I saw this in /. earlier in the week. Apparently NASA is turning to the American public for new challenge/contest ideas. I don’t know whether to be impressed that they’re trying to get new perspective.. or scared that they can’t come up with it on their own. There’s lots and lots of smart people at [...]
Monday, September 7, 2009
The NY Times has an interesting op-ed on this topic today. Maybe we should consider sending people on one-way trips to Mars because if they’re explorers as earth-bound ones were, presuming a return trip may be too expensive – or even undesirable. We’ve had lots of experience as humans of sending people on one-way trips. [...]
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I’ve been wondering why Apple hasn’t made an edition of its browser available for Linux – any of them. It’s based on various open-source tools, and while we all know Apple likes very much to control the user experience, it seems odd to me they haven’t released at least a source edition for Linux. If [...]
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
For what it’s worth, I wanted to change the 6 buttons on the home screen of my work-issued Blackberry. On my Motorola phones, altering the home screen is a cinch – go to Settings, Home Screen, and you’re good to go. Apparently the Blackberry, while trying to be helpful, I’m sure, makes this much harder [...]
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I’ve been reading recently abour various “unusual” power-generation methods. One of those that I’ve seen mentioned in several places is the solar updraft tower. After having read about that, I wonder why more industrial steam stacks don’t utilize something similar: if you’re throwing away the steam, couldn’t you put a VAWT or other energy-capturing device [...]
I arrived in Singapore during the Great Singapore Sale, or GSS. It’s advertised everywhere. It’s the one time of year when [nearly] every store, restaurant, service provider, etc offers big discounts for shoppers. In Plaza Singapura, the mall next to where I work, they’ve been having different vendors taking-over the concourse area on the first [...]
I’ve been in Singapore for two weeks. Today I stopped at a bar near where I’ve been staying for a snack and a couple beverages. It took me a couple-few minutes to figure out what was going on, but apparently the legalized prostitution industry in Singapore isn’t limited to the red-light district. Hopefully I did [...]
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Thursday, November 20, 2008
Today for lunch I popped out to M&S, which is a supermarket in the UK. With my combo meal I got an M&S Cola. Right on the front it claims “no artificial colours”. And based on the ingredient list, I’ll go along with agreeing. However, near the end of the ingredient list is ‘fruit and [...]
Dilbert
out/open-sourcing education
Along with the /. post mentioned by Jason, is Bob Cringely’s discussion on outsourcing education. What is the emphasis on in-person education from specific professors? I’ve been asked for my transcript professionally once – and that’s because my current employer pays more attention to grades than technical aptitude. I can recall only a small handful [...]