Spoken like a true genius.
The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.
This is a really interesting study done at MIT. Completely makes sense. We’ve gotten so paranoid we’re not thinking straight. It might have something to do with the troop of braniacs we have in the White House, my favorite being Ashcroft. Bush is too easy a target.
Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted
Passenger Screening System
Also check out Gilmore v. Ashcroft
Pretty interesting fictitious article I found on Slashdot.org where Google takes over e-commerce from Amazon and Ebay.
August 2009: How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web
I just had to share this. For those who don’t know this, web servers keep all kinds of logs on who’s visiting your site and how they’re getting there. They can tell you what the search string was that got them to your site. So here’s July’s Stats for search strings.
I’m so pleased that people are searching for Macy Gray nude and finding my site. What a disappointment that must’ve been huh? I like the little tortilla boy too. That actually cost me. Someone found the Pablo Francisco video I had up here and must’ve linked it because I actually passed my 1 GB limit for the month.
Here’s a great article about the US’s ridiculous holding of criminals without charging them and how it just makes matters worse.
Bruce Schneier: Unchecked police and military power is a security threat
This was posted on John’s Blog and was going to comment on it but you have to be a member of polywogg so I’m posting it here with my 2 cents.
I grew up using Windows and work with computers everyday. I never really thought Windows was that horrible I just preferred the Mac OS due to it being a little easier to troubleshoot when something breaks. The past year or so however the tides have changed quite a bit. With the advent of cheaper broadband access and cheaper computers more people than ever have internet accessible computers. Therein lies the problem.
Before, a vast majority of internet bound computers were manned by somewhat competent computer users. Now, with users like my mom who want nothing more to get online and look up christmas decorations and maybe send an email or two, viruses and spyware are becoming a huge problem. When a box pops up that says “Click yes to continue.” a lot of users don’t know any better and even users that do know can still easily get infected by these pests.
I mean the fact that everytime I sit at a PC to fix at Berklee and find some sort of adware installed tells me something has to change. My own desktop PC has been reduced to a crude storage device because everytime I try to get online with it my browser is crashing from spyware.
Why should I spend 2 hours cleaning out my Windows machine when I’ve got a Powerbook that I can use with almost no trouble whatsoever? Now some people argue that it’s simply because Windows has such a majority marketshare. This may be true but I tend to think it has more to do with the fact that Windows is so tightly wrapped around Internet Explorer and other Microsoft web protocols/features that it makes it a matter of finding the best way to dupe users into accepting actions that trigger the installation of some trojan/spyware/adware/etc.
I think it’s a case of trying to give users a 500 piece toolbox when all they need is a screwdriver. Microsoft also likes to do this thing where a program will automatically do shit for you. It’s really annoying and is another exploit that hackers use.
Windows users reading this, tell me what you think, have you had similar experiences?
How much Biodiesel would it take to replace the existing US petro market?
140.8 billion gallons, or about 11,000 square miles of algal ponds.
This is a pretty cool idea I think. I’m not a huge fan of live recordings but I can think of a few shows I wouldn’t mind having. (Nirvana ‘93, Akron, OH)
This is interesting. This is an independant Star Wars film. The production isn’t bad, the acting however….well you’ll see.
“ever wonder why no one ever copyrights a scarf?”
i drove past this barne’s and noble ad and cannot figure it out. anybody help me out here?
“To arrive at the edge of the world’s knowledge, seek out the most complex
sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each
other the questions they are asking themselves.” — this is the mission statement of Edge.org.
I’ve read some interesting stuff on and off on The Edge over the last few years…but a recent post was particularly fun to read. The entry asked its contributors What’s Your Law? –asking them to share “some bit of wisdom, some rule of nature, some law-like pattern, either grand or small, that you’ve noticed in the universe that might as well be named after you”.
“. . . imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in; an interesting hole I find myself in; fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!’ This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.” -Douglas Adams
Anyone here used Grokker?? I downloaded their trial version, after reading about it on wired.com (Beyond Google: Narrow the Search). Check it out, very cool!
I’ve been using a web browser plugin called StumbleUpon. The basic idea is that whenever you click the “Stumble!” button, it loads a random webpage. But not just any random webpage — rather, those part of your pre-selected categories or friend’s list, and those rated well by other users. Each page is rated either thumbs up or thumbs down by other members, and as you view pages you can rate it thumbs up or down yourself. Anyways, I’ve actually found it pretty interesting…I’ve stumbled on a few webpages I liked that I wouldn’t have found otherwise!
StumbleUpon “operates based on the collaborative ratings of it’s members.” This seems like a fairly successful technique but here’s an idea: in addition to correlating rankings by user/category, also correlate the page *content* itself using techniques in Natural Language Processing. This includes methods to determine high-frequency phrases, auto-categorization, word counts, etc.
Perhaps StumbleUpon is already moving in this direction. But if not, I’d be happy to help for a nominal fee 
So says researchers from Northwestern University:
Link
Short-term stress causes cells to release protective proteins that extend cell life.
Except its not the kind of stress you may think:
“Stressors also include elevated temperatures, oxygen stress, bacterial and viral infections, and exposure to toxins such as heavy metals, all of which challenge the environment of the cell. A master protein called heat shock factor senses the stress and responds by turning on the genes that encode molecular chaperones.”
Oh..so its *physiological* stressors. Does that mean I should stick my head in the microwave, hold my breath, infect myself with SARS, and eat a handful of metal shavings? Hmmm…..
Rolling Stone has a really cool interview with Steve Jobs this month. He talks about iTMS and the iPod and why Dell’s jukebox won’t do as well as the iPod. Jobs also has an interesting take on the music business. I agree with most of what he has to say the question is, would it actually work.
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