How to safely land a plane
How to safely land a plane – by blowing one of its wings off.
Strangely, that’s what Superman does in Superman Returns. (see video of Superman saving a plane).
How to pick a course
In his article on The Power of the Marginal, Paul Graham suggests (among other things) a way of picking courses at college.
One way to tell whether a field has consistent standards is the overlap between the leading practitioners and the people who teach the subject in universities. At one end of the scale you have fields like math and physics, where nearly all the teachers are among the best practitioners. In the middle are medicine, law, history, architecture, and computer science, where many are. At the bottom are business, literature, and the visual arts, where there’s almost no overlap between the teachers and the leading practitioners. It’s this end that gives rise to phrases like “those who can’t do, teach.”
Incidentally, this scale might be helpful in deciding what to study in college. When I was in college the rule seemed to be that you should study whatever you were most interested in. But in retrospect you’re probably better off studying something moderately interesting with someone who’s good at it than something very interesting with someone who isn’t. You often hear people say that you shouldn’t major in business in college, but this is actually an instance of a more general rule: don’t learn things from teachers who are bad at them.
How I use Google Spreadsheets
I work across multiple computers (my office laptop, home laptop, client desktop) on a daily basis.
I used to transfer data across these by e-mailing them before I travelled. (I often forgot to do so.) Mostly, these are notes — like telephone numbers, things to buy, places to visit, etc.
Google Notebook solves the problem. But not entirely. I store a lot of my notes on spreadsheets, as lists. For example:
- Gadgets to buy (and accompanying research)
- Movies I’ve seen
- Books to read (and which library they’re available from)
- To do lists
That’s what I use Google Spreadsheets for — to share lists with myself, across computers.
McDonalds Video Game
McDonald’s video game is a full-fledged business simulation game (like SimCity) based on McDonald’s. It’s written entirely in Flash. You don’t need to download it — just play the game on your browser.
Computer games as megaserials
Are video games going the TV show route? Will we have game mega serials? Is this the next wave?
Personally it would be a welcome relief. I don’t often have the time to complete a full session of Age of Kings these days. Chunks of half-hour scenarios would be great.
You will regret virtue more than vice
In the long run, people tend to regret having missed out on opportunities for pleasure — and they wish they hadn’t been so diligent about working. Based on research at Columbia University. Clive has a nice article about it titled In the long run, we regret virtue more than vice.
Funny ads in London
Last night you stole my phone on Holloway Road, you also stole my heart.
I was the tall brunette in dungarees and psychedelic t-shirt, you were the hooded man on the bike. I was captivated by your white teeth and hypnotic eyes.
My home number is stored on my contacts under “me”. (Please don’t call me at “me work”, or my boyfriend, “Josh”.)
I await your call or reply x
Hi thought I’d give this a shot. You never know! I’m desperately seeking the most gorgeous of all Desperate Housewives (sorry Eva, Marcia and Felicity) – Teri Hatcher. I don’t know Teri Hatcher nor am I a Norman Bates psycho (maybe on Sundays…is today Sunday?) but hey come on, Teri’s great. Or Ms Hatcher as I should call her right?
So if anyone out there knows her or has a connection with her (a REAL connection not those psychic ones. I have one with Tom Jones – doesn’t work that way) by all means – help me out! I’ll be a good date! I’m cute, funny, and intelligent (I’m actually hideous, blonde brained (sorry all blondes – no offense) and ….yeah intelligent. I’m a nerd!). But not ego centric, Hey wait – if I talk about myself – is that ego centric? Hmm…
So remember ladies and gents – think me, think Teri Hatcher….great now THAT sounds Norman Bates stalker like…. Yikes!
After a very big night out on Saturday, i found myself waking up on someone’s sofa on Sunday morning. I didn’t hang around to find out who was so kind to take me in.
If it was you, please let me know.
Would like to know how I got there?
Do what you like
Fred Gratzon’s advice on work
I just do what I want to do and learn what I want to learn and enjoy what I want to enjoy and sometimes I get so wonderfully and powerfully caught up in some project and I start dreaming expansive daydreams and I go for it with every ounce of energy and enthusiasm and love that I can muster.
And the money . . . it just takes care of itself.
Demographics prediction from online behaviour
Microsoft adCenter Labs has a demographics prediction engine. Based on a person’s search queries and web sites visited, it can predict their gender and age.
So I tried that on parts of the body, to see what men were interested in vs women.
| topic | male | female |
|---|---|---|
| hair | 25% | 75% |
| eyes | 33% | 67% |
| cheek | 33% | 67% |
| hands | 33% | 67% |
| lips | 36% | 64% |
| ears | 39% | 61% |
| fingers | 40% | 60% |
| forehead | 42% | 58% |
| nose | 43% | 57% |
| neck | 46% | 54% |
| beard | 55% | 45% |
| moustache | 58% | 42% |
| leg | 60% | 40% |
| palm | 61% | 39% |
| toe | 64% | 36% |
While I can understand men being more interested in beards and moustaches (perhaps even legs), why are they far more interested in toes than women?