Logiciel Libre

April 2, 2008

Sunstroke Prevention for Fun and Profit

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — adam @ 9:52 pm CDT

Bryan recently pointed out that a popular tourist “festival activity” in Beijing is “sunstroke prevention”.

January 31, 2008

Multitaskcraptastic

Filed under: Default — Tags: , , , — adam @ 5:44 am CST

There are just too many shiny objects out there. Here’s how I ended up looking at some of the strangest C code I’ve ever seen.

  1. Started on the gslug mailing list, reading about a new keyboard layout. I continue to be drawn in to rumors that the QWERTY layout is a conspiracy to slow down typers, so hearing about a new keyboard layout called Colemak piqued my curiosity.
  2. Progressed quickly from colemak.com to the Wikipedia entry on Colemak. Cool, Colemak is supposed to be easier to switch to than Dvorak.
  3. The Colemak entry on Wikipedia mentions digraphs. I’ve heard of digraphs because I use them in Vim, but you can use them in C, too? Strange.
  4. The digraph entry on Wikipedia also mentions trigraphs. Trigraphs!

Sheesh. Interesting, but talk about distracting. I sure hope it isn’t true that multitasking kills your brain.

January 21, 2008

Begone, TV!

Filed under: Default — Tags: , , , — adam @ 7:36 pm CST

http://jwz.livejournal.com/830604.html

rotfl.

I agree that it is basically vandalism in that the reason everyone is there is to see the what’s on the TVs, but it’s still funny as heck.

Like a couple of the commenters, I’ve found the TV-B-Gone indispensable in airports, bars, restaurants; any place where the management seems to think people need a TV playing in the background (or foreground) at all times.
Here’s the thing they probably used to turn off the TVs.

(via Patrick)

December 16, 2007

Backslash: Subtle Butt and Christmas

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — adam @ 6:31 am CST

Subtle Butt: anti-fart pads (via Strange New Products)

Is it Christmas? (via Patrick)

December 9, 2007

Tree Lit by Electric Eel

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — adam @ 8:27 am CST

 

Apparently this eel is being used to power the lights for a Christmas tree.
Eel in a tank

Via Metaefficient.

November 19, 2007

Liger: Laugh or Cry?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — adam @ 9:35 pm CST

As in, I don’t know whether to. But in these situations I always have a default, and it is laugh, of course!

November 1, 2007

Folding: No Excuse

Filed under: Default — Tags: , , — adam @ 8:38 am CDT

From the old-news-but-still-relevant-and-fun department…

How to fold a t-shirt in one or two seconds (mirror). If this doesn’t make you want to fold a t-shirt, nothing will.

September 16, 2007

Don’t Bother With LaTeX

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — adam @ 8:55 am CDT

The biggest problem I see with elegant, declarative markup languages like LaTeX is that, in a nutshell, relatively few people know how to use them. Collaboration often requires the lowest common denominator, and that means a document editor like OpenOffice.org Writer.

But LaTeX is fun. It is always consistent. The final result is beautiful. Since you are editing source code (unless you use LyX), you have complete control over the final document. Ideally, you forget about trying to bold this, indent that and focus instead on the content of what you write.

I can’t help it, I find myself using LaTeX for more and more documents. What the heck is wrong with me?

It is possible when using Writer to keep your document clean and simple, use styles profusely, and focus mostly on content, only dipping into presentation at one time, and some people do in fact do this.

September 3, 2007

Mountain Climbing: Fun Facts

Filed under: Default — Tags: , , , — adam @ 6:14 pm CDT

Mount Rainier is the 5th highest mountain in the contiguous United States. Mount Whitney is the highest.

From this Forbes article on Everest deaths: one in ten mountain climbers die trying to summit, and those who successfully summit have a one in twenty chance of dying on the way down.

Humans living in higher altitudes acclimatize by increasing the number of red blood cells, thereby increasing the capacity for oxygen and carbon dioxide movement within the body.

Fun facts were inspired by a recent Mount Adams climb.

July 4, 2007

Wikipedia and The Weird

Filed under: Default — Tags: , , — adam @ 7:00 am CDT

I don’t really have much to add to today’s link, except to say that there is definitely something here that will make you laugh, wax nostalgic, or gasp.

Happy Independence Day!

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