Monday 30 March 2009

Rant 337 / No One Knows You're Reading This


Hai guise! These are my snacks right now.

I don't know how you eat your mangoes, but I cut them vertically into 3 slices before cutting the flesh on the skin sides into cubes.

I had thought that the Wheatables were either sweet or tasteless, but these are actually salty. They're thin wheat crackers with salt sprinkled on them.

Mmm... mangoes.








Okay, I found something that kinda scared me today. I found a thread on 4chan in which an anonymous hacker dumped about a hundred emails and their corresponding passwords. I tried a few and some did work. Seriously, I logged into one Facebook account right when another guy was using it, talking shit. Presumably I wasn't the first to use it.

Some have reported that they had posed as the FB users and announced that they're really homosexuals. Changed their status and opened chats with the friends and told them in a realistic way. Others were worse. One said he/she convinced the friend of a FB user that he/she was having some personal problems and wanted to commit suicide. This friend promised to drive over the next day and bring her to a counsellor. GG.

So guys, do remember to delete any emails containing your personal information if they're important. Not everyone is immatured enough to be so obvious. Others keep quiet and read your old emails, and I know because that's what some people suggested in the thread - scan the old emails, note the personal info and have fun with them.

And try not to use the same passwords for both emails and facebook accounts.







NASA has revealed the new spacecraft that will be replacing the current space shuttles in 2010. It really isn't very big. Since none of the pictures in Reuters show the insides of the Orion, we'll have to guess what it'd be like to live in there. I'll bet the actual living space is very small compared to the spacecraft because machines will occupy much of the volume.

And they're planning to put 6 people inside and fly them to Mars someday using this. A one-way trip to Mars would take about roughly 8 months (6-9 months according to Reuters). Imagine 8 months of living in a small room without a moment of silence because you're basically living in a hole within a gigantic machine.

Once they're on Mars, they may be able to live outside the spacecraft. Maybe they can dig a hole and fill it with air. Who knows?

Without a thick atmosphere and a magnetic field, living on Mars would be dangerous. Unless you're moving around in a lead tank, the almost unfiltered solar radiation (hence probability of cancer) will shorten your life with every moment you're in the light. And navigation will require help from satellites (no magnetic field, no compass).

Anyway, the Orion will definitely be improved upon before they actually send it to Mars. Like they said, there's the problem of parts that cannot be repaired but can breakdown during the estimated 3-year round trip. A huge obstacle. At least one of the astronauts will need to know the whole spacecraft like the back of his hand.








Left: A dark chocolate rose with a tinge of gold, filled with softer chocolate.
Right: Two hearts overlapping each other to form a piece of milk chocolate filled with some sort of dried fruit. Orange, maybe. Can't tell. I suck.

Dessert.








NASA is being forced to name its new room in the space station after an American comedian, after Stephen Colbert successfully campaigned for it via his TV show. The first runner-up was NASA's own suggestion and was over 40k votes behind.

They should be glad that 4chan wasn't involved, or they'll be naming the room after the founder of 4chan, "moot", or worse... They wouldn't want to have a "CP Room" in the space station.






Phishing websites these days appear so legitimate. Just recently I found one that tricks STEAM users into typing there STEAM IDs and passwords to "login". This website was very professionally designed using the same colour scheme as most STEAM stuff - black, orange and etc.

Its links work too! All the links like "Community" are linked to the real STEAM website sections, all properly done. Only the choice of language is fake. They have a list of many languages but clicking on them doesn't do anything.

Using STEAM IDs and passwords, anyone can download the games that the original owner had bought online, because this is the way STEAM works. For example, I downloaded my copy of Half Life 2 legally via STEAM. All you're really paying for when you buy games online is the CD-key. The rest can be downloaded anywhere.

And I believe if you legally own a game, you can download and possess the pirated version of the same game without legal consequences. As long as you aren't found to be distributing them, it's totally fine.

This does happen sometimes, like for Left 4 Dead. Because it's not popular in Singapore, many legitimate players have to get a cracked version to play in Garena. Not enough local players in legal STEAM servers.







Flying may produce large amounts of greenhouse gases, but driving the same distance is worse unless you own a hybrid. Best alternative - stay home and explore the virtual world.







Beware the Conficker worm. Its infection causes your computer to become part of its botnet. Try not to download everything your friends send you before asking. If in doubt, google the filename. If still in doubt, trust your virus scanner. I recommend using NOD32 for that.

For total protection, switch to a Mac. No one gives a f*ck about Macs, not even virus authors.






In my ideal life, nothing big ever happens. When something really good happens to you, something that makes you feel like you're reaching the peak of your life, only one thing can follow: the downward slide. If you're lucky, it'd be a gentle slope. If you're not, it'd be a cliff.

Or if something really bad happens to you... well, there really isn't much to say about that right?

Therefore a life in which nothing ever happens will never harm you. No childhood traumas, no memory scars, nothing. No longing for the past, no stubborn belief in outdated methods, nothing.

A life of nothingness.








Airlines are cutting the number of flights as demands fall. Now they're trying to make it sound good by saying that it reduces carbon emission.

It's like Muslims saying that their religion protects pigs because they don't eat pork.






The penalty for not cutting enough carbon emissions for countries who have signed the Kyoto Protocol is to have to cut even more during the next period.

I'm not so sure if that is exactly useful as a form of motivation.






Macdonald's is going to try to cut the level of pesticides in its potato supply. Because it uses the most potatoes in the US, the effects will be huge.

Hey, I've got an idea. To reduce the pesticide amount by 10%, just use 10% less potatoes in your fries!

I mean, that's what they do for other foods, right? "Less MSG in instant noodles" translates to "add less water when cooking". "Less sugar in Vitagen" translates to a more diluted product (less bacteria = less sour = less need for sugar). It's the trend!

Then, you can charge more for your fries because they're simply "healthier" than other fries, which in turn is because you use less potatoes! Blessed be the concept of capitalism.







Another big step for genetics research! They've found the group of genes that tells butterflies to fly towards the south. Now they just need to find the group that tells dolphins to sleep with half their brains, then transfer it into humans.







North Korea is a prime example of how the law is merely a shield that protects you only from those who use the same shield. Obviously Mr Kim doesn't give a flying f*ck about who he's pissing off with his next Taepodong. He's still going to show the world that his successful missile export industry is successful for a good reason. As long as he doesn't blow up our beloved Animeland, I don't care if he turns Kimchiland into a wasteland.










More chocolates.
Left: Dark chocolate enclosing a piece of sweetened banana.
Right: Expected it to be walnut coated with chocolate, but found a macadamia nut within instead.











At first, I was like, wtf?
Oh octopus...

Today is April Fools' Day. That's why all the news are phrased in the most misleading way. And I got fooled.

Anyway the diamonds mentioned in the line above the suckers were really tiny. 3.9kg of rocks filled with 280 tiny bits of diamonds. But these fell from the sky, so the size is not the issue. Sky diamonds, man! Sky diamonds! This must be some girls' dream come true.

Who said diamonds don't just fall from the sky???

Remember, on October 7, 2008, at 02:46 UTC, in the Nubian Desert in Sudan, it rained diamonds.







This is also how Wikipedia celebrated April Fools' Day.

The 1631 Bible was printed with a typo. In the commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery", the "not" was omited. Today, copies of this Bible are called the Wicked Bible.

Sonia Chang-Diaz was accused of taking bribes and stuffing the cash into her bra. After the scandal she went on to win the elections mentioned.

"Hobbits" refers to the Welsh unit of measuring volume or weight.

Asleep in the bread aisle is really the album "Asleep in the Bread Aisle" by Asher Roth, a rapper.

For the Love of Ray J is a dating show and the 3 names are the names of 3 contestants.

King Lear here refers to Charles Bernard "King" Lear, a professional baseball pitcher.

Egypt here refers to a village in Pennsylvania, USA. The Holy Land is a region in Wisconsin.

Sir Winston Churchill here is a schooner, a type of ship.

Everything is also a concept in many fields including theoretical physics and philosophy. Wikipedia now has an article on this.







Strangely enough, Blizzard didn't do anything for today. On every April Fools' Day in the past, Blizzard Entertainment always made some fake announcements and elaborate jokes. I remember they made an advertisement for an Atari computer version of WoW last year or the year before.

This year, I expected something for Starcraft 2, but all is silent there. Their last update was for Valentine's Day cards.

They must be working their asses off on the game, rushing for the deadline that isn't announced outside of the company.

That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

Rant 336 / Won't Break My Bones

In university there are so many people I never thought I'd meet. Very special people. But I'm not going to talk about those smart geniuses who have photographic memories, obscene levels of IQs because we all know about them.

Last year I met some engineering undergrads who didn't know that our electrical bills were calculated by kWh, or kilowatt-hour. They thought that energy is calculated in kW. Let me repeat - engineering undergrads.

In case you're a Philosophy major or something, kW is for measuring power, which is the amount of energy used/produced per unit time. By multiplying kW by the time, which is an hour in this case, you get the total amount of energy. Energy is measured in kilowatt-hours, joules or calories, but NEVER kilowatts.

No they aren't retarded, but seriously how did they managed to qualify for this course in the first place?

But they aren't the champs here. Just recently I met another engineering undergrad who doesn't know what "liquid nitrogen" is.

Liquid nitrogen.

"What is that?" he asked.


What happened was that we passed by a liquid nitrogen storage tank near our lab, and I made some small talk by mentioning how I first encountered this stuff when I was in primary school. I still remember it was at the Singapore Science Center and this guy demonstrated the effects of it by submerging a rubber ball (he proved it was a rubber ball by bouncing it on the floor) for a few minutes. With thick gloves and tongs, of course.

Then he gave a short speech (which I couldn't remember because my mind was on the little tank of smoky stuff) and proceeded to use the tongs to take out the rubber ball. He showed us the ball, which had turned white and frosted, and dropped it on the floor. It shattered as if it was made of thin porcelain.

For us children, it was magic.

A rubber ball that shatters defies logic, until he explained that the liquid nitrogen was so dangerously cold that it made the ball freeze like ice and became very fragile.

I was just halfway through this story when he asked," What is that?" I paused, though in my mind I jumped. Then I explained to him that it was pure nitrogen (I asked him if he knew what nitrogen was, just in case) frozen till it became liquid.

No he wasn't kidding me, because the level of... retardedness (yea I know there's no such word) was consistent with his normal attitude during our lab sessions. He was usually completely silent during all discussion with our prof, and the night before our lab report's deadline, he sent me a message asking me for our experimental results.

Not only that, I later found out he asked another lab partner for his calculations and analysis of the results, which is basically all the report's about. I didn't reply to his message because I thought he would just call someone else for it (troubles would go away if you ignore them long enough :P ).

Our friend whom he had asked for all the numbers gave him, instead of his own derived results, a short speech mostly on why he didn't deserve his answers when he had never helped in our experiments other than taking down readings from some of the gauges.

We all spent nights doing interpolations, researching and etc to get our analyses. How could he possibly expect any of us to give them to him like we were Santa Clauses?

Frankly I'm amazed by how such people managed to sneak into an engineering course. Obviously our A-levels aren't testing for the right qualities in the students.







Somehow I just like staying up late into the night. It's as if I can lengthen my day by not sleeping early, because I just hate tomorrow. It's illogical, I know. Waking up late only shortens my next day by as many hours as I spend staying up late today. But I just don't want to step into the nightmare that is tomorrow.

I guess it's a form of escapism.









Just checked GomTV for the first games of the season. Couldn't watch because now they're trying to screw with us by asking us to pay 50USD or watch the vids 3 days after the match. Obviously no one is going to pay that much since it's nothing but daylight robbery.

Wonder what the heck the Koreans are thinking. Maybe this is the way they do things in South Korea, I don't know, but they're dealing with a mostly European/American group here on this website (I believe the Koreans watch this from TV or something). If they need some extra revenue to support their hardware upgrades, do it with stupid online ads! Charging 50 bucks for some shitty streaming video isn't going to work.

I haven't watched the videos live since a long time ago, so it's not a problem. The comments are far below the GOM player windows, so I can watch the vids without seeing them. Only problem is that since I know how many matches there are (I have to open the next videos in advance to download while I watch) I know the results after the first match if the match ended in 2 rounds.

But it's ok, because it's not like the results matter a lot to me. I'm just looking out for epic matches that comes with every 50 rounds or so.








After watching the original CSI series for so long, CSI: Miami feels so different. For one, Horatio always tries to act cool, unlike nerdy Gil.








Some genius invented a pizza-making vending machine in Italy, pissing off many pizza chefs. This machine is able to make the dough, put in the other ingredients and then cook it, all done behind a transparent screen so that you can watch your pizza being made.

For about 4 Euros, you can have a decent pizza like that from the vending machines. The Italian chefs are not very pleased because it's like calling any sweet alcoholic beverage champagne. A pizza is more than just a piece of circular dough baked with cheese and tomatoes.

"This machine is a toy," Pino Morelli of the Association of Italian Pizzerias said. "Perhaps it will find a niche overseas, but Italians are born with pizza: their mothers feed it to them as babies. They understand it."

Can you just feel the annoyance? And the denial?

Anyway there are only 4 toppings to choose from, which makes sense because it's probably on a trial period. But as the recession continues, these machines may get more popular and they will add more toppings then.

I bet it's hell to repair and maintain them though. It looks just like one of those huge machines they use in factories. It probably is a modified version. How do they maintain hygiene inside?? There are so many parts in contact with food.






Action games may improve your eyesight. A recent study showed that people who play first-person shooters like Call of Duty have better eyesight than other gamers. Everyone, get your copies of Left 4 Dead and maybe someday you'll be able to do without your glasses!






Okay, this is going to seem very mean to some of you. In case you aren't aware of the song Chocolate Rain, here is the Youtube link. The part where the caption says, "I move away from the mic to breathe in" had become a popular internet meme in the past, and I found a modified version that made me LOL for real.

I don't know who it is nor do I care. And I didn't make this.







Dota 6.60 hasn't been released yet but its beta version has been leaked. Just in case, spoilers alert!

The map has been somewhat remade, with 9 taverns. 1 for each attibute on each side (Sentinels, Scourge and Neutral). Multiple new heroes and some heroes were changed.

Source is the DotA Allstars blog.

Sunday 29 March 2009

Rant 335 / Zalgo Comes

I don't have a suit and I think I may need one someday. Even if I do not attend any formal event, I can still wear it for a Toastmasters meeting - a suit really improves the first impressions of the speaker in the eyes of the audience.

I'm thinking of buying one, but in Hong Kong where I can get a custom-made suit at an affordable price. But before buying I should, at the very least, learn some basics about this topic.

If you're also interested in learning something about suits before buying, here's a guide for the average joe. This guide isn't meant for the wealthy who want to get their own suits tailored specially for them because the author wrote on cheaper alternatives, like ready-made suits in stores.








You know you've been twisted by the Internet when the first thing that comes to mind the moment you see the word "trap" isn't a dangerous circular device with jagged teeth that snaps shut if you step into it.

Nowadays when I see this word I think of hot chicks with nice boobs and a huge penis. F*ck you Internet! F*ck you!

Which is also why the following screenshot from Neverwinter Nights 2 is so amusing to me.







Holy shit! The GhostNet is bloody creepy! A China-based spying botnet, it is if Big Brother has transcended the realm of fiction and has entered reality. At least 103 countries have been infiltrated by this secret operation so far.

If a computer has been hacked, its cameras and stuff can be turned on remotely by its new controller. Imagine: a group of people watching you fap while facing them, your facial expressions filled with focused concentration, then unparalleled joy all recorded in their data storage devices.

Obviously the above isn't true. Such an operation would most likely be put to more important use. That's why so many foreign embassies were targeted. So far Singapore hasn't been mentioned in the list of victims. However, many computers in the Dalai Lama's exile centers have been compromised, which makes Beijing's denials really hard to believe.

As more information is gathered by the Canadians, I think China's relations with the rest of the world is going to be very screwed up.






What the heck is Zalgo? After some googling, I found little on this subject. What I can safely say is that it's something out of Lovecraft's works, just like Cthulhu.

What the Zalgo phenomenon is, is that comics are being editted to turn the eyes into oozing masses of blackness and thorny tentacles would burst out of the bodies of the characters. Texts outside of these comics are also typed in such a way that they appear to be some sort of slime.

The following is a screenshot of a typical Zalgo thread on 4chan.


And below is what I got when I started a thread asking what it was.

Note that the last reply wasn't exactly true. From what I found it's been around since 2000 in other forums as well. Anyway, I've no idea how they make those oozy font-things. I found someone saying that typing these would make them but I've only got a laptop and laptops number keypads are bloody hard to use.

alt+1161;alt+821;
alt+798;alt+799;
alt+800;alt+790;
alt+791;alt+792;
alt+793;alt+796;
alt+797;alt+798;
alt+799;alt+800;
alt+839

Typing the above won't kill your computer because these just makes unicode symbols. Hold the ALT key and type the digits, and when you release the ALT key the symbol will appear. Untested, so it may be a hoax. But if it's real, it'd be fun to use in online chats hehehe...

And to end it all, here's something I copied using ctrl-C.

~ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝H ҉̔҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘~E ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝ WHO ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝͡҉ ҉̔̕̚̕̚҉ ~ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝WA~ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝I~ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝T\ ҉̔҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘~S ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝\ ҉̔҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘B~E\ ҉̔҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘~ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝H\IN ҉̔҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘~ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝D ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿
̿̕̚̕̚͡ ҉T ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡҉̵̞̟̠
H
E̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̖̗̘̙̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡

W ̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑ ̒̓̔̕̚A ̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̕̚̕̚ ̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̚ ̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊L ҉҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡҉̵̞̟
҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡ ̵̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̿̿̿̚L ҉ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡҉̵̞̟̠
S̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̖̗̘̙̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡



̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑ ̒̓̔̕̚ ̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̕̚̕̚SI ̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̚ ̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊N ҉҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡҉̵̞̟
G ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡ ̵̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̿̿̿̚ ҉T H ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡҉̵̞̟̠
̡̢̡̢̛̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̖̗̘̙̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡E̜
̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑ ̒̓̔̕̚ ̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̕̚̕̚S ̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̚ ̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊O ҉҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡҉̵̞̟
N ҉̔̕̚̕̚҉G \ ҉̔҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘O~ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝F ҉̔̕̚̕̚҉ \ ҉̔҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘C~ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝H҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿
̿̕̚̕̚͡ ̵̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̿̿̿̚ ҉ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡҉̵̞̟̠
Å̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̖̗̘̙̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡
̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊ ̒̓̔̕̚ ̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̕̚̕̚O ̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̚ ̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊S ҉҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡҉̵̞̟





C.҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒.҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠



͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒.҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋
̌̍̎̏̐̑̒.҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒.҉̵̞̟̠̖̗
̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒ME.҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏



̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒.҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒
s
.҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒.҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠
͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒



̕҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̚̕̚҉Z ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̚̕̚҉ ̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̚̕̕̚̕̚͡ ALGO ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̚̕̚҉ ̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̚̕̕̚̕̚͡. ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚͡ ̒̓̔̕̚ZAL҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̕̚

͡ ̒̓̔̕̚GOZ҉҉̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐
̑҉A҉L҉҉
GO ͡҉҉ ̓̔̿̿̿̕̚۩◊H҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘Ȅ̐̑̒̚̕̚ IS C̒̓̔̿̿̿̕̚̚̕̚̕̚̕̚̕̚̕̚OMI҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘NG



When I erased some of them using Backspace, it deleted each indivdual strokes separately, leading me to believe that these are unicode symbols at a very tiny font size.

Anyway these would be useful in AIM/Messenger. Have fun!

Saturday 28 March 2009

Rant 334 / I Mugged With My Lights Off For Earth Hour. If I Fail Any Paper I'm Blaming Earth For It.

For any Bleach fan reading this, I found a pic of a girl who looks just like Rukia.


Yea I know, camwhore. The resemblance is uncanny though. Probably because of the big eyes and her hair. Of course they're not identical. She'd need to enlarge her eyes to a third of her facial area, dramatically shrink her nose and remove her lips. And then put some clothes on.







Been annoyed by the latest WC3 patch lately and people who refuse to update their versions? Found this in the Garena forum. It's the Warcraft Version Changer (WVC) and all you need to do is download it, extract it and run it. Doesn't even require you to download the patches because they're all inside. Very convenient.







I feel it would be strange if adults would look at anything resembling to porn and feel awkward. What are they going to do when they have sex? Cover their eyes, just lie down and be as sexually arousing as a corpse? Unless you're attached to a necrophile, you'll have to get used to the fact that you're borned to make love, and making love is a two-way thing.

Whether you're male or female, you aren't supposed to react strangely if you encounter nudity. Talking about boobs isn't obscene, a picture of a piece of chocolate shaped like a penis isn't obscene, talking about porn isn't obscene. That's only for children, out of some sort of paranoia that children must not indulge in sexual acts.

Then comes the question of whether child sex can be justified at all.

Children should not have sex because sex is an important thing that can change lives, and children just aren't matured enough to make judgements on this issue.

First, sex is an important thing? Depends on where you are, I guess. Premarital sex began losing its taboo a long time ago, even in Asia. Unless you've been hiding in a cave all these time, you should have known about that too. What is wrong with premarital sex if both parties are willing? What reason can there be for refusing premarital sex other than the unthinking urge to reject such notions bred from young?

STDs? Then just stick with your gf/bf.

Unwanted pregnancies? Condoms, pills, etc.

Sex is no longer as dramatic an issue as it was a long time ago. Contraceptives are widely available. Abortions are always affordable. Unless you're unfortunate enough to get HIV from your boyfriend whom you've been having a steady relationship for years. If Death is coming for you, even a sincere vow of celibacy won't protect you from a speeding drunk.

Second, are children really not matured enough to make such decisions? If this is true, why are children having sex even at ages of 13 or 14? Why isn't anything done to prevent it adequately? Why would this be common enough that the numerous reports on Alfie discussed his age in relation to his fatherhood but not how this could happened at all?

That the shock was not how a child could be a father, but how incredibly young he was to be a father suggests that children (anyone below 16 or 18 or whatever) having sex with each other is not uncommon and the surprising thing to them was that he was a very very young boy.

When two children have sex, the question is no longer about morality, unless consensual sex is a moral problem. That children are trusted enough to have sex means that the adults are agreeing that children are matured enough to make decisions regarding sexual relationships.

Which, by the way, would make certain laws obsolete.

Are adults any better? At least a quarter of the adults I've ever encountered aren't as matured as they'd like to think they are. Yet they are trusted to make important decisions that will change their lives.

When two children have sex, is it really wrong?

From the practicality point of view, it is of no use. Adults are able to support a family, therefore they would be able to handle the side-effects of sexual intercourse, namely the babies.

Children, on the other hand, cannot make a living, unless they're working in sweatshops or as child prostitutes in Cambodia. Discounting these exceptions, children cannot handle the side-effects of unprotected sex.

Unprotected is the keyword here. With proper employment of contraceptive measures, sex can be a fun and healthy activity for the whole family.

Just kidding. But you should get what I mean. With condoms (not pills, pills may harm children though I'm not sure), children can get all the joys of sex with no strings attached, other than the cost of condoms.

F*ck, pardon my unorthodox sense of humour.

With contraceptives, sex is just an activity. As long as you don't foolishly invest your romantic love into your partner in a one-night-stand, sex is just sex.

Therefore, why can't children "experiment" with each other? I know people do that, but secretly. The thing is, must it be a secret?

If sex has become a harmless activity, would there be a reason to stop it?

I am sleepy and if my argument is invalid, whatever. It's incomplete anyway and I don't care anymore.

Friday 27 March 2009

Rant 333 / Triple 3s

Why should artists fret over copyright issues? As many singers and actors would say, their main source of income is rarely from CD/DVD sales. Singers are typically paid 8-25% of the retail prices, depending on the fame and negotiation abilities of him/her. That means even the biggest stars usually don't get more than a quarter of what you pay.

In the US, songwriters are paid according the rates stated by the government and changes according to the economy. Last I saw they were being paid 8 cents for each song below the 5-min mark and about 1.6 cents per min for longer songs. So if a writer has a CD with 10 songs below 5 mins, he gets $0.80 per CD sold. A million copies sold would only net him $800k.

However, it is very common for record companies to negotiate till they pay them only 3/4 of the statutory rates, or in my example, he should most likely get $600k only. That is a mere pittance for a Platinum album!

Singers get slightly more, 8-25% as mentioned above. But a quarter of that will be taken away for packaging costs. So it becomes 6-21%. Record companies also often give away 5-10% of the CDs, which are not counted as "sold". Then about 35% of the total royalties are normally held back by the record companies because record stores have return privileges - no store wants to be stuck with outdated CDs from yesterday's stars.

The music artists also have to pay for many other things including advertisements, recording costs, music video production costs and etc. Even if the songs are only sold online via downloads, packaging costs are still charged.

In the end, singers and songwriters actually earn very little from records sales (singers who write their own songs earn even less - only 75% of what songwriters get, but they get paid whenever a radio/TV station plays their songs).

What is really a good source of income for famous stars is live performances. For example, Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana, another generic teenage Disney product) earned $45.3M from her concert tours in 2007-2008. You don't see her making that sort of money from DVD sales, whether they're movies or songs.

The rates for these actually vary so much that I can't find any solid numbers. Only the veterans get to receive a percentage of ticket sales. Others get a pre-stated sum of money or worse - get paid only for fuel costs or in food and beer. The actual rates depend on the fame of the performer and how well he/she negotiates and doesn't actually have a somewhat regulated the way CD/DVD sales do.

Now comes the original question - if records don't make much money for them, then why bother? Only the lesser-known artists would have reason to want more records sold, as explained above, but established artists don't need the relatively puny bit of cash they get from that. Just a 2-year tour would rake in more cash than they do with 3-4 albums made over a decade (that's what I think anyway). I don't know if most artists produce albums faster than that, but from what I see from Linkin Park and Eminem, each album usually takes years. Unless you count those "Best of the..." collections.

And the lesser-known artists are "lesser-known" for a reason. If their songs are good they would have made it to Top 10 or something. Therefore for the good artists, records are merely another form of advertising, albeit one that doesn't cost money.

If that is so, then Youtube and other forms of piracy would be great media for this purpose - upload your songs to the internet and if you're actually good, you'll be famous in days. But yes there are always exceptions, like Tay Zonday and the revival of Rick Astley, only because of the unpredictable internet phenomenon known as "internet memes" (thanks to 4chan, the birthplace of all memes).

In the end, artists should encourage what is known as "piracy" and what should be called "viral marketing". This is the true test of their abilities - with the world as the judge. Once the good ones are famous, they can make some real money by holding concerts, because no form of recordings can beat a real live performance.







There are two kinds of people who should avoid responsibilities - those who are naturally irresponsible and those who fear responsibilities.

Those who are naturally irresponsible but who do not shirk them off are a danger to society. Those who fear resposibilities avoid them to do the world a favour.







Just found this Youtube video of some guy who said that the melting of polar icecaps is actually a good thing because it cools down the temperature.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

*forcing laughter down to catch my breath*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Well I don't know if he's a troll or if he's serious, but if he's serious he's totally missing the point of global warming. First of all, the phenomenon of melting polar ice is, by itself, not a threat to any human. Drowning polar bears and penguins won't destroy any food chains vital to human survival, except for the Inuits. The real problem is, at least, 2 things.

First, ice is highly reflective. Compared to water, ice is like a mirror. This helps to reflect a lot more radiation back into space than if there is only water. Antartica is also really an ice-covered land (there's actually soil underneath, unlike the Arctic which is just a gigantic piece of ice), and as common sense tells you land absorbs more light and heat than water. The melting of the ice will only worsen the problem in the long run.

Second, the rising sea level. Fact: scientists really don't know how much the sea level will rise; they can only make guesses and estimates. But it will rise, if it isn't already. Even a few inches is enough to dramatically change the world as we know it.







Here's an interesting article on China's suggestion on Monday for the creation of a global currency. A common currency is always a good thing, for like Saft said, it encourages stability. Even historically speaking, humans have always tried to create a form of currency that doesn't fluctuate at different rates for everyone. For example, the European ducat was such a currency that a number of kingdoms used for exchanges between each other. It worked better than using their own currencies. Today, they have the Euro.

Right now, the US dollar is the common currency in use, but that is not as good because the US controls of it. With it comes the power to control the world's economy and forces the world to help pay for their problems. It is obvious why China mentioned that on Monday and it is obvious why Obama was so straightforward with his outright rejection.








Just now while I was waiting for my room to be cleaned by the housekeeper I turned on the TV in the living room to watch a random documentary on National Geographic Channel. The show was about these 2 guys, probably marine biologists, tagging and studying sharks.

The shark tag seems consists of a small arrow head, a metal wire thing about a centimeter in diameter and a tubular object about 2cm in diameter and 5cm in length. I wonder why the metal wire is necessary. Won't this tag be caught by some rocks or something and hurt the shark?

Anyway, the more interesting part in my 10mins of viewing was the secret shark pit they discovered. It was in some rather violent region of the waters, with waves crashing hard into some rocks all the time. A shark they tagged had travelled straight for 5km to this area and suddenly stopped moving, so they arrived to search for the reason.

When they found the pit, it was full of small sharks. Great white sharks, I think, but the "great" part can be skipped. They were mostly pups less than 50cm long and are estimated to be 2 months old or less. Babies, basically. Eventually they also spotted an adult pregnant female. It is very interesting to see so many sharks swimming in a small area for no apparent reason. At first they were guessing that this is some sort of shark nursery.

After watching for some time, the sea started to to become more violent. It soon became hard to stay in one spot to observe. The surface of the sea was also becoming foamy, as the waves crash into the rocks and pushed the foam downwards into the pit. Strangely, the sharks seem to like the foam and kept swimming into it.

But even the sharks decided to leave when the churning increased even more. So the 2 guys swam back to their boat too.

One of them theorised that the foam was increasing the oxygen level of the water in the vicinity, thus attracting the sharks. So in their next trip, they brought along a multi-purpose sensor, which also measures the dissolved oxygen level around it.

Sure enough, there was 4-5% more oxygen in the pit. The guy showed the cameraman the graph. At first the level was steady while they were on their way from the boat to the pit. Then the level jumped up when they reached their destination. So the theory was proven and the sharks were there to breathe better.

Sharks swim constantly, 24/7, for 2 reasons. First, they don't have the balloon thing in their bodies that fishes have to keep them floating at the right level. If they stop swimming, they sink. Second, sharks need to keep moving to push water through their gills, ie to breathe. Hence they don't sleep the way we do.

By staying in this pit, the sharks can actually rest better because they can swim more slowly. This explains why the 2 guys weren't attacked despite staying so near 50-70 sharks - the sharks were relaxing there. This also explains why the adults were tolerated, since sharks are known to eat smaller sharks (sharks are cannibals).

You can say that the sharks were high on oxygen, lol!






Japan is being threatened by North Korea. Mad Kim is testing his missile over our beloved Nippon, land of the animes and weird sex toys. Japan is now ready to deploy their Patriot missiles just in case anything "accidentally" falls down into their area.

The last time Kim tested his missile it stopped flying prematurely. Doesn't exactly give the Japanese any sense of confidence in the next test. Below are some reasons why Japan should never be harmed.



Wednesday 25 March 2009

Rant 332 / Al Gore Invented The Internet And Opened Pandora's Box

Here's an article about a recent NASA report on the possible effects of a really bad solar storms.

Basically, solar storms can be strong enough to overheat transformers around the world, by inducing currents in wires when the ejected plasma interacts with the Earth's magnetic field. When such a thing happens, transformers will melt and our power grids will be ruined.

Most urgent disasters will occur in hospitals, where backup generators will only last mere days even when stretched to the max. All medical services will cease very quickly because most advanced medical equipments need electricity. Obviously, the ICUs will turn into morgues.

Water will no longer be pumped. Fuel stations cannot pump fuels. Power plants can still work, but since fuel is limited and the power grid is ruined, they might as well stop working too.

Food will be hard to transport when they can't get the fuel. Water treatment plants will stop working, preventing sewage from flowing. No more basic necessities.

Transformers cannot be repaired, only replaced. I don't know how a transformer is manufactured, but I'm very sure the long process requires lots of electricity. Without it, it is probably still possible but much slower.









Wal-Mart is about to get sued in the largest lawsuit ever and create history. Over 2 million women are ready to get their lawyers to litigate the heck out of the largest retailer in the world.

The story is that every single woman who's ever worked for it since '98 is suing it in one gigantic lawsuit for sexual discrimination. At first it began with just 6 women but somehow they managed to recruit 2 million others who're probably in it only for the money.

Right now the courts are discussing whether they should allow the lawsuit at all. Lawyers from Wal-Mart argue that the class-action lawsuit should not be because the cases are not similar enough.

Class-action lawsuits are basically a combo of several similar suits, and work better against large companies. Strength in unity, I guess.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit argues that women were getting lower pay and fewer promotions than male workers in the company. They haven't settled on an amount of money they want yet, but with over 2 million women, they're probably going to ask for 10-digit figures in total.

Wal-Mart must be desperate, especially in the present economy. The women are probably very interested in winning too, especially in the present economy.






I just discovered exactly how far my video camera can see. A few days ago as I was suffering through my lab project report (half an AU that requires 2 nights of mulling, typing and calculations and 5 days of experimentation and discussions.. freaking hell!), I heard someone shouting Hokkien vulgarities at the top of his lungs.

GANG FIGHT!

Or so I thought. I hear these things once in a while since there are quite a few coffeeshops in my neighbourhood where idle men often gather. I've never ever concerned myself with such things that don't have anything to do with me.

But I was bored out of my mind (I hate triple interpolations using the freaking superheated steam tables!!) and I saw my video camera behind my laptop (I was playing around with it some days before), so I quickly grabbed it, turned it on and went to my window.

Then I turned around to switch off my light. It wouldn't be good if anyone looked up and saw me holding an object and staring at them.

In the dark, I aimed my camera at them and had to zoom in and out a few times before it focused perfectly on the 2 men in question. It was much clearer than I expected! In fact I could make out their faces even though I was standing over 20-stories above them.

I began recording in High Quality mode as they continued to argue. There were 4 people - a middle-aged Chinese couple on one side and 2 other men probably in their 30s on the other side of a round table. One of the two men was standing in an agressive stance, head leaning forward with one arm pointing at the object of his fury. The other man was holding him back trying to prevent a fight in front of everyone.

The couple were much more relaxed, sitting down in fact. I noticed that one of them had already broken something on the table, deduced from the pool of liquid on it. I waited for a few more seconds but nothing happened. The man continued his angry rant while his friend gripped his shoulders.

So I looked at the tables around them. They were all empty. Makes sense. You wouldn't want to get a bloody shirt (dried blood is hard to wash off!) just because you had your dinner at the wrong place.

Waited some more. Nothing happened. What a disappointment. Eventually they all sat together and chat. The waiters saw that things had calm down and arrived to clean up the mess. Soon the tables around them were occupied again.

And I was hoping for some real action and be able to record a real homicide! In High Quality too! Oh well...






Averatec-Intel Classic Season 3 is about to begin on the 29th of March. Since it's only starting on that day, there will be many matches between obscure players. There probably won't be much to look out for except Boxer because he always plays in very interesting and exciting ways.

Anyway, LOOK AT THIS! This is a recording of the Starcraft lecture series from UC Berkeley. In case you don't know what UC Berkeley is, it's an university. :P

1.5 hours long and this is only the first of two lectures. That guy made Starcraft feel dry.

Course Description

This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines of the game Starcraft. There will be lecture on various aspects of the game, from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted. Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course.

Furthermore, the class will take the theoretical into the practical world by analyzing games and replays to reinforce decision-making skills and advanced Starcraft theory.

As a prerequisite, students should be familiar with all units and some basic StarCraft strategy.

Additional lectures will be added throughout the Spring of 2009 as they are made available.







A pilot is sentenced to jail for praying just before crashing his place instead of employing crash procedures. 10 years in jail, just like his copilot, for killing 16 people. So guys, if shit suddenly happens, do something more useful than just praying!







Been trying out a Warlock in Neverwinter Nights 2 recently. Never knew Warlocks are so imba. I thought only Wizards in NWN2 are the "I WIN" buttons. Even though I cannot learn many spells playing as a Warlock (level 6 Warlock with only 4 spells, 3 of which are first level spells), the fact that I can keep spamming my spells mean that I don't need many attack spells.

In fact, out of the 4 spells I have, only 1 is for attacks. The other 3 buffs me like crazy (one raises my luck proportional to my Charisma bonus, which is pretty high). Right now at level 6, my buffed Diplomacy level is at 20, Bluff is at 16, Intimidate at 8. Being a Warlock means if I want to be a good guy, I can only be Chaotic Good. It is incredibly fun to Bluff and Intimidate people and it keeps me in the Chaotic region. I do have some problems being good because sometimes it is hard to differentiate between Evil and Chaotic. There were several times when I thought I was making a Chaotic decision and ended up gaining Evil points instead.

Anyway having only 1 attack spell is pretty cool. When I can choose a higher level spell, I get a high level attack spell, then switch my previous lower level attack spell with a buff that I've wanted but couldn't get due to the limit. And battles are so simple. Right click on target, spam spells. Of course, turn on Defensive Casting whenever possible.








Played a very interesting round of DotA. The host went surprise -ar on us. I got the Syllabear and didn't know what to do with it. I vaguely remembered that other players seem to summon their bears right from the start, so I focused on my bear summon skill.

Also bought stuff that raised stats at the beginning. Buffing stats can never go wrong. Of course I sucked. My bear was kinda useless because it kept getting hurt and doesn't heal very well. I couldn't let it die either because I receive damage when it does. So I left it in the NC jungle to watch for sneaky enemies and just fought with my ranged attack.

Got raped a few times but I found Syllabear very powerful at the end. Didn't know what to buy, so I started with threads, then S&Y (this can never go wrong for Agi-based heroes, right?). After S&Y I really didn't know what to get, so I went for Diffusal Blade (with that disabling spell it can't be a bad choice, right?). After that I still didn't know what to get, but since my attack was pretty fast I got a Cranium Basher.

The game didn't actually go very well. People kept disconnecting and eventually it got to 3v1, my team being 3. Soon even that final enemy left when he realized it was hopeless no matter how crazy his items were and everyone else quit right after.










Most common things have a words for them, which is why antisemitism is a word. For some reason, Jews have garnered much hate against them compared to all other religions. Notice there is a word for prejudice against Jews but none for prejudice against members of any other religion? Probably because they were the only people on Earth to ever have commited deicide.

Okay, so maybe Muslims have one too because these days, the word "terrorist" is becoming synonymous with "Muslim". Blame the Americans, or blame Osama, but gone are the days when terrorists just means the IRA or other groups of crazy people and brings to mind events like the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack.

But isn't it strange that the word "defenestrate" exists?

de·fen·es·trate
(dē-fěn'ĭ-strāt') Pronunciation Key
tr.v. de·fen·es·trat·ed, de·fen·es·trat·ing, de·fen·es·trates
To throw out of a window.

[Back-formation from defenestration.]


So it seems that throwing stuff (or people, for that matter) out of the window is a normal enough thing to have a word of its own.





The 13-year-old Alfie turned to be NOT the father of the baby of his 15-year-old girlfriend. Six other local boys have claimed to be possible fathers of the infant, ie at least 6 other boys had also had sex with her.

She looked like a hippo in those photos.

From this, we can deduce that UK boys like hippos. Guys, we can pack up the harpoons now. The guys in the UK will take all the chubby chicks from us.

Okay, I know, she looked so... undesirable... only because she just gave birth before the paparazzi took those photos. Praise the powers that be that we have 99.9% accurate DNA tests today, so that the poor boy doesn't need to spend more of his precious childhood years with a fugly female version of Moby Dick.

To make things worse, not only was Chantelle an underaged slut, she was a lying underaged slut. She lied to Alfie that he was the only one who had slept with her and that she was a virgin before that. The idea that she might have been cheating on him probably had never even crossed his mind!

Praise again the powers that be for our seemingly magical DNA tests. Our biotechnological advances are wondrous indeed!

By the way, who do they charge with statutory rape in this case, if they are charge with anything at all?

Sue the girl for raping the boy AND HIS CHILDHOOD!!!!!

Only the Internet and 4chan have the right to rape childhoods.


Monday 23 March 2009

Rant 331 / Major Spam

One thing I've learnt from trial and error is that boiling oil don't splatter as much as normal oil when you dump stuff into it. I think all the bubble constantly breaks the surface tension, so it's relatively safer to throw stuff into it. It still splatters if your object is thrown hard enough or from a long enough distance though.






On Reuters today, John Paulson is on the front page. In 2007 he made US$4 billion by buying against the sub-prime mortgage sector. Last week, he bought a stake in a freaking gold mining company (everyone loves gold during a recession).

While everyone is going all out to cut losses in the last few months (especially the poor Russians), he made a freaking killing out of these miserable times.

Guru, indeed.






I've recently bookmarked Reuters in my Firefox. It's a good source of international news but feels quite Americanised despite it being based in the UK. It claims to be as objective as possible in its reports, i.e. its journalists have to stay neutral in everything, but sometimes they aren't really so.






Doesn't it feel pointless to live believing that you will be forgotten within a century? Your flesh rots into nothingness and your bones become dust. Memories of you fade and nothing is left of you that is credited to you.

Every man wants to leave a legacy. Most do so by having children. But children die and bloodlines end; last names change and ancestors join their own ancestors as part of ancient history.

One day, maybe there will be a system that logs everything done by everyone, creating a massive library of epic proportions consisting of the life stories of everyone who ever lived.

Then, everyone will be forgotten, yet not.

No man will ever have to worry about not leaving a legacy. All of mankind from then on will be as immortal as the hardware technologies.

But this, I imagine, will take place after a series of major technological breakthroughs, one of which being computer implants into the human body.

Perhaps a chip can be inserted into the human body that works as a identity card, credit card, etc. Being rewritable, this chip can do everything the plastics in your wallets do. Membership cards, passports and everything will be combined into this chip, so people do nothing but walk through scanners.

Will this not be wonderful?

Actually, it doesn't even need to be implanted into the human, but if it is it would solve a lot of security problems. I believe this can already by done with existing technologies, but the chip is probably too big , the process too painful and the signals too unreliable.

If it succeeds, this would be the first major step towards the epic library and the complete removal of privacy.

The next step would be the surveillance of all humans with such implants. Not only would this chip contain your whole resume, it would record everything you buy and everywhere you go.

Already, this is being done each time you use your credit card and whenever you take public transport (if your country uses a smart card for payments of public transport fares).

It would be even better if an electronic memory bank is implanted to replace its organic counterpart, so that people can delete what they forget. When they die, this memory bank will be a complete record of a whole life. But this is hard to accomplish because philosophically speaking, you'll no longer be truly human when you have that in your head.

The surveillance of all humans will require a giant leap of data storage technologies. We will need more than just petabytes of space to record all that.

Of course, Big Brother will have to be a commonly accepted fact of life before that.

And before that, incredible AIs will be needed for the administration of such a phenomenon. It will be something like the final story in the book I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, in which the Machines take over the control of all aspects of the world economy (with only good intentions, of course, due to the Three Laws of Robotics).

I don't see how such a thing can ever be bad. I seriously trust computers more than people - computers cannot lie. Such a revolution can only result in peace and a safe environment for everyone.

With intelligent AIs ruling humanity, Big Brother will not be an evil concept that it is today. As long as the AIs don't turn greedy and power-hungry the way humans do, Big Brother is nothing but a big brother, always watching out for you.








My internet connection costs me S$116 a month. Come to think of it, it is rather expensive. Starhub is practically begging me to download stuff to get my money's worth. But I don't have much to download since good games are hard to come by these days. Most games are really just overhyped nonsense, packaged really nicely but don't live up to expectations.

In fact, I expect Starcraft 2 to be the same. The Koreans will probably stick with the first game for many more years. There really isn't anything wrong with not changing the game. Maybe someday they should consider sticking to the same old game but tweaking the game mechanics forever, just like people do for physical sports like soccer and basketball.

Or MMORPGs.

Right now Starcraft is similar to this only in the fact that they have professional mapmakers who come up with new maps regularly for competitive play. But game mechanics stay the same.

I wonder why they won't just make more expansions. It would satisfy the fanbase and not repel anyone because they screwed up the new game, like developers always do with sequels.

What I'm saying is instead of making sequels, they should just make expansions after expansions. Add or change units the way soccer evolved from a bloated bladder to a leather ball.

Revamping the whole game isn't the way. For one, fantastic graphics may sound like a great attraction but in fact pushes away part of the old fanbase who don't own up-to-date computers.

Second, new games mean very different game mechanics. People naturally hate large changes. Changing important game mechanics must be done slowly to give people time to adapt without losing interest.

Third, continuing the storyline of a game doesn't necessarily require a whole new game because expansions can accomplish the same thing.

What if expansions not only add units and change the way old units work (eg templars in Starcraft and Brood War) but also improves some of the graphics? Slowly as the expansions pile up, the game's graphics would be upgraded step-by-step until eventually it becomes a whole new game.

Such a long series of expansions will also require the developers to write their expansions such that they delete obsolete game files, in order not to make their games obscenely large.

It would be like the way Warhammer 40k had 3-4 expansions. Everyone loves Dawn of War, but reviews for DoW2 are mixed. What if DoW had improved its graphics slowly in its expansions and continued to making more than 5 expansions? It would be like a RTS game that follows the marketing strategy of MMORPGs.

However, there would be a major difference in that MMORPGs generally charges their players regularly as they play, while RTS games profits solely from game sales. Since they cannot charge too much from expansions and players generally decrease in numbers as time passes, profits go down as the number of expansions go up. Unless they can hold on to the fans and/or attract new ones, the latter I believe is precisely why they make sequels instead of more expansions.








Here's a challenge. Let's see how long you can hold your laughter. Best if you open all the pics on tabs. Just right click and press T on each pic. May take some time to load.

Hard mode: Don't even smile

There are only 25 pics below so it's actually really short. Take a few deep breaths... Now go!