I just love watching Robocup. This one is especially impressive. I love how the goalie for Osaka dives to block shots. I laughed quite a bit while watching this clip.
Archive for the 'Interesting' Category
Websites I Visit at Work
February 13th, 2008
If you work as a programmer then you know as well as anyone that you just can’t work so many hours in a row. For myself, I usually have to take a break after 2-3 hours of working max. Programming takes tremendous amounts of brain power, so have to take a breather every once in a while. I spent most of my free time reading blog posts, and I find it easier to use an RSS reader so you only have to go to one place to get all your blog-reading fix. I personally prefer using Bloglines, their interface is great — especially the new beta version. Another good choice is Google Reader, which you can actually incorporate into your iGoogle portal page. There are many others out there, so find one your like and use it. Now for the good part. :)
I’m gonna list the blogs I frequent the most, ordered by my visiting frequency.
- Lifehacker: Hands down my favourite website to read. You get “tech tricks, tips and downloads for getting things done.” Some tips require a more technical-minded reader, but overall the instructions are pretty straightforward. This is IMO the #1 website to increase your productivity in life.
- Racialicious: A blog dealing with racial issues in the US. Although the focus is mainly on American issues, most of it applies to Canada too. And it’s always good to know what’s going on in our neighbour south of the border.
- Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters. This is purely a geek site, so if you’re not “into” the whole geek thing maybe you shouldn’t visit ;). It many topics, including gaming, new technologies, and politics. I find that I skip over most of the stories, but there are some great ones on there. Be sure to check out the comments too, I actually enjoy reading those over the actual articles themselves a lot of the times — RTFA!
- Gizmodo: A website dedicated to gadgets. I think that pretty much says it all. It’s a place I go to, to see all the cool, shiny gadgets that I probably wouldn’t be buying. Did I mention they’re shiny?
- Coding Horror: A must-read for an programmers. Jeff Atwood writes about coding horrors that programmers create, aka the “human factors.” He provides great insight into many problems, including ones that seem trivial at first glance, like writing an algorithm to shuffling a deck of cards.
- Joel on Software: Joel is one of the most well-known programmers out there. He heads Fog Creek, the company that makes FogBugz. The must-read post is his talk on Computer Science and Software Engineering that he gave at Yale (parts 2 and 3 too!).
- Ajaxian: Probably the best blog to read for any developers working with Javascript, and of course Ajax (as the name suggests).
- RedFlagDeals: Deals on many different products for the Canadian buyers. They have have many deals added everyday, including deals on many electronic products.
- The Daily WTF: Readers submit their WTF stories working in the tech industry. Mainly just for laughs.
All of the above sites provide RSS feeds, so you can subscribe to them using your favourite RSS reader.
Happy 50th Lego!
January 28th, 2008
Today is the 50th anniversary of Lego bricks. I remember all the great times I’ve had as a kid playing with Lego. I’d love to take photos of some of the creations I came up with. Sadly though, I don’t know where most of them went. My proudest achievement (for Lego building) was my army of transformers that I built because I couldn’t afford to buy so many of the real ones. :P
The best in that army was dinobot, which took me forever to plan out and build. I wish I still had it. *le sigh*
Also, check out the gizmodo entry on the 50th anniversary of Lego. It has a timeline and some fun facts.
New iGoogle theme
December 8th, 2007
I was checking out the new themes added to the iGoogle page. For those of you who don’t know what iGoogle is, it’s a personalized version of Google which you can add widgets and choose themes.
Anyway, the theme I’m using right now is called Seasonal Landscape. It’s quite cute, and for some reason the ladybug and the frog reminds me of Ams and I. The frog would be me and the ladybug would be Ams. Look at the screen shot below. :P
Don’t hit that bottle from the top!
December 8th, 2007
I remember this one time at Bramalea City Centre with Ams. We were eating lunch at the food court, and this guy was trying to shake his bottle of iced tea by hitting it. However, instead of hitting the bottle from the bottom, like you’re supposed to, he hit it from the top. The result? The bottle shattered instantly at the bottom.
Today I came across this page talking about how to blow the bottom of a beer bottle. Apparently the pressure from the rushing liquid is enough to break the bottom completely off. I guess when you hit the bottle from the bottom, the metal lid at the top prevents the bottom from breaking?
Photosynth
November 27th, 2007
I just saw a really cool demo of a product called Photosynth. It’s a new way to link and present digital images on a computer. There is also a demo on the Live website, so you can check it out yourself.
Popular Kitchen Myths
August 7th, 2007
I’ve looked into some of the common knowledge people share about the Kitchen, mostly regarding cooking. I knew some of them to be false before but I decided to check into more of them. It seems many of the knowledge passed through the ages has proven to be wrong by modern science. Though I must admit there are many things that are confirmed by modern science as well. So without further adieu I give you my list. (these are all false)
1. Raw meat must be washed before cooking to kill germs and bacteria.
I have never come across anyone who doesn’t wash their meat before they cook. It turns out washing your meat could make things worse because you get the germs and bacteria in your sink, and the water you use to wash can splash into other parts of the kitchen. The truth is if you cook your meat thoroughly there is no need to wash them at all. And of course anything that the meat touches must be sanitized properly — including your hands.
Source: Food Standards Agency (UK).
2. Baking soda eliminates odours.
Baking soda is actually quite poor at absorbing odours, contrary to what years of marketing has led you to believe. The only way to eliminate odours is to be sure you don’t have spoiled food in your fridge, cover everything, and clean the entire fridge out once in a while.
Source: Ask a Scientist. Department of Energy (US).
3. Cold water boils faster than warmer water.
I’ve always thought this just to be one of those counter-intuitive ways physical science work sometimes. But it turns out it’s not true at all! However, under special circumstances hot water does freeze faster than cold water.
Source: Scientific America.
4. The reason to add salt to water when cooking pasta is to raise it’s boiling point.
The real reason you want to add salt to water when cooking pasta is to flavour it. Nothing more. Scientifically speaking salt can raise the boiling point of water, and lower it’s freezing point at the same time — in fact this is how anti-freeze works — but the amount you need to add in order to raise the boiling point by any practical amount is too high. However, this property is practical for lowering the water on our driveway’s freezing point during.
Source: I don’t know, just Google it, I’m sure there are tons of sites on this.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. Maybe I’ll add more later when I do more research.
Project 365: Take a Photo a Day
March 22nd, 2007
I came across Project 365, which is created by Taylor McKnight. The rules are simple, take one photo everyday for one year and create a photo-blog for an entire year. It looks pretty fun, but unfortunately my digital camera is dead — I dropped it by accident — and I have not gotten a new one. Maybe when I do go out a buy another camera I will try this thing. I love looking at pictures and remembering the story behind the pictures.
Google is Watching You!
March 15th, 2007
I found stumbled upon this page that shows some super-close zooms on Google Map. Isn’t it kinda freaky how close you can zoom in? In particular, this beach close-up is a bit sketchy. I know you can’t see anyone’s faces, but that seems a little too close for comfort. Are these satellite images?
Asian Men in North America
February 9th, 2007
Today in Soc 101 we watched a film called “Who is Albert Woo?” It’s about Asian men living in North American and the challenges they face. The filmed talked about how Asian men are stereotypically portrayed as strong, hard working, and not romantic. How a lot of Asian women in North America tend to date and marry white men because they grew up with the notion that only non-Asian men can be romantic. A lot of Asian women here want to move away from tradition, whereas men tend to want to keep traditions. As well, many Asian men are seen as mamma’s boy — and some even profess to be one.
