On my wishlist: a few CDs

First, Amy Studt's new album "My paper made men" was just released yesterday.

She released an album called "False Smiles" a few years ago that had great teenage lyrics (and great music as well - Amy's parents are both musicians and she can play 3 instruments: the guitar, the piano, and something else I don't remember). Now I have grown out of teen stuff, but so has she. The LA Times said to "ignore any dim memories of her midteens pop phase a while ago", so the albums seems great (as you can tell from the singles).

Now I just have to get this album somehow. So far, it's only been released on UK iTunes, let's see if it lets me download it and if I can play the files on my Nokia 770, which is clearly not an iPod. Until now the only mp3 I have bought over the internet were Paramore's albums from the Fueled by Ramen store, which was a very positive experience: no one care which country I was from, as long as I could pay by PayPal, my technical issues were fixed within hours, and I got plain and simple mp3 files, which is exactly what I wanted.

Another important position on my wishlist, Primsleur's Arabic course:

I found it through this Metafilter thread, and the reviews are very enthousiastic (more on Primsleur's approach here). According to their site, it's what spies use to survive and cope overseas, and the courses are now used by the FBI, CIA, and business professionals everywhere. Plus, the approach is scientific, which is illustrated by this picture:

Geeks love scientific stuff and know nothing more convincing than the picture of a man dressed in white looking though a microscope to find a scientific way of teaching languages. I'm buying it.

They offer two versions: Eastern and Egyptian Arabic. So far, I've been learning Modern Standard Arabic, but here, I'd choose Egyptian. Another Metafilter thread clarifies this issue.

[Pictures source, source.]

This just in: new great master seminar for the CS major!

My third year of computer science studies is ending soon, which means I have to choose one of about 20 master seminars. I was thinking "Logic, Computational Theory and Cryptography", as it has "crypto" in its name and I take all the courses that have "crypto" in their names. But, logic and computational theory... not really my thing, so I was wondering if there was a seminar about security. After all the crypto-classes in math, it would be great to learn something more practical. However, Boyfriend, who picked his CS master seminar two years ago, said there was no such thing.

So, yesterday, I decided to check what security courses my school offered, and I found this:
Course name: Security and Cryptography - interesting...
Academic year: 2008/2009 - very interesting...
Course type: master seminar - whoah!

Imagine this luck! Two years ago, when I had to choose a math master seminar and took interested in number theory (I finished both number theory courses with the best grades), "Number Theory and Cryptography" was created! (And I got in! Students with better grades have priority, so choosing a seminar doesn't mean you'll attend it yet.) And now, again, the seminar of my dreams appears! How amazing is that!

Now my only concern is to get in. Wish me luck!

Rapidshare has a new captcha

Rapidshare has a new captcha. This time it's really hard:

I think I have a lot of AI to learn before can I teach my program to solve this one. But, on the other side, downloaders all around the world will finally make a good use of their time, contributing to mathematics. So I consider this a great idea.
[Source]

It's life, but not as we know it

Have a look at this robot developed by roboticists at the University of Pennsylvania. Watch this untill the end, the ending is funny.

Music in me: Gnarls Barkley

As you can tell form my last.fm profile, I'm a big fan of Gnarls Barkley. I am not crazy about the sound, which is neo-soul and reminds me mostly of the 60's. But I am a lyric freak and I'm obsessed about the lyrics. What I like about the music is that it is not overdone and you don't get bored, so you can enjoy the lyrics over and over. But by "not overdone" I don't mean boring or anything: this duo has its own, distinctive style, and the song "Storm Coming" has one of my favourite beats ever.

They started two years ago with an album called "St. Elswhere", which had pretty much everything to make a lyric freak like me happy: something I can relate to on the bad days (Just A Thought, Who Cares), something really original (Feng Shui, Necromancing), some excellent writing (Storm Coming, Feng Shui, and basically the whole album) and some positivity (Smiley Faces).

The bad stuff is not emo, not deoressing, not "feel sorry for me", it says what it's supposed to say without getting too emotional or whiny:

And I've tried
Everything but suicide
But it's crossed my mind (just a thought)

The good stuff is not too sweet, realistic and really motivating:

And I can tell you know how hard this life can be
But you keep on smiling for me.

Until yesterday, I listened their album "St Elsewhere" obsessively. Then the new one came out and soon came in my mail:
I'm not disappointed. The sound is a bit more old-school and the lyrics a bit differently written: instead of many words that sound alike brought together, you'll more likely find AABCCB rhymes. Still, it's the same old good Gnarls Barkley. Going On is a really motivating song (I suppose it will be released as a single, so you'll see what I mean), and Neighbor shows jealousy in such a way that you automatically apreciate what you have instead of envying others:

Now my neighbor likes my clothes
But hadn't seen me with my scars exposed

Trivia: A reverse edition of the album, retitled eplouC ddO ehT, (the entire album fused into one 38 min track played completely in reverse, starting with the album's last song) is legally available for download free of charge at fronttobackbacktofront.com. Now I gotta reverse it back and see what it really features (reportedly no vocals, so I'll have a karaoke version).

In short, whatever Gnarls Barkley does is really original and reflects the members' signature style. The lyrics tell about life's good and bad times, but both are dealt with in a positive and constructive way. When I have time, I definitely will check the members' other projects.

Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" is out

Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" is out. Actually, it has been since Thursday, so I guess I'm a little late for the party.

Well, I visited the download page on Thursday, unuware of anything, because I had a fast connection at school, so it was a good time to get it just in case I ever felt like updating, and there was still 7.10. I must have been a few hours early. I got some beta instead.

Okay, you know when you're a geek when you're concerned about missing the new OS' premiere. If it makes you feel any better, I have a few other concerns, like not having been told that one of my friends is getting married today, but I don't feel like elaborating on these.

Back to Ubuntu. LifeHacker has a very enthousiastic review, and my friend just blogged about an interesting way to make the system use the memory in a more efficient way, claiming Hardy is the best OS he has ever had installed. Looking great, but in just a month after formatting my hard drive and reinstalling everything, I don't really feel like updating. And three weeks after completing the Operating Systems class, I'm not touching the system with a pole.

Announcements

I have two major announcements for whoever tries to keep track of my life.

1. I have completed the operating systems course. That's great news. Otherwise, I'd have to take it again and that would be another few months of hard work, and this time, I wouldn't learn much. Plus, that's the hardest course at this faculty. This means that if I could do it, I can do anything. Well, actually, that means I can get a bachelor's degree in CS at the end of this year (unless I screw something else up), and with all the classes I have done in advance, my master's degree will be only seven classes away.
   
2. My Google Summer of Code application has been rejected. I'm a bit disappointed, but that was to be expected. Maybe next year... I'd love to work for OLPC a bit, so maybe the next GSoC would be a great opportunity. Maybe. We'll see what life brings.
   

Now, I can focus on completing the classes I have until June and start thinking about my next career move. And I'm learning Java.

Make your own cool USB drive - 8 tutorials

There are some really cool USB drives on the market nowadays. However, nothing beats making your own one, and it's really easy as you can start with a drive as small as this one:


There are also loads of tutorials avaliable. My favourite one is the broken usb cable:


Another cool idea is a keyboard key: Enter or Backspace:


If you love Legos as much as me, check out the Lego brick:


... and the Lego airplane:


Still on the toy shelf, the Playmobil:

... and the Pez dispenser:

A legend says that eBay's founder Pierre Omidyar got the idea for eBay when his fiancée traded Pez dispensers. But it's just a legend.

Back to the USB drives. If you have access to the right equipement, you can make an undestructible one:


... or a transparent one:


And lastly, "make your own USB drive for dummies":

Want some more ideas? Take a look the top 10 weirdest USB drives ever and a gallery of unique USB gadgets.

What [not] to watch: Juno

Last Saturday, I went to the cinema to see Juno.The movie is about how a 16-year-old deals with an unexpected pregnancy. First, she considers abortion, and then adoption.

I loved this movie for several reasons. In short, it was light and fun to watch, but really smart at the same time. And by "smart" I mean:

1. It was unpredictable. In most comedies, you can tell the end after having watches the first ten minutes. Here, I was absolutely clueless several times: where that girl and that guy gonna end up in a romance? Was she gonna keep the baby in the end? I can't remember a movie where I was that eager to see what would happen next.

2. It didn't have cliches. It seemed more like fighting with the stereotypes. For example, a pro-life activist was just a nice girl trying to do something good, and not agressive, cold-hearted, fighting for some outdated convictions.

3. It didn't have bad characters. No one was perfect, but everyone was basically good, everyone made choices based on his situation and point of view. No one acted in a certain way "just because he was the bad one", and that helped the viewers understand everyone's actions.

4. It was realistic. No scene where everything falls down, no scene where you ask yourself "who on Earth would act like that?" or how can anyone be so dumb. (These were funny when I was in pre-school.)

5. It was really nice and pro-life. Maybe a bit too nice, which made it a bit unrealistic to me. For example, Juno's school mate's reactions to her pregnancy weren't shown, but everyone who has gone to school knows what it looks like. But all in all, it's a move that shows normal people trying their best and I love watching that. (I can't stand war movies for example, they make me feel really bad.)

As for being pro-life, I love that it turned out this way without trying too hard. At the same time, it was in a way "pro choice", as it showed that the girl had many options and was absolutely free to make the choice for herself, and the choice she made turned out to be the best for everyone. But, that choice was life, and this film simply celebrates life.

So there is a "no to all" option in WinXP

If anyone's been waiting all week for me to post something, I'm sorry. I'm going through a bit of health issues and writer's block at the moment. So a shortie tonight.

From the earliest times humanity looked for ways of copying files from one folder to another. Under WinXP, in the 21st century, the drag'n'drop method gained the most popularity. It had however a huge lack: there were options "yes", "yes to all", "no" and even "cancel", but no "not to all"! Or so I thought until I read this article.

As it turns out, if you hold the shift key while clicking on "no", it acts as "no to all". I really wonder why is such a useful option hidden in such an unintuitive way. The same goes for hibernating Windows. This OS really is full of shi[f]t.

Doesn't it make you wanna click everywhere with the shift button pressed to see what happens? Out of curiosity, it kinda does to me. But then I think of what could happen. Maybe the paperclip from hell would resurrect... not worth that risk!