Warm Fuzzy

When I was a teenager who put technology on a pedestal for reasons best described as self-preservation, Byte Magazine was a thick hobbyist magazine that had all manner of interesting articles for a curious young mind - things that stretched the mental blocks of what was possible. One of these articles described Apple's Hypertext, something that beckoned my inner autodidact in ways that cannot be described as anything other than an odd mixture of hope, relief, and anticipation. The thought of being able to click a word and find a tangent of information was very appealing. I often read my father's engineering texts much to his consternation, and spent more time trying to find things in the Appendices than actually moving forward.

So the hypertext idea was very appealing. A click, and I could find out what the heck the word meant. Who wouldn't like that? About 10 years after the article - maybe 15 - the Internet came along, and this whole HTML thing came with it. And it was 'Oh-So-Very-Close-But-Not-Quite'. When the Internet first started off, it seemed that one could get lost in tendrils of hyperlinks. Then came the frames in HTML, but frames were and continue to be remarkably less than genius. Search Engines came along and indexed all the monstrous amounts of information and misinformation available, with Google leading the charge on how important pages are based on an algorithm described as 'Page Rank'. People tried pop up windows for a while, but the minority of spammers destroyed the majority of usefulness in what, in terms of geology, could be best described as the amount of time a Tyrannosaurus Rex took to chew it's food. { Read more }

I got a chance to play with Core Mind Builder Pro for Windows XP/Vista, and I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started with it. I got it for review purposes - but I've always enjoyed puzzles. Scores never meant much for me on these sorts of things, but the feeling when one sees the solution just appear is... addictive. The trick is usually knowing how to look at the problem.

As soon as I got some free time, I played with it the first time - establishing a baseline for myself. I'd share my scores with you, but if they are higher than average it would mean some would think I cheated and if they were lower than average, some would think I was a moron. I'm happy not to tell you and give you no reason to believe either way. What I will say is that it does take time to go through the test - there are a few curve balls in there. The clock ticks, it ticks, it ticks... after a while you can tune it out, though I think the added sense of pressure might add something to the experience.

The score was actually a little lower than I had expected. I was sure that I had nailed quite a few, but in going through the review I found some mistakes that I had made in haste - and a few that I had quite simply looked at the wrong way. Tick tock. Some people might be turned off by that, but it is sort of like working the weaker muscles in your body to strengthen them. That is the overall goal of Core Mind Builder Pro, after all - if you wanted a quick fix for strengthening your mind, there are none to be found. It requires some effort.

Over the next few days, as I had time, I did some of the building exercises. It was actually refreshing to work on problems that were so much more finite than I have grown used to, so in an odd way it was relaxing. And I learned a few things along the way. { Read more }

Via email (and after trying it out... comments below):

EIDOS PARTNERS WITH TRIALPAY TO GIVE PLAYERS THOUSANDS OF WAYS TO GET TOMB RAIDER ANNIVERSARY FOR FREE

Mountain View, Calif. – February 15, 2008 – Lara Croft celebrates her birthday this Valentine's Day and to commemorate the event, Eidos is inviting players to enjoy Tomb Raider Anniversary for free. Eidos, a world-leader in entertainment software, and TrialPay, the leader in alternative payments, have partnered to make it even easier for customers all over the world to play Tomb Raider.

Using TrialPay, players get a free subscription to Tomb Raider Anniversary by trying or buying an offer from blue-chip advertisers. With TrialPay everyone wins!

"I can't think of a better way to celebrate Lara Croft's 10th anniversary than by letting loyal players get the new Tomb Raider Anniversary game for free,” said Dave Clark, vice president of new business development for Eidos. "Through our partnership with TrialPay, more players will be able to enjoy the Tomb Raider series, and these players get a great deal which fosters the brand loyalty that has made Lara Croft the first lady of gaming for a decade.”

Tomb Raider Anniversary commemorates this occasion by offering a revisualization of a gaming classic using advanced rendering technology to bring the original Tomb Raider Game to life for today's audience. And through this partnership with TrialPay, anyone can get the game for free by completing one offer from the brand of his or her choice.

"TrialPay lets millions of Tomb Raider fans get the Anniversary game for free by trying or buying an offer from their preferred brands,” said Alex Rampell, TrialPay's CEO. "We are extremely proud to partner with Eidos for Lara Croft's 10th anniversary.” { Read more }

Everyone's favorite Lego brick is now 50 years old, from humble beginnings in a carpenter workshop in Billund, Denmark - the carpenter workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen.

Over the years, Lego has seemed to grow with me - from houses to spaceships (and some were both) to cars, from motor driven to programmable and computer controlled Lego Mindstorms.

Happy 50th, Lego, and hopefully all these gaming consoles and computing technology will not take away the satisfying feel of two Lego bricks joining together. And I saw that I am not alone: I see Google is also paying some tribute.

Its funny how one can go almost anywhere and talk about Legos... and have something in common with people.

In that way, Legos connect the world.

About a month ago, I got an email from an old friend about some dip I had made while in Clearwater, Florida, and so I got the ingredients together when I got back to Trinidad - and last night I made the best bachelor recipe ever - simple, fast and hot. It can be a dip, it can be a part of a sandwich, and it can be mixed with mashed potatoes or hash to create a bastardized Shepherd's Pie.

The history of this involves two bachelors in a kitchen - my father and I - scrounging what we could find in the kitchen on the weekend that the wicked stepmother left (Yay!). Times were tight, and the cupboards were not well stocked. Even so, we came up with this concoction.

Before you start, you will need the following:

• Clean saucepan, preferably iron.
• Clean fork.
• Clean plate
• Oil, preferably extra virgin olive oil so that something in the meal is considered healthy.
• A can of corned beef, a can of red kidney beans.

The ingredients are simple:

• one can of Corned Beef
• one can of Red beans
• anything else you want
• Seasoning to suit.
• Cheese to suit

Preheat your saucepan (it's the wide and shallow one); if it is a manly iron pan then put some extra virgin olive oil in the pan and wipe it around with a clean paper towel. Open the cans while waiting for the oil to become hot, and drain the beans. Select the medium heat. { Read more }

About a week ago, I was contacted by a representative of a large company who any self-respecting geek would have given their mouse-hand to work for. It is a good company, one of the few I respect, so I was a bit flattered that they contacted me because of my LinkedIn profile. Of course, that profile and my resume give a sort of history of what I have done - so it was very flattering, but not necessarily what I wanted to do. It made me think. I didn't say 'no'. We agreed to talk, and days passed as we negotiated a voice connection - something we did today.

In email discussion, the basic stuff was outlined - stuff that, over 7 years ago, I used to live and breathe in dark corners such as MuppetLab. People threw problems at a group of people - solutions came out, no one understood how that group did it. I was a part of that group, and extremely lucky to have been. Very magical, that team of characters. { Read more }

When I saw this insect at the Paramaribo Airport on the way out of Suriname, I was intrigued. 3-4 inches long, and very interesting patterns on its back (click image to see larger version) - I was curious to know what it was, guessing it to be some form of soldier beetle. I couldn't find it on the web anywhere, so I decided to write What's That Bug? and within 24 hours - despite being swamped, they identified it as a Harlequin Beetle, Acrocinus longimanus. Apparently, this is the first bit of information on it on the web, as searching for Harlequin Beetle and Acrocinus longimanus turns up absolutely no results at the time of this writing other than noting that it is missing in the Wikipedia. Go figure.

In searching around for information on it, I found out that longimanus is 'μακρόχειρ "Macrocheir (Latin =Longimanus)"' through the referencec on Artaxerxes I of Persia, which is related to the disparity in length of appendages. Interesting stuff.

Daniel Marlos of WhatsThatBug.com wrote: { Read more }

I forget exactly how I got there, but Trini Fake News seems to be an up and coming political commentary blog which may rattle a few cages.

From a spoof of the Trinidad Guardian's front page announcing cell phones are banned to an amusing interview with Larry Achong, this site is one to keep an eye on, especially since the news there seems to be as authentic as what is printed in the press - better, perhaps, because we know that the stuff on Trini Fake News isn't true.

In truth, Trinidad and Tobago politics is a lot like dentistry - the politicians constantly pull on our teeth. At least now we have some laughing gas.

In other news, Patrick Manning, Winston Dookeran and Basdeo Panday are all on Facebook, likely in some sort of strange attempt to do something for the election on November 5th, 2007. Being a nice person who would be willing to drink with any of them, I added them as friends on Facebook.

This only means that I would drink with them. This does not mean that I think any one of them could run a country.