George Files

Arthur C Clarke is dead

Ouch, I wanted to see him before he went. He did forecast the tsunami.

I’ve also forgotten password to other blog, and am at work. Ah well.

Posted by roshan.george under Reading | Comments (5)

Laugh-out-loud cats?

I don’t quite know what to make of this. It’s funny, but it’s a LOLcat comic?

Posted by roshan.george under Internet | Comments (1)

The Problem with Digg

On Slashdot, there’s a popular joke about how most people don’t read the article listed before they comment on the topic - presumably by reading the summary or, in some cases, just the headline. On Digg, however, the stories are voted popular by people who have user accounts on the site. This is normally okay, but the video below demonstrates just why Digg is such a bad idea :P

The Problem with Digg - Ogg

If you don’t get it, see exactly when the options for digging/burying are enabled and when they’re disabled.

Posted by roshan.george under Internet, Videos | Comments (4)

Slogan Generator - You deserve a George today

Someone posted a link to this on a forum I know, it’s hilarious, generates slogans from a word that you give it. I used George and got the ominous “George comes to those who wait.” just before I got the one in the title. Of course I left out the less flattering ones like, “Cleans your floor without George”. Give it a shot.

Posted by roshan.george under Funneh, Internet | Comments (3)

Pointless

No really, it is. I try to go to sleep early, really I do, but I just lie there awake until around 3, when exhaustion overcomes me. As a consequence, it’s really hard to stay awake in class and sometimes I find myself being shaken awake at the end of a class not remembering when I fell asleep. It’s not possible to go on like this anymore. Something must be done, holidays must be granted. Please, for the love of god. It all seems so pointless. Like this cat, for instance:

Posted by roshan.george under Art, College | Comments (8)

Ooh Trains - Fast Ones

I’ve loved trains ever since I was a kid. I remember running/cycling down to the station just to wave at the trains going by, and pestering my dad to take me to the engine. I did get in a steam engine once and even pulled the thing that makes it go toot, a very nice experience. So it gives me one hell of a thrill to hear about new trains, especially these beautiful high speed ones that make my 18km train journey to college seem like a walk to the refrigerator.

The Alstom AGV, 360 kilometres an hour, I could go from here to Delhi in a day! Right across the country! There’s something about a train journey that a flight can’t replicate, being able to walk around all the time, not have to worry about turbulence and leg room, lots of leg room. If they could get a train that was at least go at half the speed consistently would really make my day. Of course there’s the usual problem with people insisting on crossing the tracks when overbridges are clearly present. I can understand if they did it because they can’t climb the bridge but I can hardly imagine someone climbing the 3-4 foot high platform while being unable to climb the stairs to the bridge.

In other news, the chair I was sitting on broke while I was typing this.

Posted by roshan.george under Tech | Comments (24)

Spoilers

This one is for Marc and Suren: Do you remember The Neutronium Alchemist? I do. Crossroads of Twilight? I do. Pandora’s Star? I won’t forget that either. Thanks for all the help spoiling the story, it’s just what I needed. I’m always the goddamn second chicken.

Chicken: Is this “The Sixth Sense”? Have the robots killed the boy yet??
Other Chicken: Augh!

Tip: Spoiling movies is more fun if you make up new endings

Posted by roshan.george under Art, Friends, Internet | Comments (5)

The Pirate Bay Investigation

Apparently you can get the documents for the investigation relating to whether The Pirate Bay is illegal or not by paying a large sum (about 40 grand). What’s their opinion on this?

They cost 6050 SEK for all of them (about 1000 USD). Our view of it? Why not just make a PDF, make a torrent of the PDF and seed it. We know a perfect place you can do that for free, and nobody would have to pay for all those pages of investigation. And a hell of a lot of trees would be saved… And even though the information in the investigation might be a bit personal at times (alcohol intake, sex addictions) we’re not suing the police for commercially exploiting the material they took from us without permission.

Ha ha, unbelievably awesome! The thing about file-sharers is that you can get stuff that is so incredibly hard to find today so easily there. They’ve got all sorts of rare movies, comics (some of which don’t even sell here) and books (some of which you suddenly need a few days before the exam). Major props to these guys!

Posted by roshan.george under Internet | Comments (11)

Free Web Counter

I’ve tried keeping track of the number of people who are visiting my blog each day and it’s one hell of a tedious process when your host doesn’t handle processing of the logs. You have to get the logs and then process them yourself. A much simpler way of doing things is to get a free counter. This is particularly important when you’re on a place like blogspot or if you need myspace counters. On these sites you can’t actually get the logs either so a nice simple elegant solution are these counters which allow you to track just how visitors get to your site.

Posted by roshan.george under Ads | Comments (0)

Controversial Advertisements

I was just browsing the BBC Feed and came upon this article about a controversial RyanAir ad. It’s pretty obvious what they’re trying to pull here, but frankly, it’s not all that offensive or anything. I’ve always wondered about people who get offended by stuff like this - what are they thinking? Perhaps, Oh my god, teenage girls will think they’ll get low fares if they dress like that! or maybe They’re insulting the dignity of the young women of the country. They are against British culture.. I can just imagine what would happen if those ads were displayed here. Actually, I don’t have to, I just know there’ll be more car accidents.

We have a strange dichotomy, there’ll be women in wet saris running around trees and wrapping themselves provocatively around the male leads of the movies but the slightest word about anything and cultures will suddenly become offended, women will become insulted and the world will go wrong. What a pathetic bunch of desperate people, here’s a point for you sociologists - this is what happens to people who can’t get any and really really want some. Face it, sex sells, and you like it that way. It’s like those little kids who do something and then act all sanctimonious about the whole thing in the hope that they’ll be the last person suspected.

Of course no one’s falling for RyanAir’s hilarious story explaining just why they aren’t going to be withdrawing the ad. If anyone goes out into the London streets dressed like that they’ll get frostbite, and pneumonia, and just die of exposure.

Here’s the offending ad.

Posted by roshan.george under Society | Comments (12)