Yummy Wakame

You have to type all of this just to print “Hello world” to screen:

*****************************
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. HELLO.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
DATA DIVISION.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
MAIN SECTION.
DISPLAY “Hello World!”
STOP RUN.
****************************

Still, it’s not as long-winded as
Assembler-Z80-Console…

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

“I often get clients (or their print designers) telling me that I have to use a certain set of Pantone colours in web pages.

I’ve created a Pantone to RGB conversion table to help change from print to screen colours. I hope you find this of some use.”

Version 2

Wow, this is the best one I’ve ever used. Triad is my favourite. I never actually use these to find my colours, but even so, its fun to flood the eyes for a few minutes with all these wonderfully matched possibilities.

It even shows you what the colours look like to people with different forms of colourblindness. Superb!!!

The new XBox is going to be much more than a tool to play Halo 9. It’s going to (finally) integrate all of your media resources (including phone). The little silver box won’t just blur the line between PC and TV, but essentially turn the line into a big circle, with everything inside…

“Xbox 360 has Extender capability built in, giving users an effortless link between all the combined features - games, videoconferences, phone calls, a music library, photos, and all the high-definition video programming stored on Media Center’s DVR.”

And, for those of you who might still just like to use your Xbox to play video games…

“Xbox 360 will introduce gamers to a world where they can create and maintain a persistent, evolving online persona regardless of which game they’re playing. A user profile, maintained at a Microsoft data center, will follow you around and track your progress from game to game. That way, if you’re a Halo 3 ace, you won’t get thrown into a multiplayer Splinter Cell session with a bunch of newbies.”

Read the Wired article.

The incredible story of a lioness who refused to eat meat.

The dispute over who held the rights to use the word “rooibos” when labelling rooibos tea and other related products ended this week with an agreement that worldwide registration of the name will be cancelled. In terms of the settlement, worldwide registration of the word “rooibos” would be cancelled and the name would be regarded as generic — without a brand name. YAY!!! This is great new for South African rooibos farmers and exporters.

Background info on the lawsuit:

This has been going on for years. It all started when an American firm, Burke International, said it acquired a trademark giving it exclusive rights to use the word “rooibos” and to import the increasingly popular tea into the U.S. But South African farmers said rooibos (meaning “red bush” in Afrikaans) is a generic name for an indigenous medicinal plant (Aspalanthus linearis) unique to the country’s Western Cape region. more…

Book 1: VIII

True goodness is like water
It gives itself to all without argument
It lives in the lowest places that most scorn
And therefore it is close to the tao

So…
Live modestly
Reason deeply
Give wholeheartedly
Speak sincerely
Govern modestly
Work skillfully
Move in rhythm with the flow of life

Be in these ways like water, and you can never go wrong.

IIP is developing a retina implant that has the potential to restore limited eyesight in people who have suffered hereditary vision loss.

The implant works with a microcomputer, worn at the waist, and eye glasses. The glasses have a built-in camera, where the visual information that’s captured is converted into electrical impulses and transmitted to the implant. So far, 95 percent of the test patients have reported visual perceptions.

The indoor swimming pool of your dreams…

Nice one hemaworstje!

IOL News: T-shirt maker Laugh It Off has won its fight against South African Breweries over its right to mock the Carling Black Label brand.

‘The words “Black Label Carling Beer - America’s lusty, lively beer enjoyed by men around the world” had been substituted with “Black Labour White Guilt, Africa’s lusty, lively exploitation since 1652, no regard given worldwide”.’

Thanks for sharing the great news Rich!

Chad’s latest post got me thinking.

The study of attraction has so far identified two main ways in which we evaluate, on a sub-conscious level, whether a person is evolutionally fit enough to carry our ‘genes’. A sort of ’sixth-sense’.

“Judging beauty is looking at another person and figuring out whether you want your children to carry their genes.”

‘One of the first and most famous experiments on the science of attraction asked women to rate intensity, pleasantness, and sexiness based on men’s sweaty T-shirts. Claus Wedekind of the Zoological Institute at Bern University in Switzerland wanted to see if women could differentiate between men with similar and dissimilar immune systems. more…

Ooh this is guaranteed to make you feel really uncomfortable…

If you decide to watch this, careful you don’t spoil the surprise by reading the viewer’s comments as that would pretty much ruin the whole thing.

I’m definitely submitting this one to La Petite Claudine.

Book 1: III

When one must lead, one must lead people back to themselves
Fill their needs but drain their compulsions
Harden their bones but soften their opinions
Where they feel the need to chase after fashion or stand for some cause
Be quiet and listen, so they will speak cautiously and hesitant to act
So long as they are cautious, all things will fall into place.

From: 10 Things Every Girl Should Know About Them

‘Unlike your girly privates, which are internal, boy privates are external. God knew that nobody wanted to see all our lady mess, so He pushed everything up inside you. What in tarnation He was thinking when he came up with that nasty, dangling, squishy flesh on boys beats the heck out of me, but I suspect it was so it would be easier for Him to keep an eye on what they’re up to. Because trust me: that grotesque grab bag of horror and disappointment is always up to something, gals. ‘

‘The stuff that comes out of boys every time they use you has as many calories as seven whole pints of Häagen-Dazs. That’s why all the girls who do “it” always get so fat and ugly and have that ulcerated skin that screams to everyone in church, “I am an insatiable slut!”‘

‘God designed a boy’s privates as part sword, part battering-ram, to joyously stab and hammer you with on the magical night you begin your life-long tethering to the man who’ll liberate you from the drudgery of ever having to make your own decisions – except when to have a headache or give an “I don’t like this” bite. ‘

Thanks Quiddity for leading me astray.

“The following techniques to telling if someone is lying are often used by police, and security experts. This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other deceptions.

Warning: Sometimes ignorance is bliss; after gaining this knowledge, you may be hurt when it is obvious that someone is lying to you.”

Hmm… yes, I’d agree with this. Also, as someone who has studied body language since I was tiny, its become second nature to me now. But if you don’t let it hurt you when someone lies to your face, and take the opportunity to read the other subtle signs while they are lying to you, you will find the truth. Everyone leaks, its just a question of finding the leak.

“VoiceXML (VXML) is the W3C’s standard XML format for specifying interactive voice dialogues between a human and a computer. It is fully analogous to HTML, and brings the same advantages of web application development and deployment to voice applications that HTML brings to visual applications. Just as HTML documents are interpreted by a visual web browser, VoiceXML documents are interpreted by a voice browser.” ~ Wikipedia

Basically, this allows you to make webpages that are accessible via voice-operated devices (such as a telephone.) From the short program that Bob made for me (using BeVocal Cafe), I can see this being used as a system for telephone automation and also to allow the blind to access content on the Internet.

But all I can think about is making something similar to those old text-adventure games…

“You’ve come to a door marked with the seal of the Ancient Water Bison. Will you bow in homage or tremble in fear? - Press 1 to bow in homage, 2 to tremble in fear…”

Engadget: “They said they were gonna do it and by gum, they’ve done it (not always a given in the tech world, ya know) — Skype now does video conferencing via the use of a third-party plug-in from Dialcom. Dialcom’s Spontania Video4skype will allow Skype users (Windows only for now — surprise, surprise) with a connected webcam to make video calls via the Skype client. The Spontania plug-in was actually built to be integrated into any third party VoIP application, so expect this to be adopted by other VoIP services in the not-too-distant future.”

…from a storyteller

“Just because it’s the tallest tree doesn’t mean I can’t climb it.” The speaker, a young boy, barely double in the digits department, stood, his hands hit on his hips and his head cocked back to stare up at the towering massive sliver of wood and leaf that sat rooted before him.

“No one climbs that tree,” came the voice of a girl, slightly older than him, with matted puffy hair a ragged old brown dress that she’d been wearing since she was 9. It was her only one. The boy was dressed in similarly weathered clothes, except for his boots, which were brand new and had just been given to him by his grandfather, who made them, and then went off to die.

“And why doesn’t anyone climb it?” he asked.

“Because!” she shouted, a declaration laced with the obviousness of gravity.

“Because why?” he moved a little closer and shifted one of his feet up onto a piece of the tree’s root that was humped up out of the dirt.

“Because it’s the most sacred tree around, that’s why.”

“Well it’s only sacred because it’s the tallest, which is a silly reason for something to be sacred.”

“No, it’s tall because it’s the oldest, and that’s why it’s sacred.”

“Well just because something is tall or old, well that’s a stupid reason for it to be sacred. Did it help out a king or something? Does it keep the world from falling off of the clouds? There has to be a reason.” The boy put his other foot up on the tree trunk, in turn scratching the perfect shine on his new boots. “Aw man!” He leaned down and, with the lick of a finger, tried desperately to wipe away the scratch. more…

Whether you think protests are poignant or pointless, at least naked protests are funny. Here are all the ones you would have missed if some hard-working soul handn’t thought to preserve photos for our viewing pleasure. (obviously NSFW)

Cred goes to Cap’n Marrrrk

And I noticed this on the sidebar:

Hippie Goddess

For those who prefer women au naturelle.
I would suggest, if you’re afraid of a bit of fluff under the armpits, you don’t click that link. Oh, and also if you’re at work. (NSFW either!)

lullabye