Author Archives: Robin

Tesla Motors

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Tesla Motors has an electric car which looks cool and has the performance to match. It does 0-60 mph in something like 4 seconds and has a range of 250 miles. As it’s electric and has no transmission, accelleration is smooth throughout the speed range. They’re trying to qualify it for road use in the US now and expect it to be sold in the US towards the middle of 2007. Unfortunately they plan on not selling it outside of ConUS. Pricing totally unkown.

PHP speed tests

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These pages have a few benchmark tests for PHP4 perfomance to do the same thing using different methods.:


READ LOOP: foreach() vs. while(list()=each())
MODIFY LOOP: foreach() vs. while(list()=each())
For-loop test
Using the &-ref-operator as so called “alias”
$obj = new SomeClass() vs. $obj =& new SomeClass() using the =&-ref-operator
double (“) vs. single (‘) quotes
sSet() vs. empty() vs. is_array()
switch/case vs. if/elseif

Creating int array[100 000]
Reading int array[100 000]
Reading apache log (16Mb)
Parse vars names [100 000]
Parse and find text from apache log (32Mb)
Split text apache log 200Kb (contain 2000 “-“)
Count array size. $arr = int[100 000]
Create object by Ref (loop 100 000)
Random number generator (loop 100 000)
Calculate hash (loop 100 000)

NB Refresh the pages a few times, the results change as webserver load differs.

X’Tal Vision

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This offshoot of the University of Tokyo, Chrystal Vision, uses projectors and camera’s to good use in order to create some startling illusions.

One is invisible / see through clothing, which uses a camera / projector setup to make it look as though the cape is transparent (I’ve seen many blogs referring to this as the real thing ie. bending light around the cape or the back being made up of camera’s and the front of display, but they obviously failed to go to the source and check up to see that it’s really clever trickery).

They also dive into telepresence or telexistence, where they project people onto robots to make it seem like they’re there.

They have a space age futuristic head mounted projector, which just looks far out.

There are plenty of movies on the site to illustrate better what they’re doing – it’s very convincing indeed.

Posted in Art

Another new browser in the wars.

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But this one is specifically for visiting porn sites with. It’s called Heatseak and implements a shell on IE, closing it down for much of the nasty behaviour certain porn sites exhibit (spyware, popups etc). The installer allows you to choose a variety of names / icons for it, so it’s not too obvious on your PC, and it has playlists of the stuff you’ve downloaded a bit like itunes. Also all the downloaded content and sites you’ve visited are stored encrypted on its’ own bit of disk, so no one else can get at it or see where you’ve gone. Anonymity is a big point of the design. If you want to view the content outside of Heatseak you pay $20,- for a gold version.

Posted in Sex

Anti anti smoking

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In an earlier post, I vented my frustrations about smoking studies – few of them are available and the ones that are are flawed: there are very few indeed with a sample size larger than 15 (which is surprising considering the millions of smokers out there) and the one (and only one!) I’ve been pointed to so far has been far from conclusive (putting it mildly).

Now I’ve found a few websites dedicated to telling you a few truths – they also find the studies they have access to are full of shit, especially those regarding passive smoking.

The Smokers Club, inc.

FORCES

The Truth Is A Lie

We are Americans Too!

The Smokers Rebellion

The only claims they refute that I simply can’t agree with is that smoking is non-addictive. Having smoked for quite some time, I can tell you that it damn well is.

What they do show is the conspiracy of the anti-smoking lobby having successfully inundated the population with their fairy tales and spin which grows larger and more all encompassing (eg. that smoking affects appearance).

I’m glad to see there is some movement to grant us our rights!

380 ways to freak out your roommate

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I first found this list on a BBS around about 1993 and it’s still floating around! It’s still as good as it was back then too – some of these are far out!

8. Learn to levitate. While your roommate is looking away, float up out of your seat. When s/he turns to look, fall back down and grin.

42. Put your mattress underneath your bed. Sleep down under there and pile your dirty clothes on the empty bedframe. If your roommate comments, mutter “Gotta save space,” twenty times while twitching violently.

53. Clip your fingernails and toenails and keep them in a baggie. Leave the baggie near your computer and snack from it while studying. If s/he walks by, grab the bag close and eye him/her suspiciously.

64. Create an imaginary cat for a pet. Talk to it every night, act like you’re holding it, keep a litter box under your desk. After two weeks, say that your cat is missing. Put up signs in your dorm, blame your roommate.

106. Pretend to shower often but only wash your hair in the sink. See how long it takes your roommate to notice.

129. Get your roommate’s social security number. Call the registrar and switch all of his/her classes. Tell your roommate at the end of the term that the Philosophical Environmental Anthropology exam is supposed to be really hard. Wish him/her luck.

193. Move everything to one side of the room. Ask your roommate if s/he knows how much an elephant weighs, and look at the floor on the empty side of the room with concern.

229. Keep some worms in a shoebox. When doing homework, go and consult with the worms every so often. Then become angry, shouting at the worms that they’re stupid and they don’t know what they’re talking about.