Thoughts from Inside the Box

Ever tried to use Google when in a foreign country where you don't speak the language? Google helpfully figures out which language you want to see based on the country where you are. So I've gotten Google in Spanish, Japanese, and now in Slovak, just by traveling to different countries. And my foreign coworkers in Finland complained about this behavior all the time.

If only there was some standard way for a browser to indicate which languages its user can understand, removing the need for such an ad-hoc and error-prone mechanism...

Labels: artificial stupidity, rant

Only 17 days to go before scientists in Switzerland throw the switch and create a black hole that will destroy the Earth.

Labels: 21st century, doomsday, research

Watched an interesting video today: Money as Debt. It's not really healthy to know too much about how the economy works...

It also brought to mind an interesting argument. At one point in the video, it is noted that an individual paying out all debts means more money for that individual, but everybody paying out all debts means that there no longer is any money. So if you happen to subscribe to a philosophy that requires only actions that would be acceptable if everyone did them, you need to ensure you remain constantly at debt. And furthermore, since the whole thing is a massive pyramid scheme, you also need to increase your debt exponentially.

Labels: armchair philosophy, sensory deprivation

Tohtoriksi valmistumiseen ei riitä pelkkä väitöskirja, vaan tarvitaan myös julkinen väitöstilaisuus. Suomessa väitöspäivä ei ole mikään pieni asia, vaan suuri tapaus, joka vaatii valmisteluja:

• Ota yhteyttä vastaväittäjään ja kustokseen ja sovi väitöspäivästä
  
• Varaa sali väitöstä varten
  
• Tilaa kahvit väitöksen jälkeen tarjottavaksi (varaa myös tila kahvien tarjoiluun)
  
• Hanki kirjalle ISBN ja mahdollinen julkaisusarjan numero
  
• Toimita kirjan lopullinen versio painoon
  
• Ota yhteyttä tiedottajaan ja kerro tulevasta väitöksestä
  
• Syötä tarpeelliset tiedot yliopiston väitöstietoihin
  
• Kirjan tultua painosta lähetä kappaleita annetun listan mukaan
  
• Etsi sopiva ravintola karonkkaa varten
  
• Vuokraa oikeat asusteet
  
• Varaa kaupungin ulkopuolelta tulevalle vastaväittäjälle hotellihuone
  

Ja mielenkiintoisinta tietysti on, että tässä n. tusina henkilöä käsittävässä prosessissa vain yksi ei ole käynyt koko hommaa läpi useita kertoja, ja tietysti kaiken tekeminen täsmälleen oikein on juuri hänen vastuullaan...

Labels: gibberish, obstacle course, phd, phew

Just now, I happened to be searching for "tree dog programmer" on Google (don't ask why). Of the first 10 hits it gives, only 2 actually contain the word "tree"; the other 8 match the word "three" instead. Is it too much to ask to assume people can actually type common words correctly, or can correct their mistakes after noticing the problem? Apparently so (note that this "intelligent" spelling correction can be disabled by surrounding the individual word in quotes).

Another interesting example (I don't have one handy now) is when I look for some rare term, usually getting only a few hits. So then Google suggests "Did you mean: <something else>", and it turns out that this suggested "correction" doesn't actually match anything.

Labels: artificial stupidity, rant

I really don't remember the last time I laughed so hard, as I did reading DM of the Rings. If you're familiar with Lord of the Rings (preferably both book and movies) and fantasy role playing (especially if you've been DM/GM), don't miss this.

On a similar topic, Order of the Stick is also great fun.

Labels: nerd hobbies, sidesplit

So I'm Picard. I'm pretty sure the last time I saw this test I was Data, but no amount of reasonable fiddling this time got me away from Picard. And with this post, the Picard result is immortalized onto the great Internet, never to change again.

Labels: addiction, meme, psychological profile