February 14, 2008 at 7:51 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
This is our Valentine’s Day 2008! Alex got me he big bunch of flowers (which he rarely does). He knows I like daisies. The boys each made me a card. Aidan’s, on the left, has a little “pocket” message. Leiham’s, on the right, has a cut out heart and a message under a heart door. Then there are the 3 cards I got for each of my guys. I wrote a long sappy letter for Alex. Alex said to get the guys “good chocolate, not Valentine chocolate”…I couldn’t get to Wilbur’s, so I got them big Hershey bars. (I figured if they don’t like them, they can make Smores.)
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February 12, 2008 at 1:05 pm
· Filed under Bits, computer
http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn13306-could-smart-traffic-lights-stop-motorists-fuming.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
traffic lights were fed the position and speed of all vehicles on nearby roads and programmed to calculate how to phase colour changes in order to optimise traffic flow
THAT sounds good.
If a set of lights told drivers when they were about to change, “drivers [could] adapt their speed accordingly to avoid useless accelerations or react faster on green,
a. Isn’t that what the yellow light is for? To tell people when it is about to turn red?
b. We don’t necessarily want people jumping the green light. That’s a safety issue. It’s bad enough people try to beat the red by zooming thru the yellow. (I’ve been guilty of it - hasn’t everyone?) But what if people were also beating the green? (It’s about to be green, so no need to brake…)
For this to work, vehicles must transmit data to the computer system that controls a city’s lights.
And how long after we are transmitting that data to the city’s system will it be before law enforcement figures out they can use that to determine who is running a red light? Speeding? Tailgating? Shouldn’t do those things anyway, you say. Well, how about being investigated because you’ve supposedly been stopping at questionable street corners? Cruising low income neighborhoods? What if you were just handing out information about the local homeless shelter?
I have misgivings enough about putting my car on a traffic network or relying on one for information. (I probably don’t have too much to worry about, since I live in the sticks and see less than 20 other cars on my way to work.) But I have even bigger misgivings about what other people could do with that information.
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February 7, 2008 at 10:06 pm
· Filed under Bits
Here are some points of advice for next year’s auditions:
1. Tape yourself and watch it first. If you have any doubts, don’t audition. There were something like 100k singers this year, and only 164 made it.
2. No, they aren’t looking for something different. They’re looking for a pop idol. Pop=popular, as in “appeals to the masses”. That means your looks and sound should be predictable. When they tell someone they like them because they’re different, they mean a little different, not *really different*.
3. Choose your song carefully. and play it safe. Don’t ruin your audition by picking something you can barely manage. Let your voice show without theatrics. You can do harder songs later in the show, and it will look like you’ve improved.
4. If they say no, don’t beg. It has never worked, and just looks pathetic.
Even if you think you can make it, remember that there’s always the chance you’ll be on the reject reels. A good chance, in fact. So be prepared to fail gracefully, so it won’t haunt you for years.
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