Monthly Archive for October, 2003

The Elegant Universe

NOVA | The Elegant Universe | PBS

Here’s an excellent companion website to the new NOVA show on Super String Theory, hosted by Brian Greene (author of the Elegant Universe). According to the Super String Theory, these tiny vibrating “strings” are the tiniest particle that the Universe is made of… well, that’s the current theory anyhow, just as scientiests thought that atoms, then quarks were the smallest particles.

These string are TINY. (0.000000000000000000000000000000000001m long) Just to have a sense of how small that is, check out this page.

Check your local listings for schedules.
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Virtual Bubblewrap

Do you like popping bubble wraps? Now you can do it online at: Virtual Bubblewrap

I gotta admit, it’s not as satisfying as the real thing, but it does give me some pleasure listening to these bubbles pop ^^;

[from wookijooma]
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Funny Korean Spam

This is an actual spam that a friend of mine got: (thanks to Injoon)


My name is Jang Doo-Hwan, The brother of Mr. Chun Doo-Hwan, the former President of South Korea who seized power in a military coup in 1979 and who ruled from 1979 to 1987.

My brother was pushed out of office and charged with treason, corruption and embezzlement of over 21billion won. He was wrongly sentenced to death but fortunately Amnesty International stepped in and commuted the sentence to life. We thank God that he has finally being released though still under house arrest in the sense of conditions of the freedom.

During my brother’s regime as president of South Korea, we realized some reasonable amount of money from various deals that we successfully executed. I have plans to invest this money for my children’s future on real estate and industrial production.

Before my brother’s was overthrown, I secretly siphoned the sum of thirty 30 million american dollars out of Seoul and deposited the money with a security firm that transports valuable goods and consignments through diplomatic means.

I am contacting you because I want you to deal with the security company and claim the money on my behalf since I have declared that the consignment belong to my foreign business partner. You shall also be required to assist me in investment in your country. I hope to trust you as a God fearing person who will not sit on this money when you claim it, rather assist me properly, I expect you to declare what percentage of the total money you will take for your assistance.

When I receive your positive response I will let you know where the security company is and the payment pin code to claim the money which is very important. What we need is to indicate your interest that you will assist us by receiving the money on our behalf in Europe. For this, you shall be considered to be the beneficiary of the money. The project in brief, is that the funds with which we intend to carry out our proposed investments in your country, ispresently in the custody of a security company.

We cannot do this ourselves because we do not have any relatives living outside South Korea and moreover we do not want the government of my Country to know about the money because they will believe I got the money from my brother while he was still in office as president.

Once you confirm the receipt of the money ,I will come over with my Children to your Country or any Country in Europe to start a new life with my Family. As soon as payment is effected, and the amount mentioned above is successfully transferred into your account, we intend to use our own share in acquiring some real estates abroad. For this too you shall also be our overseas manager of all our properties and you will be paid based on a certain percentage agreed on by both parties.

For now, let all our communication be by e-mail because my line is right now connected to the South Korean Telecommunication Network services therefore we can not take the chances of being over-heard.

Please also send me your telephone and fax number. I will ask my son to contact you to give you more details on after I have received a response from you. I am going to introduce you to him as an age long friend so as to prevent him from using any of his own friends who I regard as sycophants who are around him for financial gains and treacherous if hegives them this opportunity. This I got from the experience I had when the people turned against Chun, my brother that became the prelude of our sorrow.

The reason why it took this long was that the security company’s agreement with me was that my brother must personally sign the Power of Attorney that will transfer title to the prospective beneficiary. It was a long wait but it paid off. His Excellency, Chun Doo-Hwan does not want to be personally involved for security reason.

Your quick response will be highly appreciated. Thank you in anticipation of your cooperation.

Yours faithfully,

Jang Doo-Hwan


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Amazon Search

Amazon.com: Books / Search Inside the Book

Now you can search every pages of more than 120,000 titles (33 million pages!), which is “about as many books as a big brick-and-mortar store”.

This could be a very powerful tool for researching, cross-referencing, etc… One reader of slashdot reportedly found several references to his research papers and quotes on books which failed to give him credits, and is preparing to sue the authors. There’s a fascinating story at Wired about the technologies (both high-tech and low-tech) and how Amazon overcame copyright issues.

It will be interesting to see how Amazon’s search technology will compete with (or complement) other web search engines like Google, and Yahoo, but the Wired magazine article also states that Amazon itself has started a company called A9.com which focuses on search technology.

On a related note Amazon ranked #7 in Wired 40 companies that are “reshaping the global economy”.
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Better than SimCity!

Play Ant City online! [Flash required]

from Wookijooma (-.,-)
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Google definition

Update to my on-going coverage of cool new Google features

Google now has “define” feature. Simply prepend “define”, “what is”, or “definition” infront of your search terms and you’ll get the most popular definition on top of the search results. Or use “define:” (with colon) to get just the definitions.

Some examples:
define:googolplex
what is yahoo

There’s also Google Glossary which you can search definitions for words, phrases and acronyms.

UPDATE: Okay, I think it’s only fair to mention that Yahoo also has Dictionary feature. Although “define google” or “define microsoft” didn’t return any results… Hm… How evil of them to remove their competitors from the dictionary. Tony, can you fix that please? ;)
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Quote

Found this quote I jot down on a book long time ago:

Words are heavy things… they weigh you down… if birds talked, they wouldn’t fly

Marilyn Whirlwind (Northen Exposure)

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Cellular # Portability (update)

Frustrated with your cellular phone company/serivce? Just hang on for 1 more month.

On Nov. 24, consumers in the top 100 markets will be able to keep their cell phone number when switching to a new wireless carrier. The rest of the country will be able to do so in May.
USATODAY.com - Switch carrier, keep number

Also, How to switch cell phone carrier
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Tall People Earn More?

Yahoo! News - Want a Raise? Standing Tall May Help

Tall people earn considerably more money throughout their lives than their shorter co-workers, with each inch adding about $789 a year in pay, according to a new study.

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Fly Guy

Another fun link from Frank’s website

http://www.trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy/ (requires Flash)

Hint: Try flying up, up, up…
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Vanishing Leprechaun

Here’s an animated gif of a variation of the original Vanishing Leprechaun puzzle :)

(thanks to Frank Cho)
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Kill Bill, Study Guide

HKFlix.com Kill Bill Study Guide

Read before you go see the movie!
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