Noughmad.org

I just started using the Dvorak keyboard layout. I’m still in the process of learning where the keys are, but I’m having some progress. I’m also surprised how many words can be written with only ten letters (AOEUIDHTNS on the home row).

Nevertheless, my keyboard looks very confused now, with dot and comma in the top-left corner, letters in a strange order and key heights inappropriate for their positions.

I would write more but it’s still hard…

One day, all of the world’s famous physicists decided to get together for a tea luncheon. Fortunately, the doorman was a grad student, and able to observe some of the guests…

• Everyone gravitated toward Newton, but he just kept moving around at a constant velocity and showed no reaction.
• Einstein thought it was a relatively good time.
• Coulomb got a real charge out of the whole thing.
• Cavendish wasn’t invited, but he had the balls to show up anyway.
• Cauchy, being the only mathematician there, still managed to integrate well with everyone.
• Thompson enjoyed the plum pudding.
• Pauli came late, but was mostly excluded from things, so he split.
• Pascal was under too much pressure to enjoy himself.
• Ohm spent most of the time resisting Ampere’s opinions on current events.
• Hamilton went to the buffet tables exactly once.
• Volt thought the social had a lot of potential.
• Hilbert was pretty spaced out for most of it.
• Heisenberg may or may not have been there.
• The Curies were there and just glowed the whole time.
• van der Waals forced himeself to mingle.
• Wien radiated a colourful personality.
• Millikan dropped his Italian oil dressing.
• de Broglie mostly just stood in the corner and waved.
• Hollerith liked the hole idea.
• Stefan and Boltzman got into some hot debates.
• Everyone was attracted to Tesla’s magnetic personality.
• Compton was a little scatter-brained at times.
• Bohr ate too much and got atomic ache.
• Watt turned out to be a powerful speaker.
• Hertz went back to the buffet table several times a minute.
• Faraday had quite a capacity for food.
• Oppenheimer got bombed.

Attention: Spoilers

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Continue reading ‘Star Wars Observations’ »

So, yes, it’s the 15th of March now. Which means that yesterday was 3.14 in the stupid American notation, widely regarded as the Pi day. This is also pretty much the only benefit of the stupid notation, since there’s no 3. 14. or 31. 4. in our calendar.

(on a side note: If April got the extra day on leap years,  we’d have 31. 4. as well)

But also, and completely coincidentally, we had the last selection examination for the MMO this year on 14. 3. So it’s a double math day. And I will never know if knowing it’s the Pi day would make my test result any better.

Also, I’ve decided to get an extra level or two of geekdom this week by seeing the whole Star Wars hexalogy.

1. Which two English words are both a possible function return type in the C programming language and a name of a MTG card?
2. What is both a MTG creature type and a Linux command?
3. What is both a Linux command and the first word of a Civilization 3 naval unit?
4. What is both a name of a Civilization 3 city improvement and a great helper in developing software?
5. What is both a type of great helpers in developing software and a time when a Civilization 3 leader died?
6. What is both a name of a person who killed a Civilization 3 leader and a password cracker?
7. What is both a name of a password cracking approach and an optical phenomenon?
8. What is both a physical phenomenon and a way of solving mathematical problems?
9. What is both a topological expression and a possible function return type in the C programming language?

(Please answer in a comment. The first person to get all of them right will get a special mention on the site. )

1. Home is where you hang your @.

2. The Email of the species is deadlier than the mail.

3. A journey of 1,000 sites begins w/ a single click.

4. You can’t teach an old mouse new clicks.

5. Great groups from little icons grow.

6. Speak softly and carry a cellular phone.

7. / is the root of all directories.

8. What a tangled website we weave when we try.

9. Pentium wise, pen and paper foolish.

10. The modem is the message.

11. Too many clicks spoil the browse.

12. The geek shall inherit the earth.

13. There is no place like 127.0.0.1.

14. Don’t byte off more than you can view.

15. FAX is stranger than fiction.

16. What boots up must come down.

17. Linux will never cease.

18. Virtual reality is its own reward.

19. Modulation in all things.

20. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use the Net and he won’t bother you for weeks!

To those who don’t know it yet, this is in my opinion the best webcomic there is. It covers most aspects of geekdom, so you might not understand all the jokes, but the ones you do are very funny.

Take a look at xkcd.com.

Late at night, when everybody is asleep, I do NOT wrap myself in bubble-wrap.

Keeping my virginity is NOT worth $15 a month.

Klingon is NOT my first foreign language.

My record on Experts is NOT under 2 minutes.

When I go to bath, I do NOT take a Luke Skywalker action figure with me.

I do NOT have 6 operating system installed on my computer.

All my base are NOT belong to computer games.

———-

But nevertheless, I am a geek.