2009 is near. Make a wish...

We've made a lot of wishes in our life - be it a birthday wish, a wish upon a shooting star, or anything else. We know that it probably makes no difference, but deep inside we hope that our wish will come true. But what do we actually wish for?

Most of us would want something for ourselves - health, love, money, and so on. We might also ask for something on behalf of a person that we love. How many people would ask for something that would affect the whole world? Like, for all wars to stop, for hunger to end, and so on? There are no rules that say that our wish should be easy, right? :)

Yet, imagine a genie telling you "I can grant your wish, or I can stop all wars forever, it's your choice" - I don't think that we would be selfish enough to still prefer our own wishes... Until the genie turns into Yuuko san (the one from xxxHolic and Tsubasa Chronicles), and tells you that you have to pay the equivalent price for your wish. What would be the price for worldwide peace?

2008 is coming to an end, and I have to admit that, for me personally, it was neither a very good nor a very bad year. I earned a lot of memorable moments, but a lot of things could admittedly have gone better. However, today I counted, not one, not two, but eight (EDIT: ten!) long-term relationships or marriages of friends and acquaintances of mine that ended within 2008 - I might even have forgotten someone. If I add to this a few more things that affect the whole world, such as a worldwide financial crisis, I keep thinking that 2008 has to be one of the worst years so far. For the first time in my life, I'm not exactly looking forward to the new year to come - I can't wait for the current year to finally end!

If my wish for 2009 is love, peace, and the food and healthcare that every person needs - for the whole world... what is the price that I have to pay, Yuuko san?...

My alter ego...

Source: http://www.esaba.com/cats/catimagessimple2/905383.jpg

Google incompatible with itself?

Looks like you can't access your Google sites with Google Chrome... :)

Feline Laws of Physics

Cats have their own rules of physics.  Here are some of them.

Newton's First Law of Cat Inertia
A cat at rest will tend to remain at rest, unless acted upon by some outside force - such as the opening of a can or the sight of a prey.

Newton's First  Law of Cat Motion
A cat will move in a straight line, unless there is a really good reason to change direction.

Newton's Law of Feline Acceleration
A cat continues to accelerate at a constant speed until he needs to stop.

Newton's First Law of Pill Rejection
Any pill given to a cat has the potential energy to reach escape velocity.

Newton's Second Law of Pill Rejection
Any cat restrained for the purposes of administering a pill has the potential to reach escape velocity.

Newton's Law of Concentration of Mass
A cat's mass increases in direct proportion to the comfort of the lap she occupies.

Newton's Law of Feline Gravity Manipulation
Cats have the ability manipulate gravity, forming localised areas of strong gravitational attraction.  This gives the impression of a cat growing heavier as it occupies a lap or bed.  This is a linear effect with gravity increasing at a steady rate over time.

First Law of Energy Conservation (Feline Thermodynamics Law 1)
Cats know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed and will therefore use as little energy as possible.

Second Law of Energy Conservation (Feline Thermodynamics Law 2)
Cats know that energy can only be stored by a lot of napping.

Third Law of Energy Conservation (Feline Thermodynamics Law 3)
If the rate of energy uptake exceeds the maximum rate of energy storage, the difference will be emitted in the form of purring.

Boyle's Law of Cat Thermodynamics
Heat flows from a warmer to a cooler body, except in the case of a cat, in which case all heat flows to the cat.

Kirk's Law of Cat Magnetism
Dark coloured clothing attracts light coloured cat hair in direct proportion to the darkness of the fabric.  The converse is also true.

Fanner's First Law of Cat Stretching (Nap-Associated Stretching)
A cat will stretch to a distance proportional to the length of the nap just taken.

Fanner's Second Law of Cat Stretching (Non-Nap-Associated Stretching)
The length of the stretch is directly proportional to temperature.  Nose in tail (unstretched) is 'cold' while fully stretched is 'hot'.  There are infinite gradations on this stretch/temperature scale.

Young's Law of Cat Sleeping
All cats must sleep with people whenever possible.

Kent's Corollary Young's Law of Cat Sleeping
The cat must select a position which causes maximum discomfort to people involved.

Holmes'  Law of Vertical Feline Elongation
A cat can make its body long enough to reach the top of any surface which has anything remotely interesting on it.

Burt's Corollary to Holmes' Law of Vertical Feline Elongation
The cat can exceed its normal elongation if the item of interest is edible.

Burt's Law of Dinner Table Attendance
Cats will attend all family meals when anything good is served.

Burt's Law of Selective Listening
A cat can hear a can of tuna being opened (or the word 'vet') a mile away, but can't hear a simple command three feet away.

Euler's Law of Rug Configuration
When a cat is present, no rug may remain in its naturally flat state for long.

Ohm's Law of Obedience Resistance
A cat's resistance varies in inverse proportion to a humans desire for her to do something.

Henry's Law of Refrigerator Observation
If a cat watches a refrigerator long enough, someone will come along and take out something good to eat.

Revised Henry's Law of Kitchen Appliance Observation
If a cat watches a refrigerator, a stove, a kitchen cupboard or a microwave oven long enough, someone will come along and take out something good to eat.

Partington's Addition to Revised Henry's Laws of Kitchen Appliance Observation
If a cat stands directly behind a human in the kitchen, its tail will be trodden on; the human will then offer the cat something good to eat by way of apology.

Einstein's Law of Electric Blanket Attraction
Turn on an electric blanket and a cat will jump into bed at the speed of light.

Einstein's Law of Space-Time Continuum as Applicable to Felines
Given enough time, a cat will land in just about any space.

Einstein's Law of Cat Composition
A cat is composed of Matter + Anti-Matter + It Doesn't Matter.

Cheung's Law of Random Comfort Seeking
A cat will always seek, and usually take over, the most comfortable spot in any given room.

Colling's Law of Cat Disinterest
A cat's interest level will vary in inverse proportion to the amount of effort a human expends in trying to interest him.

Collings' Law of Cat Embarrassment
A cat's irritation rises in direct proportion to its embarrassment multiplied by the amount of human laughter.  (Amount of human laughter = volume x duration2)

Collings' Law of Feline Vomiting
The frequency that a cat vomits on a given surface is directly proportional to the difficulty of cleaning the given surface and also proportional the likelihood of the given surface to acquire permanent stains.

Cheung's Modification to Collings' Law of Feline Vomiting
The frequency that a cat vomits, pees or has diarrhoea on a given surface is directly proportional to the difficulty of cleaning the given surface and also proportional the likelihood of the given surface to acquire permanent stains and odours.

Cheung's Law of Furniture Replacement
A cats desire to scratch furniture is directly proportional to the cost of the furniture.

Cheung's Law of Cat Landing
A cat will always land in the softest place possible.

Cheung's Second Law of Cat Landing
A cat will always land on its feet unless you are unpacking groceries, in which case it will land on your feet.

Schrodinger's Law of Cat Invisibility
Cats think that if they can't see you, then you can't see them.

Schrodinger's Accidentally Discovered Law of Object Occupancy
All bags and boxes in a given room must contain a cat within the earliest possible nanosecond.

Heisenberg's Law of Cat Probability (Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle as Applied to Cats)
It is not possible to predict where a cat actually is, only the probability of where it "might" be.  As soon as you know where it is, it will move.

Pythagoras' Theorem of Feline Equidistant Separation
All cats in a given room will be located at points equidistant from each other, and equidistant from the centre of the room.  The time taken to achieve equidistant spacing is proportional to the number of cats present.

Pratchett's Rule of Cat Chess
Where multiple cats are present in a large finite space, each cat must attempt to see at least two other cats but remain hidden from view itself.

Protagoras' Rule of Cat Obedience
As a rule, cats aren't obedient.

Aristotle's Law of Fluid Displacement
A cat immersed in milk will displace her own volume, minus the amount of milk consumed.

Law of Milk Consumption (Feline Capacitance)
A cat will drink his weight in milk, squared, just to show you he can.  After a suitable delay, It will then exercise Cheung's Modification to Collings' Law of Feline Vomiting.

Source: http://www.messybeast.com/moggycat/physics.htm

Linux server on a TV

It just came to my attention today that the LG 6000 Scarlet television is running Linux on a 2.6 kernel, can be controlled remotely via serial port, and even includes a PCMCIA slot. Technically, since it is running Linux already, using a PCMCIA network card, one could even install a web server, or ssh server, or ...

If I ever get some time, I'll try to install a web server on a TV. Just for the fun of it. :)

Things that a Sane Person Hates

I had seen this list long ago on some website, which I unfortunately cannot remember. I tried looking for it again today but I couldn't - did it disappear from the Internet or what? I decided to "save" it from extinction by posting it on my blog - and give you people a good laugh :) So, here you go!

Oh, and leave a comment if you have anything to add :)

Things that a Sane Person Hates

*You have to try on a pair of sunglasses with that stupid little plastic
thing in the middle of them.....

*The person behind you in the supermarket runs his cart into the back of
your ankle.....

*The elevator stops on every floor and nobody gets on.....

*There's always a car riding your tail when you're slowing down to find
an address.....

*You open a can of soup and the lid falls in.....

*It's bad enough that you step in dog doo doo, but you don't realize it
till you walk across your living room rug.....

*The tiny red string on the Band-Aid wrapper never works for you.....

*There's a dog in the neighborhood that barks at EVERYTHING.....

*You can never put anything back in a box the way it came.....

*Three hours and three meetings after lunch you look in the mirror and
discover a piece of parsley stuck to your front tooth.....

*You drink from a soda can into which someone has extinguished a
cigarette.....

*You slice your tongue licking an envelope.....

*Your tire gauge lets out half the air while you're trying to get a
reading.....

*A station comes in brilliantly when you're standing near the radio, but
buzzes, drifts and spits every time you move away.....

*There are always one or two ice cubes that won't pop out of the
tray.....

*You wash a garment with a tissue in the pocket and your entire laundry
comes out covered with lint.....

*The car behind you blasts its horn because you let a pedestrian finish
crossing.....
*A piece of foil candy wrapper makes electrical contact with your
filling.....

*You set the alarm on your digital clock for 7pm instead of 7am.....

*The radio station doesn't tell you who sang that.....

*You rub on hand cream and can't turn the bathroom doorknob to get
out.....

*People behind you on a supermarket line dash ahead of you to a counter
just opening up.....

*Your glasses slide off your ears when you perspire.....

*You can't look up the correct spelling of a word in the dictionary
because you don't know how to spell it.....

*You have to inform five different sales people in the same store that
you're just browsing.....

*You had that pen in your hand only a second , a second ago, and now you
can't find it.....

*You reach under the table to pick something off the floor and smash
your head on the way up.....

*The change falls through the hole in the pocket and you can’t get it
out from between the two layers of the cloth…..

*You leave your IM program on for several hours and nobody's looked for you, but if you dare go to the bathroom for 5 minutes, you have 3 new query windows... (the author's recent addition)

Jigoku Shoujo, Part 2

So, the third season of Jigoku Shoujo has just started. Even though I've seen a few more episodes since the last time I blogged about it, I haven't finished the first season or found a definite answer to my question yet. If there are, say, 26 episodes per season, at the end of the third season we'll have 78 episodes. I wasn't willing to go through all of them without knowing whether my question will be answered: who would be stupid enough to gain temporary relief and pay it with eternal suffering?

So, I had to ask a person who has seen the first two seasons. My question isn't directly answered so far. However, there are so many examples, and they have one thing in common: they are so easily influenced by seemingly unsolvable problems and the impact of society's negative opinion on them. So, they consider hell to be "not too bad" as an option. It is the only reasonable answer, since not knowing how much they'll suffer or not being completely conscious of what they're doing is out of the question: the Enma gives them a preview of Hell and they are instantly shocked, and then she lets them think about it.

However, the series gives more interesting information, such as the Enma's past and future. I was suggested to watch the first 2-3 and the last 2-3 episodes of each season and read the rest of the plot summary on Wikipedia. And I guess I'll do this, since it looks like there's more interesting information to come, but I'm not enjoying its typical episodes: they are too dark and sick-minded for my taste.

Feeling lovesick?

I read in an article recently (EDIT: this one) that, when we fall in love, our serotonin levels fall, just like in depression, and this is what makes us never stop thinking about the other person. I suppose you know the feeling: you try to force yourself to think about other things but can't seem to get it right, all your brain seems to be able to focus on is your beloved one, and it's nothing but negative thoughts. Well, apart from psychological help, it seems we're also able to target those hormones playing all these tricks to your brain! :)

First off, serotonin levels increase by exposure to daylight. Which means: go out in the sun as much as you can! :)

Second, it also increases by exercising. Combining this with the above, try playing your favorite outdoor sport, and relaxing in the sun when you feel tired.

Third: As Wikipedia-sensei informed me, an enzyme called tryptophan has the ability to increase serotonin levels. Which means, go ahead and eat chocolate, eggs, parmesan cheese, and other foods rich in tryptophan. Don't worry about the calories, just exercise enough! :P

Jigoku Shoujo

Here's the entry I promised you!

So, I watched the two first episodes of Jigoku Shoujo and I feel I have a lot to comment on. Of course, it's only the two first episodes so the anime is very likely to change in the next ones, but, in short, my first impression wasn't too positive. However, it's still enough for me to keep watching. I'm not dropping it (yet).

Spoiler warning: watch what you read if you're planning to watch it :)

In the whole, the anime is about Jigoku Shoujo, which translates as Hell Girl. Desperate people contact her and she agrees to take revenge for them, taking their tormentors straightly to hell. However, people who make such a contract with her also agree that, when they die, their soul will also be sent to hell. So, the anime has got to answer this question for me: Hell means eternal suffering. This is confirmed in the anime. I mean, I don't care what hardships you're facing in this life, but who would be stupid enough to knowingly earn temporary relief in exchange for eternal suffering?

So let's go to the first episode. It starts with a class of (I think) 14-year-olds in a girls-only school, who were collecting money for some reason - charity perhaps, I don't remember very well, and it doesn't matter either. They managed to collect 100 000 yen, which is given to the class rep for keeping - in front of the whole class. The class rep, in turn, puts the money in her bag.
This means two things:
First, the teacher is acting without thinking. Who would trust 100 000 yen to a 14-year-old?
Second, the girl herself is also acting without thinking. You wouldn't put that money in your bag and leave the bag unattended. I'd go for an inner pocket instead - or, at least, I wouldn't leave the bag unattended.

As expected, the money is stolen. Then you see a second girl who lends the money to the class rep, but starts threatening and abusing her until she can return it. Knowing that not many 14-year-olds manage to collect 100 000 yen of pocket money that they can easily lend to a classmate, and that equally few fathers would lend this money to their daughter's classmate, it seems kind of obvious that this second girl stole the money. So it's yet another one of those cases where you know the end and you end up thinking "come on, reveal it already!"

Which makes me think about the stupidness of the class rep, once again. Her first mistake is that she couldn't think that the other girl must have taken the money. Her second mistake is that she was too shy to inform her parents or her teachers - if she didn't think about it, someone would probably have done it. But no, she had to be "proud" - really, what is the limit where pride ends and cowardice starts?

Then again, this might be the answer to my first question: what kind of person would ask for temporary relief in exchange for eternal suffering. The answer, judging from the first episode, is: a coward who acts without thinking. Still, the episode could have been presented a lot better, without having you think about how stupid everyone acts.

The second episode, though, is far better - this stupidness factor has certainly decreased and the person involved is indeed in a desperate condition. I'll surely keep watching, probably after I come back from holidays though, because the anime looks promising, and I've been told that the scenario becomes a lot more original after the 5th episode or so.

Until then, take care! (@)

Lost in the query

It's great of people who run a store to try to attract foreign tourists, even if they don't speak English. It's acceptable to use a translation engine. However, proofchecking is necessary:(source: AdFreak: Then we'll grab a bite at 404 Not Found )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not to mention proofchecking the ingredients label of your own product:

(source: thedailywtf.com )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

which, in turn, reminded me of a good webcomic strip:


(source: xkcd )

New search engines

And so, the cat is back, after several months of nothing really special to write about. Don't you worry though; "no news, good news"!

I keep reading about new search engines that appear lately and some of them do sound interesting. I think it's time to close this connection in your mind where "Internet search" equals "Google", as I have two interesting ones:

The first one is Powerset : http://www.powerset.com . It accepts questions in natural language, such as "What is the population of Tokyo?" or "Where is Sapporo?". For now, it only searches Wikipedia articles. I tried feeding it a few more difficult questions, such as "Which voice actor plays the X role in the Y anime?" or "What is the effect of chocolate on blood pressure?" and it answered perfectly. I've already asked it more than a dozen of times and it's never disappointed me. Maybe the correct answer is second or third, but it's always there. One little drawback is that it cannot deal very well with synonyms - yet? Or am I asking for too much?
EDIT: Actually, Powerset can deal with synonyms as well, maybe it was just me picking a tough one. However, it's constantly progressing. Also, the Powerset staff is cool and they care about their product: I even had the honor of having them post comments on this very article!

The second one is Cuil - http://www.cuil.com . It uses context-relevant search rather than ranking pages according to number of visits - which means, if there are 100 pages relevant to your search, it will rank them according to how relevant it judges them to be rather than how many people visit them. This one is very promising, but its results are a bit disappointing for now - I certainly hope that they will improve their algorithm with time. For example, I was looking for the download page of a certain software, so I just typed "software_name download" and it didn't return the download page. However, I did like the way results are presented: tiled up in a grid, like magazine articles, rather than a list.

Last but not least, a small flash of my news: I've planned a holiday which is really about to start (countdown launched), but I hope to get back to you before I leave - this time with comments on Jigoku Shoujo, an anime I just started seeing. And, by the end of August, I might come up with a dissertation describing the relationship between the number of people staying in the same house and the entropy inside the house. However, that's going to be a difficult task, as it actually depends on each person involved!