How to hang computer!

Heard of something called a googol? No, I don’t mean the massive search engine, Google, but the absolutely massive number 10^100: a googol. In layman’s terms, it is a one, followed by 100 zeroes. For those not impressed by this number, what about a googolplex? This takes the stupendously large number game and shatters it. A googolplex could be written as 10^10^100. In other words, it is 1 with a googol zeroes after it. This number is simply immensely huge! For those who want to have some fun, open up a word processing program and try to write it out (hint: ctrl-C, ctrl-V, select ‘0’s, ctrl-C, ctrl-V, …). I only managed to get 1,000,000 zeroes before my computer started seriously hanging and I gave up waiting. This is over 200 pages of zeroes, which I thought was a fair effort. A neat trick for counting the number of zeroes: open up the word count statistics and find where it displays the number of characters in the document. This number, subtract 1 (remember there is a 1 at the start!), is your zero-count. So go ahead, get cut-pasting! Post your high scores in the comments section of the blog.

 

Disclaimer: Bluemonkey will not be held responsible for any damages, loss of data or property resulting from these practices. Users proceed entirely at own risk.

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets

Wtf moment:    http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/

Abstract

“Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified.

These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC).

Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government’s invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.”

…?

iPods (and iPhones while I’m at it)

Ok, so we all know what an iPod is right? Those portable media player that everybody and their dog own. Obviously, they have a very dominant share, but is there actually anything particularly good about them? Just as some background information, Apple recently announced their new range of iPod media players. So, I’ll have my rant about what I see, and point the finger at sheep who buy the products. (Nice introduction here, methinks)

Well, anyone expecting something new and exciting in the latest releases will be extremely disappointed; the new iPods are the same as before. It’s interesting that to see the new Nano: Apple have finally realised that the 3^rd generation iPod shape is absolutely shocking. The 4^th generation Nanos are pretty much clones of the 2^nd gen ones, but come in “chromatic colours”, meaning that you will be even more disappointed when shops don’t stock the colour that will match your outfit. They also supposedly have an “oval cross-section”. Um… why? Anyway, I can’t be too critical as the shape is definitely better than the very unfriendly shape of the 3^rd generation iPod.

Now, the iPod touch falls into its own category of iPod/apple hatred. First off, it’s just a clone of an iPhone, without a phone. Now, iPhone is probably my 2^nd-most hated thing in the world (coming a close second to Ford Territorys). It’s just SO gimmicky and useless. Sure, you will pull a lot of gormless girls, but as a product, it’s terrible. Now, the iPod touch is both better and worse than the iPhone because it doesn’t have a phone. Obviously, you just lost the phone, which is uncool, but think of all the phone bills you got yourself out of! The iPhone is designed for use in America, where the carrier network, AT&T, provides unlimited data. Port the phone over to Australia, where you pay $1 per MB of data you download, and a problem quickly becomes evident. Needless to say, people are getting nasty shocks when they get their phone bill. Now, I’m definitely getting off track here, but the “superfast 3G iPod” is only fully supported on 1 network out of the 4 selling it in Australia- Telstra. As soon as you move out of a city area, the other networks switch to a different frequency of 3G- a frequency not supported by the iPhone. Congratulations, your iPhone now works at dialup speed. (This is probably a good thing, considering the data you would otherwise chew through.) Anyway, the iPhone has hijacked this paragraph, so I’ll just start a new one.

I think last paragraph was supposed to be about how annoying the touch interface is, so I’ll make that assumption and go from there. So, while everyone (not a literal measurement, just a broad random sample of the community at large (especially the dumb ones (…oops did I say that out loud? (Wow, maximum bracket nesting!)))) who hasn’t used an iPhone worships this cool touch screen and thinks it’s the best thing since… well… iPods. But seriously, is it actually a good idea to have a touch screen on a portable media player? “Oh, I want to change song, I will just smear my finger all over the screen and find it!” So, if you have a hand-washing OCD, or you live in a bubble, you might have hands clean enough to use it without eventually leaving smudges everywhere, but for the rest of us, it’s inevitable. And even for those bubble-dwellers out there, how are you supposed to see anything when you are covering the screen with your hand? In the end, what advantage does it have? Ok, so the iPod click-wheel isn’t very ergonomic either, but a touch screen is just impractical.

Overall, iPod’s market dominance is obvious, yet disturbing. The success of iPod boils down to one thing: marketing. We all know that marketing is Apple’s forte; they don’t actually need to make good products, just as long as they make good ads. There was once a time when iPods were genuinely better than everything else in the market, but this is most certainly no longer true. There are so many alternatives just as good as, or better than the iPod. Yet these players just can’t topple the iPod monopoly. This is due to the social marketing made by Apple. I’ll say it again, there are so many good alternatives these days that there is no reason to buy an iPod. People who buy iPods are sheep. Unfortunately, the iPod phenomenon means that it is harder to buy any other brand. Shops will sell “IPOD! IPOD! IPOD! (oh, and a couple of other random brands)”. Arguably the best players are also the rarest: No major electrical stores sell Archos, only a few sell creatives, sandisks or irivers. My personal favourite, the Zune (http://www.zune.net/en-US/), isn’t even available in Australia! How can any company expect to do business when they only sell in US&Canada?

This article is already WAY too long, so I won’t clutter it any further. Congratulations on the read, and hope it was mildly interesting.