Category: General

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Some facts from Gullible.Info

I’ve saved a couple of posts from Gullible.info in the last few days. I thought they had some interesting information.

for July 13, 2005

• If all the coupons issued by grocery store Safeway were redeemed, its net profit would drop by 11 percent.

• Sheep are the most common animal mentioned in the New Testament.

for July 12, 2005

• In 1988, the average computer hard drive had a lifespan of six years. Today, hard drives last an average of 14 months.

for July 11, 2005

•The Six-Day war is the only recorded conflict with a name accurately cataloging its length, to date.

• A student majoring in criminal justice has a 97.2 percent average job placement rate, the highest of any field. The field with the lowest placement rate is Marine Biology.

for July 9, 2005

• One in eight sets of directions from MapQuest contains a turn that is either physically impossible, or disallowed by signs at the intersection.

• Amtrak trains are, on average, 14 minutes late departing, and 38 minutes late arriving.

• If one million copies of a typical spam message are sent, approximately 750,000 will be automatically filtered and deleted, 150,000 will be ignored or deleted after reading the subject line, 99,999 will be ignored or deleted after reading the message, and one will generate a sale.

more

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Some new games

Identifying corporate logos seemed like a very easy thing to do. I mean I’m bombarding myself with ads all the time, so I would think I’d recognize more of the logos. Guess not. The Retail Alphabet Game is a lot harder than I thought it would be. You basically are given a letter in a logo and identify the company. Some of them are especially easy, but the ones you don’t know, you probably won’t have a clue.

Taking off in some newspapers is the game Sudoku, a kind of math crossword puzzle where given a set of numbers you fill in the rows, columns, and 3×3 boxes with numbers 1-9. This to me is qite a bit easier than the crossword puzzle, since there’s a 1 in 9 chance you are right in the box, compared to 1 in 26 for the crossword.

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What’s it really worth?

So I’m sure some of you have heard Steve Jobs’s (CEO of Apple Computer) commencement speech at Stanford. One of the lines that stood out to me was this, relating to how he dropped out of school at Reed and decided to just drop in on classes there.

I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.

Now look at him. Sure he only makes a $1 a year (he’s currently the lowest paid CEO in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records), but he is a richly successful person (all that stock and company incentives also help him survive on more than a $1 a year). I’ve been reading a lot about financial planning and how so many people live on meager means, believe they don’t want that for themselves and eventually work their ways out of poverty. Some may argue that it is happening less often (maybe due to the fact that it was easier in the older days to make money), but none the less it does happen. People seem to go out of their way to live frugally, taking pottery classes to make gifts (see this CNN article) and doing all sorts of crazy things to save a few bucks. Those few bucks though seem to add up into good savings over the years and into lots of money. Yet I sometimes wonder, is it really worth not spending that little bit of money on yourself or someone else could give them happiness. Sure that money could in the future go towards something like a boat or a new car that could make you much happier, but whose to say that would worth it either.

I guess my point is maybe we get a little too far in the work hard ethos that has been drilled into us. Collecting soda cans maybe good for extra income, but definitely not something I would like to live on (I barely could stand eating Cup Noodles after the dorms: I could only imagine that was the best thing Jobs could afford eat from his income). I guess that’s what’s going to separate me from Jobs or any millionaire who didn’t earn his/her money from the lottery; they were willing to put sacrifices together for the future good that they knew would come. Would I be able to do this? Sure, but I enjoy eating regular meals too much.

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More Space on the internet

I’ve been tempted to get a Myspace account (apparently it’s now the most popular social networking site and very popular among the high school kids now), but I really didn’t see the point. My facebook list is comprehensive enough (and I have a few extra friends on Friendster), and for all the friends I don’t have on any of those lists, they won’t join any of those sites. It seems like too much of a hassle to go looking for people all the time too (which was one of the main reasons I got a facebook account, much easier to find people from a central focal point like a university).

I did just create a Yahoo 360 page though, which just allowed anyone to make an account. It’s basically an attempt to integrate Yahoo‘s feature set more closely which is a good idea. I had a Photo album on Yahoo and a Launchast station, so it’d be nice to share that. I like it it’s future features too (namely RSS integration, which means Flickr and Livejournal displayed on one page). Now if Amazon had something like this, that would be extremely amazing as well. And Google, you have Orkut and Blogger, and yet you seem to do so little with them. I mean blogger doesn’t even have categories for blog posts (then again neither does Livejournal, but it least we have tags and memories). Get on the ball.

I’d probably take a Linkedin invite, just because people have been using it for business. I’ll definetly those kind of contacts in the future.

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More Summer 2005 Musings

To all the people at US News who found my blog because Vicky included it in the interns email, welcome. It’s not much, but it’s my home page for now. Hope you enjoy it. I also blog a more stimulating (i.e. not about me) blog about UC Berkeley over at Calstuff.com.

-So that Easy Map I blogged about last time, I seem to have lost it. And it came in real handy too. Oh well, I have another more complicated map for navigation as well, but it was nice knowing where businesses were thanks to that map.

-I’ve been slowly talking to more of my fellow interns on an infrequent basis. We had an office party today (really should have brought my camera), so I got to meet more people who work for the magazine (they work the floor above me, so I never really see them too often). Seems like there will be a few parties and a few intern get togethers at the office, so more chances to talk to people.

-I’m currently laying out plans for a new personal webpage that can do a lot more than this livejournal can. No I’m not abandoning the Livejournal, but I need another site to put all of my stuff together in one place and try to market myself more to outside employers (and for the fun of it). I hope to have it already by late August or early September.

-It bares repeating this point again: If you’ve seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, remember that scene in the beginning of the movie when he asks “Why is it I always fall for someone who shows the slightest interest?” That’s how I feel way too often.

-I think I’ve gotten pretty adjusted to the new time zone, but some things are different experiences that are made vastly different on this side of the country. Watching sports on TV is so much better on the West Coast. Games like the NBA finals start earlier, which means being able to watch the entire game before midnight. It also means being able to watch primetime programs after the game.

–Bloglines is a great web site, in that it allows the user to watch all his/her RSS feeds on a webpage. What I find interesting is the number of subscribers to any website. Indicative of the fact that RSS is a new technology which is kind of obscure and only for computer nerds, the most popular site is Slashdot: News for Nerds with over 35,000 subscribers. Time magazine with it’s millions of subscribers, by comparison, only has a little over 450 (and US News only has a little over 400). It could be indicative of what some people want out of the web and what people want in their mail boxes every week.

BTW, here are the RSS feeds on my bloglines account: http://www.bloglines.com/public/fineal.

Alright, that should tide over my update fix for a little while. Until next time.

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Summer Musings 2005

It’s funny how summer always brings me to write these longer lists entries, but I guess I have more to ponder over the time.

-For sightseeing around unfamiliar cities, I am now going to fully recommend Easy Street Guidemaps. Not only are the maps nice looking, they list more than just monuments, but tips on what to see, and restaurants, municipal rail stops, along with banks and ATMs. Very handy.

-There are some nice places in DC. I’m, however, very disappointed in DC’s Chinatown. It’s nice looking an area and appeals to younger Americans, but it’s mostly a bunch of American businesses with Chinese characters placed on their signs. Plus, the very little that is Chinese doesn’t even serve dim sum, save like 1 (or two I’m not sure). Pathetic.

-I went to do more sight seeing with Shoshana and two of her roommates last Saturday. We went to the Smithsonian, or more specifically the American History Museum and the Air and Space Museum. Fun.

Sputnik model

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Dating Profile

Yeah it’s an old meme, but I didn’t get a chance to do it..

Your dating personality profile:

Liberal – Politics matters to you, and you aren’t afraid to share your left-leaning views. You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate.
Practical – You are a down-to-earth individual who is not impressed with material excess. You care about the stuff of like that really matters.
Big-Hearted – You are a kind and caring person. Your warmth is inviting, and your heart is a wellspring of love.

 Your date match profile:

Practical – You are drawn to people who are sensible and smart. Flashy, materialistic people turn you off. You appreciate the simpler side of living.
Intellectual – You seek out intelligence. Idle chit-chat is not what you are after. You prefer your date who can stimulate your mind.
Adventurous – You are looking for someone who is willing to try new things and experience life to its fullest. You need a companion who encourages you to take risks and do exciting things.
Your Top Ten Traits

1. Liberal
2. Practical
3. Big-Hearted
4. Wealthy/Ambitious
5. Adventurous
6. Funny
7. Romantic
8. Intellectual
9. Sensual
10. Shy
Your Top Ten Match Traits

1. Practical
2. Intellectual
3. Adventurous
4. Funny
5. Shy
6. Conservative
7. Traditional
8. Romantic
9. Wealthy/Ambitious
10. Sensual

Take the Online Dating Personality Quiz at Dating Diversions

Hmm, never really thought I was that liberal. In fact my political compass says I’m only a little bit liberal.

Economic Left/Right: -0.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.13
http://www.politicalcompass.org/

That said I can see how I would want someone who was more conservative, but an intelligent one.

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US News.com for 6/11/05

They used my poll question that appears on the main page:

What is your current perception of China?

  • Economic threat to the U.S.
  • Violator of human rights
  • Growing superpower
  • All of the above
  • None of the above

I wanted “Just some country on the map” instead of the none of the above, but I guess that was a little un-PC. I also made the photogallery page. Finally, if you’re using Firefox, the RSS feed should be detected, so you can add a live bookmark for the site.

The web team got a nice bonus for working so hard this week, but of course since I’m underaged I won’t be able to share in it. Three more months…