It's late

It might be because I didn't sleep last night and it's currently 3:23 in the morning on the day after an all nighter, but I have never felt more inspired by human achievement than from this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/technology/27jeopardy.html?ref=technology

I have never felt more proud about my connections with IBM (being a former employee, having family work there, living in an IBM-based town) than from that article. Seriously, it makes me wish I majored in computer science and logic systems or whatever just so I could work on something like that.

It's weird though, since it's not like IBM is trying to make actual artificial intelligence. In essence all they're trying to do is create an information synthesizer: the computer only takes in an input question and spits out an answer; it never thinks on its own.

But I feel like this is a huge step for computers and creating computers that can truly interact with people. And oddly I've never felt more proud of being connected with IBM.

Big Banged Theory?

Names are redacted, of course.

Linus: my roommates have started calling [former girlfriend] 1.0, [recent fling] 2.0, and this new french-photographer- girl, [new girl], 3.0
1.0 was the great release, 2.0 the buggy released too soon version, and 3.0 no one really knows
3.0 is getting some testing this week at coffee
i will be wooing her while simultaneously convincing her not to work for me
Me: at least none are betas
Linus: well, 2.0 should have been
Me: now under this scheme, is it possible to upgrade?
Linus: 2.0 was like shareware; after 10 days she up and stopped being of any use and now just nags me
Me: and what if 1.0 comes back? does she become 1.1 or 4.0?
Linus: upgrades are possible, albeit heavily discouraged; legacy code is a bitch to deal with.
Me: and um, you're supposed to send shareware around to your friends, so they can try and see if they like it
if yes then they pay, if no then constant nagging ensues
did you do your civic duty to shareware?
and have you encountered any open source software as of late?
Linus: ok this metaphor has been stretched too far
Me: it's going on my blog.
Linus: just don't cite me
lol
or [school redacted]
context though - "my friend has a specific type of girl he goes for"
im just nervous about that biting me in the ass some day
Me: uh-huh
should've gone off the record buddy

Obviously, my friend's name is not Linus, but points to whoever gets the reference.

Leakage

Dearest Firefox,

Get your anal leakage under control. There's no reason to take up 192 MB of memory with 2 tabs open. It's kinda gross and slows down my biznass, so if you don't get that fixed soon, I think I'll have to start doing the nasty with Safari again. Or worse, I'll jump in bed with your sister: Camino.

Love,
Nick

I am an Owl.

Thanks goodness, the New York Times says there's hope for my terrible sleep cycle, which it also says I can blame partially on genetics! So just FYI, I usually stay up till 2 and like to get up at around 12-ish. I say "like" because we all know that the norms of society dictate that getting up at 12 really doesn't jive with everyone else. This essentially puts me in the category of an owl, who doesn't like to wake till 12 and is most alert after 6 (I'll blame my attention habits in class on that one). Luckily, this phase of my life is supposed to wear off soon, so there is hope.

http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/guest-column-larks-owls-and-hummingbirds/

1 Steel > 500 Plastic

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/19/opinion/20090419bottle.html

I thought this would be an article about how steel bottles are actually worse for the environment than plastic, but alas, it isn't. Either way, it's good to know after 500 uses a stainless steel bottle is better than plastic in every way, and benefits can be seen for the environment as soon as after 50 uses.

Civic House: this is why you should be giving away those stainless steel bottles you're hoarding!!!

Batman > Superman, but...

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1884973

Memorable Quotes

Two great ones from The Chief:

1) From today's issue of 34th Street:
"Street: There are two types of people at Penn...
Bobak Parang: Those who take orders from Sally Katz and those who run their own organizations. Take that jump-start-kick-in-the-ass, non-existent senior society rivalry!"

And regarding Without A Net's last shows for the semester:
"Saturday night is the "Senior Finale" which will be chock full of slide shows, poems, and cheesy sentimental songs all about how great the senior are. Kidding. That's Off the Beat's thing."

El Cranemo, if you ever read this, sorry!

I can understand why they're pissed

In 2006, 69.3 percent of all federal taxes were received by the top 20% of American earners. That's a lot, and the graph below makes a huge jump from the fourth to fifth quintiles.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/how-much-americans-actually-pay-in-taxes/

I'm in school for the academics, right? Right.

These past 3-4 weeks have been extremely exciting, from hearing about jobs to meeting new friends, to just chillin and doing stuff in college.

But it's definitely time for me to focus on school. For the past four weeks/entire semester school's been nothing more than this thing in the background of my life where you were "supposed" to go to class (notice I didn't write "obligated" or "needed"). And as such my academic life has been really shoved under my bed posts and neglected the same way you probably claim denial to that sand monster lurking under your bed.

I gotta get my head back in this game.

But But But, I love juice!...

"Juice is not much better for children than soda; it's basically just sugar"
- Amy Hillier, Assistant Professor in City and Regional Planning at Penn

I love juice. Like all kinds of juice, especially grapefruit juice. You know how people like to taste exotic wines and beers? Well I like to taste exotic juice. Yeah, that's how I roll.

But that statement from Amy Hillier is gonna change my life. I've heard the claim before, but not necessarily from anyone believable. But this is Amy Hillier! She's got like a special interest in urban food and nutrition, and she's had so much influence over me throughout my Penn years (even though she has absolutely no idea who I am) that she's a primary reason for why I'm doing research in the first place!

Shoot. My juice drinking days are numbered.

I never liked vacations but...

I could sure use one right now.

Snowboarding. I'm thinking about my 3 days at Killington, Vermont right now snowboarding on a foot of fresh powder every day and getting snowed in every night. Disconnected from the internet and all we could do was watch TV every night till we fell asleep on the couch. Then waking up to do it all over again the next morning.

I would love for that right now.

Raysians

"You know you're Asian when you use Siracha like it's ketchup"
- Everybody loves Raysians

NBC is out to get me

I just saw that NBC put some original episodes of Knight Rider (from like the 80's) on their website for viewing.

This is bad.

I used to love Knight Rider, and I occasionally watch the new series when I'm really (really really really) bored. The new Knight Rider is terrible; the old Knight Rider is good.

=> NBC is gonna suck even more viewing time outta me.

Damn it.