 250,000 mark. Guess I'll just have to prove myself wrong.

1.5 MORE SLEEPS!

Sleep tonight. Semi sleep tomorrow, then Scooterboy will be home on our 10-year anniversary! Whoo hooooo!

Book Happiness!

Discovered a picture book version of Mark Kurlansky's book, Salt. Brilliant!

The Story of Salt

and also found Robert Ingpen's The Voyage of the Poppykettle

Fun Time Sucker: Facebook

I have just discovered Facebook and frittered away most of my Sunday mucking around with it *shaking my head* :D

I highly recommend joining up despite the time suckerage. I've never really participated in social networking sites, but this one had me hooked with its ease of use and entertaining functions. I especially like the Tetris competition against friends.

I could rattle on a bit but, best if you just jump on and give it a go. I toyed with Friendster upon an invite a few years ago but left it alone soon after. I haven't investigated other social networking sites but from all accounts, Facebook is a player that is changing the game.

There are a good grab of screenshots on this page if you want to have a look-see before joining.

Africa: The Mothership

" We are solely children of Africa—with no Neandertals or island-dwelling "hobbits" in our family tree, according to a new study.

Scientists who compared the skulls and DNA of human remains from around the world say their results point to modern humans (Homo sapiens) having a single origin in Africa."

Full article here

Related link concerning The Genographic Project here

"A few days ago he got the results and shared the online account with me. They’re utterly fascinating. The picture below shows my “ancestral journey.” At the website, this picture is interactive — clicking on a marker will tell you the story behind it."

See also: The Genographic Project

Heebie Jeebies: Whacko Reds

Neocons on a Cruise: What Conservatives Say When They Think We Aren't Listening

"The Iraq war has been an amazing success, global warming is just a myth and Guantanamo Bay is practically a holiday camp. The annual cruise organized by the 'National Review,' mouthpiece of right-wing America, is a parallel universe populated by straight-talking, gun-toting, God-fearing Republicans."

Courtesy of BoingBoing.

Chuckler: Oh My God This New TV Is Huge

"This monster appliance sports full 1080p capability, with a 15,000:1 contrast ratio and an 8 ms response time. If I understand it correctly, this means that every pore on Jenna Jameson's thigh can be seen by wild hawks from two miles up, small bleeding flesh wounds can be instantly cauterized within an 8-foot radius of the screen, and if you adjust the dynamic backlighting to 100 percent and reduce the color channels to just above medium and stick your tongue into the HDMI port as you kneel down and stare into the screen for six straight hours without blinking, you will actually see God. Or the devil. Your choice."

Heh heh

Full post by Mark Morford here.

Original Transformers Boxed Collection Sold for $1,000,000

Cool!

Courtesy of Gizmodo

Book happiness: Strunk & White's The Elements of Style Illustrated

One of my favourite books of all time. I had no idea of the existence of this beautifully bound illustrated hardback edition, which I chanced upon while browsing the shelves at Reader's Feast.

Details on Amazon.

Metlink Gestapo

Lo and behold, just found the article Inspectors are like Gestapo on The Age online about more fleas on the public transport system.

The reference to "non-functional ticketing system" is particularly apt.

I always warn friends from overseas holidaying in Melbourne that they can have legal tender, say a $20 note, at the ticket machine on board a tram, but not be able to purchase a ticket since the machines are... get this... coin only. And that despite having legal tender on board the tram, and being prevented from buying a ticket by a crap-ass machine, they can be fined approximately $160 for not buying a ticket.

I always wonder what the hell happened during the tender process for public transporation ticket systems in Victoria. Somebody must have been shtoopin somebody in the approval process to get the ridiculous system currently in place past the gate!

Melbourne will implement a new smart card system later this year. About freaking time we crawled out of the dark ages!

Flea on Melbourne Metlink Tram

I walk to work in around 20 minutes. If I'm running late, as I was this morning, I jump on the tram if it's right outside the door waiting at the lights. This way I shave off around 5-10 minutes. I don't often catch the tram as I have to fork over $3.20 for a 10-minute trip: such is the way the public transportation system in Melbourne works – there are no fares geared for city residents to just get around the small city grid. There is a single trip ticket laughably named the City Saver for $2.40 but you can only board one tram for a single trip, and only a few blocks at that. I need two trams for two streets to get to work - the damn tram doesn't bend around the corner.

The $3.20 ticket is valid for 2 hours so, I usually pop the ticket onto the ticketing machine on the tram before I leave for someone else to pick it up and use for the remaining 1 hour and 50 minutes that has already been paid for. Waste not want not.

This morning, a couple of plain-clothes Metlink officers on board the tram checked passengers for tickets. One gentleman checked mine. Fine, ticket went back into the pocket. 5 minutes later, as the tram approached my stop, I headed to the door and around 8 metres before the tram stop, I popped the ticket onto the machine. The second ticket officer who was standing behind me, snatched it off the machine and the following ensued:

Flea: "Where's your ticket?"

Me: "You saw me put it there. Your colleague (I gestured to the gentleman who was now seated around 1 metre away and was watching the incident unfold) checked my ticket around 5 minutes ago. I'm getting off the tram and since the ticket is still valid and I don't need it, I'm leaving it on the machine for someone else to use."

Flea: You can't leave your ticket on the tram. Where's your ticket?

Me: Are you serious?

Flea: See now you don't have a ticket.

Me: It's in your hand.

Flea: See you could get into trouble.

Me: There are plenty of witnesses. I could easily challenge this.

Flea: Sure you could challenge it but you'd still be in trouble.

Me: Naaaaasty! *while wagging my finger at him*

By this time, the tram had rolled up to the stop and I had to jump off since I was late for a meeting, otherwise I would have gladly stayed on board to see how far he would have gone with his cheap-bastard-bullying.

It would be nice if karma really does exist. That flea is definitely a candidate for sprouting something where the sun don't shine.

Create your own Simpsons avatar

Simpsons Scootergrrl :D

Create your own here.