Sunday, December 25, 2005

Merry Xmas yahl

Hey doods!

merry xmas! Hope you yall are doing well!

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Ack!


More: You Might Be Suffocating in a Constipated Bureaucracy If...
So without further ado, here is some more of you might be suffocating in a constipated bureaucracy if...


1. You access the Internet using a dial-up connection.

2. Your cube has only enough room for an L-shaped desk and a chair.

3. You are developing enterprise software on a 15-inch monitor.

4. Management forces you to use the latest technology whether it makes sense or not.

5. Your project is suspended mid-stream because the funds run out when the fiscal year ends.

2 out of 5!


Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Is Weak Typing Strong Enough?: "Big Case Study

I watched the strong/weak battle play out (in various ways) in Amazon's Customer Service Applications group for years. I was initially aligned as follows:

* I was in the 'strong' camp for languages, personally favoring development in Java.

* I liked the 'weak' camp for protocols (e.g. favoring xml/rpc over SOAP) and XML modeling (favoring no DTD or schema at all).

* I was in the 'clueless' camp for relational modeling (favoring keeping my mouth shut and learning from the experts.)

One thing I observed was that the folks who favored Perl always seemed to be able to get stuff done really, really fast, even compared to experienced Java folks. And they had their act together; it wasn't just crude hackery, as many Java programmers would like to believe. Their code was generally very well organized, and when it wasn't, they'd go in periodically and fix it. Sometimes they did quick, hacky scripts, and in fact the ability to do this proved to be mission-critical time and time again. But generally the Perl stuff worked just as well as the Java stuff. Whenever performance became an issue, they'd find clever ways to make it perform well enough."

java or perl or python or ruby! ack!

Friday, December 09, 2005

Bean counting and the 'latte factor' - Yahoo! News: "If you've read it once, you've read it a dozen times: Cut out those daily lattes if you want to save enough for retirement.

The so-called 'latte factor' is so widely used in this context that it's now in dictionaries, defined as 'seemingly insignificant daily purchases that add up to a significant amount of money over time.'"


I love my latte, and mocha.... no more sniff

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Manhattan's Little Ones Come in Bigger Numbers - New York Times: "Manhattan preschools can charge $23,000 a year. Ms. Uhry, with Private School Advisors, charges parents $6,000 a year just to coach them through the application process to get their children in.

Yet in spite of the high costs, small spaces and infuriating extras that seem unique to Manhattan - like the preschools that require an I.Q. test - many parents would never live anywhere else.

'Manhattan has always been a great place for raising your children,' said Lori Robinson, the president of the New Mommies Network, a networking project for mothers on the Upper West Side. 'It's easier to be in the city with a baby. It's less isolation. You feel you are part of society.'"

no wonder dtc is so smart. he had to take a IQ test to get into preschool.

Monday, November 28, 2005

evhead: Ten Rules for Web Startups: "#1: Be Narrow
Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. Small things, like a microscopic world, almost always turn out to be bigger than you think when you zoom in. You can much more easily position and market yourself when more focused. And when it comes to partnering, or being acquired, there's less chance for conflict. This is all so logical and, yet, there's a resistance to focusing. I think it comes from a fear of being trivial. Just remember: If you get to be #1 in your category, but your category is too small, then you can broaden your scope—and you can do so with leverage.

#2: Be Different
Ideas are in the air. There are lots of people thinking about—and probably working on—the same thing you are. And one of them is Google. Deal with it. How? First of all, realize that no sufficiently interesting space will be limited to one player. In a sense, competition actually is good—especially to legitimize new markets. Second, see #1—the specialist will almost always kick the generalist's ass. Third, consider doing something that's not so cutting edge. Many highly successful companies—the aforementioned big G being one—have thrived by taking on areas that everyone thought were done and redoing them right. Also? Get a good, non-generic name. Easier said than done, granted. But the most common mistake in naming is trying to be too descriptive, which leads to lots of hard-to-distinguish names. How many blogging companies have 'blog' in their name, RSS companies 'feed,' or podcasting companies 'pod' or 'cast'? Rarely are they the ones that stand out."

Props to this guy! Most of the items off his list is exactly the same as my profs at CMU!

Tom

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Just Try to Sleep Tight. The Bedbugs Are Back. - New York Times: "In the bedbug resurgence, entomologists and exterminators blame increased immigration from the developing world, the advent of cheap international travel and the recent banning of powerful pesticides. Other culprits include the recycled mattress industry and those thrifty New Yorkers who revel in the discovery of a free sofa on the sidewalk."

my apartment is invested with one giant bed bug, it likes a clean kitchen and recylces often.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Unexplained Mysteries :: Invasion of the Chinese cyberspies: Titan Rain: "It was another routine night for Shawn Carpenter. After a long day analyzing computer-network security for Sandia National Laboratories, where much of the U.S. nuclear arsenal is designed, Carpenter, 36, retreated to his ranch house in the hills overlooking Albuquerque, N.M., for a quick dinner and an early bedtime. He set his alarm for 2 a.m. Waking in the dark, he took a thermos of coffee and a pack of Nicorette gum to the cluster of computer terminals in his home office. As he had almost every night for the previous four months, he worked at his secret volunteer job until dawn, not as Shawn Carpenter, mid-level analyst, but as Spiderman--the apt nickname his military-intelligence handlers gave him--tirelessly pursuing a group of suspected Chinese cyberspies all over the world. Inside the machines, on a mission he believed the U.S. government supported, he clung unseen to the walls of their chat rooms and servers, secretly recording every move the snoopers made, passing the information to the Army and later to the FBI.

The hackers he was stalking, part of a cyberespionage ring that federal investigators code-named Titan Rain, first caught Carpenter's eye a year earlier when he helped investigate a network break-in at Lockheed Martin in September 2003. A strikingly similar attack hit Sandia several months later, but it wasn't until Carpenter compared notes with a counterpart in Army cyberintelligence that he suspected the scope of the threat. Methodical and voracious, these hackers wanted all the files they could find, and they were getting them by penetrating secure computer networks at the country's most sensitive military bases, defense contractors and aerospace companies."

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Untitled Document: "Master Tu Jin-Sheng's Penis Qigong Tips
Penis qigong has some specific prohibitions that can be useful advice for any qigong practice.


1.Watch what you eat very carefully
2.When you wake up in the morning, do not urinate. Instead, exercise to sweat it out.
3.The hours from 11 PM to 1 AM and 11 AM to 1 PM are not good times for exercise, but good only for meditation.
4.For every season there is an appropriate focus. Summer: Shen (Spirit) Autumn: Sui (Blood Circulation) Winter: Jing (Vital essence) Spring: Qi (Life energy)
For this type of training you must have a teacher, otherwise you might get hurt. "

Remember sweat it out! Wowers...

What I ate today

What I ate today


1 pound of turkey
One tray of sliced beef
One gallon of satay source
10 fish balls
One slice of pecan pie

More to come…

Monday, November 21, 2005

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:
8.6
Mind:
8.8
Body:
7.6
Spirit:
8.3
Friends/Family:
5.5
Love:
10
Finance:
9
Take the Rate My Life Quiz


the junk food questions brought down my score grrrr.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Sleep apnea doubles risk of stroke, death - study - Yahoo! News: "In fact, in the early part of the study, people breathing through CPAP machines seemed to fare worse.

Bradley told Reuters that heart failure patients are given the machines to drive water out of the lungs and reduce the work of breathing. They also may help the heart beat more effectively.

Although using the machines during the 5-1/2-year study did not help patients live longer, they did improve the efficiency of the heart and let patients exercise more."

hmm....

Sunday, November 06, 2005

NP'S -- THE INTUITIVE PERCEIVING-MODE TYPES: "4. NP'S -- THE INTUITIVE PERCEIVING-MODE TYPES
INTP -- Introverted Thinking Aided By Intuition

Main Characteristics

INTPs exhibit the greatest precision in thought and language of all the types; they tend to see distinctions and inconsistencies in thought and language instantaneously. The one word which captures the unique style of INTPs is architect - the architect of ideas and systems as well as the architect of edifices. This type is found in only 1 percent of the population and therefore is not encountered as frequently as some of the other types.

INTPs detect contradictions in statements no matter how distant in space or time the contradictory statements were produced. The intellectual scanning of INTPs has a principled quality; that is, INTPs search for whatever is relevant and pertinent to the issue at hand. Consequently, INTPs can concentrate better than any other type.

Authority derived from office, position, or wide acceptance does not impress INTPs. Only statements that are logical and coherent carry weight. External authority per se is irrelevant. INTPs abhor redundancy and incoherence. Possessing a desire to understand the universe, an INTP is constantly looking for natural law. Curiosity concerning these keys to the universe is a driving force in this type.

INTPs prize intelligence in themselves and in others, but can become intellectual dilettantes as a result of their need too amass ideas, principles, or understanding of behavior. And once they know something, it is remembered. INTPs can become obsessed with analysis. Once caught up in a thought process, that thought process seems to have a will of its own for INTPs, and they persevere until the issue is comprehended in all its complexity. They can be intellectual snobs and may show impatience at times with others less endowed intellectually. This quality, INTPs find, generates hostility and defensive behavior on the part of others, w"


is this me?

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Hawaiian food :(

Egg tart

ack!
Today

breakfast

shrimp
korean bbq beef
veggies

shake for lunch
during the weekend.... I went buck wild!

ate hotdogs hamburgers steak

Tom

Sunday was good... until i had the black bean korean noodles yums yums...

blogger for word is nuked on my machine... it never works properly i think i probably have some plugin that mucks with it. oh wells!

tom

Friday, October 28, 2005

Yesterday I ate...
4 chicken breasts for dinner

What I ate today

breakfast
oatmeal
iced mocha

lunch
gyro
diet coke

snack at verde
milk tea
chicken wings
butter toast

south beach violations:
iced mocha
butter toast


hmm... too much bad food... argh i need a salad for dinner.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Companies Meet Demands of Snacking Dieters - Yahoo! News: "The days of such mindless snacking are history now that Hanson relies on portion-control packs that tell her when it's time to stop.

'Otherwise, I'll just keep eating,' she said. 'I'll sit there and end up eating 10. Or more.'"

i just keep on eating too! yums yums

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

goodbye qcom

Goodbye QCOM. You have brought me 100% gains in the last year, but it’s time for you to help me buy more red bulls and pay rent.


Tuesday, October 25, 2005

'Sick worker' malady may be early RSI sign-study - Yahoo! News: "With so many cytokines entering the blood stream so early, some apparently traveled to the brain, sparking the rat version of 'sick worker' syndrome, the study said.

'At three weeks, even before the rats experienced pain from their wrist injuries, we watched them self-regulate their work behavior,' researcher Ann Barr said. 'With inflammatory proteins in the bloodstream, they began to slack off from completing their tasks.'"

sometimes I have the rat version of depression, from pecking away at my keyboard. iced blended mochas serve as my cheese.

airplane foods

Wowers what a trip!

 

One fried squid curry with rice

One can of wasabi peas

One piece of salmon

One piece of fried steak

2 ginger ales

5 hot chicken wings

 

Was what I ate yesterday

 

 

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Now Im in new york city

Now I’m in new york city. It’s amazing to me how many there are here, just running around everything I really do like the big cities. Not as many as shanghai.

I realize I’m completely spoiled by the weather by the bay where I am. Everyday on the soma side of san Francisco it’s a nice day. On a contrast in New York, they actually have seasons here. It’s actually a bit chilly here.  


Food for today
Miso Ramen for lunch/breakfast?

Vanilla non-fat latte

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Amazon.com: Books: My Job Went to India (Pragmatic Programmers): "Book Description
You've already lost your job. You may still be drawing a paycheck, but the job you were hired to do no longer exists. Your company has changed, the technology has changed, the economy has changed, and the ways you can add value have changed. Have you adapted to these changes? Or are you at risk?

Architect your career
Economic downturn. Job cuts. Outsourcing. The ever-changing tech landscape. The threats abound. Chad Fowler is here to offer 52 ways to keep your job, despite the vagaries of the market.

* It's all about making the right choices. Choosing which technologies to focus on and which business domains to master have at least as much impact on your success as your technical knowledge--don't let those choices be accidental. Chad shows you all aspects of the decision-making process so you can ensure that you're investing your time and energy in the right areas.
* It's all about skills. You'll develop a structured plan for keeping your skills up-to-date so that you can compete with both the growing stable of developers in so-called low-cost countries as well as your higher-priced local peers. You'll learn how to shift your skillset up the value chain, from an offshore-ready commodity to one in high demand.
* It's all about marketing. As with any product or service, if nobody knows what you're selling, nobody will buy. Chad shows you how to create a plan for marketing yourself both inside your company and to the industry in general.

Like it or not, the IT career landscape has changed. This handbook will teach you what you need to do to avoid being left behind.

About the author Chad Fowler has been a software developer and manager for some of the world's largest corporations. He recently lived and worked in India, setting up and leading an offshore software development center for a large multinational company."

book for my roomate!

Monday, October 17, 2005

Squids will be squids

Today I ate

One cup of chili

2 pieces of fried tofu

1 chillomodo at ben and jerrys

8 low fat spicy buffalo wings

1 sugarfree red bull

Yums yums yums

I've noticed that the blog from word thing is a bit skety sometimes....

sigh... 170.8 pounds... no more chillados!!!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Swine most fine / A fad turned rescue effort, potbellied pigs still make fine pets -- and they offer intelligent company -- for those willing to care for a 200-pound ham-on-the-hoof: "Unfortunately, their intelligence can also make them a challenge. Crafty pigs learn to scream for attention. They're stubborn, require mental and physical stimulation, and can be naughty and inquisitive if left alone for too long. Christensen compares them to a mischievous 2-year old.

'I have baby locks everywhere. T.S. Piggliot is always getting into my kitchen cabinets and playing with the pots and pans. When I put in a new wet bar, he gouged it with his tusks. He's bitten end tables and chewed furniture when he's bored. I never recommend pigs being indoors 24 hours. I have a piggy door so they can come and go as they please,' says Christensen, who lives in Pleasant Hill."

I tend to get into the pots and pans of my apartment as well. i'm scared of the fryer though.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Breakfast

Breakfast

Naan and hummus
1 sugar free red bull

So my friend who I worked with at the car alignment startup, found a good j2ee job about a month of searching. That means the job market is good!

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Team Searches Turkish Village for Poultry - Yahoo! News: "'Normally it would be over, but a few people are hiding their chickens,' said one veterinary official, speaking on condition of anonymity because Turkish officials can only talk to reporters with prior authorization."

i hope i dont get the bird flu from the chicken i ate tonight.

Stuff I ate tonight

Stuff I ate tonight

Chicken Leg and thigh
1 handful of chips and salsa
Pinto beans
One cup of Cappuccino at CMU

Ack, I’m not suppose to eat the chips and salsa!
ASIAN POP Putting On The Dog: "But even if there's no smoking gun of dog eating among Asian Americans, dogs are eaten in Asia -- there are allegedly over 6,000 restaurants that serve dog dishes in Korea, where the meat is often consumed in a medicinal stew called boshintang ('soup that builds up the body'). Dog can readily be found on menus in southern China (where some people proudly boast of 'eating everything with their backs to the sky'), and asocena ('dog eating'), though illegal, persists among some poor and rural communities in the Philippines."

Today I eat sting ray, tommorow I eat bow wow.

Lunch

Lunch
$15 ack!

Payaya salad
Rengdang beef
Mango chicken
Sting ray --- yes was very soft
¼ of a piece of rotti prada bread
Spicy String beans

Verde Green tea with coconut jelly

No rice….

Hmmm… I’m not doing too well on this south beach diet…
Breakfast

tandori naan with hummus
one handful of pepper cashews

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Dinner

Dinner

1 top sirloin Steak

Snack 50 hot wasabi green peas

45 minutes rollerblading

Rollerbladed down to pier 30 and back… 45 minutes

Counted 15 people with ipods
Time for the Buffalo Wing Battle in san francisco.

I always win against mags


KNBR: Buffalo Wing Battle Rules: "VERIZON VOICE-WING BATTLE RULES AND REGULATIONS
Prepared for Coyne PR by the IFOCE, September 19, 2005

Whereas the Verizon VoiceWing Battle eating contest is a 10-minute, all-you-can-eat Buffalo wing eating competition.

And whereas the contest is overseen by the International Federation of Competitive Eating, the world body that governs all eating sports.

And whereas the contest is open to all those 18 years or older, male or female of all races and creeds, who are in good health.

And whereas competitors must eat their food in a safe fashion, but in any style, with or without any condiments and with or without beverage.

And whereas wings are measured in total weight of wing meat eaten, measured by scale in pounds and ounces by an IFOCE judge.

And whereas each competitor will begin the contest with a tin tray holding three (3) lbs of Buffalo Wings.

And whereas each competitor will also be provided with an empty tin at contest's start which he or she will use to discard remnants of an eaten wing such as bone. And whereas these remnants of bones, etc. shall from hereto forth be know as 'debris.'

And whereas when a competitor finishes a three (3) pound tin of Buffalo wings during the contest, that competitor will be provided with another tin containing three (3) pounds of Buffalo wings.

And whereas the IFOCE judge will determine at contest's end which competitors have eaten enough to merit the weighing of their food and debris.
....
More jobs, higher salaries for Asia | CNET News.com: "This optimism is also apparent in Hong Kong, where 83 percent of executives predict higher salaries over the next year, compared to 62 percent a year ago. In Singapore, 72 percent are expecting to see salary increases, and 25 percent expect wage increases of between 5 percent and 15 percent. Japanese companies are less optimistic, with only 46 percent predicting an increase in salaries."

more money for the chinese! Max is going to pay out 5% more in a next year.

workout and mad food

Ooh yeah…
.
As a conscious goal, I’m going to put down what I eat and when I work out here on this blog.

Somedays it’ll go like this:

Sleep workout --- slept until 11am this morning
12am ate rainbow one bowl sherbet ice cream
Nap workout for 3 hours on couch
1 hour Typing workout typing out this entry on blog
One tray of sugar free jello for dinner and apple pie for dinner
3 hour nap workout to end the day
1 hour of xmen legends II



What Spicysquid ate

What Spicysquid ate for breakfast

Breakfast
Powerbar

Lunch
Steak 2 bux --- sale at safeway

Dinner TBD

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Doing good while doing well: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance: "Contentment comes primarily from doing honorable work, being paid fairly, enjoying good relationships and having something to look forward to"

sometimes i wonder if i'm doing honorable work as a pirate with a wooden leg.

Monday, October 03, 2005

So what do you have to do to find happiness? - Sunday Times - Times Online: "One thing makes a striking difference. When two American psychologists studied hundreds of students and focused on the top 10% 'very happy' people, they found they spent the least time alone and the most time socialising. Psychologists know that increasing the number of social contacts a miserable person has is the best way of cheering them up. When Jean-Paul Sartre wrote 'hell is other people', the arch-pessimist of existentialist angst was wrong."

Interesting...

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Monster Mold Threatens Health in the South - Yahoo! News: "Mold covered her dining room walls, snaked up doorframes and even found its way into the candles she sold for a living. She and her husband salvaged his golf clubs but left the rest. They'll move to Arizona."

I share my apartment with a giant killer mold named thomas chan. so far the 409 doesnt seem to have any effect on it. Only if i break the xbox which it feeds off of, i can limit the mold's growth.

Test blog to get token

Monday, September 26, 2005

Test post with blogg

Test post with blogger… lets see if this picture makes it in as well. (image placeholder)



How fun! This is a picture at the wino place.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Sometimes, Wal-Mart can be a good thing: "And I'd never criticize someone for taking a job at Wal-Mart to support themselves and their families, because everybody has to start somewhere. Thirty years ago that place was McDonald's, where about 35 percent of the nation's workforce began their first jobs."

go wal-mart!

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Inventor: I never used dead cats for fuel - Yahoo! News: "But Koch, 55, said there was no truth to stories published in Bild newspaper Tuesday and Wednesday that suggested he used dead cats as part of the mix for his organic diesel fuel."

don't use my kitty for gas!

Friday, September 09, 2005

Doctors Emerging As Heroes of Katrina - Yahoo! News: "'There were people shooting at the helicopters. The whole time I was like, 'How come the military's not here,'' she said.

The choppers that made it through could only take two patients at a time. Sometimes they just dropped off supplies.

'At one point a helicopter dropped four boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and left,' Seo said."


donuts...

Monday, August 29, 2005

Java Joy: Study Touts Coffee's Benefits - Yahoo! News: "In February, a team of Japanese researchers reported in the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute that people who drank coffee daily, or nearly every day, had half the liver cancer risk of those who never drank it. The protective effect occurred in people who drank one to two cups a day and increased at three to four cups."

boo ya! i wonder how many cups of coffee my red bull counts as! no cancer or diabetes for me!

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Couple's online gaming causes infant's death - News at GameSpot: "In a story out of Korea, which is just now surfacing in the Western press, a couple in Incheon, South Korea, were arrested last week when their 4-month-old daughter died after being left alone by the couple for hours. The mother and father reportedly had gone to a nearby Internet cafe, lost themselves in playing Blizzard's massively multiplayer online PC game World of Warcraft, and returned to their home only to find the infant dead from suffocation. "

oh no! i left my doggies at home! the pug probably drank my red bull!
Ariz. Prof Spends Year As an Undergrad - Yahoo! News: "Part of the trick to college life, she learned from good students, was being able to quickly decipher what work needed to be done and what could be skipped. Those management skills helped students balance classes, part-time work and involvement in volunteer or professional groups, Small said.

She found some of the coursework tough and had to seek tutoring for a class far outside her field of study. 'It was a hectic life,' she said."

this is true of undergrad... and grad school.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Online Bettors Find a New Love: Real Estate - New York Times: "Now one of these markets has turned its gaze to a consumer activity that is a favorite discussion topic these days: real estate. And the bettors see no signs of a bursting bubble anytime soon.

San Diego? Prices will rise another 5 percent in the third quarter, according to the bettors at HedgeStreet, another Web site. New York? They will inch up 2 percent. In Los Angeles, they will jump 7 percent. In each of the cities, as in San Francisco, prices will be more than 10 percent higher than they had been a year earlier."

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Starting From Scratch / What happens when you’re on your way to Stanford and suddenly everything goes south?: "Life can change in an instant. I am a perfect example of that.

I was all ready for college. I had received a half scholarship to Stanford to play volleyball. My senior year was going great. I was having the time of my life. We were having a great basketball season. We beat Salpointe - - the second time this year. The fans rushed the court. And then something happened. In a second, my life completely changed.

I had a stroke. I was paralyzed on my right side, couldn't talk and had many learning difficulties. The doctors weren't sure if I could ever walk, talk, or use my arm again. For the last 3 1/2 months I have worked day and night. It really is hard to retrain the brain.

During the day, the physical therapists work on improving my strength and balance with my right leg. The speech therapists work with my clarity of speech and my academic difficulties. The occupational therapists work on improving the strength, coordination and overall use of my right arm. At night, I go home and continue to work on my areas of difficulty. I practice walking, do speech homework and play language games with my parents, use a slant board, do two-handed wall pushups, and use my biofeedback hand mentor.

During all of this, I have felt fear and depression -- almost all for the first time in my life. I am working through this and continuously work harder every day. I will never give up.

All of us will be faced with obstacles throughout our lives. We have to persevere through these things and learn from them. We will have to work hard to reach our goals. Because -- as I have learned -- life can change in an instant."

life is short man! work and live hard.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Deliveryman Relives the Fear of 81-Hour Ordeal in Elevator - New York Times: "In the first sit-down interview since he was belatedly rescued in April and then promptly dropped from sight, Mr. Chen spoke yesterday about the lasting results of his confinement: his crippling fear of the dark, his terror of immigration authorities, and the stomach pains that have plagued him since he was trapped in a brightly lighted 4-by-6½-foot box without food or water, thinking that he was going to die."

He talking about my cube at work! I'm afraid the immigration officials might get me at anytime.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

CNN.com - Nigeria cracking down on e-scams - Aug 8, 2005: "Nuhu Ribadu, head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, says cash and assets worth more than $700 million were recovered from suspects between May 2003 and June 2004. More than 500 suspects have been arrested, more than 100 cases are before the courts and 500 others are under investigation, he said."

shesh 700 mil!!!!

Monday, August 08, 2005

A guy with some explaining to do... - Yahoo! News: "The woman, who had no money or documents with her, contacted the police who eventually traced her husband to Milan, some 210 miles north of Pesaro, Ansa said.

The husband told police he hadn't missed his wife because she always sat in the back of the car with their daughter."

i'm sorry i left you at verde snookie.
'Dying in sleep' linked to sleep apnea - study - Yahoo! News: "Tests on rats showed that the loss of key brain stem cells that die off with age caused such disrupted sleep that the animals eventually stopped breathing completely.

The same thing may be happening in elderly people, said neurobiologist Jack Feldman of the University of California Los Angeles."

crap. someday i just won't wake up!

Thursday, July 28, 2005

N.D. Man Wins Annual Bad-Writing Contest: "As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire"

sometimes i think of my girlfriend this way too.
The quest for a whiter shade of pale - Yahoo! News: "ot for Margaret Qiu. She and thousands of other Asian-American women are going to great lengths to avoid the sun--fighting to preserve or enhance their pale complexions with expensive creams, masks, gloves, professional face scrubs and medical procedures.

For them, a porcelain-like white face is the feminine ideal, reflecting a long-held belief that pale skin represents a comfortable life. They also believe it can hide physical imperfections."

if you look at my arms, they are lily white as well!

Friday, July 22, 2005

Wall Street nuts for Diamond IPO / Market pushes shares up 24% as former California walnut grower's co-op goes public: "Colbert, the grower from Porterville, said outsourcing would be an issue regardless of Diamond's business structure. 'If other countries produce better- quality walnuts at a cheaper price, that's where the industry will head,' he said. "

outsourcing of nuts!

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Bicoastal debate: moving between S.F. and N.Y.: "One day, I happened upon a commencement speech by Anna Quindlen, a graduate of my New York college: 'You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are,' she said. 'Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over Seaside Heights, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger.'"

new york or san fransico!

spicysquid verses super jelly fish!

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Athletes Spark White House Flip-Flop Flap - Yahoo! News: "photo of Northwestern University's national championship women's lacrosse team, taken during the athletes' visit to the White House last week, shows four of the nine women in the front row wearing flip-flop sandals along with their dresses and skirts."

I love my flip flops.
Tech skills pulling in more pay, report says | CNET News.com: "'The pendulum has since swung to the other side, as companies have become more aware of the difficulties in doing offshoring successfully and achieving anticipated cost savings,' Foote said in a statement.

'(They're) once again investing in their own people to build and maintain systems critical to their business strategies,' he added. 'And they're using competitive pay to attract and hire workers with the right combinations of technical and business skills to do this.'"

hurray! more $$$$$

Friday, July 15, 2005

Home Is Where The Work Is: "SMART PACKAGE DESIGN
CMU's elite grads have had little trouble finding jobs. Vermonter Ben Madore, who graduates in August with a master's degree in information technology, landed a plum assignment with tech consultancy Accenture Ltd. (ACN ) in San Francisco. He's one of 3,000 programmers the company hired in the U.S. in the past nine months. He credits his good fortune partly to the fact that CMU taught him to design software packages, rather than just routine programming. 'I don't want to be the guy who's just hacking out code,' he says."

Good news for CMU grads!!! hurray! my jillions of dollars paid in tutiion fees are now worth it!

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Flash » Kitty Cat Dance: "Albino Blacksheep » Flash Files » Kitty Cat Dance"


Someday, I will train this cat to walk on a lease.
Gadgets | News.blog | CNET News.com: "But whereas other pet robots like Sony's Aibo sits, stands, yaps and runs around like a real dog, iCat is very much like a real cat. It just sits there and makes faces at you. Cats by nature are particularly active animals, except perhaps for the famous Dancing Cat."

No snookie. I want a real cat, instead of a fake one.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Tortoise Disappears, Treks 20 Miles - Yahoo! News: "Michelangelo is back home after three slow — but steady — weeks on the road. The tortoise, affectionately known as Mikey, was reunited with Eastern Illinois University student Kim Heinemann on Monday after police found him moseying along the side of a road in this Chicago suburb more than 20 miles from where he went missing.
ADVERTISEMENT

Heinemann, 23, and her family had mounted a public relations campaign to draw attention to the plight of her sluggish pet."


sometimes i wonder down the street for a few blocks, and then i forget who i am. someone please help me find my way home.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey: "First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported."

Sometimes I wonder if we're like sheep. I see one person jump off the pier on the embadero, and then I have a sudden urge to run after them as well!

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Sonya Thomas is: Competitive Eating's "The Black Widow!": "I was able to down 37 HDBs for a new American record and a new Women's World Record. Joey Chestnut, only a rookie, came in third, consuming an unbelievable 32 HDBs. He is a proven talent, and is already a force to be reckoned with. "

sonya thomas is the size of my sister. My sister can't put down 37 hot dogs though.
Staying on top in the global IT job market | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2005-07-04 | By Richard Gincel: "The qualifications? Successful candidates will be adept at managing programs; they also must be able to deal with complex, business-intimate questions and they have to have been part of a process that has included outsourcing and offshoring activities. “If going to work for an outsourcing facilitator sounds like aiding and abetting the enemy,” Alsbridge says, “IT workers are competing with the labor pool not the outsource providers.”

Rankin says the army of contractors willing to work on a project-to-project basis is growing. He points to shifts in the temporary-IT-staffing business, which regularly conducts online auctions to provide labor. Those contractors have to be managed. For now, the trend toward IT services as a commodity shows no signs of slowing down."

geez. i hope my grad school degree help! otherwise i'll have to pursue my backup career as a rapper.
Four London Blasts Kill 40, Injure 700 - Yahoo! News: "LONDON - Four explosions rocked the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour Thursday, sending bloodied victims fleeing in the worst attack on London since World War II. At least 40 people were killed, U.S. officials said, and more than 700 were wounded."

Bastards.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO / Immigrant families frequently separated / New study shows similar pattern for legals and illegals: "Nugent, the immigration attorney, said children -- including newborns - - are separated from their families for about 60 days on average. He said the unaccompanied children he works with -- from Guinea, Guatemala, China or Haiti -- frequently manifest anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and post- traumatic stress syndrome.

'In the final analysis, they're children,' Nugent said. 'And children really need constant support and love and a stable family.'
"

sniff sniff.

Monday, June 13, 2005

SatireWire | Ellison to Grads: Losers: "Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a good look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 thirty years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude."

My graduation speech at Yale. Ellison is a very engaging speaker.
Some U.S. Chinese Wed Despite Widow Year - Yahoo! News: "A quirk in the Chinese calendar meant that the Year of the Rooster, which began in February, was missing 'lichun' � the day that traditionally marks the beginning of spring.
Folk wisdom holds that such years � called Widow Years by some � can be an unlucky time for a couple to begin a new life."


oooh no!!!!

Saturday, June 11, 2005

MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search review - Disk management and compression - CNET Reviews: "8.0 Excellent
Average user rating:7.1 Very good (from 7 users)
The good:Adds tabbed browsing to Internet Explorer; includes desktop search; lets you select your own default Internet search engine; saves and updates favorite desktop searches."

I already have the google toolbar, and yahoo toolbar. Should I add one more?
Savetoby.com | Only YOU have the power to Save Toby!: "I rescued him several months ago. I found him under my porch, soaking wet, injured from what appeared to be an attack from an alley cat. I took him in, thinking he had no chance to live from his injuries, but miraculously, he recovered. I have since spent several months nursing him to health. Toby is a fighter, that.s for sure.
Unfortunately, on June 30th, 2005, Toby will die. I am going to eat him. "

please don't eat toby. Toby is just a cute bunny. eat dogs or cats instead.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Blog from chinese cafe

So the embadero is pretty packed during baseball games. The place i am at has tons of people in it... I should have brought a salad from the deli and ate it by the water. Well at least the i brought has brown rice and brocoli.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

VC Adventure: Networking 101: "Make your list. Good networking starts with knowing who you want to meet � or at least what type of people you want to get in touch with"


ack! i'm a bad networker!
VC Adventure: Networking 101: "Make your list. Good networking starts with knowing who you want to meet � or at least what type of people you want to get in touch with"


ack! i'm a bad networker!

Friday, June 03, 2005

Airlines to Begin Tallying Pet Casualties - Yahoo! News: "Nobody knows how many pets are killed or injured. Lisa Weisberg, spokeswoman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, suggested 1 percent, which would mean 20,000 animals per year. The airlines say that's far too high.
But no one disputes that accidents do happen.
When Sarah Stano's husband was transferred from Portland, Ore., to Greensboro, N.C., she chose Delta Airlines to fly them there because it was the only carrier that would let her carry her three cats in the cabin.
But at the airport she discovered one of the containers was too big to fit under the seat. Hereford, a fluffy white cat with black spots, had to go in the cargo hold."


oh no! poor fluffy!

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Is your laptop a pain in the neck? | CNET News.com: "When Ram Viswanadha began using a laptop at work, he decided to shelve his clunky old desktop PC for good. The notebook's size, speed and memory blew the older computer away.
What the 30-year-old Silicon Valley software engineer didn't bargain for was a severe case of repetitive strain injury--and a three-month disability leave--from hunching over his laptop day in and day out for four years. "

oooh no! this could be me!

Thursday, May 19, 2005

WSJ.com - Work & Family: "When she arrived home one recent day from her job as a bank vice president, she found a dishwasher full of clean dishes needing to be put away and used cups by the sink. 'How come you didn't empty the dishwasher?' she asked Mr. Rogers, who arrives home earlier from his job as an insurance agent."

my girlfriend expects me to slave away at work then come home and do the dishes!!!

I'm convinced that technology can solve this problem. one day we'll all have robots doing our dishes for us, and putting them away.
Putting away dishes just seems silly to me, it seems we need a clean dishes dishwasher container, which we can easily swap into the dirty one. why do we need cabinets? I wonder the same thing about my dirty laundry.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Blogthings - The American Cities That Best Fit You: "


>


American Cities That Best Fit You:



80% San Francisco

65% Los Angeles

65% Washington, DC



hurray sf! i wonder if you can get san jose. grrrrrr
60% New York City

55% Boston


"

Monday, May 16, 2005












The Keys to Your Heart



You are attracted to those who have a split personality - cold as ice on the outside but hot as fire in the heart.

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.




I really should be sleeping!

Saturday, May 14, 2005

mobile test blog

This is a mobile test blog!

 

Tom

 

O'Reilly Network Safari Bookshelf - The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web: "The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web"

Currently reading. Sometimes I get lazy, and I just use BR all over the place!!!

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Working Moms Tear Down Office Walls: "Not all mompreneurs feel comfortable working from home, however. Holly Bohn, for one, is a 31-year-old mother of two and founder and CEO of two separate businesses: See Jane Work, an office-supplies company, and Bohn & Associates, an accounting and office-systems outfit. When Bohn started the accounting firm in 2001, she found it disruptive to work with her two boisterous boys, now 8 and 6. So she moved to an office a five-minute drive from home in Newbury Park, Calif. "

maybe someday i'll be a mompreneur.
Meet The CIA's Venture Capitalist: "Indeed, now that In-Q-Tel is six years into its venture history, it has seen more of its companies get acquired, while only 10 of its investments have gone under -� a pretty good rate for a VC firm. Digital mapping company Keyhole Corp., for example, was bought by Google (GOOG ) in October, 2004. "

High risk VC fund! with good rates!

Saturday, May 07, 2005

STRESSED OUT / Experts search for balance as students face intense parental pressure to excel: "'If Einstein's parents were alive today, poor little Albert would get a comprehensive evaluation and end up on Ritalin,' he said. 'Deprived of his daydreams, he might not discover the theory of relativity, but he certainly would focus more fully on the complex demands of fourth-grade math.'"

how stressful!

Friday, May 06, 2005

Tens of thousands stay home from LA schools amid violence rumors: "The only violence reported Thursday in the district was a scuffle between about 10 youngsters outside Narbonne High School in the Harbor City area. The lunch-hour confrontation was quickly broken up and there were no arrests, school police Sgt. F. Minutella said."

i was involved in a few scraps during my school days. kids kids!

Thursday, May 05, 2005





You Are 11 Years Old



11





Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.




ACK I'm 11!!!!
Majority of Californians make less than half the income needed to buy a home - Yahoo! News: "California households are making less than half the income necessary to buy a median-priced home in the first quarter of 2005.
ADVERTISEMENT

Statewide households, with a median household income of $53,540, are $60,380 short of the $113,920 qualifying income needed to purchase a median-priced home at $488,600 in California, according to the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) Homebuyer Income Gap Index (HIGI) report for the first quarter of 2005."


housing prices are nuts!!!!

Friday, April 29, 2005

School Mistakes Huge Burrito for a Weapon - Yahoo! News: "'The kid was sitting there as I'm describing this (report of a student with a suspicious package) and he's thinking, 'Oh, my gosh, they're talking about my burrito.''"

Watch out! I'm gonna smack you with my big burrito!

Thursday, April 28, 2005

U.K. backpackers heed call of India firms | CNET News.com: "'The cost of living in India is so low,' Bond said. �The graduate call center agents are better off than they would be doing it in the U.K.'"

get a grad degree and work at a call center!!!

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Yahoo! News - Exploding Toads Puzzle German Scientists: "More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion, an official said Wednesday. "

when you see me puff up my cheeks, get away from me!

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Yahoo! News - We need cure for 'senioritis,' governors say: "'The 12th grade is the biggest wasteland in America,' says Charles Reed, chancellor of the California State University System, where he says half the students were unprepared in math or English because they didn't take rigorous classes as seniors. "

so true! last year of college is a waste too!

Friday, April 15, 2005

TalkBack: It Was A Programming Contest, Right? | reader response on| CNET News.com: "I have one more year to finish up my undergraduate degree, and when I started out, my inuition was to stay away from programming. Instead, I have been focusing on Networks, Databases, and Security. Why?

Because, over the past few years of my college career, I have read nothing but a multitude of reports about overseas outsourcing of programming jobs, the high unemployment rate for programmers, and the general dissatisfaction of programmers working in the US.

Why would anyone want to devote their studies toward an industry that has all of these problems? The US programming industry is just missing out on great number of people who have simply chosen to pursue something better.

I do agree, though, that the quality of education in the US is falling. But I do not agree that this programming contest is a very good indicator. "


why be a programmer! our jobs are going out to india and china! no hope for the proggy!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Will China dominate outsourcing's future? | Newsmakers | CNET News.com: "Part of the problem is a fragmented market, McKinsey said. And China faces other challenges, not the least of which is a lack of management talent. "

interesting! oh no! I can't speak chinese!

Monday, April 11, 2005

ONLINE CRIME: A Booming Business / New, smarter generation of Internet crooks / Personal-information thieves hook up with people who may help them profit: "However, since the hackers, thieves and others doing business often don't know one another and remain anonymous, no one knows whom to trust. Rip-offs are rampant. An archive of the now-defunct Shadowcrew site obtained by The Chronicle, and the still-functioning Network Terrorism Forums, show that almost every new offer is met with suspicion.
'If it ain't a rip-off, or an attempt of (Secret Service) to f*** around with us, contact me ...' read one response to Elric's posting.
This has led some Web sites to develop review systems of the sellers not unlike those of eBay and other legitimate e-commerce sites.
According to the indictment, Shadowcrew required the 'vendors' to submit their product or service to a trusted community member for review.
Shadowcrew's archives show people who were reviewed for selling merchandise such as stolen credit card numbers and counterfeit credit cards that were created using stolen account information. "




Wow... the internet is a scary place! geez.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Gordon Moore on 40 years of his processor law - page 2 | Newsmakers | CNET News.com: "Moore: It seems like I still spend about half my time in front of one. E-mail is an important part of my life. I live half the year in Hawaii these days. If it wasn't for e-mail, I don't know how I would stay connected. There are spreadsheets; there's word processing work--those are the functions I probably use the most. I play simple games; I handle photographs.
I get very frustrated with the software sometimes. I hate how long it takes my computer to reboot when I have to shut it down for any reason. "

Mr. moore. he only lives in hawaii for 1/2 of the time! Congrats for all the hard work!

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Loosely Coupled Corner: "I think we should see more tooling support for EJB 3.0, so that more general application developers can get their hands dirty and come up to speed on EJB 3.0. While any standard IDE that has good support for JDK5 will provide a good start, I think there should be better tooling to support complex mappings (like ManyToMany), and facilitate inline or immediate feedback on the validity of NamedQueries instead of waiting for deployment. Maintenance of the applications isn't something that can be ignored, as applications will live for few years after the development cycle. All the features that make the application development easier will also provide returns in application maintenance cycle. All in all, I will recommend that developers take a fresh and unbiased look at the EJB 3.0 specification, by checking out the features and giving the publicly available EJB 3.0 containers "

good blog entry on ejb3.0

maybe i'll write my next blog with it.
Yahoo! News - Drug Resistant Skin Infections Becoming More Common: "Miller's team said doctors must shift their attitudes toward cases of necrotizing fasciitis -- the 'flesh-eating' part of such a bacterial infection -- and check to see if methicillin-resistant staph is to blame.
Fridkin said good hygiene, particularly hand washing, can prevent such infections.
In hospitals, MRSA resists almost everything but an intravenous antibiotic called vancomycin. But so-called community-acquired MRSA can be treated with a range of antibiotics including doxycycline and cotrimoxazole, sold under the brand name Bactrim. "

good to know if you get infected by flesh eating bacteria.
Office on the beach - long-distance Wi-Fi and Voice over IP - August 2003: "I wasn't sure what to expect yesterday afternoon. A full-size office desk with green banker's lamp, desktop PC, phone, and suit-and-tie worker typing away from an executive chair on the sand? A small cubicle farm with Dilbert comics on the walls? Not quite. It was a less ostentatious affair: a couple of laptops (top left), one with a directional wireless antenna, and a 3Com IP phone perched on a picnic table in the sun (right)."

hmm... gosh.. this is pretty cool! working at fisherman's wharf next to some crabs would be great!
Short Cup-With-Handle Often Leads To Big Stock Gains: "Study winning chart patterns for any length of time, and that idea gets driven home. Decades of IBD research have ferreted out the most successful stock chart patterns in history. Few can match the might of the cup with handle."

I believe goog is a goog in the handle right now.... initial rise up to 200 bux.. a dip... maintaining levels.... then its time for a crazy rise! 20 bagger here I come!
Yahoo! 360� - My Blog: "Entry for April 05, 2005
test blog entry... grrrr."

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

eBay item 5765761043 (Ends Apr-12-05 17:18:32 PDT) - HP iPAQ Pocket PC H4355/4350 great condition: "Used HP 4350 or 4355 with built in keybad. A few scratches on the sides.
comes with cradle, charger, and manual.
The screen is perfect, no problems with it.
I ugraded to a palm treo, so i need to get rid of all my devices!
It reads pdf files, and plays mp3s! you can put your documetns on a sd card, then insert it onto the pda and run around. The screen is really nice, and colors are really vibrant.
the wi-fi works really well almost painless to setup.. it auto-finds wireless networks without any problems.
battery life is good as long as you turn off wi-fi, once any wireless services are on then it sucks it up! battery normally lasts for me about a week when i use it as a pure palm, 3 to 4 days if i play mp3s, and about 1 day if i use the wi-fi quite a bit.
"

My pda is on sale... please buy it!
Can cell phones contribute to infertility? | News.blog | CNET News.com: "In the study, faculty members John Aitken and Bruce King exposed mice to a particular frequency of electromagnetic radiation that is similar to waves people receive when answering a mobile phone. Initial results found that there was more DNA damage in the exposed sperm than in sperm from the control groups. "

oh no! i think my new treo is probably frying my nuts. i'm using a headset more often nowadays, but its still kinda clunky to use it. i think i should wear steel pants.
The Postal Store: "Introducing a quick, easy, and convenient way for you to ship Priority Mail packages. The Postal Service has simplified the Priority Mail shipping process by introducing two new Flat Rate Box options - items that feature a predetermined rate regardless of the weight or destination zone of the package, similar to the Flat Rate Envelope. A few key benefits of this new product:
Any weight, any State, $7.70. No matter which Flat Rate Box you choose, the postage is $7.70, regardless of weight or destination.
No need for a scale. Visit Click-N-Ship to purchase and print postage from your home or small business computer. You don't need a scale.
No need for a trip to the Post Office. Visit Pickup Options to arrange for next-day pickup at no extra charge (available in most locations) using online Carrier pickup.
The corrugated box you have selected is similar to a shoe box (11' x 8-1/2' x 5-1/2') and holds merchandise such as model cars, and taller items. Both shapes have the same cubic inch dimensions. "

this is perfect for my shipments! now i just need a big bag of peanuts... i can probably save money by buying some ballons and blowing them up myself.
China's Tomb-Sweeping Day goes virtual | CNET News.com: "'Internet mourning, such as on the 'online cemetery', where virtual candles or joss-sticks are lit and virtual flowers are sent, is in fashion, saving millions of people of Chinese origin the trouble of traveling long distances in order to sweep tombs for their ancestors,' the news agency said.
New technology had also changed what people like to burn for ancestors to enjoy in the afterlife, Xinhua said. Some mourners have added mobile phones 'or other big ticket items that might be of particular interest for the deceased"

RIP SPICYSQUID.COM 4EVER BABY!
test... oh wells!

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

The New York Times > Business > Hybrid-Car Tinkerers Scoff at No-Plug-In Rule: " If you were able to plug a hybrid in overnight, you could potentially use a lot less gas by cruising for long stretches on battery power only. But unlike purely electric cars, which take hours to charge and need frequent recharging, you would not have to plug in if you did not want to.
'I've gotten anywhere from 65 to over 100 miles per gallon,' said Mr. Gremban, an engineer at CalCars, a small nonprofit group based in Palo Alto, Calif. He gets 40 to 45 miles per gallon driving his normal Prius. And EnergyCS, a small company that has collaborated with CalCars, has modified another Prius with more sophisticated batteries; they claim their Prius gets up to 180 m.p.g. and can travel more than 30 miles on battery power. "

Is this cheaper than gas!!! hmm... I guess my electric bill would go down, but I can just turn off my computer at night. That would keep my electric bill at the same rate.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Boredom to boom for India's software-testing market | CNET News.com: "Sohrab Azad, an executive at head-hunting company eQURA Consulting, told Reuters that industry estimates say Bangalore alone would need 10,000 testing engineers in the next six months.
The city is pulling talent from northern cities such as Delhi and Pune by doubling annual salaries to $18,265-$22,831 (800,000-1,000,000 rupees) for those with six to eight years' experience, he said. This is still only a fraction of what U.S. counterparts earn.
Russia, China and Ireland are among potential competitors, but India is seen as being ahead in the race.
'Once China crosses the language barrier, it is likely to pose a threat due to cost advantage,' said Pradeep Waychal, head of quality at Patni Computer Systems. "

testing is pretty boring... but pretty essential in order to maintain quality. Maintaining tests and keeping everything running in will take at least 1/2 of the development effort... but ensure a higher level of quality....

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Yahoo! News - Too Sleepy for Sex?: "Most people -- 77 percent -- complained that their partner has a sleep-related problem, usually snoring.
'In my practice, I've found when couples are forced to sleep apart because of one partner's sleep problems, it often has a terrible effect on the relationship,' said Dr. Meir Kryger, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at St. Boniface Hospital Research Center at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and a director of the Foundation. "


oh no!!! snoring!!!!

Monday, March 28, 2005

Chihuahua Terrorizes Ind. Postal Workers: "have nonetheless ticketed the dog's owner, Vicki Seber, twice in recent weeks for violating a city ordinance requiring pet owners to keep their animals restrained.
Hobart police officer Ron Schalk said he had no option but to cite Seber for allowing the dog to run loose.
'The biggest thing I was concerned with is there were a lot of residents that week who couldn't get their mail,' he said. 'The little Chihuahua was running around being aggressive and trying to bite people's ankles.'"

these small dogs are pretty agressive. I've actually been bitten a few times!

Friday, March 25, 2005

The Home School Conundrum / Parents' real estate decisions often based on kids' education needs: "So, what's the real value of buying in a good school system? My teacher friends assure me that test scores are a poor way of assessing a school's quality, but that doesn't eliminate the influence of such numbers. It is now a real estate reality that houses located near a school with high test scores get a substantial price bump. In the Cupertino Union School District, where one school scored a nearly perfect 993 out of 1,000 and virtually all the elementary schools scored above 900 (by comparison, not a single elementary school in San Francisco scores that high), the price of a generic ranch-style home can be several hundreds of thousands of dollars higher than those in nearby cities.
According to one East Bay real estate agent, a home in Oakland identical to one across the street in Piedmont might cost $150,000 less. Now, with our education system forced to use testing as a measure of success -- fallaciously marking some schools as failures and other as models -- it's not so hard to imagine that such price margins will only swell, making the real estate market a glaring mirror of our social inequities and our individual hopes to escape them. "

so sad.... this is why i went to private school.
Yahoo! News - Octopuses Seen Walking From Predators: "Two individuals of O. marginatus from Indonesia wrapped six arms around themselves, looking like a coconut on the sea floor. They then used the two rear arms to move backward.
In Australia, O. aculeatus was seen raising two arms above its head before lifting four more and moving backward on the two remaining arms. The researchers described it as looking like 'a clump of algae tiptoeing away.' "

I wonder if this will work on mags.
Trading places: Real estate instead of dot-coms | CNET News.com: "In Naples, Fla., some houses have been bought twice in a single day, an early 21st century version of day trading. Buying stocks on margin has morphed into buying homes with no money down. The over-the-top parties of Internet start-ups have been replaced by flashy gatherings, in which developers pitch condos to eager buyers. "

scary!
Trading places: Real estate instead of dot-coms | CNET News.com: "In Naples, Fla., some houses have been bought twice in a single day, an early 21st century version of day trading. Buying stocks on margin has morphed into buying homes with no money down. The over-the-top parties of Internet start-ups have been replaced by flashy gatherings, in which developers pitch condos to eager buyers. "

scary! i should buy a house someday!

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE / Her condition: Doctor explains the 'persistent vegetative state': "A person in a vegetative state is defined as one who is arousable -- which means merely a reflexive response to a stimulus -- but unaware. It is not necessary to wake up to be aroused. If a vegetative state exists for six weeks to three months, it is deemed a 'persistent' vegetative state.
A person in a persistent vegetative state is not in a coma. A person in a coma is unconscious, and unable to be aroused.
There is a similar distinction defining stupor. A person in a stupor shows some response to stimulation but will easily slip back into a state where he or she cannot be aroused.
Sleep, strictly defined, is a state of unconsciousness from which a person can be aroused. But there is another halfway state -- somnolence -- where a person can wake up enough to carry a brief conversation before falling back into sleep.
The strange limbo of people in vegetative states poses "

whew.. confusing stuff....

sometimes people i know are in these type of states when i see them in front of computers....