May 2012
31 posts
Play
Romney camp criticises British PM's Obama 'love-in' ahead of Olympic visit | World news | guardian.co.uk →
guardian.co.uk
Erm, excuse me, Mitt, is it? You are not the President. Until you are, please refrain from thinking your opinion, or the opinions of your aides, matters one iota in the sphere of international relations between heads of state/prime ministers.
April 2012
11 posts
What IT support is really like: an analogy
- Found this analogy on Reddit and it's too good not to share. Think about this the next time you ask someone to "fix your computer" : )
- Customer: My car isn't working and I need you to fix it immediately, this is an emergency
- Mechanic: Alright sir what seems to be the problem?
- Customer: I don't know, I tried to use my car on friday and it didn't work, now it's monday and I need to get to work and I can't and this needs to be fixed right now.
- Mechanic: Can you start the car? Can you even get into your car? Does it make any sounds when you try to start it? Are all 4 tires there?
- Customer: I don't know, I don't know what any of that stuff means, I tried to get to work and it wouldn't let me and you need to fix it now because you changed my oil 6 months ago.
- Mechanic: Alright well what kind of car are you driving?
- Customer: I don't know, a green one, why does that matter?
- Mechanic: Please take a look at the back of your car and see if there are any letters or numbers that would indicate a vehicle model or manufacturer
- Customer: Ok, my car is a SV2 87K.
- Mechanic: No sir that's your license plate. My records indicate that you drive a Nissan Altima, can you confirm that the key you're using to try and get into this car says Nissan on it?
- Customer: My key says Lexus but I don't see how that makes a difference, I've been using this key on this car for years and it's always worked, what did you do to my car?
http://mattrichardson.com/Descriptive-Camera/ →
mattrichardson.com
A nice crowdsourcing-meets-NLP application :)
A camera that prints… descriptions?
March 2012
34 posts
Learn to read dots →
dotsies.org
There’s something extra cool about this. I can’t do it yet though…
Play
“If you want to learn about an airplane, the cheapest way to do it is with a model airplane. Maybe you go out and get a build-n-paint F-16 from your local hobby shop. It’s a great way to get details about the appearance and dimensions of a real jet fighter. Or maybe you go out and get a little balsa-wood glider, which is a great way to get an intuition for basic aerodynamics. But every kid understands implicitly that F-16s are not built by snapping plastic chunks out of molded frames and gluing them together, just as every kid understands that you don’t go to the airport and get strapped onto a giant balsa wood trojan glidar and hurl [yourself] off a bridge. “As you learn about mainstream economics you will be continuously urged by your textbook to apply the models you are learning to the real world, and you will be faced with constant reminders of the predictive power of these models. But the reason I’m standing here talking to you is to remind you, just as constantly, that every single morning, in offices from Wall Street to the IMF, economists are strapping entire populations to wooden planes and launching them off bridges, throwing up their hands in helpless befuddlement at the inevitable grisly results, cashing their checks, and heading out for the golf course by 2pm.”
—A short history of privatisation in the UK: 1979-2012 | Richard Seymour | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
