Rowan's blog

11:11am

Almost every day for the past six / seven weeks I have looked at a digital clock on my PC, phone or mobile at 11:11am.

It's not like I wait for that time to appear - it just happens that I look at a digital clock at that time every day. I'm wondering if this has some auspicious meaning?!! My numerological number (based on my name) is 11. Can anyone help me out here?!

Bill on your Belt

Ok, this is simply scary: a black box for humans (care of Mr Gates).

It's called a 'SenseCam Personal Image and Data Recall' device:

"SenseCam is a badge-sized wearable camera that captures up to 2000 VGA images per day into 128Mbyte FLASH memory. In addition, sensor data such as movement, light level and temperature is recorded every second.  This is similar to an aircraft Black Box accident recorder but miniaturised for the human body.  It could help with memory recall, e.g. where did I leave my spectacles or keys? who did I meet last week? by doing a rewind of the days events. If a person has an accident, the events and images leading up to this will be recorded, and these could be useful to medical staff.  It could also be used for automatic diary generation.

"Sensors trigger a new recording.  For example, each time the person walks into a new room, this light change transition is detected and the room image is captured with an ultra wide angle or fish-eye lens. Other triggers include, time, sudden movement, or a person nearby. A hand gesture can also manually capture an image. An accelerometer is used for image stabilisation to reduce blurred images caused by camera motion. This is an essential feature of any truly wearable camera.

"The SenseCam is an experimental working  prototype and not a product. Future SenseCams will also capture audio and possibly heart rate or other physiological data."

For more info see: http://research.microsoft.com/research/hwsystems/

Hmmm, sounds like a tool from 1984 (Orwell's version).

When Webcams should be banned

Some geeks just shouldn't be allowed 'em.

Watch this (you'll need sound).

Cereal Dating

I just received this press release from a friend. Westfields in Bondi Junction is my local shopping centre. How clever have marketers / PR bunnies become?!

Download wbj_cereal_dating_press_release_01_02_05.doc

Never been particularly into cereal myself, but it's a worthy read, even if just to avoid the embarrassment of being spotted with a variety pack in the shopping basket...

Radio silence

Sorry for the radio silence...

• The Aus legal case was on
• I moved house
• I had to finish my last assignment
• It's silly season - hurrah!

Some silly season pics:

Jon & I trying to catch dinner at the Chrismas party, Sydney Aquarium: (yes, that is a shark above us)

Some of the gals - on our way to - the Gay Bar, Gay Bar (sing along now):

Watch this space. Plenty more silly antics coming soon.

The Quick Brown Fox Mystery

Open a Word document and type  = rand (200,99)
Press Enter and wait 3 seconds...

We were mystified. One of the tech guys told me this is known as an 'Easter Egg'. Hmmm (more mystified).

"The first parameter (200 in your example) is the number of rows, and the second (99) is the number of columns.

The formula is used to prefill documents with a phrase that contains every letter of the alphabet (a panagram) so that the characteristics of a font type can be seen. This is known as an “Easter Egg" and Microsoft normally puts this on their application in the hope that it will somehow cover all the bugs in their application."

I hope this makes sense to someone.

Is slpeling ipmorantt?

I'm reviewing a web site at work this arvo. Got annoyed with some miss-spellings, then I read an email saying:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aodccrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dnsoe't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the hmuan mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azmanig huh?

Yaeh and I awlyas tghuoht slpeling was ipmorantt

Maybe a whole website miss-spelled like that could create a bit of a stir & actually increase our traffic?
Then again, perhaps not.

The Oakley Thump

Now I couldn't do without my sunnies or my MP3 player, but these are two products that really don't seem right bundled together. (Some clever geek suggested it should be called 'EyeTunes'!)

Check out the product details. It feels like we've reached 'the future' all of a sudden...

Scientists Define Murphy's Law

"A mathematician, a psychologist and an economist commissioned by British Gas have finally put into mathematical terms what we all knew: that things don't just go wrong, they do so at the most annoying moment. The formula, ((U+C+I) x (10-S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10)), indicates that to beat Murphy's Law (a.k.a. Sod's Law) you need to change one of the parameter: U for urgency, C for complexity, I for importance, S for skill, F for frequency and A for aggravation.

Or in the researchers' own words: "If you haven't got the skill to do something important, leave it alone. If something is urgent or complex, find a simple way to do it. If something going wrong will particularly aggravate you, make certain you know how to do it." Don't you like it when maths back up common sense?"

Source: Slashdot

BBC Flashmob

"In a somewhat unorthodox addition to its autumn television schedules, the BBC has announced that next month it will surprise commuters by staging an opera at an unnamed London rail station, without any warning.

The 65-strong orchestra and three opera singers will swoop in unannounced, with selected members of the public joining in as a chorus after being contacted at the last minute by mobile phone text message.

The event, to be broadcast on the BBC 3 satellite channel, is based on the concept of "flashmobbing", an Internet craze in which people agree to converge in a public area and join in a seemingly random act."

Source: Agence France-Presse.

Read Tom's account of a recent Sydney flashmob.