main() {char q=34,n=10,*a="main() {char q=34,n=10,*a=%c%s%c; printf(a,q,a,q,n);}%c"; printf(a,q,a,q,n);}
Lovely find here
So, you think you are super cool, since you ordered a gulfstream private jet?
Well, unfortunately there are still a couple of people that 1-up you. By a long shot.
Boeing builts 747s since the late sixties. What meant to be used for cargo, since all long passenger flight would go super sonic soon anyway, became the largest passenger plane. Until recently: Airbus finally trumped those huge 747 jumbos with their dead ugly A380 a few years ago.
One of those 43 sold A380s will actually be converted into a flying palace.
Boeing revealed their new 747-8i yesterday:
Turns out that 7 out of the 28 ordered 787-8i will be sold to “VIP clients” as well. The super rich certainly got allot richer in the last years.
Usually that kind of wealth can afford to remain invisible. Having the worlds largest passenger jet converted to your liking gives a glimpse how a billionaire rolls in 2011.
A good summary of what happened to Nokia. Point is that engineers can not run the show. But -of course- all the prettiest design in the world can not safe a project / company if the underlying technology is not up to the task.
Ars Technica describes how an IP address gets turned into a name at Comcast and TWC.
I really like email. It works well for me. One thing that I grew accustomed to was the abillity to postpone email. To set up quick reminders easily. I used ‘replylater.com’ for this. Unfortunately last month they stopped working for me.
I decided to just implement the same features myself: Mail Me Later works pretty much like replyater.com.
The ‘problem’ is, that once a tool works for me I completely start to rely on it. Having a topic delegated to a service like ‘mail me later’ means that I will entirely forget about it. Good since it saves hassle, really bad if that service fails.
Having this part of me workflow now in an environment where I can quickly verify its operation makes me very happy.
I had not seen this wonderful XKCD back in the day. It is great. Especially this part:
The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind. The sheer number of experiences I could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I’m sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live in trapped loops, reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out ahead of us.
We see the same things each day, we respond the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation on the last, every moment smoothly following the gentle
curves of societal norms. We act like if we just get through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us.
via blarn
I agree with everything he writes. I frequently do. Here he makes his case very clear.
For his profession to be interested in human perception and its inner workings makes allot of sense.
If I ever find that engineer that told the users that the way computers worked could be changed I’d kill him. He had it coming. He probably told those proto-users also that it would be complicated etc etc. But he had already lost them. All they remember is that they can change their mind. The how and why they don’t care about. “you can make that work, right”. No more planning. No more thought. Just charge ahead wherever your mind and dreams might guide you.
All goes to hell, since nobody thought about anything? No big deal. Can be changed. It’s easy, right?
Next profession I choose involves a chisel, a hammer and preferably rocks. Also handy to have something to throw on the floor at all times.
“Strange Maps” is a wonderful read for me. It shows that on the Internet even strange or obscure content will find an audience.
In the recent post pages from Life Magazine in the forties are the subject. I find them highly entertaining. What Life wrote is utter rubbish. Complete fiction. As probable as you having 5 legs.
In 1942 many people in the US took those maps for a likely scenario. What an amount of wasted fear. I personally don’t like to jump to the conclusion that such non sense got produced to manipulate people into a certain direction. For me it is more likely to see the motivation in the fabrication of fictional war global war maps in that Life hoped to increase the circulation.
I think that today’s articles and ‘news items’ often don’t do much better in the area of plausibility. How is that swine flu pandemic going?