Random Signs of Intelligence

Boring day

2012-09-10T20:33:00.001-04:00

Did nothing today except attend 2 boring status meetings and oh, ordered lunch. And some emails.

Friends

2010-02-25T19:26:00.000-05:00

I should kick myself for being so nice to my friends - they don't deserve it and are assholes back to me anyway.

Bad luck

2010-02-19T13:29:00.000-05:00

Every time I meet this friend of mine, I seem to have bad luck within the next 2 days, usually the next day. And like real bad luck, crashes and injuries and stuff like that. Though this is a real good friend, I guess I can live with one less. Bubbye!

I have a friend...

2010-02-04T14:28:00.000-05:00

... I really like but I am afraid that once she moves on (from here at work) she won't keep in touch.

The 4 F's

2010-02-03T18:51:00.000-05:00

Cat Predicts Deaths

2010-02-03T18:20:00.000-05:00

Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home - Telegraph

Freaky, if true.

HOV Cops... Metermaids

2009-09-04T18:06:00.001-04:00

Got a ticket the other day for an HOV violation. Here's how it works, the fucking metermaids (they think of themselves as the NTTA Police in Texas) first slow down ALL traffic because they are stopping HOV violators and every-fucking-body has to slow down to take a look! This causes some people (moi) to panic and jump into the HOV lane because the regular lanes are now just a parking lot. And bam! you get a ticket! Fucking metermaids.

I really need to loose weight

2008-10-30T16:58:00.001-04:00

Why can't the fucking scientists come up with a fat eating bacteria - you get an infection and a week later all your fat has been eaten away; you then take an antibiotic and bam! you are all set!

One whole year!

2008-10-26T19:59:00.001-04:00

And I just realized that except for that post telling y’all that I am still alive, its been a year since I have posted here. Is there anyone out there?

SCRUM

2008-10-26T19:57:00.001-04:00

This is interesting stuff:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCRUM

I'm alive

2008-09-06T20:04:00.001-04:00

In case you thought otherwise.

Wordpress, AdSense and AdSense-Deluxe Plugin

2006-10-27T09:48:00.000-04:00

I just spent the better part of a day trying to get AdSense to work on a Wordpress (not Wordpress.com) blog using the AdSense-Deluxe plugin. Either I am really stupid or ... whatever.

Blogger does AdSense so much better! No surprise there though, maybe I'll just kill the old blog and get with Blogger with ftp. I upgraded to Blogger Beta and its really cool too. Hmm, have to seriously think about that - Blogger templates are much easier to edit and I know how to bring some decent love to it. Hmmm indeed.

Ouch!

2006-10-23T17:53:00.000-04:00

Much ado over Borat

2006-10-19T13:16:00.000-04:00

Wish people would stop taking themselves so seriously and start having a sense of humor. I mean, otherwise, you are just inviting people to make fun of you. Think about it, nobody makes fun of people who can laugh at themselves.

On a lighter note, they're proably inviting Cohen over so they can behead him on video ;)

Also,
"It's a shame that some Americans will probably believe what they see there," is funny because its more plausible than you might think. (If you don't get it, don't worry about it buddy.)

Boing Boing: Cat parasite leads to more boy babies ... who could up to be statisticians with way too much free time

2006-10-12T16:31:00.000-04:00

They discovered that women whose antibody count was high - suggesting a substantial infection - had a much higher chance of having baby boys. In most populations the birth rate is around 51% boys, but women infected with toxoplasma had up to a 72% chance of a boy.

Source: Boing Boing: Cat parasite leads to more boy babies

Statistic are bloody stupid - a sample of 2000, phuf! The first sampling which indicated 51% might have been off, or this one coupled with a bad flu season. Fucking statisticians! I say we should enlist them in the army and test the effects of various munitions on them. That study will incidicate that 100% of statisticians subjected to a grenade up their ass are expected to meet a gory end. Also the study will show a 100% drop in statistics courses in colleges.

Masturbation during Ramadan

2006-10-08T21:12:00.000-04:00

Masturbation during Ramadan on Andrew Sullivan's blog The Daily Dish reminds me of Arun Shourie's book The World of Fatwas, Or, the Shariah in Action:

Full 43 pages of Vol VI of the fatawa Dar al-Ulum, Deoband are devoted to considering what breaks the roza fast and what does not. Mufti Kifayatullah gives a very qualified ruling on watching wrestling or kabaddi, "To see wrestling in such a way that private parts come to be seen is "na-jaiz". Maulana Ahmed Riza Khan's fulminations against doing anything which entails association with kafirs, Hindus in this case, extend over more than a hundred quarto-sized pages of closely packed text. These fatwas are grouped under the heading "Nafrat ke Ahkam" "The Ordinances of Hatred". (P.245)

Chapter 6 entitled "Women and Shariah" is an exhaustive study of the man- woman or the husband and wife equation; and redundant to add that "the husband is always the master". A woman is wickedest thing. And "when excited, she is a hundred times more passionate than man... A woman is "mom ki naak" (white hot tip of the candle), "balki raal ki pudiya" (a tight little packet of resin), "balki barood ki dibiya" (in fact a packet of explosives). If she is brought near a spark (of temptation) it will explode. She is defective in reason as well as in faith. And by nature she is crooked. (p.289) Which is why the husband has the power the absolute, unconditional power to exercise talaq for which he is not accountable to anyone on earth - to throw the wife out by just uttering the word talaq. (p.292). The chapter is replete with hundreds of examples of talaq, and every time the husband stands victor and superior.

Source: INDOlink Book & Media Review :THE WORLD OF FATWAS

I don't know where you could get the book or if Mr. Shourie plans on publishing an electronic version, but I am sure if enough people are interested, Mr. Shourie could work something out.

Er, nice colors?

2006-10-02T15:54:00.000-04:00

Trying out Windows Live Writer (this post) and so far, well, it works. That is a lot more than the last time I tried it, when, well, it won't work.

Other than that, nothing extraordinary about it other than, nice colors and a sidebar to keep monkeys busy. I'ld still use BlogJet and hey, wonder what's up with w.Bloggar and Marcelo.....

.... just checked, it seems his site was down again and is now up, barebones.

Technorati tags: Windows Live Writer, w.bloggar, blogging

Top 10 Lies told to Naive (Artists and Designers) Programmers

2006-10-01T19:46:00.000-04:00

Top 10 Lies told to Naive Artists and Designers.

After 16 years in InfoTech, working as an employee, owning a business and freelancing, I can’t tell you how much of this post rings true for naïve programmers.

A variation or rather, an extension to #3 (“Do this for us and you’ll get great exposure…”) is where they try to convince you that your program will tap into this unexploited niche market and that they, as one of the insiders in this industry will try to sell the software for you. They even turn around and ask you to pay them to get this opportunity to tap into this vast business opportunity.

Alien Abductions

2006-09-30T18:53:00.000-04:00

Right.

US head teacher shot in Wisconsin

2006-09-29T19:56:00.000-04:00

Student Shelly Rupp, 16, said she heard five shots and ran out of the school, but turned around and saw Mr Klang as he was shot.

"He was laying on the ground in the hallway. He had just a pile of blood by his leg," she told the Associated Press news agency.

BBC NEWS | Americas | US head teacher shot in Wisconsin.

16 years old? In high school? Pile of blood?

Who's Using the Speakers!

2006-09-28T20:02:00.000-04:00

I am in the market for a new laptop and currently in the ‘research’ phase; but knowing me, I’ll spin my wheels forever until one day, I’ll make an impulse buy and then worry about I am going to pay it off… but that is a story for another time.

Looking at all the laptops out there, I wonder about a few things; the speakers for instance. Who the hell is using these? I think laptop manufacturers should offer machines without speakers, just a single low-fi speaker like the ones in cell phones. No one can be serious about playing music on a laptop! At least in the work \ office segment. And put a damn volume \ on-off wheel on there for heaven’s sake!

Batteries and wall-warts! Integrate! Integrate! Integrate! I’ld rather have the battery and the transformer in one package, even if that means that the battery will only pump juice for about say 30 minutes. Think about it; these days one isn’t too far from a power outlet; airports, restaurants, etc. For instance, my laptop primarily runs off the mains. At most I might run it off the battery for maybe 10–15 minutes while I check email or something during a lay-over. Battery+transformer would be perfect! Hell, throw in a retractable cord too!

As an option, offer a “snap-on” battery pack, like those ugly things for iPods! So if you need the juice, there you go. If not snap-on, just a plug-in thingy; lets call it “strap-on” hee-hee.

And stop making those damn “notebook mice”. WTF! Just because you are using a notebook, does you hand get smaller? And is it really that much of a difference between the smaller notebook mouse and the regular ones? Instead, a notebook mouse should be a wired mouse (no batteries, no hassles, get it!) with a retractable cord or a short cord just about a foot and a half or so.

And now that you have a regular sized mouse, build a little storage compartment in there for the ear buds. Or not; who wants to have to stuff a pair in there, I’ld just throw them into the bag and be done with it. You use those for music and stuff while you are working, connected to an outlet – note, not while on the go – that is what mp3 players are for!

So without the big battery how do you enjoy movies on the flight while seated in coach? You don’t! Whoever “enjoyed” watching a movie on a laptop? Fuck it, read a book or catch a nap instead. Do yourself and your neighbour a favour! But if you still need to watch a movie, get yourself an iPod or a PSP or something. Don’t be bothering everyone with your laptop; because then you will hog the arm-rests as well as figet all over the place getting you shit unpacked and packed again!

One last thing, manufacturers, please switch to those way-cool slot drive for discs – I hate that tray !

Wasn't Peter Jackson a fat guy?

2006-09-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

Organ sales 'thriving' in China

2006-09-28T10:35:00.000-04:00

The sale of organs taken from executed prisoners appears to be thriving in China, an undercover investigation by the BBC has found.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Organ sales 'thriving' in China.

Quite frankly, how does it matter to the prisoner being executed how his body is once he’s executed. In fact, I would say that no part should be wasted; after the execution and the organ harvest, the rest of the body should go to medical schools for disection class. Its the least the prisoner can do to repay the state for all the trouble and expense he has caused .

Moreover, in fact they should start to optimize the death row list based on the organ requirement list. No point in wasting a perfectly good part when someone is waiting for it. I can see it now, DROMS – Death Row Organ Matching System.

5G iPod Search feature

2006-09-13T19:20:00.000-04:00

There you have it folks, right from the horse's mouth, a very big "fuck you very much" from Apple to all the dolts who bought the early 5Gs. The search is only available on the late 5Gs. Its just software damn-it! If you can retrofit the screen contrast ( why'ld you take it out in the first place!) why can't you put the search in. Its like, everytime a new iPod comes out, the old owners are given the shaft. Enough already, get with some standards and just leave it be! What's new about the new 5G anyway? What's new about the new 5G anyway, you know the increased battery life is only because of the ability to dim the display, other than that, its all just software! Fuck you and the iPod you rode in on Stevie!

iPod: How to use the search feature
iPod nano (Second Generation) and Fifth Generation iPod (Late 2006), both announced 2006-09-12, allow you to search iPod for songs, album titles, artist names, podcasts, and audio books. The search feature does not search videos, notes, calendars, contacts, or lyrics.

Disclaimer: I have gifted 1 iPod and own another 2, a 4G and an (early) 5G.

RSS gone wild!

2006-09-11T09:32:00.000-04:00

Here is an excellent post on CleverClogs on cutting the RSS beast down to size! Some of these I already use, some are new and worth trying out.

But the one I like the BEST is #8. Shut that reader down once in a while! Sometimes, you get so involved with subscribing and reading, that you forget what its all for. The road to a destination becomes the destination. Rather than understanding what is going on in the world around me, I become like a gerbil in a running wheel! Besides, not all LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING is contained in newsfeeds, no matter how many you subscribe to.

By the way, I try to keep my list down to 20-25 at most. That's it! I believe its something like E-Loan; blogger have to compete for my attention, and I will only grant it to about 25ish of them. I have a folder called Probation (similar in function to Evaluate in the post on CleverClogs) as well as one called On-Notice. And feeds get shuttled around between Probation, On-Notice and my regular reading folders about once every month or so. Which means that if a feed does make it to my regular reading list, it better keep being interesting or else, next month it will find itself in the On-Notice bin, and the month after that, pufth!