ok, if you're not a geek/programmer, this may mean nothing to you. but one of the google software geeks recently made this post. kind of scary.

for those of you who don't want to read code, here are the highlights...

there are many standard algorithms (or techniques ) developers use. It's similar to cooking... you have to know a few basic things, like how to make a white sauce, a red sauce, etc. from these basic concepts, you build upon them your masterpiece.

imagine if somebody today found out that the way you make a white sauce could, possibly, sometimes, in a rare case but a case that could start happening more and more often, cause the mixture to EXPLODE!!!!!

that's kind of what is happening here. a binary search is a quick way to find something in a list of sorted records. now that we're getting to the point where we want to search billions of records (think google), the binary search sometimes blows up.

the fix is pretty easy, and pretty trivial. but nobody realized there was a problem until a few weeks ago.

it kind of shakes your belief that you really know and understand anything...

Muppets

i have been a big fan of the Muppets ever since i first saw them. Jim Henson is, IHMO, one of the most underated artists of the 20th century. few people, if any, have had such a huge impact on so many people.

How many of us learned to accept ourselves as we are ("Bein' Green"), leanred the alphabet, or how to co-op-er-ate from Jim and his creations???

Penn Jillette, part deux

my previous post about Penn (see "This i believe" down below) sparked quite a debate between one of my closest friends, my wife and myself. we engaged in a lengthy email discussion about whether Penn is smart, egotistical, or possibly both.

well, for father's day, my wife got me season one of BullSh*t . i watched two episodes last night, and i stand by my statement. Penn is a smart man (as is his silent partner Teller).

this is a series where P&T take on some of the biggest cons of our time. in episode 1, they talk about psychics who claim they can can speak to the dead. Penn makes some scathing remarks about these M-Fs (his term), who are basically corrupting peoples memories of their loved ones, simply to make a buck.

i HIGHLY reccomend the series, even after watching only 2 episodes.

i almost feel bad for the guy... but not really.

another article on Uri Geller. this one also made me laugh. specifically, this quote:

"So in conclusion — this man enjoys fame and, I presume, wealth, because he has a slow, inefficient, and unreliable method for accomplishing a task that no one needs done. He gets invited to TV shows to demonstrate this completely substandard method of performing this useless task."

Wow.

just, Wow.

Mass Suicide attempt

This cracks me up... Note that this is from about 2 years ago, but i think it's still relevant, what with all the woo-woo "medicine" out there that's more popular than ever.

this i believe...

Penn Jillette is a very wise man...

step 1

we bought liv a swing set today. while she was napping, i went outside and started putting it together. after a solid hour of non-stop work, i'm proud to state i finsihed.... Step 1. and i was tired.

i kept working, and after about 3 hours, had it together enough that there was 1 (of 3) swing on it, and liv was able to... try and get on the seat, but kept falling off the back of the seat, landing on her derriere. fortunatly, there has been a lot of rain, and the ground was pretty soft.

But of COURSE!!!

This makes perfect sense. It's logical, fair and easy. So i'm sure we'll never implement it in this country.

TTDC

TTDC, or Trevis Thomas Dot Com, is a great site. Trev is a former colleague of mine, and was in my wedding. he is quite amazing. after being overweight for much of his life, he recently lost over 150lbs on his own. no health clubs, no weight loss clubs, no fad diets... he just ate less, and moved more.

but the web site is more than that. it's its own little community. we fight and argue, we share stories, we talk about news and politics and religion. we share when good thing happen (wedding, babies, buying a house) and when bad things happen (getting fired, a loved one passing). it's a really neat group of people, who i would consider my friends. even thought most of them i've never met.

you know you're in trouble when...

i was reading some source code my team is going to modify. deep in there, is the following commnet:

/* Oh, this algorithm is too complicated, but it is the only way I could think of... */

it then goes on for 26 lines explaining the algorithm. i get lost on line 7.

the code is worse.

James Randi Educational Foundation

James Randi has become my personal hero. his JREF is truly a wonder to read. Mr. Randi has been looking for evidence of anything supernatural for a long time... 30 years? possibly more. he is so determined to find it, he's put up $1 million u.s. to ANYONE who can provide the evidence.

he's tested hundreds of folk who claim to have supernatural abilities. mind reading, spoon bending, dowsing (an ever popular favorite)... NOBODY has ever been able to produce when the rubber meets the road. now, this does not prove that the person does not have the ability - it just shows that on that day, for that attempt, they failed. and they often fail dramatically.

i saw a video of him testing some dowsers in australia (when his prize was $10k, with a few other folks contributing to make the total $40k). before the results were announced, ALL said they were confident in their success rate, predicting between 80-100% accuracy. the actual results were announced to be around 12%, with 10% being expected by chance. then they all started with excues, including sunspots.

people claim the money doesn't exist. people claim Mr. Randi cheats. people make all kinds of excuses to NOT be tested. but nobody ever, not even ONCE, had actually produced when tested under proper conditions. that has to make you wonder, doesn't it?

things i like

this is my blog of things i like. videos, web sites, jokes... mostly it's a collection of things that i find interesting and want to remember. i hope anybody who reads this finds them interesting, too.