The Inevitable Avatar Review
I thought I could avoid it, but after reading my friend Raph’s thoughtful review, I had to chime in too. Spoilers, etc..
Entries Tagged as 'Articles'
Think for yourselves
As if that wasn’t concerning enough, Fox out does itself with another greater than 100% scientific poll result:
C++ Runtime Type System
I’ve finally had a free day to extract my C++ runtime type system and make it stand-alone. I’ve uploaded it here (17KB zip) for anyone interested. Feel free to take it for whatever purpose and improve it. I’m offering it completely "as is," meaning I don’t intend to make changes or offer support. [Read more →]
Fans of Collective Reality
It’s fascinating when an entire country succumbs to a collective belief that is provably false everywhere else. One wonders if the rules that govern reality are flexible in this way, providing exceptions to physics, chemistry, cosmology if a certain density of people believe something (belief in this phenomenon could explain fundamentalism at a psychological level).
Take South Korea and the famed "Fan Death" phenomena. Cheap plastic electric fans can barely cut off your fingers if you remove the protective grating and stick them right in the blades (don’t try this). But the idea that electric fans can remove oxygen from a room is utterly ridiculous.
The only realistic risk to consider from fans is that they don’t actually lower your temperature. They just increase evaporation rates from your skin to cool you off. In extreme temperatures, they’re no substitute for really cooling down and staying hydrated.
Aside: There’s a trick I discovered as a kid that can turn an ordinary fan into a real cooler, which could be fun for your kids next summer (use your own judgment for safety considerations, and do not try this within X miles of the South Korean Fan Death zone).
Build an air-tent by tucking a large cloth bedsheet (or several sheets duck-taped together, depending on the bed size) around the edges of a bed. Tape the foot end of the sheet around the fan, such that the fan blows in and inflates the air-tent. Leave enough slack in the tent that you can comfortably sleep inside, sit up, move around, etc… I didn’t do anything elaborate for getting in and out, just untuck and tuck the sheet as needed. I think cheap flat sheets work best, but try fitted if you like.
I believe you’ll find an actual temperature drop inside the air tent. I figure it’s because it slightly increases pressure (pV=nRT) for air entering the tent and decreases it for air escaping through pores in the sheet, carrying heat away as it re-expands. It’s a simple heat pump.
In fact, as a kid, I needed to sleep with a winter blanket inside my little air tent all summer, it was that cold. I did not run out of oxygen, but it sucks if the power goes out. And be warned, unlike real A/Cs, it doesn’t pump the heat outside, just away from your bed.
The AR Contact Lens
Here’s a great summary of current research (and how it works) by a scientist at the University of Washington.
Another Illusion
These are perfectly round circles. No spirals at all. You’re imagining that part.
Microsoft, year 1
Well, I just celebrated my one year anniversary at Microsoft. It’s been an interesting year, moving from the Virtual Earth team into the main research & strategy arm of the company this spring. The following video represents my experience remarkably well*:
Scorecard:
4 office relocations (1 voluntary)
3 major re-organizations (1 voluntary)
35 really interesting ideas explored
9 patent [application] cubes
5 really killer ideas killed too soon
2 good ideas made it all the way to the top level
1 gonzo project I started last year is still going
1 group project I helped pitch today is finally, officially starting
And yet somehow I feel like I haven’t actually accomplished anything yet.
*Orange guy = me.
Best Color Illusion I’ve Seen
From Bad Astronomy. It takes no work to see the illusion, but a lot of effort to see past it.
The "blue" and "green" swirls are exactly the same color. Don’t believe me? Verify it for yourself.