All aboard for i386

Well, by the time you read this, I will be at NCSS, hopefully having lots of fun, but I can’t let my blog fall silent for a whole week, so I have (hopefully) set a scheduled post. If you are reading this, then it was successul. YAY! Now, to get here, I went on a plane. Big Woop. But, this is something that I’m sure not even Ozzyfrog might know about planes. The autopilot runs on the 80386 CPU. Now, unless you were born in the 70’s (or earlier) you probably won’t have a clue what that means. From that clue, you can probably guess that it is not a state-of-the-art, modern processor. Oh no, it is, in fact, a 1986 processor. Somebody out there might remember running there awesome 386 processor, this is it. This is before the days of Pentium (the original, at least some people should remember them).

Don’t lose your faith in planes however, even though a modern CPU is 1000’s of times more powerful, consider this: it has 5 of them. I hear you gasp in shock and awe… indeed, even if one of these dinosaurs remembers it was extincted 65 million years ago, there are still four more to fly your plane. Don’t worry, they are so slow, by the time they realise they are dead, the plane will already have landed safely.

Typically, these processors ran at 16MHz, compared to the 1.6Ghz my laptop processor runs at. That’s 100 times faster. But then again, my laptop processor is based on the Core architecture, so can do 4 calculations per clock. Oh, and it’s dual core. That makes it 800 times faster. Not to mention the improved instruction sets developed since the 386 was released. The 386 does have some things going for it though: it’s been around for nigh on 23 years, so people pretty much know everything there is to know about it. It is also one of the simplest CPUs on the x86 instruction set, which is still used to this day. It supports true virtualisation, and it’s good to know that if one part of the autopilot screws up, it won’t crash the whole computer.

So, next time you board an aeroplane, say thankyou to the folk at Intel for building such a reliable processor. Oh, and what a testament to “old stuff lasts longer”.

Now, this is an unusual situation, since I won’t be able to read, moderate, respond, etc. to any comments until I return, so, by all means, leave a nice message, spam the blog, or start a flame war. I hope you all have a nice time, I am (or will be), so everyone else should too!

New Year’s Revolutions

Ok, I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions, but if I did, I would make the resolution to keep my blog going, keep it interesting and entertaining. So, with that motive in mind, I’d like to hear your feedback on my blog so far. What do you think of it? Do you like it? I can take into account your feedback, and make this blog better. So, dump your thoughts into the poll below. Also, welcome to 2009! In Roman Numerals it is MMIX, which is kinda cool. Wikipedia’s page on 2009 has some quite interesting stuff, if you care to read it. Anyway, that’s about it, I look forward to your feedback, and to the new year!

Ozzyfrog’s [new] blog

Well, I figure all folk should know that Ozzyfrog, not content with earbashing the world from one source, is now offering rants in stereo! LOL, ok, he just began a new blog. I’m guessing it is more of the same stuff that we have been seeing on Ozzycaiphas, but obviously Ozzyfrog will be the sole editor. Anyway, I am glad to see that I am already in the blogroll . Good luck with your new venture Ozzyfrog, I look forward to reading more of the “disease” to come.

Designing intelligence- evolving the concept of life

Hooray, strap yourselves in for a highly philosophical musing on the nature of life. In particular, I want to explore evolution and intelligent design. Faith is often a very tricky topic to discuss, but I will do my best. I think I am a spiritual person, even though I don’t strongly adhere to any particular faith. I think everyone should have their own philosophy, so I’m not forcing opinions on anyone, just making some observations and discussion. Science seems to be the predominant faith among people these days, but there are some areas of the whole universe explanation that just don’t work.

What about evolution? Sure, it looks good as a grand theory on how arrogant humans are the best animals on the planet, but just why does it work? The classic debate is eyes; while this is certainly not the only interesting situation, it is one of the most compelling counter-arguments to evolution. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution revolves around the maxim “survival of the fittest”. Exactly what made the primitive eye “fittest”? Considering the primitive eye was just a splodge of photoreceptive chemicals, how would this help? These first eyes would only be able to tell the difference between “night” and “day” as they were too crude to recognise anything useful. These organisms don’t have any form of night/day cycle, and survived without knowing the time, why would they suddenly need to know? Since “eyes” offered no advantage to the survival of the organisms, the organisms that possessed eyes would surely die out due to their mutated genetics. Evolution appears to be wrong.

Perhaps the cause of the eye truly is God, ahem, playing god; aka “Intelligent Design” (ID). I don’t think this is the answer either. It was most likely just chance that made this happen. Sure, there is a slim chance, but it could happen, and obviously did happen. But arguing evolution in this instance is poor science. Obviously there is no advantage in having such a crude eye, and it is just luck that it survived. I don’t believe in Creationism, although there is nothing wrong with it. Evolution has a lot of appeal to scientific minds, but if one examines it closely, it does not satisfy the keen observer. Intelligent design seems to be a compromise between them, but is accepted by neither. The true “story of life” is impossible to tell, as anyone can make “evidence” support their own faith.

• Creationism is simple: everything was created by a higher power, and any evidence that suggests otherwise is just a test of faith. Which, in this day and age, lots of people have failed.
• Evolution is simple: everything is derived from simpler states, and all happens because of definable “rules” and “laws”. In a modern and chaotic world, people like the comfort that some things are always the same; the laws of nature. The evidence obviously proves this to be so?
• Classical mythology is simple: everything is built out of elements, which make all objects different. All objects have a patron deity, which watches over and guides them. It is just common sense that things work this way, there is no need for evidence.
• Nihilism: everything is nothing.
• Various other-ology, -ism: truncate, squeeze, squash, and generally shout loudly until the evidence is in a suitable state to support your grand theorem.

Anyway, that’s about all I have time for, but I hope this has been interesting. I want to hear you replies, comments, pingbacks, deblatogs, but don’t start any flame wars or I will be upset. Everyone can and does have their own philosophy in these situations, so respect that, all the while reflecting upon and considering your own. If anybody likes this, I will unleash some more of my philosophy upon you, but for now, let’s just see everybody deal with this.

This message will self-destruct

You know, everyone who doesn’t like Vista often cites reasons like the increased resource requirements, the flashy useless GUI, the compatibility issues, whatever pops into their head at the time. Their big favourite is the UAC, that extremely annoying screen-darkening and popup that happens when the computer gets nervous and modest. If you so much as glance at the hard drive, up comes UAC asking whether you really want to do that, or whether it can just go home and cry.

If this post is going nowhere, wait for this: I have a challenge. The UAC is certainly not the most annoying feature in Vista. No way! That doesn’t even come close! Imagine the shock and frustration I experienced when I was told my computer would self-destruct, and there was nothing I could do about it! Windows Update had decided that it needed instant gratification, and since it is software and not a dog, I can’t just pat it or give it some treats. So, I watched helplessly as my computer’s life neared end.

What a joke! See here the promising defusal kit, the Postpone button, mercilessly confiscated from my use! And there was great wailing and gnashing of teeth at the impending doom. Instead of outfitting me with a defusal kit, they armed me with a pistol and a single bullet… for the quick way out… Isn’t it amusing how the package it as “Restart now”?

Well, I think that’s the end of that little episode, so, as always, let’s hear about your own near-death (or rather just death) experiences.

PS: Go Inspector Gadget!

I have a cunning plan: BluemonkeyBlockLand

Well, I have decided that I am going to make my own website. As you may have guessed, it will be called BluemonkeyBlockLand (For any stalkers out there, you have undoubtedly already seen my bored attempts on google pages and google sites). I am going to build this website from scratch, so that I can make exactly what I want.

For the web devs out there, be informed that I will be writing it in ASP.NET 3.5, as it is, in my opinion, a superior platform to php (it has built-in AJAX support). I am also too lazy to learn php, and being able to write all interactive content in a .NET language really accelerates the development process.

For the non-techies who just want to know what to look forward to, here is a rough rundown of features I want to include:

• A three-column, modular layout, featuring two sidebars.
• A hybrid forum/blog engine that emphasises thread-based posting, feedback, and discussion.
• An integrated chatroom/IM client that allows users to chat with other users of the site, as well as discuss specific topics in depth.
• An efficient AJAX user interface that updates page contents more easily and quickly.
• Any other ideas that readers think would be good.

I want the website be a really good place for discussion, about all topics. As said before, it will be a blend of blog and forum.

I must go now, but stay tuned for more details as the development schedule kicks into action!

party-type-thing and general post filling

Today is the occasion of my 16.07th birthday. I am having a party-type-thing. YAY. Anyway, we shall be watching movies, eating food, and having general merriment. Unfortunately some people couldn’t come, so they get -100 score. This is basically a filler post so that Hatkirby doesn’t complain about me going missing, but I shall update this here blog, saying how wonderful it all is. Tamasys, AtlanticSlamon, Ozzycaiphas, I expect to see pingbacks by the morrow detailing just how wonderful the party was! ps: Yay for links!

UPDATE: Tamasys took line honours with the first post, followed later by Ozzyfrog’s post, which went into a bit more depth. Caiphas and Atlanticslamon are slack and are yet to post.

Crazy Japanese Stationery

With several years of experience hosting Japanese homestay exchange students, I know for sure that Japanese people have the most innovative, creative, useful, and just plain weird stationery. The stimulus to this post was a recent parcel I got from one of our previous guests, containing, among other things, some erasable highlighters. WOW. Sure, everyone knows you can erase pencils, and erasable pens are fairly common if you look (especially in Japan). Erasable highlighters are an extra step in the progression of awesome.

Now, I haven’t even started on origami yet. Needless to say, origami is extremely amazing, wondrous, awe-inspiring, and many other benevolent adjectives. Now, one would normally consider a paper crane to be a decent effort in origami construction. Needless to say, making 1000 cranes is a tremendous achievement; so good in fact, that you are granted a wish for completing it. A famous story is that of Sadako Sasaki, who suffered radiation poisoning after the Hiroshima bombing in 1945. Extremely sick and nearing death, she decided to fold 1000 paper cranes, so that she might be visited by a crane and have her leukaemia cured. She worked day and night folding paper cranes. She only folded 644 cranes, before she became too weak to fold one more crane, and died soon after. Her friends completed the senbarazu (1000 paper cranes), in her memory. The paper crane, especially senbarazu, is a symbol of world peace.

On a lighter note, there are many other amazing origami constructions. Recently, I found out how to construct polyhedrons with origami. Starting with a modular component, I built disks, cubes, triangular hexahedrons, and stellated octahedrons. The crowning glory was a stellated icosahedron, which used well over 30 pieces of paper to construct. Here is proof that I have too much time on my hands.

The next wave

Ok, I will start by admitting that this blog has fallen into negligence. To rectify this, I have decided to start posting more often. I have a wealth of new ideas waiting to be blogged about (Ok, that was a bluff, but I will quickly figure something out, I hope!), so expect some new, hopefully interesting new material here. I think I will start with some easy topics, and might move into some more complex ideas. I want to deliver you, the reader, something more carefully considered than most blog posts.

Oh, and hopefully they are higher quality than this one.

MS Office 2007

Well I know a lot of people have an irrational hatred of Microsoft, or at least their newer products, such as Office 2007 and Vista. Well, here I am, preparing myself to launch into the defence of Office 2007.

I have used Office 2007 ever since it came out, as I got it in a free upgrade from 2003 edition (ok, it wasn’t quite free, it was $27, but that’s near enough to free…). Personally, I love everything about it. The first thing you notice is that it all has pretty colourful new icons. Then once you have opened up, you notice the major change in 2007: the “Fluent User Interface”, including the ribbon. While it takes a little bit of getting used to (not too much fortunately), you will soon be working faster and more efficiently than ever. It makes it a lot easier to apply formatting, layout, etc. all changes, and it allows you to discover new commands and features that were previously buried away in menus. Admittedly it isn’t quite perfect, it would be nice to have some form of customisation in the ribbon, but it usually shows the most relevant commands. Now if you have any interest in Office 2007, you have undoubtedly already read a lot of detailed information, so I will not go about it in too much depth.

Although most ‘new’ features are actually just undiscovered features from older versions, there are some features that are genuinely new. I can’t remember all of them, but two really useful features that I use a lot is the ability to write blog posts directly in Word, and Outlook RSS reading. So basically instead of using a clunky web-based interface, I can write blog posts in word at superspeed, and then publish them in one click, no stress. In Outlook, I can subscribe to blogs, news, and other info and have it automatically deliver these straight to my computer- no manual checking required. Very useful, both of them.

I must wrap it up there, not just because it’s getting long again, but because I am about to go out. Anyway, enjoy, and look into Office 2007. It is very good.