Coffee tech upgrade

coolclock has a songbird plugin

also i finally updated the site to use the new version of the code. all this and more:

http://randomibis.com/coolclock/

someone hired allie brosh from hyperbole and a half

Sweet.. Hope that works out.

http://thegloss.com/fashion/allie-brosh-presents-the-grizzly-bears-guide-to-flattering-fashion/

Some Hyperbole and a Half highlights:

• http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html
• http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-fish-almost-destroyed-my-childhood.html
  
• http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/03/pie-verus-cake-scientific-approach.html

standup routine (in the style of demetri martin)

so you know how sometimes when someone dies they say "he died doing what he loved", like that should make you feel better for some reason. maybe it does. but i don't know if it's always true to say that.

think about a surfer who was eaten by a shark. sure he liked surfing. he was surfing before he died. but he died from being bitten in half. i don't think he loved that part. (it's unlikely).

or think about a skydiver. what he loves is falling for a bit, then coming down gently under his chute. he probably didn't love the part where he died, you know, hitting the ground at terminal velocity... (screaming... trying to untangle his cords...)

of course sometimes it is right to say that, to say 'he died doing what he loved'. suppose the guy loved shooting up smack... or, say, playing russian roulette.. in those cases, sure...


(i wrote this last night at about 1am. actually i think it worked because i went straight to sleep afterwards)

(demetri, you can totally use this if you like it)

4

his style is somewhere between eric clapton and neil young

and he is about as good those guys. the number one show not to miss in brisbane is this busker. i'm not kidding. the tone he gets from that guitar and tiny amp is unbelievable. the only problem is he's occasionally drowned out by passing trucks.

cat reviews ipad

liek. can haz?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40

new favourite blog

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

Alice in Wonderland for the iPad

(via gruber via phil)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gew68Qj5kxw

jonsi song from how to train your dragon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBYg3N-uvAc

i watched a tv show about the search for earth-like planets

here's what i can tell you about it

• since life as we know it requires water, interesting planets need to fall into the goldilocks zone where liquid water could exist
• they started finding hot jupiters a little while ago. since they are big they detectably wobble their star. so far they've found hundreds if not a thousand or so
• not all planets have a day and a night. some have a permanent hot side and a dark side
• they actually have found one or two earth sized planets in the liquid water zone by looking at wobble variations
• the new way to search for planets is to look for light fluctuations as the planet traverses the star. it requires better telescopes like the new space telescope 'kepler', but it should allow detection of smaller earth sized planets. kepler's first mission is to spend four years doing just that
  
• there are computer simulators for solar system formation. simulations show that: a. most stars end up with planets, b. hot jupiters are probably way less common than earth-like planets in the golidlocks zone and in fact c. our planet actually has less water than the typical earth-like planet (according to the simulator at least)

now there's still some question about the probability of life starting, given an environment where it is possible. (though consider the recently discovered multi-cellular life that doesn't metabolise oxygen [citation needed], and the deep sea volcanic vent eco systems which both seem to indicate life on earth might have possibly have originated more than once [disclaimer: i am not a biologist]).

but the conclusion i am drawing is that IT IS ALMOST CERTAIN THAT LIFE EXISTS ON OTHER PLANETS. HOLY EFFING CRAP YOU GUYS.

i don't know how old that tv show was. but i trust you can use google to get yourself up to date on this stuff.

Hey everybody! It's the Friendly Coffee Giraffe!

deep mandelbrot renders by stardust4ever

Source:
http://stardust4ever.deviantart.com/art/XX-Reactor-Core-Deep-Zoom-131573460
http://stardust4ever.deviantart.com/art/XXX-Cold-Fusion-Cell-154728253

more mandelbrot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFVZPiiowxo
IT HAS TURTLES!! I FREAKED OUT WHEN I SAW THOSE!

Moore's law has some pleasing implications with regards to Mandelbrot zooms :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yME1fcxD7oM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmZcwfGuTqk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCupXjP4vY
These are all by stardust4ever.

Read the descriptions and comments if you're into it.

Philosophical question: If we weren't looking at it, would the Mandelbrot set exist? What about prior to the beginning of the universe? My intuition says "yes, of course". But that is a weird concept. The existence of Mathematics predates existence itself? How can that be?

You're welcome...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3-p_4z6FiM#t=72s
(Kid on Chinese talent show sings like Whitney Houston)

holy crap i love this towel folding robot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy5g33S0Gzo

Did I mention I really really like this game?

Two worlds complete... Three (?) to go. Angry Birds for iPhone.

Probably the best song about the The Silmarillion that I know of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck3kIuF19hE
http://visitthemiddleeast.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/lyrics-beleriand/

...close

This leads me to believe that 2-12 is possible... (Angry Birds)

So...

stuff i did not know the song 'the lion sleeps tonight' aka 'wimoweh' aka 'mbube'

Read this on Wikipedia: (tldr: african composer screwed out of millions in royalties, dies poor)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_Sleeps_Tonight

They made a documentary:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/lionstrail/

Original song (heart youtube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrrQT4WkbNE

Pete Seeger and the Weavers version:
Earlier version (live mp3)
Later version (live mp3)
(...which was not a huge hit. The one you probably know was by 'The Tokens'.)

Update:
A fuller version of the story.
New York Times article.

I often wondered how this guy gets away with this parking spot

Now I know. Wonder if that would work anywhere...

a fire hose water pipe sprang a leak on my floor

apparently the water leaked all the way down floor by floor. after that the building was invaded for a few days by these things. they work in pairs. i thought they looked like robot badies from doctor who.

...