by simon baird

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

motivational

"look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself 'what do i want to do every day for the rest of your life?' do that. i promise you can monetise that shit. if you love alf? do an alf blog. you collect smurfs? smurf it up. whatever you need to do, do it. so many people are talking about 'i can't monetise'... it's coming. stop crying. and just keep hustling. hustle is the most important word. ever. and that's what you need to do"

"how do you get money to do what you love? you don't. right? i lost a shit load of money when i started doing what i loved. what you do is you position yourself to succeed. so for example, if you're doing something else and you want to do this thing you love, you do it after hours. you work nine to six, you get home, you kiss the dog and you go to town. right? i mean you start building your equity and your brand and whatever you're trying to accomplish. after hours. everybody has time. stop watching fucking lost... so, you know what i mean? if you want this, if you want bling bling, if you want to buy the jets, if you want to do shit? work. that's how you get it"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4

Gary Vaynerchuk

The Hollowmen on ABC by Working Dog

This is my favourite TV show at the moment. It's a bit like a modern day 'Yes Minister' but sharper and there's no Minister and no laugh track. It targets spin makers the way Frontline targeted tabloid TV journalists but it's so much better than Frontline was (at least from what I remember). The writing and acting is outstanding. This show is an oasis in the bleak landscape of Australian comedy TV and the best thing since Summer Heights High. Linkage:

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

fleet foxes

if a younger Paul Simon lived in the mountains instead of new york and grew a beard... he might sound a bit like fleet foxes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu_3RS2rO78

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gke4USY8EE


Monday, September 22, 2008

after

before

wall-e

the first third of the movie is pure brilliance. the rest is good too. i liked it better than dark night. ♥ pixar.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Saturday, September 20, 2008

advertising

i've seen most of these before:

i'm a mac ads us version (part 1)
i'm a mac ads us version (part 2)

but for some reason i never knew they made UK versions:

i'm a mac ads uk version with mitchell and webb

these are new:

i'm a pc 1
i'm a pc 2
i'm a pc 3

these are just... weird (gates and seinfeld):

shoe circus
new family

Friday, September 19, 2008

just when you thought i was over it...

~> python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Jul 31 2008, 23:17:40) 
[GCC 4.1.3 20070929 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.2-16ubuntu2)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> a = []
>>> a[0] = 'foo' # FAIL!
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
IndexError: list assignment index out of range
>>>
~> irb
irb(main):001:0> a = []
=> []
irb(main):002:0> a[0] = 'foo'
=> "foo"
irb(main):003:0> a[5] = 'bar' # for extra credit...
=> "bar"
irb(main):004:0> a
=> ["foo", nil, nil, nil, nil, "bar"]
irb(main):005:0> exit
~>

I think that this speaks for itself, don't you... :)

(It's late on Friday afternoon. I'm procrastinating...)

(Yes I know I can use a.append('foo'). But this did come up in a real world scenario where append wasn't quite what I wanted).

Check the comments for some discussion...

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

david foster wallace

is dead. i asked trevor about his t-shirt the other day and he said it's about infinite jest. okay, i said. maybe it was this one. then today i read about this guy who hung himself and he was a great writer. so turns out it was that same guy. it's probably a good book since trevor likes joanna newsom too.

Friday, September 12, 2008

clouds

It's just a little camera pointing out the window at work. Yesterday was a good day for clouds. Lots of variety. Notice the layers moving in opposite directions. This happens every day. Who knew? Here's where the camera is: http://tinyurl.com/4xs27o. Music by Nine Inch Nails and YouTube's AudioSwap.

boxhead

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=boxhead&btnG=Search&meta=

this is cool. it's a flash game. kinda like lego zombies.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

you probably don't need me to post xkcd comics but...

it's kinda on topic :)

Supercollider?  I 'ardly know 'er!

stevesy

LHC summed up

The 'standard model' of physics is pretty good. It describes twelve particles that make up everything. These particles have been detected in previous experiments and everyone agrees they are mostly understood. But the standard model it doesn't explain why there is mass. This is a fairly major detail when it comes to explaining the universe. The best theory we have to explain mass is the Higgs field theory. If the Higgs field theory is true then there exists a 13th particle called the Higgs particle. To make the particle appear you need lots of energy. No one has ever detected the Higgs particle but if it exists the LHC should be able to find it, perhaps tomorrow some time. If it does it will cause many physicist to jump around and make wild eyes at each other. If it can't find it then it means our best theories are probably wrong, though there is a good chance it will find something else that no-one expected. In any case.. jumping, wild eyes.

Disclaimer: I'm no physicist. But I watched this on SBS.

Update: Actually the standard model predicts the Higgs particle, so the above isn't exactly right semantically. But you get the idea.

Update 2: There is a live webcast starting at this time (5pm here).

Update 3: It might take a few weeks or months before they get that thing fully cranked. Today I believe they're just taking it for a little spin around the block in first gear.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Vim trick

1. Lets say you want to insert some text at an exact column. Try the following:

Put 100 spaces at the end of the line so that the | command works
100A<Space><Esc>

Move to the column you want
75|

Delete all those extra spaces and insert something
C

Tricky eh?


2. Suppose you wanted to record that as a macro so you could do it many times:

To record a macro in the q register:
qq0100A<Space><Esc>75|C",<Esc>0jq

Run it once
@q

Run it 10 times
10@q

iphone tricks or technology giving superpowers

http://nathanbowers.com/business/shazam/

i've rambled before about technology giving god-like powers. arthur c clarke once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. how far back in time would you have to go before each of these was indistinguishable from magic? discuss in the form of an essay:
  • box of matches
  • mirror
  • nikko pen/sharpie
  • motorbike
  • aeroplane
  • camera
  • radio
  • telephone
  • tv
  • gps
  • youtube
  • google maps
  • streetview
  • ipod shuffle
  • iphone 3G
  • teleporter machine