Category Archives: thoughts
How do you know when you’re too cheap?
When you refuse to buy tickets for the first Formula 1 race in Austin and your maid tells you the next day that she went to see the race!
😎
So cute! – Not.
I have a boy but the article below strongly resonated with me. I’ve been shaking my head about these 8-year old “prostitutes” in the past.
And every time I just wanted to punch their parents – right in their face! Maybe my grandmom had it right when she demanded something similar to a “driver’s licence” as a permission to raise kids. Not everybody seems to have what it takes to raise kids…
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/19/granderson.children.dress/index.html
Most common PIN numbers – a distribution
… nearly 11% of the 3.4 million passwords are 1234 !!!
Statistically, one third of all codes can be guessed by trying just 61 distinct combinations!
| PIN | Freq | |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | 1234 | 10.713% |
| #2 | 1111 | 6.016% |
| #3 | 0000 | 1.881% |
| #4 | 1212 | 1.197% |
| #5 | 7777 | 0.745% |
| #6 | 1004 | 0.616% |
| #7 | 2000 | 0.613% |
| #8 | 4444 | 0.526% |
| #9 | 2222 | 0.516% |
| #10 | 6969 | 0.512% |
| #11 | 9999 | 0.451% |
| #12 | 3333 | 0.419% |
| #13 | 5555 | 0.395% |
| #14 | 6666 | 0.391% |
| #15 | 1122 | 0.366% |
| #16 | 1313 | 0.304% |
| #17 | 8888 | 0.303% |
| #18 | 4321 | 0.293% |
| #19 | 2001 | 0.290% |
| #20 | 1010 | 0.285% |
Flashmob: “Freude schoener Goetterfunken”
Very moving video. This is awesome!
Quote
“God has grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” <unknown>
A $5000 lesson in why to properly winterize a boat in TX
Context and Convention
Today it struck me again how much context we assume in even the simplest every day actions.
Every computer kid today knows how to press Ctrl-Alt-Del (it’s the key combo that used to reset computers and that is nowadays used to login to a Windows 7 machine).
But reading the cryptic Ctrl-Alt-Del expression, assumes a lot of intrinsic knowledge from the reader: First there are the acronyms, Ctrl for the Control key on the keyboard, many times there are two…, Alt for Alternate key, again, there are two, and finally the Delete button, placed at various locations on different keyboards.
We also assume by convention that you press them in the correct order left to right, or nothing will happen, i.e. if you press Del first.
Then we imply that you hold the keys down after pressing them in the correct order, or again: nothing would happen.
All this application of inherent knowledge in the reading context happens in a split second – Hundreds of times every day. And eventually, after many repetitions it becomes a blind motor skill, with the translation of the action shorted out by muscle memory.
The cognitive performance on the way to that state is truly stunning. This becomes very apparent when you try to explain this either to an adult who has never operated a computer, or when you teach a kid about the ways how computers work.
Recipe: Omelet scramble
This rainy Saturday morning we threw together ingredients from the fridge and herb garden and were rewarded with an amazing tasting omelet:
three eggs
two giant collard leafs, de-vein and chiffonade,
half red bell pepper diced
four stock of asparagus, sliced, tips uncut
one firm tomato, diced
one thai chili pepper, minced
one table spoon butter
one table spoon olive oil
three sprigs of rosemary
three sprigs of flat leave parsley
szecuan pepper con to taste (tea spoon)
ancho chili powder to taste
salt
2 tbsp milk
In large skillet melt butter, add olive oil, add collard, red bell and asparagus. Sautee for 2 min.
Add tomato, add spices, sautee for 2 more minutes
Add eggs, half the rosemary, half the parsley finely chopped, add milk
Cook until eggs are done, but not dry.
Serve with garnish of other half of rosemary and parsley
On Cell phone variety
During my last trip to India I was challenged to make the buying decision for a cell phone for my mother in law. She wanted a Samsung phone, so I felt well equipped to make that decision for her. Boy, was I unprepared for what awaited me at the local store: instead of one or two phones per brand and carrier in the US, the phones are not distributed by the cell carriers – there are multiple of tens of different phones. They are sold as a piece of hardware by any local electronics store. You then buy your SIM card from you preferred network provider and stick it into the phone. When I arrived at the store I was overwhelmed by the 20+ choices of Samsung branded phones alone that were all staring at me. Well, I knew I wanted an Android device (that dropped three phones from the list), preferably 2.3 (another 10 or so gone), a fast A9 processor and a good display. We were down to 5 phones, when distinguishing by technical features became impossible by the information on their respective stickers. Talk about confusing! We had to get the boxes and compare line item by line item to narrow down the choice further. Dumbing me down to a happy American consumer has almost worked, as I was longing for less choices. Can someone just decide on my behalf, tell me what I want and make me feel good about it?
After another ten minutes of studying features on the phone boxes we finally zeroed in on a model that had all the features and a TFT display, not the AMOLED display of the top of the line phone that is also sold in the US. Backing off from the top of the line phone saved us some serious bucks, compromising little. The functionality and versatility of the Android 2.3 device is just plain awesome!
Needless to say that this particular model is not marketed in the US.