Sponsored by Stride Gum this guy Matt spent 14 months dancing around the world, and documented a lot of it on his website ‘Where the Hell is Matt?‘.
Archive for June, 2008
Tried to go golfing this past weekend but got thunder stormed out after 9 holes.
Okay, so maybe I sensationalized the title slightly, but an article on the CBC today reports that a father’s grounding of his 12-year-old daughter from a class trip to Quebec was to severe. The actual situation seems a bit complicated (Parents are divorced, Dad has custody, but girl went to live with Mom when she didn’t want to be grounded), but if a parent decides their 12-year-old child can’t go on a trip I think that should be the end of it, it shouldn’t really have to matter what their reason is. Yes, it’s wrong from a moral and humane standpoint to forbid her to go just because you don’t like the colour of the bus, but any reasonable reason is reasonable.
I just picked up a new scientific calculator for $15, and boy is it loaded. I went with the 520W over the 531W because I wanted the solar power source. The 531W has:
272 functions, which include power/root/logarithm functions, trigonometry functions, factorials, random functions, fractions, angle unit conversion, polar/cartesian coordinate conversion, binary/pental/octal/hexadecimal calculations (includes logical ops), 1-2 variable statistics with 6 regression models (linear, logarithmic, exponential, power, inverse, quadratic). Calculations are done in 14 digits internally.
The 520W adds:
52 physical constants, 44 unit conversions, complex number calculation, 2-3 variable linear equation solver, quadratic/cubic equation solver, Newton generic equation solver, numeric derivative/integral functions, formula memory (max 4 formulae, 256 characters total), and algebraic substitution (simulation calculation) for a total of 472 functions.
472 functions? That is completely ridiculous. Sure some of those ‘functions’ are stored constants but none the less there is a lot going on, and all for $15. I’m pretty impressed. It does all the things I need it to do, and it lets me do them pretty easily. I bought my last calculator circa 1995 so I guess even these little computers can change in 13 years — but surprisingly not that much. Ain’t she a beauty?
For some reason I ran across the browser plugin PicLens today and decided to install it after looking over their website and watching their demo version. I recalled having looked at it before, and sure enough I had blogged about it back in September. Maybe it was my slow Internet connection, or lack of features (was it Safari only back then on Mac?) but I wasn’t overly impressed as I hardly used it. Well, that has changed. The interface is amazing, it searches all the major media sites (photo and video) and makes it extremely easy and fun to find photos, watch news videos, or just entertaining videos. The interface is fast, intuitive, and beautiful. I found it easier and faster to find what I was looking for through PicLens compared to going directly to YouTube or Google.
So far I think the video searching and viewing is the best aspect of this plugin. Once installed and running you can click down a list on the left that shows the current top news, entertainment, sports etc. videos and images from around the world. I’m pretty impressed. My only complaint is that it is hard to tell which are the most recent news items. I just watched a video about the alcohol ban on the Underground in London, and I know that is a few weeks old. It was one of the first videos presented by this plugin.
It’s available for Windows and Mac, across all your typical Internet browser options (Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer).
Today Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to the aboriginal people of Canada for an assimilation policy that removed children from their families and placed them in church run residential schools. Aside from the obvious trauma that was caused by incidents of abuse and sexual assault the policy worked to eliminate aboriginal cultures and languages. Todays landmark speech comes hot on the heals of the Australian apology by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd back in February.
It seems that the Australian apology was a ‘bigger deal’. I know it’s not, as both events were wrong and tragic, but when I look at the news reports from Australia people were watching the speech on big screens in the street, people stopped work, and people cheered. It feels that todays speech snuck up on Canadians, and for the general population of the country it occurred without them knowing. Earlier this week it made page 17 of The Toronto Star, while today it got ‘below the fold’ real estate. I’d also venture to say that this is in line with the fact that many Canadians do not know the extent of mistreatment toward aboriginal people in Canada’s early days, and for that matter how they continue to be treated.
We can all pat ourselves on the back for officially acknowledging that atrocities were committed, but unless we continue to work toward finding solutions to the problems that still exist the speech is only a nice collection of words.
Hey Rogers, it’s not a big secret. You announced last month that you signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada ’sometime later this year’ and yesterday Apple announced that the 3G iPhone would be available worldwide on July 11th. Why must you try and start a lame teaser campaign when anyone that reads the newspaper knows what’s up? Just give us the plan details so we can start saving our allowances, since we all know you’re going to make us pay up the wazoo for data.
Update: It looks like we will be getting the iPhone for $199 (8gb) and $299 (16gb) on a 3-year contract according to a press release on the Rogers website.
I think summer has started to arrive in the city.
Google Earth has long had the option to view 3D buildings, and a number of cities around the world are available. It seems that Walt Disney World (that’s the one in Florida) as created 3D buildings for all of their theme parks, so that users of Google Earth can explore them from their computers. I’ve seen the video and loaded up The Magic Kingdom on my Mac and have to say it’s impressive. Sadly it chugs on my MacBook, I assume because of the integrated video card. As long as you have the newest version of Google Earth, and have 3D buildings turned on, you should be able to see the structures when you zoom into Walt Disney World.
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