The Great Galactic Grid

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Optical mice irritation

When Optical mice first came out, the big line was "finally a mouse that works on any surface!" And what did I find? For the first time ever, after I got an optical mouse, I actually had to use mouse mats! Because they just don't work well on wooden desks. You'd think it would be the perfect surface for them, because all the wood grain would give the optical sensor something to track. But the cursor on the screen moves very erratically with them. They actually work better with a sheet of white paper, which is very weird. I have tried many different mice and many different desks.
It must have something to do with the slight surface unevenness of the table (what you can feel rather than what you can see). This also makes no sense, because why would that disturb an *optical* system?
Does anybody else know about this?

Work and riches

"I have long been of the opinion that if work were such a splendid thing the rich would have kept more of it for themselves." -- Bruce Grocott

Another good joke... but unfortunately it perpetuates the myth that most rich people are lazy. Books such as The Millionaire Next Door documents that the great bulk of rich people work very hard indeed, and spend little. Which is how they became rich in the first place.

Shakespeare and monkeys

"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." -- Robert Wilensky, speech at a 1996 conference

... This is a good joke (as far as I can determine, aimed at the quality of writing on the Net. Well, it was many years ago. :) -- but it also holds the key to an important truth I considered a while ago, which tells us about mathematical complexity, as well as the power of creativity... to wit: not only will a million monkeys NOT produce Shakespeare's works, or even just Hamlet, they will not only produce one straight sentence.
This can be proven, at least subjectively, by a simple Google search. Type in a simple sentence which is not a common expression, put it in quotes and Google it. Odds are it will not be found in all the 5 Billion pages on the web.
Examples:
"I went to my sister's and got drunk."
"Blue is a bad color for airplanes."
"Autumn is nice for Caucasians."
"I can see empty sky from my window."
... Google goes 'did not match any documents' to all of them.

Think about this. Despite the fact that the "million monkeys" are not hammering at the keyboard at random, but in fact writing in English most of them, they won't even produce a random sentence. And then consider the fact that each time you add a single letter, this gets twenty-six times less likely! It then becomes clear that not even a trillion trillion trillion monkeys hammering away for all the age of the universe would produce "Hamlet". (And if they did, how anybody know?)

The original monkey premise is actually a dig at creativity: "anybody could do what Shakespeare did, heck, a bunch of monkeys could do it if you gave them time enough."
Never has less true words been spoken. Nobody but Shakespeare could write Hamlet. Nobody but van Gogh could make Sunflowers. Nobody but Lennon could write Across the Universe.
An act of creation is divine, literally.

Only listen to half

I found a mortgage at a incredibly low interest.
But I don't need it, for I am now a millionaire due to the stock trading tips I get in the mail.

I can get Viagra at half price.
But I don't need it, because my manhood is now like a cucumber, and without surgery too!

I have a Rolex these days.
But I don't wear it, for everybody now has a top-quality replica.

Morale: if you read your spam, only listen to half.

Quality And The Art Of Purpose Maintenance

New article of mine:
Quality And The Art Of Purpose Maintenance

It has been a while since I wrote anything like this, so I'd be interested in hearing if you find it helpful.

Google Local

Have you ever used Google Local to find something in your own neighborhood?

I don't know how the heck they have collected and organized all that data!
If you select 'View Larger Map', you get a map as big as your window and screen can handle (which is big in the case of my Apple 30-inch screen), and if you zoom in to max, you'll be amazed at the detail. I almost expect that if I put in a new flower bed in the garden, it will be on the map tomorrow.
Not to mention of course that they can find all the local businesses somehow.

I don't know which countries they have covered so far, but it works fine for UK, you just replace .com with .co.uk

Taboos

I am told that in Mormon areas like Salt Lake City, the teenagers don't have sex much. This is generally because they don't believe that oral sex is "sex". (Clinton is not alone.) They are quite serious about this. Probably even anal sex is not "sex". Of course they have a lot of "non-sex".

Whereas where I grew up, in Denmark in the seventies, none of us, practically, had any sex, oral or otherwise. And Denmark is perhaps the most liberal and permissive country in the world.

Does this give anybody pause for thought? That perhaps the more rules and suppression there is about something, the more it flourishes?

Not to mention: if it has to be hidden, then kids don't know anything about protecting themselves from pregnancies and sexually transmitted deceases.

About parties

"You have to go out," people tell me occasionally.
"Why?" I say. "'Out' is just like 'in', only without the comfort and the things I need."

What I don't get it that by "out" or "fun", people generally mean clubs and pubs and parties. In other words, noisy, crowded places where you can't hear each other talk, so you have to ingest alcohol or other drugs to pass the time. Big woop. Sure, that's how I want to spend my time and money. Not.

Alice in Wonderland

The British Library has posted an extraordinary online version of the original hand-written and self-illustrated manuscript for Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol, a.k.a. Charles Dodgson.

Please note the 'enlarge' feature, it allows you to really enjoy Dodgson's drawings, which I find very talented. Not smoothly skilled like a professional artist's, but they have a lot of graphic power.

Battlestar Galactica

"It is not enough to live; you have to have something to live for."
-- Commander Adama, Battlestar Galactica

I am an SF fan since four decades, and Battlestar Galactica (2003) is the first SF TV series I have really liked.
You could say a lot about it, but basically it is the first SF TV series I have seen where the acting is top notch, and the physics are not highly doubtful. Not to mention the plot is gripping, and the special effects are very convincing. In short it is a quantum leap forward in realism.
The pathos of it is extraordinary too. This is not your father's television, get ready for some trauma.
So, if you have ever liked the literature of SF, but found Star Trek to be just embarrassing, then give this a shot.
Start with the mini series (which is what I've seen so far), it seems it sets up the whole thing.

iMac Tangerine

I bought an old iMac from 1999, the tangerine one, almost the same as my third Mac.
I did it mostly for fun and nostalgia and aesthetics, I loved those "gumdrop" iMacs so much.
But I don't have a good space for it, and to be frank and to my surprise, I think that time has actually already run from that colored/translucent design which was so revolutionary at the time. (It was imitated by absolutely everybody -- and not just in the computer business, I saw hair care products imitating it!)