Archives for: November 2007

Rands' "Nerd Handbook"

11/30/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology, Silly
Hilarious article on interacting with the nerd in your life. It's completely accurate out to lunch and worth reading. more »
 

I Like Hugo's "In Three Months" Series

11/29/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Reviews, Books, Languages
When I was at my sister's wedding in the UK, my relatives offered to look after our baby for a few minutes while we rampaged through one of Rochester's used bookshops, "Baggins". It was far too big for a decent perusal of any sort, but before I left… more »
 

More On Craig Chandler

11/29/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Thoughts, Ethics, Politics, Religion
It has been a little bit tough to find detailed information on what exactly Craig Chandler, the controversial candidate whose comments have landed him in hot water - with Premier Ed Stelmach initiating a formal review - said to get himself in such hot… more »
 

Klutznik Immortalized

11/29/07 | by Adam | Categories: Games
If you know what this is, no explanation is needed. If you don't, none will suffice :) more »
 

Programmers in management

11/28/07 | by Adam | Categories: Whining
I've always wondered if people had the courage of their convictions to insist on a demotion in order to keep their job. Here's a case. It also leaves me wondering about the general tendency to define managers as more valuable to a corporation than the… more »
 

Hurl.exe, Amazon and Firefox

11/28/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Thoughts, Internet
Okay, maybe you have encountered this, maybe you haven't, but if you try going off and listening to a RealPlayer sound clip on a web site in Firefox... say, for example, of Mitch Hedberg, you might often get it coming up with a dialog asking you to open… more »
 

The Three Kidneys

11/28/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Distractions, Thoughts, Science
Every now and again, you run into a really odd fact in biology. An interesting but tame one is the fact that we also run through multiple different kinds of globin in our hemoglobin (we're done with Hba-x, or "zeta globin", for example, by the end of… more »
 

"Star Wars" before and after

11/27/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
A few posts ago I made a comment about George Lucas' 'futzing' around with his films. I figured I might dig out a few references showing the more subtle differences. more »
 

Oh, ouch!

11/26/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
Snarkiest comment I've read all day: Tuning into CNN these days is like walking into your favorite art gallery and finding all of the walls covered with Thomas Kinkades. (Wikipedia on Thomas Kinkade. They're far too nice about his art.) more »
 

Steampunk Star Trek

11/25/07 | by Adam | Categories: YouTube
Another video from the school of "Might Have Been": Star Trek done in the best 1880s tradition. (Via Wired) more »
 

"He said 'merkin'; heh heh heh"

11/24/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
Sometimes a good classical education gets you into trouble. more »
 

Ruddy Solaris

11/23/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology, Whining
I have a serious love/hate relationship with UNIX and LINUX systems. Where I love them is that when they're up and running, they tend to stay that way. However, when they're not, they're nearly impossible to troubleshoot. more »
 

Happy Thanksgiving

11/22/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
A Happy [American] Thanksgiving to those south of the border. I'm not sure we actually have anybody from there reading the blog, but if we do, enjoy Turkey-day! more »
 

Wired on cellphone carriers

11/21/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology
Alas I have to agree with everything in the referenced Wired article. The flip side is that most of us put up with the cellphone carriers because the product they sell is darn useful. Is it still worth it despite their rather antisocial behaviour?… more »
 

Crayon Physics Deluxe

11/21/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Distractions
Hat tip to Biocurious... For those who have pen computing at their disposal, this video of a game called "Crayon Physics Deluxe". It's a little bit like The Incredible Machine, but with an entirely different sort of twist. You can draw objects into… more »
 

Russian Wussburgers

11/20/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Distractions, Common Sense, People
I got to learn a few interesting bits of trivia from a Russian coworker or two today. It all started out with one of them looking at the consent/health forms for the flu shots that were being offered... more »
 

Fecal Transplants

11/20/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Distractions, Science
It sounds like something right out of an old Saturday Night Live skit, but fecal transplants are real honest-to-goodness medical techniques for use, for example, when antibiotics have knocked out everything except the really nasty bacteria. CBC covered… more »
 

Wired on Xkcd

11/20/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
Link is to a Wired story on the true geek's webcomic. Funnier and more cutting than Dilbert, Xkcd also has a very romantic heart. Give it a whirl. more »
 

Why "24" wouldn't have worked in the early '90s

11/19/07 | by Adam | Categories: YouTube
Cellphones and high-speed internet connections have significantly changed how action films/TV are written and paced. Link is to an extremely funny revisioning of the "24" pilot, set ten years earlier. (Via Wired) more »
 

Bollywood does Busby

11/18/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly, YouTube
Busby Berkley didn't die; he just moved to Bollywood and started producing in Hindi. more »
 

Star Wars viewing order

11/17/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
Kottke -- y'know, there's a permanent link in the right hand bar, but I like highlighting specific posts of his -- poses this question: Let's say you're a new father and a movie fan. When your child is of an appropriate age to start watching movies, in… more »
 

Finding somewhere good to eat

11/16/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
I've seen this done with other areas of interest, but never with restaurant recommendations: more »
 

"The Baconator"

11/15/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
Link is to an extremely funny expose of the current top-of-the-line Wendy's burger. more »
 

Stupidity is its own reward

11/14/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
Having demonstrated my innate gullibility by going to one of their "network previews", the geniuses over at Television Preview decided to reward me with more tickets to their next event. Actually, they gave me four tickets this time instead of the two… more »
 

Real-life "Red Alert"-style Tesla Coil

11/13/07 | by Adam | Categories: Games
Groovy! (Via Gizmodo) more »
 

The CBC on poor student knowledge of Canadian history

11/12/07 | by Adam | Categories: Canadian
This is the lead paragraph on a CBC story about the poor knowledge of Canadian youth: If you know why 1867 is a noteworthy year in Canadian history or what top job Sir John A. MacDonald held at that time, then you've already outsmarted most college-aged… more »
 

A moment's silence...

11/11/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
...for those who've fought or died in the service of Canada. Thank you. more »
 

Pharmacophylogenomics

11/10/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Science
Now that is a heck of a mouthful of a word. It's the field of application of the theory of evolution to drug discovery. Now it's not a matter of making things evolve, but rather taking advantage of the effects of common ancestry and the gene and… more »
 

Video Games Live in Calgary

11/10/07 | by Adam | Categories: Music, YouTube, Calgary
A few posts earlier, I referred to how computer-sourced music -- specifically game music -- was a rather transitory affair. It was therefore with great interest I saw that a roadshow called Video Games Live was making a stop in Calgary, using the… more »
 

Death Star Canteen

11/09/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly, YouTube
Little Lego animation to go along with an Eddie Izzard skit. Given the teller, you may not want to play this in earshot of younger Star Wars fanatics. more »
 

Innumerate idjits

11/08/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
Link is to a failed lottery ticket theme in the UK. Summary: people who can't do math can't do math. There's a shocker. more »
 

Peahens Fan Too

11/07/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Distractions
Unless these are males of a different peafowl species, this is my first encounter of peahens, the female counterparts of peacocks, fanning their tales in much the same manner as the males do, only somewhat less spectacularly. more »
 

Strange Bible Verses: Numbers 22:8-35

11/07/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Thoughts, Religion
(NOTE: Update about this story at the end of this post) There are a number of odd tales in the Bible, but some of them are odder than others. The tale of Balaam and the talking donkey is an odd one, but not just for the talking donkey. This is a tale… more »
 

Evidence Based Scheduling

11/07/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology
Joel Spolsky on another of his smart ideas: a combined process and time tracking tool that allows better estimates for software development. This is pretty much the Holy Grail. Now if only I knew somewhere I could try this out on... more »
 

A seriously low MPG vehicle

11/06/07 | by Adam | Categories: YouTube
It's been a while since I've done a Top Gear/YouTube related post, so here's one. I suspect the video will be gone in a day or two as those take-down notices seem to fly thick and fast, but this one's all about the Peel P50 from 1963. It does 100 MPG,… more »
 

The Leopard has landed

11/05/07 | by Adam | Categories: Macintosh
Radio Adam, after a recent outage, is back on the air and has migrated platforms again. Initially on Linux, then on Windows XP, it has migrated over to Leopard on a refurbished Mac Mini (the older PPC version, rather than the newer MacIntel variant.)… more »
 

Software development: five easy ways to fail

11/04/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology
Good article from Inc.com by Joel Spolsky of "Joel On Software" about common ways that software projects crater. Some comments on it are below the fold. more »
 

LolNimble

11/03/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
First we had gender-reversed NimbleBlog; now the the severely twisted minds behind teh internets bring you: LolNimble! (Via XOverboard) more »
 

CD/45 RPM hybrid

11/02/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology, Music
While I love the ingenuity that went into designing a gramophone-compatible CD, I don't think I would dare stick it into a CD player after the first time a needle had touched the top surface. (Via BoingBoing) more »
 

George Lucas In Love

11/01/07 | by Adam | Categories: YouTube
I saw "George Lucas In Love" a few years ago and thought it was brilliant then. On watching it again, I think it still qualifies as brilliant now. more »