Hugging cat

Dear readers,

For your amusement, below is a picture of a cat hugging a little girl.


[Source]

5 reasons why I prefer cats over dogs

Below are 5 reasons why I prefer cats over dogs.

Reason #1:



Reason #2:



Reason #3:



Reason #4:



Reason #5:



[Picture credit, credit, credit, credit, credit.]

Hello Kitty stuff for housewives

It ain't no doubt that Hello Kitty loves everyone and it sure applies to housewives as well. Being a housewife myself, I have recently found a bunch of cool housekeeping stuff in the loveley theme of Hello Kitty.

For instance, Hello Kitty Hell shows us a washing machine and a mop:



Merlin.pl has a toy hover (okay, not exactly housewife item, but future housewives will love it):


The best stuff is to be found at Universal Kitty House. Among other items, there are latex gloves:


a sponge:


and the coolest toilet brush I have ever seen:

So cute! >.<

I love Amazon

Seriously, I really like Amazon. I have had really good experiencec buying from them. And what did I buy? I guess you can tell by the recommendations I have just received:

Introduction to Modern Cryptogr... (Hardcover) by Jonathan Katz

Classic Shell Scripting (Paperback) by Nelson H. F. Beebe

Ideals, Varieties, and Algorithm... (Hardcover) by David A. Cox

Okay, so modern cryptography: cool, me likes. Classing shell scripting: not so much. I belive shell scripts should be received from kind people who wrote them, not written by myself. Ideals and varieties sound pretty interesting too, but something tells me that I wouldn't get through such a book without taking a class in the subject and I'm done with my math classes.

So, who wants to guess what I've been watching on Amazon?

A little talk with Steve Ballmer

Apparently, Blogger doesn't approve of 900px high picture, so click to enlarge, or check his Facebook page for the nice conversation.

That baby is a genious!

I'm speechless. Even I have trouble reading Perl.


[Picture source]

Top 5 dumbest Wii games ever imagined (by me)

Man, do I love the Nintendo Wii for its innovative interface! So I wondered one day not how to use it best, but how to use it worst. Dumbest. Ever. Below are the potential games I came up with, or more precisely, what the main character would be:

The baker

Put the bread in the oven.

Feel the thrill!

Post office employee

Do the stamps.

Too much rock for one hand baby!

The slave

Just paddle to avoid punishement.

Let this game enslave you!

(Actually, Nintendo stole that idea from me.)

Janitor

Get in and clean - let the fun begin! Uses the Ajax technology.

Level 1 - floor. Level 2 - windows. Level 3 - toilet.

Barrel organ player

A creative and inventive game based on a truly original concept.



This game doesn't need any stupid marketing slogan, and yet it does have one!

More dumb Wii games here!

[Picture source, source, source, source, source, quote source]

What [not] to watch: 'Llectuals.

'Llectuals is, according to its creators, the summer reading you can watch, and the show that proves that growing up is about more than just the secretion of endocrine hormones by the pituitary gland. If that isn't recommendation enough, check out the trailer:



Too bad it's just a mock up, created by the comedy troupe POYKPAC.


The idea is great, though. Here's the full script, if you wish to enlighten your mind by broadening your vocabulary and achieve an improvement of your uderstanding of the phrases pronounced by those young people.

The secret of the Coca-Cola formula

The Coca-Cola formula is super secret, so it's not copyrighted or protected otherwise. (Honestly, I don't know what the big deal is, other "Colas" taste as sweet and as unhealthy to me, but anyway.)

An interesting altervative (but I think just as unhealthy) is OpenCola - a drink with a formula on a GPL liscence.

Just as with software, "anybody can make the drink, and anyone can modify and improve on the recipe as long as they, too, license their recipe under the GNU General Public License." [Wikipedia]

But now, the secret is partially out - Failblog published a picture of Coca-Cola employees getting one crucial ingredient:


Did I say unhealthy?

Things are really wrong when BBspot is right.

BBspot is my favourite fake geek news site and you most probably have read their legendary article "Microsoft purchases evil from Satan":


Good one. Some time later, BBspot wrote about Microsoft forcing users to upgrade from XP to Vista. On a serious note, a friend is making good cash in the UK helping people downgrade. But back to the point. BBspot quoted Vance Fredericks (whoever that is) saying:

"This project is targeted at XP users who don't see the benefits of upgrading to Vista. The first change will be to install a desktop wallpaper of a naked Steve Ballmer during the next update. Customers will be unable to change the background, unless they upgrade to Vista."

Now that's some serious blackmailing.


But that was supposed to be a joke, right? As it turns out, not entirely. Microsoft is working on a special edition of Windows 7 for netbooks (the sweet tiny computers that might save Windows XP), "special" not having a positive meaning here, and in that version, you won't be able to change the wallpaper!

Now, that wallpaper probably won't be a picture of Steve Ballmer. But it might be that:



Or that:


Which makes that wallpaper look really cool:


BBspot was right, so things are really, really wrong. Still, the worst question is: how many sick ideas will Microsoft take from BBspot?

Google is totally censored (and I don't mean Google China)

Google is totally censored - and I don't mean Google China. This screenshot from the original google.com proves it all:


Notice anything missing? Let me just say it gives 17,600,000 results, so it definitely belongs on the list.

Random stuff

I haven't been blogging for a while (only going to school, moving, marrying - you know, the usual) and something deep in my heart tell me I should be getting back on the blogging train. So here I am, with lots of random stuff.

First, private life. I'm getting married in two weeks. Dress? Not ready. Dozens of pounds to me lost on that occasion? Not happening. (I blame the lifestyle. Losing weight is hard work, doing cardio is hard to start, as you need to get in shape a bit, and while I'm getting two degrees at a time, I'm really working hard and putting a lot of pressure on myself. Can't have it all.) But, I'm marrying a great guy, for the one and only right reason to marry, so I couldn't be happier.

I'm going to an Arabic-speaking country for my honeymoon. I'm so excited! I will finally learn to count and order food! And buy Al Jamila and many more magazines!

Silverlight 3 Beta is out and I know nothing about it, expect you need to have two development environments to work in both 2 and Beta 3 at once, which is really uncool as I work in 2 but would like to explore 3 because blogging about 2 is so yesterday. You can perfectly well develop for .net 2 having 3.5 installed and everything should work that way.

I bought a box of 5 albums by Kasia Kowalska.

And I wonder who buys that. I mean, either you're a fan, so you've got the albums already, or you're not, so you buy a "best of" or nothing, you don't spend that kind of money at once. Who does that?

I am super-motivated to procrastinate write my master paper just like the other grad students all over the world and the ones portrayed on Piled Higher and Deeper. It's scary how accurate these comics are, while the behaviors shown seem so irrational:

Please tell me I'm not like that! And don't ask how the paper is going, that would be rude.

Ok, enough for today, test coming up on Monday about lexical analysis.

Geek plays home, starting with the WC

I'm getting married, moving out, then moving in, all that stuff, and today, shopping on-line for cool home items.

Turns out every room in your home can be cool, and the coolest of all can be the toilet.

The Sudoku toilet paper deserves an honorable mention for making it possible:


The toilet seat can bring a lot of fun to the bathroom as well. Well.. sometimes, "WTF was the designer thinking" is more appropriate than "fun". Let this picture speak for itself (or forever hold its peace):

I guess "Pharaoh's treaures" sounds better than "WC content", doesn't it?


This one just feels wrong, and not in a forbidden fruit kind of way:



However, the best toilet ever was posted today by Gizomodo:


This one definitely takes the art of toilet designing to new heights. Or lows, depending on the point of view.

Lego food

What geek doesn't love Legos? Legos are the one and only toy I'm never-ever gonna give away - all my bricks are for my kids. But that's not the point of today's post. I just came across some cool Lego food stuff, and there's enough of it to throw a Lego-themed party. Check it out!

First, Apartment Therapy show us how to make an Anatomically Correct Lego Cake:


Betty Crocker also has great Lego block cakes:


... and Hello Naomi has these fabulous cupcakes:


Joe Reid found some Lego fruit snacks, lucky guy:


However, it's much more fun to make them yourself:


Anything else can be packed in Lego lunch boxes:


Lastly, the dinks! The Lego store used to have a Lego block ice cube tray:

Now, who feels like throwing a Lego-themed party?

A short story of CD cases

This is a short story of CD cases.

First, they looked like that:



Then, came double ones:
Then the singles ones became twice thinner:



And then twice bigger again, but with rounded corners:



As promised, that was short. Here's more if you're really interested.

[Picture credit, credit, credit, credit]

Good news from Lifehacker

So the global economy is in trouble and the cold here is unbearable, but Lifehacker posted a bunch of good news recently:

1. Tetris Wipes Out Bad Memories
2. Chocolate, Wine, and Tea Improve Cognitive Performance
3. Playing Board Games Boosts Important Skills
4. Research Shows Internet Use Good for the Brain

So, what is there to do? Play board Tetris on the Internet drinking wine and eating chocolate!

Spend 20 months learning and earning

Yes, you can spend 20 months learning and getting paid! I just came across two serious offers that allow you to do that.

First, you can spend two months learning C/C++ in Samsung's R&D center. Starts on the 5th of January. Full offer here.

Then, you can spend 18 months in an administration school. Starts on the 2nd of March. Full offer here.

(See how the dates match? It must be destiny!)

The catch? It's 18 months of administration school and then you have to work there for five years or give the money back. But hey, isn't it great how many opportunities to learn and earn are there?

There's a 65% chance that I'm a man

There's a 65% chance that I'm a man.. at least according to Gender Analyzer:



[Update]It was 70% a few days ago and 75% today!