More gubbins to take your mind off tomorrow's return to the grindstone:
Happy invoicing!
- OMG! Did Google Earth find Atlantis? - "Google is officially denying widespread Internet rumors that its Google Earth software located the mythical sunken city of Atlantis off the coast of Africa. Either that, or Google is totally trying to hide something. Since I always appreciate a nice juicy conspiracy theory, I'm going to go with the latter." See for yourself, and decide whether you believe the more prosaic explanation offered by Google at the end of the article
- The Web vs. the Fallacies - Tim Bray discusses the Fallacies of Distributed Computing: "... I personally think they’re pretty much spot-on. But these days, you don’t often find them coming up in conversations about building big networked systems. The reason is, I think, that we build almost everything on Web technologies, which lets get away with believing some of them."
- Calling all passive-aggressives - "What are some good examples of gifts that are anything but? I know the obvious classics--drums for a 2-year-old, liquor for an alcoholic--but am looking for ones that are more insidious... As the holiday season is upon us, I've been thinking of the ultimate '**** you' gift: the one that keeps on giving anguish and annoyance. The ideal is one that does not insult upon opening, that, in fact, seems like a great gift until living with it for a couple months." MetaFilter user sfkiddo's thread contains some excellent suggestions
- Bill Gates: More Profit Than Prophet - "It's been 15 years since Bill Gates published The Road Ahead, a book packed with the Microsoft founder's predictions about the future. How do Gates's prophecies hold up now that the road ahead has arrived? Let's take a look at Bill's hits and misses." A 286-page book from 1995 with just four mentions of the Web? Nice predictions, Bill
- Six sundial projects for you to make - "Here are six sundial projects which will demonstrate the principles of a sundial and ensure that you end up with a sundial which tells accurate sun time." One way of keeping the kids occupied for an afternoon, and they might even learn something
- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: Video Lectures - archive of a classic series of lectures by Hal Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman at MIT. "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs has been MIT's introductory pre-professional computer science subject since 1981. It emphasizes the role of computer languages as vehicles for expressing knowledge and it presents basic principles of abstraction and modularity, together with essential techniques for designing and implementing computer languages. This course has had a worldwide impact on computer science curricula over the past two decades." (Download in either DivX or MPEG, and also in versions suitable for small devices like an iPod or iPhone from the Internet Archive.)
- The Ten Most Disturbing Scientific Discoveries - Good article from the Smithsonian Institution. "Science can be glorious; it can bring clarity to a chaotic world. But big scientific discoveries are by nature counterintuitive and sometimes shocking. Here are ten of the biggest threats to our peace of mind." The comments rapidly degenerate into a General-style argy-bargy, of course: "... you may consider yourself to be descended from apes, but I do not. You, nor I nor any other human is a descendent of apes... Evidence can't be found for something that is untrue."
- The Big Caption - A complement to The Boston Globe's Big Picture, this is a gallery of images enhanced with typography, usually with satirical intent.
- You are the Fleet Admiral of the Navy in WWI what do you do? - The punctuation is somewhat lacking, but nonetheless this is an interesting gallery of ships painted in Dazzle Camouflage: "Focus on confusing [the U-Boats] so they don’t know where you’re going. Then their torpedoes will be shot in vain because they thought you zigged when you really zagged... British Artist and naval officer Norman Wilkinson had this very insight and pioneered the Dazzle Camouflage movement (known as Razzle Dazzle in the United States). Norman used bright, loud colours and contrasting diagonal stripes to make it incredibly difficult to gauge a ship’s size and direction."
- TVARK Adverts - "A vast selection of British TV commercials shown over the last few decades." All the classics ("Dad, do you know the piano's on my foot?"), and a good few you could probably do without ("How do Do It All do it, what they do it for..."). (N.B. The site sometimes gets busy and makes you wait for a few minutes - be gentle with them.)
Happy invoicing!
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