July 06, 2004
Inductive Reasoning And All That
The good thing about computers is if you think something is true but you're not 100% sure, you can quickly spot-check a few million examples.
Well, it's useful in my line of work, anyway.Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:41 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
July 05, 2004
Message Received
From: Product Development
To: Marketing As per your request, the person responsible for inventing Abalone-flavoured Macadamias has been feed to the corporate llamas. Now will you please call off any further air strikes you had planned?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:36 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
July 04, 2004
Fourth of July
From the best country in the world to the other best country in the world: Happy birthday America!
Glad to be your friends, proud to be your allies. Best wishes, AustraliaPosted by: Pixy Misa at 01:53 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
July 03, 2004
Maou Maou!
Kyou Kara Maou: An ordinary schoolboy is transported to another world* where the natives do not speak fluent Japanese!
There he is hailed as the lost king... Of demons. Oops. And the opening theme is truly hideous. * By being flushed down a toilet, which is a first.Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:29 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Alert!
Washington, Friday The Department of Homeland Obscurity today raised its Leftist Alert rating from Yellow (Raving Dementia) to Orange (Frothing Insanity). This is the second highest level of alert, leaving only Red (Gibbering Lunacy). The Leftist Alert Index has not returned to the "safe" level of Green (Muttering Nuttiness) since mid-2000. The Department also said that it would be announcing new beyond-Red alert levels later this year in preparation for a possible Republican election victory.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:46 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Three Hankies Per Episode
Boy meets girl. Girl likes boy. Boy not sure. Girl cries into pillow. Boy comes to senses. Boy dates girl. Boy boinks girl.* Girl gets run over by car.
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien. I wonder what will happen in episode 3? ... Ah, three years of guilt compressed into flashbacks and nightmares. Ick. I should have paid more attention to the reviews. ... And then, in episode 4, extra added guilt! Who wrote this thing? I'm starting to think it was my grandmother... ... But the omake after epsiode 4, the little extra sequence at the end, where they're playing whack-a-mole with Coma Girl, is downright odd. ... Finished watching it. Yick. Not recommended. If you want something along these lines - youthful romance and head injuries - watch Nanaka 6/17 instead. * And they narrowly avoid getting caught at it by the parents.Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:26 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
July 02, 2004
Red Pencil*
If possible, shoot scriptwriter and segment producer while attempting to escape.* Okay, the article says red pen, but I'm a traditionalist.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:50 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Unbearable Idiocy Of New Scientist
Yes folks, it's Friday again, and the so-called editors at New Scientist are up to their old tricks.
The editorial this week runs under the headline Feeding Africa with a subhead of If a green revolution won't work, how can the continent solve its food crisis?Harrowing images of starving children have become synonymous with Africa. And in the coming days, expect more of the same as the refugee crisis continues to unfold in the Darfur region of westurn Sudan.The Darfur region, eh? Haven't we heard about that area in the news recently?
This time, civil war rather than crop failure is to blameWhat do you mean, this time? What about all the other times when civil war was to blame? And all the times when it was just plain old war? Funny how your food supplies dwindle when all your farmers are dead or run away.
but instability is not going to go away in a continent where 200 million people - almost 1 in 4 Africans - are undernourished.No. No. Look, you ignorant cretins, cause and effect flows in a specific direction. Lack of food causes starvation. And instability - or to put it more accurately, interminable senseless violence - causes dwindling crop yields. Because, as I said, dead farmers don't do you much good.
Finding a solution will not be easy. For decades, governments and companies from the developed world, along with international institutions, have thrown aid, money, products and platitudes at the problem - especially platitudes. Their attitudes have tended to be prescriptive, urging political reform within African statesBecause, y'know, there's no reason to call for political reform in a continent where corruption is pandemic.
and the widespread adoption of practices such as growing cash crops, and technologies such as genetic modification.While this advice is not universally applicable, the move from subsistence agriculture to locally optimal cash crops and trade has worked wonders for, well, pretty much everywhere except Africa.
But Africa is not Europe, Asia, or South America, where a green revolution featuring high-yield rice and wheat varieties has boosted the food supply.Well, no, it's not. That's the whole point. Now, rice, wheat and maize, which are marvelously productive crops everywhere else in the world, account for just 20% of food production in Africa (says New Scientist). Perhaps there's some correlation between growing less productive crops and, well, producing less? If someone can point me to information about why so little of African agriculture is devoted to these crops, I'd be interested, because New Scientist doesn't even touch on the matter. They're too busy with their platitudes. Okay, leaving that editorial lying twitching in the dirt, we can move on to pages 8 and 9, where the good folk at NS present their own unique perspective on Iraq, including items like this:
27 Major archaeological sites looted across Iraq - the heart of ancient Mesopotamia. They include parts of famous sites such as Babylon and Nineveh, but details are sketchy. At the National Museum in BaghdadYes, you know where this is heading:
where looting was widely reported in the days after the US invaded the city, 250 of the 600 artefacts on display are thought to be damaged and 100 missing.Thought to be? It takes more than a year to count 600 artefacts? Or 500, as the case may be.
Of the 491,418 artefacts kept in the museums storerooms, around 15,000 are missing and 25,000 damaged.11Hang on, what's with this 11 business? Well, in a little box down at the bottom right corner of page 9, there's a legend, and 11 turns out to be:
According to a tally kept by Francis DeBlauwe of the University of Missouri, Kansas CityRight. And your reason for presenting this particular tally as established fact is... What, exactly? Not to mention the nice little evasion of looting was widely reported after US troops invaded the city. Never mind the fact that looting is known to have been taking place under Saddam Hussein, or that looting of archaeological sites has been a regional pastime in the Middle East for at least the past 4000 years. Or that many of those wide reports were of exactly the same person taking off with exactly the same urn. Oh, and
1 Number of chemical armaments found by US troops since invading Iraq.Might want to update that, guys. No, wait, those were Polish troops, so the figure stands. Update: It would seem that early reports on the shells found by the Polish troops were wrong, and they were not in fact chemical weapons. So I'll grant the New Scientist that point.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:27 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
July 01, 2004
Australian Weather Forecasts
The start of a new month brings us clear blue skies with a top temperature of 21 degrees* and unfortunately no sign of rain.There was a bit of rain here a few weeks ago, but basically nada, zip, zero, zilch. Which is great if you want to enjoy the sunshine but lousy if you want a lawn that is any colour other than brown or yellow. * Degrees centigrade, and it's the middle of winter here in Sydney.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:54 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 30, 2004
Have They No What?
Andrew Sullivan asks Have they no shame?
Well, no. Duh. Shame is what happens to other people. (Warning: The picture that the link takes you to is pretty offensive. Poorly-executed Hieronymous Bosch-as-leftist-propaganda sort of thing.)Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:13 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man
Ranks number 22 20 16 8 5 4 at Amazon.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:16 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 29, 2004
When I Win The Lottery...
At least I'll know where to spend it all.
92" monitors? 3.8GHz desktop PCs with solid-state disks and 16GB of memory? Laptop computers with built-in RAID? Linux servers with up to 32 CPUs and 112 expansion slots? Drool...Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:49 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Upcoming Events
As I mentioned before, there will be a rally held in Sydney tomorrow (June 30) to demand that Australia's troops be withdrawn from Iraq. Of course, as of yesterday our troops are there at the express request of the Iraqi government, so this demand is unlikely to gain much traction.
Thursday July 1 marks the first birthday of the Mu.Nu Forums, and your lovely hostess Renata is holding a party! All welcome as long as you behave... Unless your name begins in S, or you live in Texas or Michigan. (Registration necessary, otherwise you can't see the good bits.) Sunday July 4 is Australia's Reserve Forces Day, with a parade through Sydney's streets featuring 90 horsies and a column of armoured vehicles! How cool is that? Also, our American friends will be celebrating their Nation Barbecue and Fireworks day.Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:42 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 28, 2004
Anime-Style Catgirls: Threat, Menace, Or Just Studying Algebra?
Pixy Misa's award for Correct Use of Algebra this month goes to Pretty Cure. In the first episode (by the way, can anyone tell me what that theme song is reminding me of?) our heroine Nagisa (the sporty one) is called upon in class to solve the equation:
x - 7 = 19 + xWhile she was dithering on the screen, I was saying to myself That's not possible - it simplifies to 0 = 26! Then our other heroine, Honoka (the brainy one) stands up and says That's not possible - it simplifies to 0 = 26! Perhaps you meant to write x - 7 = 19 - x, and then x would be 13. Well. Apart from that the show wasn't particularly impressive.. And irritating trick of the month goes to Aishiteruze Baby... Which puts an extra minute of story after the closing credits, something I didn't discover until episode 12.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:25 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 25, 2004
What A Comforting Fact That Is To Know
I think we may have seen this one before, but anyway:
Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:03 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 19, 2004
Bad News For The Less Deadly Half Of The Species
Brought to you care of Serenity and SarahK.
But... Um, ladies, I knew about this. And I'm, err, well, a guy.Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:45 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 18, 2004
The Politics of Sense and Nonsense
I'd love to read a book with that title - assuming it lived up to the title. Or even to write one, though it would take me a full year of work, because I'm not nearly well-enough informed on the subject to even consider writing it now. Either way, though, we need such a book, because the current issue of New Scientist* has a headline
Conspiracy threat to anti-nuke treatyWho? China selling secrets to Pakistan? Pakistan dealing with Iran? North Korea and Syria? Read the sub-head:
Secret swapping between the US and UK is undermining global stabilityAnd ask yourself: What the hell kind of planet do these lunatics live on, anyway? The US-UK alliance has been the underpinning of whatever peace we've enjoyed here on Earth this past century - flawed though it has been. Remember World War I? World War II? The Cold War? The Current Unpleasantness? Hello? Mr Functioning Brain Cell? Hello? They are allies, and more than that, they are the core of The Allies. And they both already have nuclear weapons, and they aren't sharing the information with anyone else, so it's unclear exactly how this is supposed to lead to proliferation. The only bright point of the article is the reference to the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy. No, really, that's what it's called. * Yeah, them again.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:27 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
June 16, 2004
Because My Main Page Isn't Long Enough Yet
From Rob of XSet this little meme:
- Bold those you’ve read
- Italicise those you started but never finished
- Add three of your own
- Post to your blog
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:59 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Moderate! Moderate!
Ooh, I have moderator points at Slashdot. Where's some idiot lefties for me to moderate down? Oh, here they are!
I'm not sure why I keep getting moderator points, but I guess it's because they pretty much give them away like candy. Of course, I violate the Moderation Guidelines every chance I get:
Concentrate more on promoting than on demoting. The real goal here is to find the juicy good stuff and let others read it. Do not promote personal agendas. Do not let your opinions factor in. Try to be impartial about this. Simply disagreeing with a comment is not a valid reason to mark it down. Likewise, agreeing with a comment is not a valid reason to mark it up. The goal here is to share ideas. To sift through the haystack and find needles. And to keep the children who like to spam Slashdot in check.Whenever I get mod points, my first thought is to chop down some of the idiots that plague the place. The fact that many of the idiots are also lefties simply makes the task more enjoyable.
Since the place is full of lefty idiots with mod points, lefty idiot posts tend to get moderated up to the maximum rating of 5 rather often. If you take a look at the details, though, you'll often see a post rated at 5 with +11 positive and -7 negative - so there's clearly more than just me battling the lunacy. Unfortunately, they don't have the moderation flags they really need, like +1 Right, -1 Wrong, and -∞ Stupid.
Anyway, there's something interesting coming out of this hotbed of Crypto-Communism - oops, that's Kuro5hin - this hotbed of political naïveté:
In a forum with a strongly liberal readership, just 1% are voting because they favour Kerry. (Or whoever they think the challenger is; there's at least one commenter voting Libertarian.) That's gotta hurt.
Displaying poll results.
Why Will You Vote In The Next Election?
No reason, really. 1459 / 5%
Hate the incumbent. Love the incumbent. Hate the challenger. Love the challenger. Civic duty. Pride. Just want to get 'I Voted' sticker. 28945 total votes.
Don't complain about lack of options. You've got to pick a few when you do multiple choice. Those are the breaks. Feel free to suggest poll ideas if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest reading the past polls first. This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
Why Will You Vote In The Next Election?
1459 /
5%
(Though it just provides another datapoint for the thesis that the current Democratic Party is not for anything, only against things. As if we needed another such datapoint.)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:24 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Magic, Part 1
When I was ten, I wanted to be a writer.
Young Pixy: You mean they pay people to make up stories?!When I was twelve, I wanted to be a teacher.
Teacher: Yes, child. It's called journalism.
Teacher: You don't want to be a teacher! You're too smart for that; it would be a waste of your talents.When I was fourteen, I knew I was going to be a computer programmer. What I wanted to be, of course, was a wizard, but there's no money in wizarding. And programming is the next best thing. In fact, if you think about it, it's the same thing, except that it sometimes works. You say the secret words, and if you get it right, the result is magic. If you get it wrong, of course, you get dragged off to hell by demons. (Don't try to tell me otherwise. I had sign off on a major Y2K project. I saw the contract.) Programming allows you to work in a medium that is almost infinitely tractable. It's not like, say, sculpture, where one slip of the chisel and
Young Pixy: Guk.
Oops. That's got to hurt.If you make a mistake, you can go back and do it again. And again and again. And you can make multiple copies of your work and the touch of a button, and compare them, and make changes, and keep the good and reject the bad. The problem with that is that the results are largely limited only by your skill and your patience. More so now than fifteen or twenty years ago, when the absolute limits of the computer hardware put a clearly marked boundary around most projects. If you only have one megabyte of memory, and the feature list would require two megabytes of memory, then some of the features have to go. When you have eight gigabytes of memory, you can no longer make this argument. Instead, today it's more a case of, Yes, you can have everything you want. If you can think of it, it can be done. Now which features did you want first? It's a sort of a Limited Omnipotence. We can do anything, we just can't do everything. (And of course, we don't always know the consequences of what we do.) And when it works, it's magic. Take Google, for example. If I wanted to learn about, say, magnetohydrodynamics, I can just type in the word (assuming I know how to spell it) and hit enter, and in three-tenths of a second (or to touch on something I'll come back to later, no time at all) I have the first ten of over forty-four thousand results. Bing! The demons of Jack Vance's Dying Earth books were never this helpful. And the reason that it's magical is that we can't see how it works. Unless you already know how Google works, there's not much you can determine from using it. You can work out some of what it does, the way it ranks pages, for example, but those are the just rules that it follows, not the reason it follows those rules. It's kind of like our understanding of the atom before the discovery of subatomic particles - we can describe and predict how atoms behave, but we don't know why. One of the most useful ways of finding out how something works is to look at a broken one - or indeed, to break one deliberately and see what happens. There's a lot of information in failure modes. That's why scientists built atom smashers, for example. And if not for a faulty connector, I would never have known that Cityrail ticket machines use EBCDIC. And that's also why, I think, we get so mad when software doesn't work. There's no feedback on the internal operations when it does work, unlike the familiar machinery that surrounds us with its clanking and grinding and whirring. When a car is about to break down, it usually makes horrible noises first, and then makes a really horrible noise just as it fails. And even if you can't tell from the noise that the flange sprocket has worn through the fairing pin and fallen into the gearbox, you can at least tell that something has actually, physically, broken. And that replacing the broken thing will make the car work again, and that although this will cost lots of money, you can at least be reasonably assured that upon payment of said money, your car will be repaired. But with computers...
No, she's meant to have no nose. It's, like, allegorical.
It got bitten off by one, then?
Yesterday, when I clicked this, it retrieved my email. Today, it doesn't work. I don't get any errors, it just doesn't do anything. (My crystal ball doesn't work!)The problem is, we are wizards, near enough. We're just not good at it. (End of Part 1)
Have you tried rebooting? (Did you start again from page one in the Codex Emailulorum?)
Yes, that's the first thing I tried. (Yes, that's the first thing I tried!)
Did it help? (Did it help.)
No. (No. And can you do anything about these sales pitches for time-shares in Hell I keep getting?)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:47 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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