Thursday, August 29, 2013

Jewel Scarab

I picked up this National Geographic magazine with pictures of some Jewel Scarabs. About the only reason I did so, is because I play Animal Crossing New Leaf quite a bit, and Jewel Scarab is featured there. So, I thought it may be interesting.

I like the $8000 collection. I did some rough calculations, and estimated that 20 bells=1 dollars. That means 7 million bell house is about $350,000. That's about right.






Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Guides to Live By

I have done a lot of thinking recently. This is what I came up with:

Guides to Live By

  1. Considerateness. The Golden Rule. Do not do unto others, what you yourself do not desire.
  2. Growth. Continuous Improvement. Always be better than yesterday.
  3. Generosity. Be good neighbor. Give more than you take. 
  4. Productive. Do something useful. Be fruitful and multiply.

Not much by themselves, but these rules will get you far.

Nothing about vacation, or have fun? Hmmm. Do I look like a spoiled kid to you? Kids today are so spoiled!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Rules for success

This just came into my head, and I think it's worth writing down.

What are the rules for success? I know what #1 is: Don't be stupid. How about the rest?

Rules for Success
  1. Don't be stupid
  2. Set Reasonable Goal
  3. Make Plan
  4. Do Plan
  5. Adjust previous steps until done
  6. Success!!!

And well, that's all there is to it. Of course, the devil is in the details, but as long as you can follow these steps, I think you'll be fine. :)

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Robo3D Printer

A while ago, I backed up a kickstarter project Robo 3D. It finally arrived in the mail. Unfortunately, it came in with a few extra parts that I do not know how to install. It also came without instructions on how to install the driver and all. Well, Internet to the rescue! It turns out that they put out a video on YouTube. The video doesn't cover the new parts, though. Obviously still Work-in-Progress.

I don't mind waiting a bit for all the instructions to come in. In the meantime, I'll be doing something nice with my Raspberry Pi.


Friday, August 16, 2013

Hazards Working in Cloud

I never understand why people think it's a good idea to have a web application, by that, I mean that the computer program lives in the cloud (off-site server) and you're just doing a dumb terminal somewhere.

Sure, the concept of remote working isn't new. The dumb terminal has been available since the first computer network. The point is: I'd rather download a small application so I can work locally, save locally, and only publish remotely.

I have been working on my blogspot, and the web app saves every 5 seconds. Of course the app is slow and plodding. Saving remotely takes a long time. I bet I can work 3 times faster if the saving isn't automatic. This does not take account that if the save fails for any reason, there'd be a message saying so, shifting the text a few lines down, and there goes my cursor placement.

The worst part is, saving isn't guaranteed. What if it fails for any reason? And if the network is flaky, you can bet that there will be problem. What now? You cannot save a local copy for back up. You have to face the fact that you are hostage in network connection uptime, or just bite the bullet and lose the whole work that you did.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

A New BlogSpot: Simpleton Geek

I have finalized the form of the new blogspot. It's Simpleton Geek BlogSpot at
http://simpletongeek.blogspot.com/

I have directory pages, and there will be more to come for ease of access. I will keep this blogspots for my usual ramblings.

Petit Computer Journal:
http://simpletongeek.blogspot.com/p/petit-computer-journal-directory.html

Raspberry Pi Journal
http://simpletongeek.blogspot.com/p/raspberry-pi-journal-directory_4.html

I hope by concentrating my technical papers there, it will have greater impact as you don't have to wade through my irrelevant musings.

I will still post my games, hobbies, and other musings here.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

American Mensa Academy Score


My American Mensa Academy score. I believe that is the IQ score. I usually score 150-160, but sometimes I get lucky. I'm sure with practice, I can score perfect, eventually. :)

Monday, August 5, 2013

Popular Mechanic September 2013

I was reading Popular Mechanic Magazine for September 2013. I found a few interesting articles:


Of Language Grammar

They compared Chimp and 2 year olds language faculties to see if there's any difference. The conclusion is that 2 year olds can understand grammar, where is Nim the Chimp does rote memorization. That's an interesting test and I suppose perhaps humans can feel superior to chimp. My question is: How about comparing adults to Google translate, or Watson? As I understand it, Watson trumps human. Does that mean we, in general, are less than 2 bit overgrown transistor?

Resurrecting Extinct Species

The science is there now to create or re-create extinct species, even without existing creatures. They talked about Jurassic Park dinosaurs, of course. My question is: If indeed it is possible to create non-existing creatures, how many of these scientists are tempted to create Balrogs? Or maybe Orcs. The way I see it, just splice some Gorilla genes into, oh I don't know, rhinoceros? There, you have orcs.

Ice Maker in cars

Built in ice makers? I thought most people just bring their ice box. Hey, I want microwave and ice maker in my car. My very own chuckwagon.

Drone in the Sky

I think it's time that Google stops building self driving car and starts building self-piloting air planes. The challenges should be minimal. No jaywalker or stray deers, after all. Sell them to discount airliners or something. I'm sure they'll be happy to skip training qualified pilots. Imagine that, no more missing airports due to distracted pilots!

Origami Kayak

A cheap, lightweight, foldable, plastic kayak? I want one! Or maybe I want Pak-boat. Or perhaps, cardboard? Yeah, a cheap disposable kayak. Make the frames reusable, but the skin as shrink-wrap. I hope it lasts.

Hacking your education

There's also an article about how you can read lessons from MIT classes on-line, for free! That's something interesting. Get the lessons, buy the textbooks, and do a CLEP test. Portfolio on website. Degree in one year! I like that. Now, who's hiring and what kind of classes do you want me to take? ;)






Sunday, August 4, 2013

I'm going to split my posts into another blog. The current plan is that book, games, and movie reviews will go here. The journals, however, will go to another one. The Petit Computer Journal has been popular and I think by moving that content to another blog, with table of content page will make it easy for you to read and learn.

Another reason for splitting the blog is that YouTube, which I have been using quite heavily lately, has decided to AutoPlay all their videos. As you see, the blog main page features several posts in one web page. This has the effect of multiple videos playing simultaneously. It's very confusing at best, and bandwidth hog at worst. When the video is HD, you are in effect are downloading multiple HD videos all at once. What if you just want to see one? You can't. You have to manually click on the link to expand just that one page. After that, all the next posts are gone, and there goes the advantage of multiple posting on a page.

That's why on my next BlogSpot, it will not feature YouTube videos, except by link that you need to click on. I will do my best to post pictures on it, though, so that you don't have to suffer watching my videos if you can just look at the pictures. I do have a very low video production quality values, as I simply use what is convenient, instead of what's proper. Video professionals will no doubt go blind looking at my very bad lighting. :)

Anyway, don't expect more Petit Computer Journal in this blog. Go to my other one, instead.

Thank you for reading.