once we had it we had to waste it

Apple misc

This looks like a nice mac memory stat.

Just that the whole circle represents 8 GB – and that there is no applications running (in the dock)

What is the OS doing with all that memory? A computer not doing anything and still using 6.5GB or memory.

Nice.

branding and 1 5 year old

communication

I could do without the background music, and the maker probably waited for the climax of a stuffy nose of his kid to record this, but it is still interesting to see just how much logo-sign-language kids pick up and

can identify.

From my own kids I remember that they knew the location of the nearest McDonnalds at a very very early age. They also made the fries / M connection.

Adobe service: rocks

misc

In a recent computer shuffle I must have missed to deactivate a laptop of mine. I got in touch with Adobe, hoping that they could provide me with the serial numbers of the computers that have the license. They were able to give me numbers. I didn’t get around to try to locate / translate them into a mac serial number: They were so kind to reset the activation count of my license.

This is awesome service. A benefit of using an illegal copy was that one would not have to worry when switching machines. With Adobe having this excellent license policy and support they make it much easier to do the right thing and to buy the software. I will remember this the next time I need to consider software purchases.

Apple Cinema Displays

Apple misc

Just switched back from the 27″ Apple Cinema display (latest with Thunderbolt etc) to the 30″ one after a couple of weeks.

The 27″ has a nice picture. But it is useless. I am ready to write it off and put into a corner. It looks nice. When it is turned off. Or when one glances over pretty pictures.
But for any work that requires reading it is not usable. A glossy screen is in the end a mirror. My brain sees the content on the screen and the reflection of the room behind
me. For me that causes un needed strain after a couple of hours. Maybe that’s related to the fact that I also get to see myself 🙂

I find it amazing that the 7 year old 30″ design is still the best screen that Apple ever made. There were hardware bumps etc. No wonder they go for a high price on eBay.

The whole glossy saga let me degrade my 13″ MacBook Pro’s into Backup and Wife usage. Back on the 17″ non glossy display I must say that it was really worth the switch.
A shame since the 13″ is a neat little machine. With 8GB Ram and a recent CPU it is quiet a bit of punch. Back on the Aircraft Carrier I realized that I missed all those pixels though.

medical imaging

communication history internet technology

So glad I found this great introduction and overview of medical imaging.

I liked the article since it gives a great overview of different techniques together with their genesis. Stuff like a PET scanner does not rain down on humanity. Lots of people needed to work hard to realize it. Ideas, Patents and -as it turns out- the Beatles were needed and involved.

I personally found it fascinating how much ample computation power has enabled. Nothing that mattered in the last 40 years would have been conceivable without massive numerical processing. Even 99.999% of computing power is wasted on Facebook and games it is just awesome that we people deviced instruments to compute so cheaply.

It is probably impossible to estimate the impact that technologies like DfMRI will have on our knowledge and picture of ourselves. The microscope changed the world and each of our lives in the most radical ways. Which might only have dawned on people in the 17th century.

Of course the link was found in Wikipedia. After having set up a monthly donation to them and knowing how good it feels now and will do in the future I wonder why I did not do so earlier. Specially learning new things most Wikipedia pages allow a quick overview about the topic. What I personally really love is how detailed yet concise even very specialized topics are being documented. Quiet brilliant.

google reader shows wrong content for feed

google internet technology

When adding the feed

http://rss.sciencedirect.com/publication/science/07357044

to google reader the resulting page showed the wrong content, while the title is correct:

This seems to be a caching issues. The workaround was to simply alter the URL in a way that would not have any effect on the feed:

http://rss.sciencedirect.com/publication/science/07357044?x

shows the expected content.

thinking vs remembering soundbytes

politics

It is very telling to watch the first 2 minutes of this video

Libya is a country that had significant changes in 2011. Nato flew countless missions. It is shocking to see somebody who aspires to become president
respond to a question about this in this manner: This is a person trying to recall phrases he has memorized.

It would be so much fun to swap one of the cards that the candidates learn from. Have them utter total rubbish for a minute.
But one never knows if that would not get them elected …

loving a suitcase?

daily life marketing technology

Last century we bought 3 full size Samsonite Oyster suitcases. Back then you had to put some stickers on them to distinguish them from all the others that people had.
That changed. Now there are all those black soft textile bags on the belt. I never understood why.

Those suitcases are simply amazing. They have traveled ridiculous miles by now. Life is tough if you are luggage. I can not imagine what kind of treatment they have gone through. They always worked.

I was very saddened when he lock broke on one of them. I don’t think I want any other suitcase. Rimowa seems to be en vogue. But I feel that they would not work better and probably look pretty beat up within a couple of months. I also don’t like if my luggage tells the world “Hey – check this out – I have money – stealing here is worth the risk”.

But as it turns out Samsonite did not only make awesome products, their service rocks as well:

I emailed them, asking if I could order a spare lock. They asked for my address and will send me a replacement lock for free.

I love it if things work right. I think this kind of service is truly inspiring.

Me loves my Samsonites!

progress

daily life

At7T now

vs

Nextel 5 years ago

confusion as a political tool

history politics

For some people is bendable. Sadly they will pay the price for their ignorance.

Seeding confusion is one tool deliberately being used to keep peoples away from certain facts.

Another one is ‘astroturf trolling’ – as in the comments for this article.

For me the forces and practices of Fox News & Co are just 1 level up from spammers & scammers.

So far society and people just endure those issues. Hope that changes.

It changed for other ailments like slavery or witch hunts before.