|
Download: My Alexa Toolbar |
I am planning on using my blog as a personal research [pdf] tool. I am hoping to tackle some issues around the DMCA, however, being Random Mumblings just about anything could show up here. It seems that I really did not finish the internet. Although I'm not filling it every month I still find this page useful for putting down thoughts and culling information from the tidbits I find. |
|
February 24th, 2004 Grey Tuesday Support your fair use rights. |
|
|
February 20th, 2004 I haven't linked over to Ztuff lately, even though he has had some good content. Anyway, today I noticed he posted on modal functionality in OmniOutliner. His post immediately called to mind a Joel on Software article on a similar feature request for Excel. Auto motion in Excel? covers why modal functionality is not a good idea. Ztuff's experience confirms Joel's argument. A concrete example to support a theoretical argument. Good stuff. Thought for the day: Not all unlooked for dreams are nightmares. I discovered Copernic Summarizer, yesterday. I have been interested in their search software before, but never really got much use out of it. The summarizer, however, is a very useful tool. I do not trust the computer with everything, even human skiming can be a dangerous thing. I do use the summarizer on MSN articles, and links sent to me in fun. I can also see that the tool can be used to pre-select which indepth reading to purse first, or possibly weed out things to be ignored. I compared Copernic Summarizer with a browser based summarizer, and found that Copernic has produced an adaquate tool. I have not seen effective software of this kind before. So go get yourself a copy and be more productive. |
|
|
February 12th, 2004 Dog bites man, no big deal. Man bites dog, maybe. Shark bites man, no big deal. But shark bites man, man swims to shore, gets in car, drives to life guard's house to have it removed, that's news! Is that a shark on your leg, mate? I love Australia. To think I was going to blog the trend in literary science. Radiant Cool was the first novel I had heard of in this genre. Dopamine is a movie using a similar technique. Einstein's Dreams looks like the first of the breed. And the genre was jumpstarted by The Cambridge Quintet. The last book's author refers to his work as "scientific fiction" I like literary science better. I'm not sure whose monkier is more accurate. Before I loose the link, I wanted everyone to know that the pannel of doctors blasting Atkins is just a front for PETA, much like any organized crime syndicate, except a lot less patriotic and a lot more terrorist in nature. |
|
|
February 9th, 2004 I got an e-mail this morning from a Moron Spammer. The world needs to know that Lance Lawson is a moron spammer! Whatever you do, do not hire Lance Lawson. Any computer savy individual should be able to recognize that my website is not for business purposes. But not Lance! Dear Professional, I was looking at your site and wanted to send you my resume. You will not receive this again, however I did want to send it once. I am looking for a position in operations requiring maximum effort and fair pay. I am open to any opportunity which fits above criteria. Thank you for your time.Now, if you believe that Lance is smart enough to recognize that my website is NOT a business website, unless he wants to run my Amazon Associate's account, then you must consider why he e-mailed me. Assuming that Lance Lawson is smarter than a brwon paper bag, I would have to conclude that he got my e-mail from a crawler or some e-mail list. This leads me to conclude that Lance Lawson must be a moron spammer. Remember, if you hire Lance Lawson, you hire a moron spammer. You have been warned. |
|
|
February 6th, 2004 I don't even watch American Idol, but I would if William Hung got on. So go to the site, sign the petition. Blog it yourself. Let's see if Fox is really interested in giving the people the power to choose. If nothing else listen to the remixes and laugh your butt off. |
|
|
February 3rd, 2004 I read Based on Actual Math over at Skotos, and remebered that I had seen some description generation software out on the net. However, although Bookspinner is one of the better tools I have seen, the state of the art in this field is lacking. But I remembered an article I have at home, from a few years back, about a computer writing a novel. My search for more information lead to the whole field of Computer Generated Text. There seems to have been a romance novel published by a man-machine collaboration. You can find a discussion of it at the Subgenius Digest, look for "Man programs computer to write novel". I also found this Wired Article on the book. Or check out the book itself: Just This Once This search also turned up some interesting information/discussion on Jabberwocky. The articles in the Translation section provide fodder for Cognitive Scientists. Interesting observations on a Global linguistic framework. Finally, this link for National Novel Writing Month's Laptop Library. Help out an aspiring writer. Of course if Holt Uncensored (and he is Uncensored) is correct soon no new authors will ever be discovered. But I think that everyone who wants to write should give it a go, probably because I've been an aspiring author myself since 1992. Maybe my interest in Computer Generated Text will inspire me. |
|
|
February 2nd, 2004 So I wanted to reafirm the idea that vacation is good for people. In fact it can be good for employers, although this particular study proves the inverse: Vacation deprivation costs companies productivity. In fact with our family spread from Hungary to Hawaii, we have little time to go anywhere for just the two of us. After I've been here another 2 years and 2 months I'll likely have some time for myself. I cannot believe that 5 years is required to get 3 weeks. but with 13% of companies not offering any vacation, I guess I should not complain. |