Yesterday, May 25th, was Towel Day. I spend bigger part of that day at the country club and have to admit that I was not sure of all these people with towels were really celebrating towel day or if the just brought the towels to dry themselves after the dip in the club’s lake.
I certainly hope that the crowd, from the 3 year to the 70 year old are aware of the significance of this day in memory of the late writer Douglas Adams, but the only person I actually was sure about was this gentleman…
He wanted to stay incognito, but confirmed my guess that he was indeed aware of the importance of towels in interstellar travel by answering my question by a firm “Don’t Panic!”
The following true (?) story can probably be found many times on the internet, but I just have to record it here so that I can find it again when my son gets to that age and I need to jug my memory.
A father passing by his son’s bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to ‘Dad.’
With the worst premonition he opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter.
Dear Dad,
It is with great regret and sorrow that I’m writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you.
I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice.
But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercing, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it’ s not only the passion… Dad, she’s pregnant.
Stacy said that we will be very happy.
She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.
Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn’t really hurt anyone. We’ll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy.
In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it.
Don’t worry Dad. I’m 15 and I know how to take care of myself.
Someday I’m sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.
Love,
Your Son John
PS. Dad, none of the above is true. I’m over at Tommy’s house.
I Just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than a Report card that’s in my center desk drawer.
I love you. – Call me when it’s safe to come home.
Cory Doctorow of boing-boing introduced me, and I believe a whole bunch of the boing-boing readers to the BBC comedy series “The IT Crowd” from which I learned the most important lesson for all IT work: “IT – – have you tried to turn it off and on again?”
Up to the beginning Cory had been very good in reminding us all to check the torrents whenever a new show had aired. Poor people outside the UK had to resort to that sort of piracy as the BBC online viewing was confined to the UK.
After quite a bit of a hiatus after the end of the second season I was ready for my third season and I immediately find the first show of season 3 and enjoyed it immensely.
But, Cory, either I did not read boing boing with enough attention or you slacked off because I did not learn of the following show.
Finally I remembered the other day, went ISO hunting and found out that the third season was already over. Sad in a way, but good in another because there was a torrent with all six episodes in one file.
Believe it or not – I had an IT Crowd marathon that night and it was so good that now I am revisiting the first two seasons again. For all of you, to save you the searching, here are all three season in one place…
Sarah Jones, in her TED talk, gives a great demonstration on switching identities. When held a (funny) mirror we get a chance to reflect (that’s what a mirror helps to do, right?) on what we do in real life.
Mostly we switch identities without consciously controlling it. When the cop stops us we might go into the little-innocent-boy identity, or when the kid is annoying too much, we play the big nasty bully. Sarah Jones reminded me that this switching of identities can indeed be controlled. I had an early experience with this when a well knows show host and comedian went over a map of Germany and gave a weather report for all the different areas in the appropriate dialect for the area – and there are quite a few for such a small country.
This impressed me so much that I was able to mimic some of the dialects and mannerisms. By doing this for myself I learned that I had to become a person from that area and then it was actually very simple to be credible. I did not get all the dialect-specific words right and probably missed some of the nuances of the dialects but as long as I was a person from that area it worked.
Sarah Jones is definitely a master at that – here she is…
Here is finally somebody explaining the unilateral phase detractor and explains how cardinal grammeters can be synchronized – something all of you engineers are capable of enjoying. Is there somebody who could transcribe this whole training session so that I can add it to this article in order for others to read along and not miss the tiniest nugget of engineering wisdom.
Before this video did you ever fully understand modio interaction of magneto reluctance and capacitance directives – now you do!
Update: I looked around the inter-web for the wording of the video, to bring it to you so you might be able to memorize it – but what did I find?
Update 2: And finally somebody nice did transcribe this video. Here it is in it’s full glory…
Here at Rockwell Automation’s world headquarters, research has been proceeding to develop a line of automation products that establishes new standards for quality, technological leadership, and operating excellence. With customer success as our primary focus, work has been proceeding on the crudely conceived idea of an instrument that would not only provide inverse reactive current, for use in unilateral phase detractors, but would also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. Such an instrument comprised of Dodge gears and bearings, Reliance Electric motors, Allen-Bradley controls, and all monitored by Rockwell Software is Rockwell Automation’s “Retro Encabulator”.
Now, basically the only new principle involved is that instead of power being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it’s produced by the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive diractance. The original machine had a base plate of prefabulated amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spurving bearings were in a direct line with the panametric fan.
The lineup consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzelvanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that sidefumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal lotus o-deltoid type placed in panendermic semiboloid slots of the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremie pipe to the differential girdlespring on the ‘up’ end of the grammeters. Moreover, whenever fluorescence score motion is required, it may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle arm to reduce sinusoidal depleneration.
The Retro Encabulator has now reached a high level of development, and it’s being successfully used in the operation of milford trenions. It’s available soon; wherever Rockwell Automation products are sold.
We all have heard, and hopefully understand, that men and women do not speak the same language, even though they might use the same words and passed the same SAT.
A good treatize is to be found in the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray, Ph.D. – but sometimes you need some quick crash course and this is where this article comes in.
Once you know these nine essential female words you are all set – – – mostly…
Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don’t Do It!
Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)
That’s Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That’s okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you’re welcome. (I want to add in a clause here – This is true, unless she says ‘Thanks a lot’ – that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say ‘you’re welcome’. that will bring on a ‘whatever’).
Whatever: Is a woman’s way of saying F— YOU!
Don’t worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking ‘What’s wrong?’ For the woman’s response refer to # 3.
In an interview on the Conan show, comedian Louis CK complains about today’s generation who can not appreciate all the great things they have, complaining that they have to wait for a moment for the cell phone to connect while he remembers the days of a rotary phone where you could only make the call standing NEXT to the phone.
As the headline describes this is how you get from New York to Los Angeles, while some hundred years ago it took 30 years – OK, he is exaggerating a little bit here – maybe.
Enjoy…
OK – they don’t want to embedd this video –
so just double click to go to YouTube and watch it there.
Hans suggestst that if the job in IT and software development does not work out, there is always the option of becoming a forklift operator.
All of you who understand German can really appreciate the following short film, warning you that even though the profession of a fork lift operator is glamorous, it can be dangerous if the safety rules are not followed.
The film follows Klaus from the completion of his training as forklift operator to his first job and some of the things that might go wrong.
We are proud today to be able to offer you instand religious enlightenment.
Sounds pompous?
OK, I admit, it’s a bit far fetched, but isn’t seeing an apparition often the start of a religion? Isn’t the perception of something not belonging to this world is a clean sign that that there are things beyond what we perceive?
Real work is done in this department and over there at Universal Serenity it’s now started for sure, but for the instant gratification society here in the US we have a goody.
See this image below. It has four little dots in the center – this is where the universe will break apart, so start at these points for maybe half a minute…
Done?
Now look at a blank wall, see a circle of light appear first, and then ….
The following true (?) story can probably be found many times on the internet, but I just have to record it here so that I can find it again when my son gets to that age and I need to jug my memory.
by John Gray, Ph.D. – but sometimes you need some quick crash course and this is where this article comes in.