25 Tuesday Nov 2008
Posted in Geekdom, Life Oh Life
image via techeblog
I’m not good with words. I think I like numbers better. But even through numbers and equations, I still can’t formulate anything sensible and/or articulate (enough) to describe how awesome the time I spent with you was.
** Excuses, excuses for not writing a lot lately. I’m so sorry I’m in such a weird funk.
19 Wednesday Nov 2008
Posted in Geekdom, Life Oh Life
sometimes, gravity just takes hold and pulls anything that has mass and occupies space towards the ground — solid concrete or soft soil or grassy meadows or murky waters or wherever depending on where you are.
but then again, if it’s not the concrete, it’s towards another object, and that force of gravitation between you two is proportional to the mass of the pullee times the mass of the puller and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the elements involved — BUT, in this case, though, newton’s theory of universal gravitation was proven false, no amount of distance lessened the F.
so, i’m really sorry.
there was nothing i could do. you can’t fight gravity. no one could.
***
If a 50 kg (110 lb) girl sat 0.5 m (19.7 in) from a boy who was 75 kg (165 lb), what would be the gravitational attraction between them?
Substituting the values into the equation, you get:
F = GMm/R² = (6.67*10-11 N-m²/kg²)(50 kg)(75 kg)/(0.5 m)(0.5 m) = 10-6 N or one-millionth of a Newton
That is a very small gravitational attraction, but it can be measured on a sensitive instrument.
The gravitational pull from the Moon on the 50 kg (110 pound) girl is:
F = GMm/R² = (6.67*10-11 N-m²/kg²)(50 kg)(7.35*1022 kg)/(3.84*108 m)² = 1.67*10-3 N = 0.00167 N
She would not notice the pull from the Moon, since the gravitation pull on her toward the Earth is 490 N. But still, she is attracted more toward the moon than the boy who was sitting next to her.
11 Tuesday Nov 2008
Posted in Geekdom
GRB 080319B was a remarkable gamma ray burst (GRB) detected by the Swift satellite at 06:12 UTC on March 19, 2008. The burst set a new record for the farthest object that could be seen with the naked eye,[2] it had a peak apparent magnitude of 5.8 and remained theoretically visible for ~30 seconds.[3] The magnitude was brighter than 9.0 for ~60 seconds.[4]
Ano — papasa ba to as brighter than sunshine?
23 Thursday Oct 2008
And it’s best if you know a good thing is going to happen, like an eclipse or getting a microscope for Christmas. And it’s bad if you know a bad thing is going to happen, like having a filling or going to France. But I think it is worst if you don’t know whether it is a good thing or a bad thing which is going to happen.
…
And whenever I thought about the future I couldn’t see anything clearly in my head and that made a panic start. So Siobhan said I shouldn’t think about the future. She said, ‘Just think about today. Think about things that have happened. Especially about good things that have happened.’
– Christopher Boone in Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
***
Finally, I finished a book. Halleluiah.
* 未来につぁE
22 Wednesday Oct 2008
Posted in Geekdom, Life Oh Life, TV/Movies
…and by that, I don’t mean the real marathon. I’m talking about movies, man. Eversince I finally completed my mini home theater*, I’ve been watching a lot of movies (aside from the host of TV shows that I still have to watch) coz I felt like I’ve been missing out on, well, movies in general.
Okay, the following items (in no particular order, coz I don’t really remember the order I saw them) are those that I’ve watched since Suzie Derkins (my CPU) and Kim Samsung (the monitor) came into being:
High Fidelity
This movie’s about a guy — a record-store owner, who’s also a compulsive list-maker. Throughout the movie he recounts his top five break-ups, including one that is ongoing. John Cusack plays Rob the record-store owner with Jack Black ocassionally stealing the show as his employee. Catherine Zeta-Jones is also there somewhere. The tagline (according to IMDB) is “a comedy about fear of commitment, hating your job, falling in love and other pop favorites”. Despite the word “comedy” plastered in there, this movie was quite the trigger for an intense emotikon session (private, of course =))).
Anyhoo, this movie is alright. It also doesn’t hurt that it has an awesome soundtrack — of course it would have to be awesome, a movie with music geeks wouldn’t be complete without an awesome soundtrack.
Wall-E
Well, sorry, I really can’t wait for December (yes, that long) so I just scourged over the web for a copy. It’s been eons already since this Pixar film was shown in other parts of the world and it’s taking, like, forever to get here. Booo!
What did I get from the movie?
1. Last-dialog-syndrome. I’ve been blurting out “Eeeevvuh” and “Wall-Eeeee” in what could be passable as a robotic voice since that movie.
2. My sound card’s mic input is already making my voice sound like Wall-E. Drat.
3. A few minutes nap while watching the movie. Yes, I was half-asleep while watching Wall-E. Maybe because it was really late (around 330AM) or maybe I just got bored with all the “Eeeevuh” and “Wall-Eeeee” dialogs.
4. Aaaackk! All the fat people in space just lie around with screens in front of their eyes and just let the machines take care of their needs. I’m suddenly very very afraid, really afraid. I lie around all the time and I’ve made couch-potato~ing look like an art but I don’t wanna get bloated like that!
The Cinderalla Stories
[t] Hey napanood mo na ba yung A Cinderella Story?
[i] Ha? Yan ba yung may sumasayaw?
[t] Lahat naman ng teeny-bopper movies may sumasayaw!
[t] (Pause)
[t] Omigod, napanood mo rin yung “Another Cinderella Story”?
[t] Wahaha, yun may “Mary Santiagoooo”?
[i] Ahahahahahaha. Oo. Inferness ang galing niya magsayaw ha — yung Mary.
[t] Favorite ko yung nasa likod ng one way glass-mirror si vavae at parang mirror-image (malamang) yung steps nila ni lalake.
[i] Ay oo.
[t] “What’s your name?” “My name’s Joey Parker!” hahaha. Potek bakit ba alam ko yan?!
[i] Alam mo pa ang lines wahahahaha.
[t] Eh pero hindi yun yung tinatanong ko sa yo, tinatanong ko yung A Cinderella Story.
[t] Chad Michael Murray saka Hilary Duff nubuzz.
[i] Wahahaha.
Moral of the Story: Sadyang napakarami nang Cinderella stories sa panahong ito. Sheesh.
The Prince and Me : Trilogy
Yep, trilogy siya. Akalain mo yun? I remember watching the first one. It starred Luke Mably and Julia Stiles. Paige Morgan (Stiles) is a local farmer’s daughter attending Wisconsin University who falls for weird Danish exchange student Edvard (“Eddie”). Later on she discovers that he’s actually the crown prince of Denmark.
The second installment seemed to be released only in Australia and still had Luke Mably in its cast as the Prince but Paige Morgan is, well, not Paige Morgan anymore (or rather, Paige Morgan is not Julia Stiles anymore). It was about the royal wedding, I think. The third one was about the honeymoon in some remote European country covered in snow and ice. I suddenly couldn’t wait for snowboarding season to start.
.
.
.
(Uh oh, I can’t continue this no more coz I got a lot of stuff to code and I’m already losing my head so, I’m just gonna list those movies that I’ve watched …)
21 : Jim Sturgess+ Kate Bosworth+ Math = quite a viewing pleasure. Yeah, I know, nerd na kung nerd.
Wanted: (for the nth time). One word = AWESOME!
College: Three high school seniors visit a university and pretend to be college students.
Garden State: Zach Braff (JD from Scrubs) plays a depressed brooding guy who goes back home because his mother died. He meets Manic Pixie Dream Girl Natalie Portman in a sort of hospital (forgot what kind coz I wasn’t really paying attention). And well, ya know, typical stuff happens. Guy meets girl, girl makes an impression and helps guy get out of his emo whatever shit, and they sort of live happily ever after. I dunno why but this movie didn’t connect to me better than Elizabethtown did.
Don’t Mess With The Zohan: I’m 1/4-way into the movie.
… and others. I forgot about the rest. Might continue this later when I get home.
*** *** ***
*Mini Home Theater Specs:
[x] 22″ Samsung 2253BW widescreen monitor. Specs
[x] Logicool X-240 2.1 stereo speaker set. Specs
[x] Logicool wireless mouse and keyboard.
[x] A Frankenstein (read: assembled) CPU with the following innards:
[x.a] Gigabyte GA-G33-DS3R motherboard .Specs
[x.b] Video card (on board — for the meantime).
[x.c] Intel CoreTM Extreme Quad-Core.
[x.d] 4GB DDR-800 RAM.
[x.e] 500GB HDD (wahahaha — for now).
.
.
.
08 Wednesday Oct 2008
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCljFYn3zTY
Transcript can be found under the cut.
01 Wednesday Oct 2008
Leonard: What do you mean, you’re moving out? Why?
Sheldon: There doesn’t have to be a reason.
Leonard: Yeah, there kinda does.
Sheldon: Not necessarily. This is a classic example of Münchhausen’s Trilemma. Either the reason is predicated on a series of sub-reasons leading to an infinite regression, or it tracks back to arbitrary axiomatic statements, or it’s ultimately circular, i.e. I’m moving out because I’m moving out.
Leonard: I’m still confused.
Sheldon: Leonard, I don’t see how I could have made it any simpler.
– The Big Bang Theory, 2×01 “The Bad Fish Paradigm”
#####
The next time someone rebuts me that there’s a reason (however whacked that maybe) for everything when I don’t really believe there’s one, I have an explanation ready.
Münchhausen’s Trilemma, people, Münchhausen’s Trilemma.
(1) All justifications in pursuit of certain knowledge have also to justify the means of their justification and doing so they have to justify anew the means of their justification. Therefore there can be no end. We are faced with the hopeless situation of ‘infinite regression’. It is progress ad infinitum — all proof requires some further supporting proof, and so on to infinity.
For example, reasonOne is backed up by reasonTwo; reasonTwo is backed up by reasonThree; reasonThree is backed up by reasonFour … and so on and so forth.
[x] Why d’you have to buy a new pc?
[y] Because my current one cannot support the apps that I need to run.
[x] Why can’t it support those apps?
[y] Because it’s so slow.
[x] Why is it slow?
[y] Because its processor is old.
[x] Why is the processor —
[y] — OMG, STOP ASKING ALREADY!
(2) One can justify with a circular argument, but this sacrifices its validity.
Define circular: it’s the beginning of the end of the beginning of the end …
Like when asked, “why do you do that thing you do?”, you answer, “because I do that thing that I do.” And like what Sheldon told Leonard in dialogue, “I’m moving out because I’m moving out.” Or to continue with my example above, “I’m buying a PC because I’m buying a PC.”
I’m not sure if we can consider the following an example though:
[x] Why are you here?
[y] Because I’m not there.
[x] Why are you not there?
[y] Because I’m here.
(3) One can stop at self-evidence or common sense or fundamental principles or speaking ‘ex cathedra’ (Papal Infallibity) or at any other evidence, but in doing so the intention to install certain justification is abandoned. It means you’ll have to have a break of searching at a certain point, which indeed appears principally feasible, but would mean a random suspension of the principle of sufficient reason.
[x] Why are you buying a pc?
[y] Because my current one’s old ergo it’s slow and annoying as hell.
*** I know I’m hasty generalizing with the old = slow thing but I’m too lazy to think of other examples right now.
#####
“…certainty is impossible, but that it’s best to get as close as we can, while remembering our uncertainty”
— Fallibilism of Karl Popper and Hans Albert.
#####
I cannot understand any of the above. What the frick was I thinking? :)) Damn you, TBBT, damn you!
19 Friday Sep 2008
Posted in Geekdom, Life Oh Life
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. – Les Brown
① What if there are no stars in sight? Hmmm? What are you left then — nothing?
② What if the shooter just wants the moon and only the moon and doesn’t care about the bajillion number of stars out there?
③ Aaay, kawawang stars. They are as important as other heavenly bodies (save for, I dunno, asteroids or meteors or whatever) and they would probably mind that they are considered as consolation prizes.
④ If, given the fact that stars are equally important, still they are not the moon and — wait, aren’t you gonna get burned when you get to close to the star, i.e. the sun?
Haha, okay fine, I’m losing my train of thought (because apparently it norikae~d at Machida and I’m aboard another line now) so I’m gonna stop this blabber before it gets nowhere. I just woke up this morning missing The Big Bang Theory. I haven’t even checked when the new season will air. Air…oh noes, no air no air no aiiiiir…okay, gotta stop this before this gets out of hand :))
14 Sunday Sep 2008
Posted in Geekdom, Life Oh Life
Data: Listed below are the density values of several materials and/or elements:
Hydrogen: 0.09 g/cm3
Ice at 0ºC: 0.92 g/cm3
Water at 20ºC: 0.998 g/cm3
Water at 4ºC: 1.0000 g/cm3
Krypton: 3.75 g/cm3
Tin: 7.31 g/cm3
Mercury: 13.6 g/cm3
Gold: 19.3 g/cm3
Osmium: 22.6 g/cm3
You: ∞
Me: =You
Conclusion: Density values are fixed for each material. It is what it is. You are what you are. I am what I am. We’ll probably sink to the bottom of the ocean for all we care.
14 Monday Jul 2008
Posted in Geekdom, Life Oh Life
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT-5-tW70xw
Lemmings jump off a cliff to what — their death? Pretty damn senseless, I say.
But who am I to criticize? Hell if I know what pleasure they get from plunging into the (possibly) rocky waters below. So I’ll shut up and stew about this on my own.
Hmmm. Yeah. I think that’s better.
########
Ha, but the whole suicidal lemming thing is actually just a myth. Lemmings migrate in scores and those at the front of the pack just get pushed off the cliff because all those at the back are in such a hurry to move move move move. But hey, knowing the actual fact renders the whole thing boring. So let’s just pretend that they actually want to jump off a cliff ten thousand feet high and they do that — I dunno, just for fun?
Yeah. I think that’s better.