Silicon Asylum

http://www.dragonmount.com/News/?p=326 "Tor Books has announced that Brandon Sanderson has been selected to complete A MEMORY OF LIGHT , the final novel in the Wheel of Time saga."

In a Past Life... You Were: A Kind Priest. Where You Lived: Turkey. How You Died: Killed in Battle. Who Were You In a Past Life? Wow, I was a priest? and a kind one at that. Are there many mean (or unkind) priests around?

Looks like various forces in the industry are trying to get USB 3.0 "SuperSpeed" out next year. @ 4.7Gb/s it will be 10x faster than today's 480 Mb/s. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/29/intel_seeks_usb_3_contribs/ I wonder if Apple et al are working on Firewire 4000?

I recently came across this article Firefox Homepage JavaScript Execution , which asks the question: "how often do you click on the Homepage button?" To which I think to myself, "as often as I need to visit about:blank....ie: never." How often do other people use the Home button? Personally I always found it kind of useless.

Will wonders never cease, eh? Reading through some comments on Bad Astronomy BLOG I came across this . "11 kilopicoseconds as Earth’s escape velocity makes no sense. http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/correct.htm" At first I didn't understand what the commenter was talking about. "kilopicoseconds, wtf" I thought to myself. After reading the colostate URL info it struck me, Phil had written "11 kps" in his blog. "The symbol for a compound unit that is a quotient of two units is indicated by a solidus or by a negative exponent. * RIGHT: km/h or km·h-1 (for kilometers per hour) * WRONG: kmph or kph (do not use p as a symbol for "per".) * BUT: It is correct to say or write "kilometers per hour"." I know lots of people that use p as "per" but now I know better. I'll stick with the "/" in the future.

The green sign above says it's an Exit (even Green for GO!!!!). The signs to the left say 1st floor stairwell & "-> Exit this floor". The sign on the door says "Not an Exit". WTF? In case of fire, get stuck in logic loop, burn, die....GAH!

I've decided to wage a small war against the use of "and/or" in English. I'm going to fix the world one small step at a time :D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:Grading_scheme#Grading_Template_Needs_Copy_Editing Well I probably won't fix the world but at least it makes me happy to try and fix the problems I see. Edit : The historic link is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template_talk:Grading_scheme&oldid=175558152#Grading_Template_Needs_Copy_Editing

Found over here: http://img.moonbuggy.org/provide-us-with-the-email-address-we-should-not-contact/ You've all heard the line from the song "Things that make you go hmmmmm", well I suggest we apply a slight modification making it "Things that make you go DUH!". Serious how could any even barely technology savvy individual think this was a good solution to the issue?

Well as expected my previous writing rant did NOT (sadly) "automagically" fix the world :( However, I have been able to encourage others to see the light. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:Copyedit#Copyedit_Tag_needs_copy_editing Wikipedia's CopyEdit tag used to display this text: "This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling." So I encouraged them to change it: " 'and/or' isn't really valid so it's kind of funny to see it in a statement regarding copy editing. Simply using "or" sufficiently indicates that any combination of grammar, style, cohesion, tone, and spelling need to be addressed. Either that or it should be changed to "and/exclusive or" but even that is implied by a simple "or" while avoiding the awkwardness of reading "and/exclusive or". Wikipedia even has an entry about "and/or" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And/

Well probably not really quote of the day because we all know now that I'm still not caught up on all the things I wish to blog about. Anyway, I came across this today and thought it was great. I was readin the blog of someone I worked with a number of years ago. He had a big on Book: Softwar - an intimate portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle . Ending with the following quote which I felt the need to mention. "People regularly mistake obedience for intelligence. That’s why we think that dogs are more intelligent than cats. .. A dog will fetch a stick every time you throw it. A cat will look at you and wonder: If you wanted the stick, why did you throw it away in a first place? Get it yourself, idiot." - Page 335, Softwar : An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle

Just caught this on slashdot . In the midst of trying to complete the 12th and final book in the Wheel of Time series Robert Jordan has died of "ardiac amyloidosis" which he has been fighting since at least March of 2006. It seems hopes are still high that enough notes etc have been made to complete it ( linkage ). However, I haven't heard anything yet about the prequel trilogy he'd been working on as well ( book one is out ).

The first in what will surely turn out to be a recurring topic. We'll start with "and/or". WTF is with people who use "and/or" can they not figure the logic out? It boggles my mind. Note : The OR allows for the same True result as the AND (bottom right corner), while also allowing for other combinations producing True results. Therefore all written usage of "and/or" should simply be "or".

Hey all, I know it's been ages since I've posted anythying. I have a bunch of topics saved up that I wanna do articles about. Hopefully this weekend while I'm being a bachelor I'll get some of them done. In the mean time I dunno why this occurred to me this morning but I remembered this great bumper sticker I saw about 7 years ago. "If God didn't want us to eat animals, why are they made of meat?" It's so perfect. Simple, to the point. Hmmmm I must be craving something this morning, gotta go find an greasy spoon and get some sort of breakfast sandwich with bacon (and maybe sausage too).

For all you space junkies out there (ya I'm one too). I thought I'd pass along this list of the top 10 discoveries the mars rovers have made. This list includes (at #4) the first picture of Earth taken from another planet. (Yes there is the Apollo "EarthRise" picture but the moon isn't a planet).

Hmmmm I wonder what it takes to get R-rated? So far I've ONLY seen PG rated BLOGs. Though I haven't dug very far..... This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words: * death (3x) * gun (2x) * abortion (1x)

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This completely boggles my mind. Why do people refuse to engage their brains? How could any sane person think this was a good idea? Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest. WTF? Why did the border worker ever let this car in to Canada. I feel like Canada is a worse place for them just having visited ... even if it was 1983. Original Article

Caught this over at The Squid Zone . Personally I'm still on the fence (ya I know Atheists everywhere are cringing now....oh well), I believe there has to be something bigger, better, all powerful, and I like the hope that there's something afterwards. Some day I'll figure out what I actually believe ;) "You scored as a Spiritual Atheist Ah! Some of the coolest people in the world are Spiritual Atheists. Most of them weren't brought up in an organized religion and have very little baggage. They concentrate on making the world a better place and know that death is just another part of life. What comes after, comes after." What kind of atheist are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Yes this is part one, I don't have a plan for Part 2 but based on the things I've encountered in this world I CAN NOT fathom that I won't come up with something else. So I ran across this "Zune Team Getting Amnesty for iPod Use" article on slashdot. Following the obvious set of links . The comments on the Flickr photo page just amazed me. By Flickr user ariel_waldman: "I wonder how many iPods Zune bought to make a marketing point. Notice how all the iPods in there are the same generation." WoW! Did she even read the story? Zune is a product, an in-animate object it can not possibly purchase anything. How could someone claim to be such a fan of Apple's iPod (see her other comments) and have NFC that Zune is a Microsoft product meant to compete with Apple's iPod. Hey Ariel has your iPod made any purchases lately? /sigh I know that in the grand scope of things this is a minor grammatical issue but seriously people, at least engage part of your bra

Here are some links I've been saving up that I thought people might be interested in: * World's Largest Fossil Forest, and One of the Oldest - This is VERY cool ... 25 square miles! * For the electricity conscience among you - S3 Standby Done Right * Infected or NOT - Quick online Virus scanner. I came across it at work and bookmarked it. It currently only supports IE (no surprise) but the good news is FireFox support is in the works. I did a little research before deciding to post it and everyone seem to be happy with it and agree that it's on the up and up.

I recently caught this article over at NBC. It seems that what we thought we knew about death was wrong. It turns out that the cells of our body don't actually die that quickly when deprived of oxygen, they die quickly when the oxygen is restored. How messed is that? Personally it boggles my mind.....anyway onward with the science :) "But if the cells are still alive, why can't doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed."

Hey I know it's been a long while since I've posted. I've been working away from home a fair amount and recently had a death in the family. I have a bunch of bookmarks saved up for things I want to post about but haven't had time to put articles together yet. Rest assured there'll be some updates shortly.

A family member recently forwarded this to me and I thought it made a good commentary on how busted our world is becoming: Jack pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack. 1973 - Vice Principal comes over, takes a look at Jack's rifle, goes to his car and gets his to show Jack. 2006 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers. ++++++++++++++++++++++ Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school. 1973 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins, Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends Nobody goes to jail, nobody arrested, nobody expelled. 2006 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students. 1973 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by Princi

And you always thought flying was the most safe form of travel. "'The pilot of a Lan Chile Airbus A340 ... notified air traffic controllers at Auckland Oceanic Centre after seeing flaming space junk hurtling across the sky just five nautical miles in front of and behind his plane...'" Space Debris Narrowly Misses Airliner That's just messed up, I mean I knew that space junk posed a threat for our satellites, rockets, the shuttle, ISS, etc but having to worry about it entering the atmosphere just sucks. I mean yay one less thing for our extra-atmospheric endeavors to collide with but still messed up. I wonder if my house insurance covers "impact from flaming space debris". I know I get most bizarre "act of god" type things but that's pushing it.

Ran across this the other day, a sadly true Microsoft'ism. "Error Message: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/276304 Also for those who haven't heard me talk about it yet, if your a programmer or any type of techie checkout The Daily WTF (recently renamed).

This is an oldy but a goody. It's a new version of the digital clock done in flash: http://www.solvang-thomsen.dk/hand.swf

In follow-up to my earlier post When College isn't College . I noticed on House the other night that Dr. Gregory House (the main character) made a comment about being the Dr. and making the diagnostic choices he was making because he "...went to college." WTF? In Canada all Dr. go to University for their degree. Is "college" just the US'ism for Post Secondary Education in general?

" Sun May Be Warming Both Earth and Mars " .... hmmmm sounds like scientists may have jumped the gun on the whole Global Warming thing. Warming occuring on Mars now has some thinking that the Sun is to blame. Of course this won't be the final answer, science will have to flip-flop on the answer about another 1000 times over the next 100 years before we come to some kind of conclusion. Next we'll find out cell phone use really is unhealthy ;)

Ok this has been driving me nutts lately. In Canada there is a pretty distinct line between College and University. BUT in the US everyone seems to refer to post-secondary education as College (whether it's actually College or University). Is there really no difference between a College Diploma and a University Degree in the US? Is one not hands on (college) and the other book (university) learning like it is in Canada? (Yes that last line is over generalized but that's basically how it boils down.)

Just ran across this @ slashdot and couldn't NOT mention it here. (Nice double negative there eh?) Anyway....... "For the second year running, no U.S. city has made the list of the world's top Intelligent Communities of 2007" but Ottawa is on the list (as is Waterloo). Slashdot Story Original Story As announced by ICF chairman John Jung, the intelligent city finalists are: Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea Issy-les-Moulineaux, France Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario-Quebec, Canada Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, United Kingdom Tallinn, Estonia Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Just found this site..... http://thedailywtf.com/ one of the recent entries caught my attention http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Chocolate_Covered_SQL.aspx (Scroll down till you see the package of chocolate they actually printed their SQL query [not the results] ont he packaging).

Today's Dilbert was particularly good (IMHO) so I thought I'd pass it along. http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20070122.html

So you decide to post a scan of a cheque (check) or a credit card or perhaps even a picture of a travel bug (for the geocachers in the crowd) and you blur out the important number(s). Well with scripting and storage the way it is these days that doesn't really cut it. Picture someone creating a "dictionary" of pictures with sequential blurred numbers to check against. This would be very much akin to a standard dictionary attack where all the words are passed through the same one way hash and compared against your one way hash. (Create all the possible iterations of the image, blur and compare against your image). Get the whole story here > http://dheera.net/projects/blur.php . In the future, black out the number(s) (make sure you don't have multiple layers).

Hinterland Who's Who Spoof Spiders on drugs . Freaky Octopus Camo (colour changing) etc....

Well I wrote my CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Profession) Exam back in Dec. and have finally received an email stating that I've passed! YAY! Now I just have to complete all the endorsement paperwork (another CISSP or qualified person has to vouch for me and I have to submit a resume). Once that's done I'll add it to my LinkedIn Profile . As I said to m y wife, I was more excited to find out I'd passed and would be attaining this certification then I was graduating college (once you're in the middle of your final year you know what's gonna happen, there are no mysteries, either you have the # of credits or not).

Do you still you Microsoft's Internet Explorer? Well here are some more reasons why you should Get Firefox .

I was very disappointed when I saw this headline over at /. : The 2004 and 2006 surveys by Dittmar Associates Inc. revealed high levels of indifference among 18- to 25-year-olds toward manned trips to the moon and Mars. How can that be? What normal person in that age bracket doesn't love all things sci-fi and space related? I just don't get it..... Am I missing something are the kids I hang around with just out of whack or something? What kid doesn't love the idea of being an astronaut (astronut) or digging for dinosaur bones? I'm only 30 can I really be "that" old? (Hmmmm on second thought maybe it's a male thing and a whole bunch of females were polled and are skewing the results?) Linkage: Slashdot Blurb Full Story Update: NASA only understand part of the picture . While I think it's great to attract the normally nerdy section to the space program we also need the support of the general public.

As some of you know I'm a great fan of pointing out individuals would should be Darwin Award winners or runners up. Anyway without being long winded the 2006 winners are here . For those of you who have never heard of the awards here's a little blurb explaining further: "Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it, thus ensuring that the next generation is one idiot smarter. Of necessity, the Awards are generally bestowed posthumously." Update: This kid deserves a Darwin award....I know I always try to plug-in electronics when I'm dripping wet having just come out of the pool :D DUH!