Coke and Menthos

Aids

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:21:00 +0000

Aids is a virus that has spread all over the world, mainly hitting Africa. But there was one thing that got me thinking, If a cell containing aids is heated to 60 degrees Celsius (not that much, our body is at 37 degrees) then the aids would die.

This got me thinking so I did a little research, sadly if you heat a body up to 43 or so degrees (core temperature), the person will die (there had to be a catch!). Then I thought about how the blood is cleaned (in hospitals), a tube is put through someone's arm, the blood comes out, gets heated, cooled, and goes back into the bloodstream, what if there was a way to do this for the body, being able to target individual cells and only heat them to kill the aids.
Thoughts and comments?

File extension library

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:14:00 +0000

File extension library is a site I use quite often. This site is useful to check what that file type is, and mostly what you can do with it. Having made movies, I have seen countless video files and have often wondered what these file types were, a quick search told me all about them! Also when you download different files you can always be wondering what the extension is, which is why I thought this would appeal to everyone. The site itself is nicely organized, its clear, fast, and quite simple to use. If ever you don't know what kind of file type you stumbled upon, just head there!

file extension pdf

Reality televisions shows

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:03:00 +0000

Are these really reality shows?
When I ask this question I really ask how real it is. I know that these shows feature real people and their real relations, but the thing is that these people are hand picked to not get along together.
I remember watching the Real World, and seeing that they put a person who is openly homosexual with another who is quite homophobe. These people are obviously buff and well they will basically get into a fight.
I believe this world is not real because it has been populated by people NOT chosen at random. This altars the personalities and therefore the relationships they would have.
What are your thoughts on this?

Good, long day

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Mon, 19 May 2008 05:14:00 +0000

Well I had a great day today,
I started off the day quite early, at around 8 AM. It always feels like I have so much more time if I start of the day quite early. I just got my liscence this week and so I drove to go surfing, which was loads of fun.
I then got to a nice little surfing break, it was pretty warm out, so that was obviously nice.
The waves were about shoulder-head high (measured when the surfer is standing up) and were also crowded. I caught some good ones but it wasnt that great of a session, mostly compared to my last ones which were each more amazing then the other.
After that I headed home, I got caught in traffic and decided to take a side street instead of the main big street, well I regretted this decision when I had to turn back into the main street. It took me 20 minutes to get through 2 blocks, just to get me back into some more traffic. Anyways, I got home, ate, got dressed and all that and then headed down to my girlfriend's house by bike.
Well the bike ride was nice exept my bike scares me as it needs some repairing and the chain can basically derail whenever. It was really warm outside which I also loved.
After that I saw my girlfriend and stayed with her for a couple hours, that was quite enjoyable. She then had to leave so I headed back home on my bike. I stopped at a Rite aid to pick up a drink, got a great deal on it and just sipped it while basking in the sun on a bench next to the store. I just love stopping for half an hour or so and just relaxing. After that I passed by wallgreens, got some CD-r's to put some tunes on for car rides and now I am home, just relaxing.
Mmmmmm what a good day.

Car shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:40:00 +0000

Well, I got my liscence a couple days ago and now am car shopping.
I have been saving up for a car for a couple years now, and the time has come to spend that money!
I was wondering what kind of problems you encountered while car shopping, and tips you might have for me.
I am looking for a car thats big enough to fit surfboards (6 feet long) or simply has 4 windows that you can bring up and down (with that i can put the surfboard on the roof). I am also looking for something pretty cheap with good gas mileage and that is reliable.
I am pretty sure that with my funds i cannot fufill all of that, but I have been looking at Jeep Cherokee's, which have about 20 mpg and have a nice motor and you can fit basically anything in the trunk.
Picture (1990 model, I am looking for cars around that year because of the price):

A bad day turned into a good one

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Fri, 16 May 2008 05:36:00 +0000

Well today was not such a good day to start with and then got much much better.
The morning started off slow, I did not have much fun and had a test. Then things did not improve, and today is a long day as i get off at 5. Well I finish school and check my phone to see when the bus arrives, it is one minute. I quickly run out and get stuck in the middle of the street I had to cross, if I had made it I could catch the bus.
Well normally the bus runs every 10 minutes, so I check my phone again and notice the 30 minute wait in between buses.
Now the problem is, after that much wait, the bus is bound to be full and not let me in. I decide to start walking down to get to the bridge which is far away. All along I keep track of were the bus is. Turns out the 30 minute wait would have been a 45 minute wait. Well I walked pretty far and had to chose weather to walk through a huge park to the bridge or wait 10 minutes or so for a bus. Because I had already walked about 50 minutes, I decide to walk it out and what a wonderful trip it turned out to be! The walk to the bridge was about half an hour, the park was nice, I saw a huge abandoned building, beautiful views of the bay.
Well the rest of my day went well, and overall now, when I think about my day, it feels like it was a good day.

Recruitment services and you

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:43:00 +0000

First of all I wanted to explain what a recruitment service is. A recruitment service is basically a company that links you to a company for you to find a job.
Now the thing is, you have nothing to lose by signing up on one of these sites.
These sites win money because businesses pay to be on their site and pay for the company to find them workers that could interest them. Now for these companies to work, they need a huge user base (many people wanting to get a job through the service). To be appealing to the workers they need to offer a free, well done service.
So when you sign up for these sites, you are the one who the service is trying to link to companies that want workers.
Now the question you should ask yourself is why would you not want to be contacted by companies that want you as their worker? It does not take long to get listed by these sites like that companies can contact you. In reality, these companies try to make their service as enjoyable and short as possible, to deliver you, the user, a pleasing experience.
Even if you do have a job, maybe you can find a better one, one that pays more or that you will enjoy more. You basically have nothing to lose by signing up for these sites.
I recommend trying out this site: jobs in finance

Multiprotocol chat

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:15:00 +0000

I just wanted to bring some attention to a very useful type of free product that I have been using for a while, multiprotocol chat clients. Now to translate that into English, I am talking about programs which allow you to talk to your buddies on msn, aim, and much much more via only 1 program.
So I will write a bit about programs for the PC, the macs and for any internet user.

Mac: Adium
Adium is the program I currently use for all my communication needs. It has been the best program for me as it is completely customizable (and it is easily done), it has growl notifications (a little bubble appears on your screen saying what someone just wrote to you) and is free! There is nothing wrong with this program, so here comes some links!

Official site: www.adiumx.com

PC: Trillian

Trillian is a free chat program but you have to pay for the "pro" version. I personnaly got my fix with the free version so I see no reason to pay (besides to donate). This program is also fully customizable which is nice
Here is a link: www.ceruleanstudios.com

Web platform: Meebo

Meebo is the equivalent of these two platforms, except it is browser based and hence does not have the same ability to be customized or to perform as well. The site is nice and it is quite useful to communicate with friend wherever you go, so here is a link: www.meebo.com

Have fun chatting!

Facebook working on Jabber chat

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:09:00 +0000

First of all let me explain what Jabber chat will let a user do.
Jabber chat basically opens up Facebook's chat and allow it to be ported (used) on chat programs like AIM, MSN or mostly multi protocol chat services (see post here).
Basically Facebook chat will become bigger as it will be easily possible to integrate it with the same contacts you have on MSN, AIM and others.
To give it an edge over other chat methods, it will allow users to update status, see their friends profile picture and probably more (im guessing messages, wallposts and such). Basically facebook is going to gain a more prominent spot in the instant messaging world

Site I am working on

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:31:00 +0000

Well I wanted to show you my work and get comments on how to improve it.
I am making an art site for my artist girlfriend, and am really loving doing it as I get to be as creative as I want.
Keep in mind I have only worked on this for one day currently, and am planning on improving the 3 pictures on the left and the font for the main text. Here is it!

don't you just love that feeling

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Sun, 11 May 2008 05:12:00 +0000

When you have helped someone and know you made yourself useful? I absolutely love, just working working and trying to help someone, and seeing their problem come to an end.
It is a feeling I love not only because of the feeling of accomplishment and usefulness in the world, but the thanks you get from that person is soooo nice.
Damn that feels good!

Full 3d integration for games?

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:26:00 +0000

Well, I was surfing the internet and found this product:
Basically it is like a Wii, but withought the Wii remote and with a better sensing technology.
The Wii uses infrared light and only tracks one source, it works quite well but the 3d will let you move around and let your motions be recorded more easily.
Now what I could imagine would be 3d goggles that you wear so you actually, if playing tennis, see the ball coming and actually hit it with a real racket.
I am scared of the price of this product, but this might see arcades soon.
Other than That I would love to see that but with a 360 degree treadmill, which would basically, when you walk or run, go the other way to compensate the movement. And with the 3d recognition and goggles, you could see scenery moving around you when you walk. Now THAT would be cool.

Just to clarify, this product is not available yet and no date is announced.

Website review- Pay per post

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:33:00 +0000

I just recently signed up for payperpost which is a service offered to bloggers to get paid to post about products, websites and such. I find this service interesting as it lets me find startup websites and lets me check out new products. Thanks to this I will be able to write up some more stuff bout useful websites and some products that I liked. I also would like to bring up the fact that I will NOT review sites/products that I have not used before. My goal is not to make pure money off of this, it is also to bring you, the reader, a higher quality experience on my blog.

For now this service has been good to me, the sign up was easy, the interface is nice and easy to use. Registration was a pain at the beginning (because I didn't reach the minimum requirements) but if you post regularly and have had your blog for over 3 months, it will be fine. In terms of payment they use paypal like many other services. Of what I have read/heard, pay per post is a reliable service that offer a good paying supply of content to put on your blog. So for all you bloggers out there, go try it out!

Google trying to become a social network?

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:03:00 +0000

Google is a huge empire, they have the biggest search engine and dozens of services (blogger is one too). They are getting a huge user base from their blog, email and websites utility services (not to mention their online word processors etc..). Not too long ago they developed a service called open social, they basically want to create an online passport that works with many services, making them gain even MORE users.
What got me thinking of this was the fact that Google's reader (news, blogs etc..) gained a note feature which allows the reader to share notes with friends. Not only this bus they have been developping a feed from it (friend feed, like on Facebook). I am thinking Google is ready to create a slowly growing social network through their list of services.

Too tired

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:48:00 +0000

Well I have been quite sleepless these last 10 days. It is weird because I usually never take naps but I slept in the car on the way home from surfing and today I slept after having finished my AP (one section) 30 minutes in advanced.
This was AP french language (I am a fluent speaker so its not a problem) and I told myself I would just lay my head on the table and not sleep, but that didn't work. The person administering the test actually had to shake me to wake me up.
I need more sleep then I get right now.

Eating at the restaurant regularily

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:28:00 +0000

I was wondering how many of you eat at the restaurant many times per week. I personally eat about 5 times a week at the restaurant (lunch for the most part). I tend to stick to the same restaurants as I do not have much choice and I enjoy the restaurants.
Anyways I wonder when I will get sick of orange beef and sweet and sour chicken (usually eat each once per week)

how do you learn?

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:22:00 +0000

How do you learn how to do something? Do you prefer to have someone talk to you about a subject and then you remember what they said, or do you rather try things out yourself until you get it?
I personally am one of the lather people. I built a website and learned by trying to get it to work. If I cannot do it i usually look on internet, find some tutorials and use them. I find this to be the most efficient way for me to learn as I remember what I do.

New board!!

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:44:00 +0000

Here it is! A beautiful Al Merrick Flyer. This board is 6 inches shorter than my first board (this one is 6 feet).
I also wanted to explain why I bought a new board, and why I just don't keep on surfing on the other one.
Contrary to what you might think, this board is not a replacement for my old one, it is just a board that I can take out on small days, while my other board can be used for days with bigger waves.
This boards shape and width make it a board that will glide nicely on small waves and yet will deliver the performance I want.
This board is also great because it can handle bigger surf, it is made to go up to 5-6 feet waves (1 and a half overhead), so I should be fine in any surf I go into with this board.
I surfed it today and well, its a big change, I first got on and felt that the board sunk REALLY easily, I was used to being able to push up from my board and meet resistance, but here it basically sinks in.
This is good because I can duckdive (go under) waves very easily! The board did not feel much more unstable but quite responsive, I had no trouble controlling it or getting up.
Another thing I like about this board is how easy it is to catch waves on it. Paddling seemed much more efficient and useful.

Website review: Mylot

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:53:00 +0000

Well I stumbled upon mylot not to long ago. The concept is basically a huge discussion forum with a twist, each post earns you money. Before showing people this site I tested it out myself and must say it works quite well. It is easy to get money and getting 10$ a month is easily done.
If you like posting on forums and discussing events, sign up here
thanks!

"friends" on social networks

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:06:00 +0000

I wanted to get some opinions on what friends are on social networks. Owning a facebook, I have 154 friends. But are these people really true friends???
Looking through the list i notice I have many people I only met once that I never talked to. I also have alot of people I used to be good friends with but that moved or such, I talk to some of these people but not all.
Now I look at the definition of friend and here is what I find:

A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.
A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement: friends of the clean air movement.

To my great surprise I see that friend can also mean, an acquaintance (definition 2).
By that definition all my "friends" on facebook are friends.

I can now look at the first definition which for me is the most interesting and the most true, a person one likes and trusts. After looking through my list a good 70% go away, leaving about 45 friends.
My question is what do you consider a friend? Do you think this term has become overused and lost its initial meaning? Do you believe this is a good thing or is it more negative?
thank you very much

rising prices

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:47:00 +0000

Well being well informed of what is happening in France, I am aware of the rising prices and the stagnant salaries.
To fill you in, France has about a 9% rate of jobless people and the people's with job's salaries are going up at a ridiculous rate while the market has been inflating quite alot since the Euro.
I am wondering where this is going to go, not too long ago i heard of rising rice prices. For many people in third world countries, rice is the cheapest and most available resource to eat. But now, because many of them are poor, they will not be able to buy as much.
Down in the US this type of price rise can also be related to. Simply look at the price of a juice, the cheapest (1.5 liter bottle) is well over 4 dollars, and this is not high quality juice we are talking about. Its not just juice prices going up, its fruit prices...
If these prices continue to rise everywhere in the country, the poor will become poorer, the middle class will have more problems living but the rich will stay, well, rich.

back from vacation!

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:49:00 +0000

Well I am back home from Mexico.
As always I am somewhat happy to be home but my vacation was just so nice that I wouldn't mind staying in Mexico for a bit longer.
To sum up my vacation I was surfing everyday for 7-9 hours a day in warm water! Wave wise we got some really small to flat days and we got one really nice day with overhead waves, I couldn't have asked for more!
Anyways I was in a small village and really appreciated it compared to my first 2 days in a bigger town. It really is a different atmosphere and a different lifestyle. Down in a village life is much more relax, the time is pretty insignificant for me and everything is quite and friendly. Even in the water i noticed that everyone was friendly. This is a change from many crowded breaks near my place.
Well a video of my surfing is on the way for your enjoyment :P

Spring break!

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:47:00 +0000

Mmmm its just that time of year! Spring break!!
Well two weeks of vacation just started 3 hours ago for me and I am already feeling so much more relaxed.
Well during the first week I am gone to Mexico and will be able to surf!!
I cannot wait as I am in desperate need of surfing and relaxation.
I just got a bunch of nice relaxing surfing music, slightly stoopid is really nice!!
well hope you all had/are having great vacations and my next post may only be in 10 days, but probably before if i have an internet connection in Mexico

the protest went well

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:40:00 +0000

sorry about the lack of content lately... I've been busy with work.
So the protest went well, we marched up and down streets, and crossed some nudists. Well the torch was actually rerouted to avoid a protest, which is good because it avoided violence and proved an acknowledgment of the protest.
As San Francisco is about 1/3 Asian, many people went to support the olympics, only some isolated cases of violence broke out but nothing bad.
All in all I found this protest to be pretty effective and I am glad of how it turned out.
Here is a little picture even though it does not do justice to the amount of people present:

Protest

noreply@blogger.com (Quentin) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:37:00 +0000

Well I'm off to a protest tomorrow against the genocide performed by the Chinese and the fact that the olympic games are being held in China. Let me enlighten you on what I am fighting for:

The Olympic games stand for the unison of countries, freedom and getting toghether. China, on the other hand, is a communist dictatorship that censors quite alot of information, here are some examples:
many sites are blocked in China (checked it myself, ebay for example is)
Some history is censored (search Tiananmen square on google images here, you get this picture: http://ramblingsofpassion.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/051201_tiananmen-square_ex.jpg
yes the tanks ended up rolling over and killing him during his peaceful protest. Now search for the same thing in china and you will only get tourist photos of the place, no sign of the protest.)

Now the genocide. Ever heard of Tibet? A Boudhist country where no valued resources are present and that never did anything harmful to China? Yep they are invaded, and China is committing genocide for no good reason...
Secondly, they are doing some more genocide in Soudan! Yep they encourage it and help it.

Now I am protesting tomorrow because the olympic torch is coming in our city. This is the only moment where China will look and see the protesters. This will also be mediatized and will get the information through to other countries and people.

Other than that im skipping class to go, and my parents wont sign a note. My dad says that I will have to assume the consequences the school throws at me, but I find political views more important than missing 3 hours of school, and the punishment will be nothing compared to what im trying to stop.