Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Flat? Not Kansas!
While doing some research and looking at faculty websites for information, I stumbled on this link. It is telling that Kansas received an initial flatness value of 1 (perfectly flat) before hours of work to determine that its more correct flatness was 0.9997. Pancakes have nothing on Kansas' almost perfect flatness!
Monday, January 26, 2009
The power of microsoft
With 90% of the market share of operating systems, Microsoft has a little room for experimentation and research. I am certain that Microsoft employees wondered how Apples with no preinstalled games can entertain their users. During their research they must have found the addiction of photobooth and garageband. Trying to capitalize on these user generated forms of entertainment, someone came up with a great idea. Then someone in a boardroom hear about it and said "Hey, why not?" You sing a song into your computer microphone and the computer generates the music. Now, the ultimate test... how does Songsmith do with some classics? My favorites include:
"Intergalactic" because every real rap song needs a piano track, a mumbling robot, and dancing white guys in shiny suits (nod to David Bowie).
"Runnin' with the Devil" for its lounge singer tune with David Lee Roth as an Elvis-hipped Little Richard.
" Just What I Needed" for its unmistakable vocals and Elton John's piano work.
"Roxanne" because who could have imagined this as a calypso ballad?
"White Wedding" because Billy Idol really should have chosen bluegrass over rock. (Songsmith must have chosen that genre because of the frequent repetition of 'shotgun' in the lyrics)
"Intergalactic" because every real rap song needs a piano track, a mumbling robot, and dancing white guys in shiny suits (nod to David Bowie).
"Runnin' with the Devil" for its lounge singer tune with David Lee Roth as an Elvis-hipped Little Richard.
" Just What I Needed" for its unmistakable vocals and Elton John's piano work.
"Roxanne" because who could have imagined this as a calypso ballad?
"White Wedding" because Billy Idol really should have chosen bluegrass over rock. (Songsmith must have chosen that genre because of the frequent repetition of 'shotgun' in the lyrics)
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tom Hanks a flip-flopper
Tom Hanks has decided that it is American to vote your conscious. Thus mormons aren't un-American like he said last week. Come on Tom, are we American, or not? I thought that being an American was a decision that came from INS. All of this flip-flopping sounds like you are trying to be a politician. Stick to acting.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Backlog of great stories
Here are some of the best stories of the new year in no particular order...
Missing lady dies buried under a pile of clothes.
Barack Obama the model of health for middle aged men?
Cleaning up the streets for the inauguration includes a prostitution free zone. As if prostitution was just fine during the rest of the year in D.C.?
In a related story, a student is set to auction off virginity to pay for grad school in marriage and family therapy... and maybe retirement.
Tom Hanks thinks that Mormon Prop-8 supporters are unAmerican. What is unAmerican about religious groups encouraging their members to legislate morality? Think about it this way... all of the anti-Christians are an unoragnized religious group that encourages Congress to pass laws that are contrary to Christian morals.
California is no longer the land of the American dream. People are fleeing to other states to find it there. With the housing crisis pushing the value of my house down an additional $15,000 in the last 6 months (after a $240,000 loss prior to my purchase of the house) it would seem that many who thought it was too expensive might flock here in droves. In fact, housing prices here are now comparable, if not more favorable, to all of the places we have lived in the last 8 years.
If you are judging Russian political popularity, you could see how their respective vodkas are selling. Putin leads Medvedev.
Roadkill goes mainstream, well , kind of. Rocky Racoon better watch out if he is going to make it through this economic crisis uneaten.
Robert Redford is a racist anti-poverty environmental elitist. In this political climate is anything safe?
Mexico might collapse. What would the USA do? Build a bigger fence, or instantly have to deal with the issue of immigration? I'm thinking about buying some land...
And last of all, if the world wasn't safe enough already, we now will have a gay super hero to protect us. Horray!
Missing lady dies buried under a pile of clothes.
Barack Obama the model of health for middle aged men?
Cleaning up the streets for the inauguration includes a prostitution free zone. As if prostitution was just fine during the rest of the year in D.C.?
In a related story, a student is set to auction off virginity to pay for grad school in marriage and family therapy... and maybe retirement.
Tom Hanks thinks that Mormon Prop-8 supporters are unAmerican. What is unAmerican about religious groups encouraging their members to legislate morality? Think about it this way... all of the anti-Christians are an unoragnized religious group that encourages Congress to pass laws that are contrary to Christian morals.
California is no longer the land of the American dream. People are fleeing to other states to find it there. With the housing crisis pushing the value of my house down an additional $15,000 in the last 6 months (after a $240,000 loss prior to my purchase of the house) it would seem that many who thought it was too expensive might flock here in droves. In fact, housing prices here are now comparable, if not more favorable, to all of the places we have lived in the last 8 years.
If you are judging Russian political popularity, you could see how their respective vodkas are selling. Putin leads Medvedev.
Roadkill goes mainstream, well , kind of. Rocky Racoon better watch out if he is going to make it through this economic crisis uneaten.
Robert Redford is a racist anti-poverty environmental elitist. In this political climate is anything safe?
Mexico might collapse. What would the USA do? Build a bigger fence, or instantly have to deal with the issue of immigration? I'm thinking about buying some land...
And last of all, if the world wasn't safe enough already, we now will have a gay super hero to protect us. Horray!
Congrats Mr. Obama
Congratulations Mr. Obama for a great campaign and solid presidential win. I wish you the best for the next 4 years. Our collective future depends upon your success.
Now, I don't know how to say this politely but, in my mind, this inauguration is just like every other inauguration. I have always been taught that being a person of color in America is normal. Normal in the sense that we do not differentiate in treatment (good or bad), make special consideration (good or bad) for, or generally consider categorically different. Skin color was just skin color, not any reflection of the person inside. Right, Sesame Street? Why should I now consider race when I have been encouraged my entire life to do otherwise?
During the campaign, press coverage of Obama was an akward dichotomy of either absolute disregard of the issue of race in America or a pronouncement that his candidacy as a momentous occasion for blacks. All of the public figures who for my entire life had argued that race was not important were now urging us to consider race as important. What they said between the lines was something to the effect of "don't consider non-whites as different in any way, but when non-whites make significant achievements, we must be there to acknowledge that they have always been different and we must laud their successes as a triumph over racism." But at the core of racism is the belief that skin color determines performance or categorically differentiates people.
Can you see the cognative dissonance which my generation is facing? Americans must ask the question, is race important or not? If it is, we must embrace that difference. If not, we must stop the subtle undertones of racism from all parties and fully disregard race in America. To me, race will never be important. For better or worse, that is what the prevailing political correctness taught me in my youth.
Historic as it may be, today we inaugurate just another President. To me he has always been just another candidate, and he will just be another president. His works and deeds will determine his success, not anything else.
Now, I don't know how to say this politely but, in my mind, this inauguration is just like every other inauguration. I have always been taught that being a person of color in America is normal. Normal in the sense that we do not differentiate in treatment (good or bad), make special consideration (good or bad) for, or generally consider categorically different. Skin color was just skin color, not any reflection of the person inside. Right, Sesame Street? Why should I now consider race when I have been encouraged my entire life to do otherwise?
During the campaign, press coverage of Obama was an akward dichotomy of either absolute disregard of the issue of race in America or a pronouncement that his candidacy as a momentous occasion for blacks. All of the public figures who for my entire life had argued that race was not important were now urging us to consider race as important. What they said between the lines was something to the effect of "don't consider non-whites as different in any way, but when non-whites make significant achievements, we must be there to acknowledge that they have always been different and we must laud their successes as a triumph over racism." But at the core of racism is the belief that skin color determines performance or categorically differentiates people.
Can you see the cognative dissonance which my generation is facing? Americans must ask the question, is race important or not? If it is, we must embrace that difference. If not, we must stop the subtle undertones of racism from all parties and fully disregard race in America. To me, race will never be important. For better or worse, that is what the prevailing political correctness taught me in my youth.
Historic as it may be, today we inaugurate just another President. To me he has always been just another candidate, and he will just be another president. His works and deeds will determine his success, not anything else.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Talk about a wild ride
Of all of the fun stories that have crossed my screen in the last month, this is not one. I can't help thinking that it would have scared me to death until it was over, and then after all of the losses of baggage and time had passed, it would have been a fun conversation starter...
"I went water skiing on the Hudson in January."
"Was it fun?"
"It was wild! I was going like 200 miles per hour."
"200 miles per hour? Water skiing? January?"
"In an airplane!"
Congrats to the pilot for the very un-Hollywood crash. No flames or anything.
"I went water skiing on the Hudson in January."
"Was it fun?"
"It was wild! I was going like 200 miles per hour."
"200 miles per hour? Water skiing? January?"
"In an airplane!"
Congrats to the pilot for the very un-Hollywood crash. No flames or anything.
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