The same old thing with a new twist (aka my personal infocloud)
It has been a bit quiet here for the last two weeks or so because I have been on vacation. Just got back last night and still a bit jet lagged. Finally got around to uploading some of the pictures to flickr, but still need to go about the task of inserting titles, descriptions and tags.
Things should pick up this weekend (or next week) as I recover from the backlog.
Today Google has released Sketchup, a 3D drawing desktop application. From the little demo animation that they have on the linked page, this looks like the rare combination of a very powerful, yet easy to use tool for creating 3D renderings. Renderings can also be used in conjunction with Google Earth, presumably as some sort of a layer or overlay.
Unfortunately, the Mac version of it is ‘coming soon’ even though the pre-Google acquisition product already ran on OS X. I’ll have to wait for the Mac release to get into this any further. I hope that the delay is something a simple as switching over the branding and a few other minor tasks it truly will be available RSN.
technorati tags: google, sketchup, googlemaps, desktop, 3d
…Once the pleasantries were out of the way, he started the first lecture, which was about the composition of the atmosphere. Everyone started taking copious notes. He told us that Nitrogen was 78% of the air we breath, with Oxygen accounting for 21% and the remainder taken up by Argon, Carbon Dioxide, and other gases.
He then proceeded to explain that Nitrogen had a pink color and a slightly sweet smell. Like good students, we continued to record this valuable information into our study notes. After several more minutes of lecture he stopped, and then exclaimed “are you students morons??!!”. Needless to say, this caught our attention and we instantly brought our heads out of our books.
He continued: “If Nitrogen was pink and formed 78% of the air, the classroom would look pink! Are your brains even turned on right now?!” He proceeded to berate us for being so gullible, and then used the situation to segue into a discussion of the ingredients of science; observation, theory, and rigorous testing.
I thought that this was very creative — coloring Easter eggs using onioin skins and ferns. The results are pretty unique and part of the fun is figuring out what combination of things will produce interesting results.
Happy Easter!
An interesting article at the Guardian on The Death of Handwriting. I have definitely seen a trend in this direction at work, especially now that wireless access is available throughout the entire campus. People bring their laptops to meetings presumably to take notes, but more often to check email, IM and do other things rather than focus on the meeting. I am a bit of an oddball in that I show up with my (paper) notebook and pen to take notes and jot down diagrams. I find good old paper and ink to be much more expressive and versatile in this situation.
I have noticed that with all of the time I have spent on the computer over the years that my penmanship has deteriorated and I am making a concerted effort to do more writing (versus typing). When I was in college I was proud of how well I wrote and even had several profs comment on the legibility and layout of written work.
I guess it is in the same vein as my using an analog watch; I find myself drawn to good ole paper and ink to capture my thoughts during the day. Or maybe I’m just getting old.
technorati tags: handwriting, writing, analog
The BBC has a posting on how Britian Lags Behind on Languages. I thought that was the USA’s job!
I just discovered that you can get the ‘word of the day’ emailed to you by no less than the folks who bring the world the Oxford English Dictionary.
I find the OED a great resource to have around. We have the Compact OED version of it that has 9 pages reduced onto a single page (versus the pricy 20 volume edition). To read the entries you need to use this sort of half crystal ball magnifier that is provided along with the Compact OED. It’s a little funky, but thats part of the fun.
If you are curious as to what went into producing the OED, I highly recommend The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.
technorati tags: oed, wordoftheday, dictionary, vocabulary
I am not surprised that Oslo, Norway has taken over first place as the most expensive city in the world (knocking Tokyo out of first place). We vacationed in Norway a few summers ago. While Norway was quite beautiful, it was easily the most expensive place that we have traveled to. I remember sitting in a restaurant in Bergen after having just ordered a hamburger. I calculated in my head that the burger was going to cost me over $20USD (probably even more expensive now). Oh, well, it costs what is costs. All in all I enjoyed Norway much more than Alaska (Alaska being a very poor value for the money) and would return to Norway before Alaska any day.
Of the other cities on the list, I found Copenhagen to be the most ‘affordable’ of the Scandinavian cities I have visited, London is certainly expensive (an not a great value, either). I don’t recall Geneva being overly expensive, just cold, rainy and desperately boring (it was December, granted). Commentary on Paris will be reserved until we return from a short trip there mid-February. Tokyo and Reykjavik both remain on our ‘someday’ travel list, expense aside.
Here is the list from the Guardian:
Most expensive cities
(Last year in brackets)1 (3) Oslo
2 (1) Tokyo
3 (8) Reykjavik
4 (2) Osaka Kobe
4 (4) Paris
6 (5) Copenhagen
7 (7) London
8 (6) Zurich
9 (8) Geneva
10 (10) Helsinki
tuaw is reporting that there are several ports of the Newton OS to Linux based devices that support X Windows, including the too-hip Nokia 770. Very cool.
The Newton was way ahead of its time and for me, was the first and last truly usable PDA. I’ve still got mine knocking around here somewhere…
Edd Dumbill has some commentary on the apparently appalling state of the underlying code in the new apple offerings.
Like sushi and folding paper? Then download and fold some PDF sushi.
Interested in web API mashups and curious who has mashed up what, then have a look at the Web 2.0 Mashup Matrix.
Finally, some thoughts about ruby as a scripting language in the browser.
I really enjoy the World Wide Words web site. A recent entry is struggling with a familiar issue: how does one define ‘web 2.0’. Unfortunately (and not surprisingly) they don’t have much more success than others who have tried.
That aside, I find the site fascinating — but, I have always been interested in linguistics and word origins. For example, you can find out why the abbreviation for pounds is lb, and whether the word shot (as in a shot of whiskey) has anything to do with cowboys buying liquor with bullets.
They have a site feed, so why not give it a try? It may be just the thing to get some beneficial stimulation for your brain.
technorati tags: web20, words, wordorigins
New research confirms something that many probably already knew: Learning new things helps to ‘rejuvenate’ the brain while lack of sleep undoes that effect.
I can definitely attest to the sleep deprivation part. There have been a few really long plane flights (New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand) combined with time zone shifts and minimal sleep that have left me struggling to do simple things like calculating the gratuity to add to a bill or to maintain any sense of direction once we are on the ground. A good nights sleep does quite a bit toward addressing this.
I really enjoyed Malcom Gladwell’s book Blink and noticed that a recent article in Nature provides further evidence that all it takes is a ‘blink’ to decide if a web site is worthy of attention or not.
Lindgaard and her team presented volunteers with the briefest glimpses of web pages previously rated as being either easy on the eye or particularly jarring, and asked them to rate the websites on a sliding scale of visual appeal. Even though the images flashed up for just 50 milliseconds, roughly the duration of a single frame of standard television footage, their verdicts tallied well with judgements made after a longer period of scrutiny.
NPR has a nifty little Google Maps Mashup that lets you locate the nearest NPR affiliate and find out the estimated signal strength at your location.
technorati tags: npr, googlemaps, google, mashups
Mavromatic has an article about a company that has created road reflectors that are capable of measuring a vehicles speed and using a built in camera, capture the license plate number (and presumably issue you a ticket).
I just wonder how well these things would do in a climate that regularly requires snow removal (and potentially inadvertent camera/detector removal).
The BBC have an interesting article titled “Do you get less wet if you run in the rain?“. The article delves into the ‘serious’ mathematics and physics to consider in answering the question. I won’t spoil the conclusion — read the article.
However, I did appreciate one of the post comments which reminded me of my Intelligence and Effectiveness rant from the other day:
Alternatively, ignore the maths and get an umbrella.
Apple is making two videos available free via the iTunes Store. One is a Saturday Night Live skit and the other is special on the new Battlestar Galactica series to start in January 2006. These are the first free video offerings from Apple.
The Guardian note that Doctors issue warning on iPod finger, the latest hi-tech ailment. Not surprisingly, you can develop a repetative stress injury from most anything, including your favorite MP3 player, the Apple iPod.
“Handheld music machines are extremely popular and users are constantly using small, difficult buttons with the same finger in a repetitive motion,” said Carl Irwin from the British Chiropractic Association. “The nature of modern technology means that these devices are only going to be getting smaller, and I would not be surprised if hand and finger related injuries become one of the most common repetitive strain injuries that chiropractors treat.”
technorati tags: ipod, apple, ipodfinger
A new species of lemur has been named for former Monty Python member John Cleese. It is named “avahi cleesei” and as the anthropologist points out, lemurs don’t do silly walks, but they do do silly jumps.
Rummors are flying today that yet-to-be-launched photo recognition site Riya is to be acquired by Google. It would certainly make another fine addition to the Google arsenal.
More as things develop (or don’t).