| Fun with Google Translator |
[Aug. 24th, 2009|10:00 pm] |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) qatar recently mentioned Translation Party.
Supposedly it translates your phrase into Japanese and then back -- and then back into Japanese, and so on -- until it finally gets the same phrase back twice.
There's a fair amount of wild stuff you can get from it. To steal her example, "All for one and one for all" becomes "All in all one by one", which becomes "All one, all 1 inch", which returns the same phrase, so it stops.
Amusingly, that isn't exactly what Qatar got for the same phrase.
We did some song lyrics, so I thought it would be good to translate successive lines of a Beatles song.
How to adjust the music
I was walking to the stand please
Lend your ears, I'll sing you a song
I like to sing along with me, my big key
Get a little help from my friends
Get help from a friend from my little high
I'm trying to please a little help from my friends
Do you need someone you?
I need to.
It could be anybody?
I love people.
If desired, such as the distance from your love?
The only problem.
What I feel the end of the day?
So sad to do it yourself?
No, I get a little help from my friends. |
|
|
| Robotic Fish! |
[Jul. 24th, 2009|07:50 pm] |
This week I had an inspiration.
Robotic fish.
I mean, they would be fish -- but they would also be robots!
What could possibly be cooler than that?
The thought occurred to me when I was thinking about sensible ways of mapping the ocean floor. (It's hard to map the ocean floor, because no light gets down there--even if you bring your own, it doesn't go very far--and only long-wave sonar can go far enough, so the resolution is bad.)
My initial thought was to use some kind of sub with an X-ray discharger and X-ray camera.
Unfortunately, it turns out that X-ray attenuates pretty fast in water, so it would be impossible to take pictures from hundreds of meters above the surface.
But I found an IEEE paper about some experiments with megahertz-frequency radio signals in sea water. They were able to maintain radio contact between portable units that were 70 meters apart.
So here's where the robotic fish come in. If they could be programmed to keep in radio contact--try to stay 40 meters from their neighbors, for example--and otherwise sink toward the bottom, you could have a chain of robotic fish that
(1) know how far they are from their neighbors, which gives you 3-d structure if there are enough neighbors,
(2) is ultimately connected up to some buoys on the surface that get GPS.
In other words, the fish all know where they are when they start to detect ocean floor.
I did some simply calculations. If the fish are trying to keep 40m apart, then each fish on average covers about 1400 square meters of ocean floor, so it would take a few hundred to cover a square kilometer. Hundreds of thousands of fish could cover a larger area, all taking in a little bit of sensor information and relaying it up the chain...
Wouldn't that be cool?
So today I googled around a bit, and found that, sure enough...there's a website devoted to robotic fish, and even better--there really are robotic fish that you can see on the site.
A little more poking around brings an environmental project based on robotic fish and even video of how one moves. |
|
|
| "What I have witnessed" |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|12:11 am] |
Transmitted by Nico on Tuesday:
6:03 PM ET -- "What I have witnessed." A powerful note from a female medical student in Iran, translated from Farsi by a trusty reader.
Hello,
It's painful to watch what's happening.
I don't want anything to do with what has been said this far, as I neither have the strength nor the resilience to face all these unfathomable events.
I only want to speak about what I have witnessed. I am a medical student. There was chaos last night at the trauma section in one of our main hospitals. Although by decree, all riot-related injuries were supposed to be sent to military hospitals, all other hospitals were filled to the rim. Last night, nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds. All hospital employees were crying till dawn. They (government) removed the dead bodies on back of trucks, before we were even able to get their names or other information. What can you even say to the people who don't even respect the dead. No one was allowed to speak to the wounded or get any information from them. This morning the faculty and the students protested by gathering at the lobby of the hospital where they were confronted by plain cloths anti-riot militia, who in turn closed off the hospital and imprisoned the staff. The extent of injuries are so grave, that despite being one of the most staffed emergency rooms, they've asked everyone to stay and help--I'm sure it will even be worst tonight.
Story continues below
What can anyone say in face of all these atrocities? What can you say to the family of the 13 year old boy who died from gunshots and whose dead body then disappeared?
This issue is not about cheating(election) anymore. This is not about stealing votes anymore. The issue is about a vast injustice inflected on the people. They've put a baton in the hand of every 13-14 year old to smash the faces of "the bunches who are less than dirt" (government is calling the people who are uprising dried-up torn and weeds) .
This is what sickens me from dealing with these issues. And from those who shut their eyes and close their ears and claim the riots are in opposition of the government and presidency!! No! The people's complaint is against the egregious injustices committed against the people. |
|
|
| Fixated |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|07:39 pm] |
My camera post aside, it's hard to think about much today besides what's going on in Iran.
I remember 1989 well. Not only the Velvet Revolution, but Tienanmen too.
And I'm not sure which way this will go.
The best English resources I've found are
Tehran Bureau
NIAC
and, of course, Michael Totten, lately blogging at Commentary.
There's at least one petition to Ban-ki Moon; I'm concerned that only 1816 people have signed it so far.
I don't know what's the most useful thing for Obama to be saying. I appreciate his cautious stance so far, but some folks, like Michael Totten, think that a stronger American position doesn't hurt as we might expect. A lot of Lebanese seem to think that it helped there.
I of course am hoping that this works against an Iranian nuclear weapon. I can see several ways that it might. But I am really hoping that it will happen to dramatic changes in how the country is run. These could be some of the most exciting events in our lifetimes.
Or at least, please don't let anybody else get shot! |
|
|
| It's coming! |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|03:04 pm] |
I wonder how the high ISO will be.
I've thought for a long time that the concept was fantastic: ditch the mirror in the SLR but keep the same size sensor. Then you have interchangeable lenses and better sensitivity with
(1) no "mirror slap" (sound or shake),
(2) less weight and bulk (no mirror or prism, so the sensor is close to the back of the lens),
and
(3) even less weight and bulk (it turns out that having the lenses closer also means they can be smaller).
It's sounding like the execution is pretty good too. I am guessing this is not yet my final, ultimate carry-with-you camera--the sensor's probably not as great as Fuji's, and I think there are still several years of rapid improvement ahead in camera technologies--but this sounds like a huge step in that direction. |
|
|
| Dude, hardly anybody seems to be posting lately!! |
[Jun. 2nd, 2009|07:48 pm] |
My friends seem to be posting very slowly these days. I guess that means I'll have to step up.
I discovered two useful productivity tricks today. The less general one was: I forgot that my boss was on vacation this week, so I prepared for our regular meeting today, and got a bunch of stuff written up that I had been putting off for a while.
That was great, but I'm not sure I can do it at will.
The other thing that helped was thinking: "Let's imagine I just have 15 minutes to write up whatever I can. What would I write?" That really worked. The 15 minutes came and went, and I kept writing for a few hours.
Man, I'm tired. You see, every so often when I couldn't stand writing up the old stuff I mentioned, I would think about this mathematical issue that's been bugging me for the last week or so. I keep looking through old papers so see if anyone's done this calculation before, and some people have done things like it...I can probably work it out, given patience...but it would sure be nice if somebody just told me the answer.
So with all that brain work today, I think it's time to go home and read what Orin Kerr called "Perhaps The Most Riveting First Chapter I Have Ever Read". With a recommendation like that, how could I not order it myself? I even happen to know that it arrived today!
Man, I think I'm going to get a lot of work done tomorrow. |
|
|
| Open letter from Roxana Saberi's fiancee |
[Apr. 21st, 2009|05:43 pm] |
http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2009/04/ghobadiletter/
I've seen one of his films -- Marooned in Iraq -- and it was excellent.
It was very stranger seeing him come up in this context.
I sure hope her conviction is reversed.
Of course the USA has no diplomatic relations with Iran; this is the contact info for the Canadian embassy.
Here's the full text of Ghobadi's letter.
If I kept quiet until now, it was for her sake. If today I speak, it is for her sake.
She is my friend, my fiancée, and my companion. An intelligent and talented young woman, whom I have always admired.
It was the 31st of January. The day of my birthday. That morning, she called to say she would pick me up so we would go out together. She never came. I called on her mobile, but it was off, and for two-three days I had no idea what had happened to her. I went to her apartment, and since we had each other’s keys, I went in, but she wasn’t there. Two days later, she called and said: “Forgive me my dear, I had to go to Zahedan.” I got angry: why hadn’t she said anything to me? I told her I didn’t believe her, and again she said: “Forgive me my dear, I had to go.” And the line was cut. I waited for her to call back. But she didn’t call back. She didn’t call back.
I left for Zahedan. I looked for her in every hotel, but nobody had ever heard her name. For ten days, thousands of wild thoughts came to my mind. Until I learned, through her father, she had been arrested. I thought it was a joke.
I thought it was a misunderstanding and that she would be released after two or three days. But days went by and I had no news from her. I started to worry and knocked on every door for help, until I understood what had happened.
It is with tears in my eyes that I say she is innocent and guiltless. It is me, who has known her for years, and shared every moment with her, who declares it. She was always busy reading and doing her research. Nothing else. During all these years I’ve known her, she wouldn’t go anywhere without letting me know, nor would do anything without asking my advice. To her friends, her family, everyone that surrounded her, she had given no signs of unreasonable behavior. How come someone who would spend days without going out of her apartment, except to see me; someone who, like a Japanese lady, would carefully spend her money, and had sometimes trouble making a living; someone who was looking for a sponsor to get in contact with a local publisher so her book would be printed here (in Iran); could now be charged with a spying accusation?! We all know - no, we have all seen in movies - that spies are malicious and sneaky, that they peep around for information, and that they are very well paid. And now my heart is full of sorrow. Because it is me who incited her to stay here. And now I can’t do anything for her. Roxana wanted to leave Iran. I kept her from it.
At the beginning of our relationship, she wanted to go back to the United States. She would have liked us to go together. But I insisted for her to stay until my new film was over. She really wanted to leave Iran. And I kept her from it. And now I am devastated, for it is because of me she has been subject to these events. These past years, I have been subject to a serious depression. Why? Because my movie had been banned, and released on the black market. My next movie was not given an authorization, and I was forced to stay at home. If I’ve been able to stand it until today, it is thanks to the presence and help that she provided me with.
Since I had no authorization for my last movie, I was nervous and ill-tempered. And she was always there to calm me down.
Roxana wanted to leave Iran. I kept her from it. She is the one who took care of me while I was depressed. Then I convinced her to stay, I wanted her to write the book she had started in her head. I accompanied her, and thanks to my friends and contacts, I knocked on every door and was able to set up meetings with film makers, artists, sociologists, politics, and others. I would go with her myself.
She was absorbed by her book, to the point that she could stay and bear it all, until my film would be finished, and we would leave together.
Roxana’s book was a praise to Iran. The manuscripts exist, and it will certainly be published one day, and all will see it. But why have they said nothing? All those who have talked, worked and sat with her, and who know how guiltless she is.
I am writing this letter for I am worried about her. I am worried about her health. I heard she was depressed and cried all the time. She is very sensitive. To the point she refuses to touch her food.
My letter is a desperate call to all statesmen and politics, and to all those who can do something to help. From the other side of the ocean, the Americans have protested against her imprisonment, because she is an American citizen. But I say no, she is Iranian, and she loves Iran. I beg you, let her go! I beg you not to throw her in the midst of you political games! She is too weak and too pure to take part in your games. Let me be present at her trial, sit next to her wise father and gentle mother, and testify she is without guilt or reproach.
However, I am optimistic about her release, and I firmly hope the verdict will be cancelled in the next stage of the trial.
My Iranian girl with Japanese eyes and an American ID, is in jail. Shame on me! Shame on us!
Bahman Ghobadi |
|
|
| You guys know Trek, right? |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|09:36 pm] |
I was reading some Star Trek stuff online yesterday. No, I don't do that every day, or even weekend. It had been a while.
I felt like it would be fun to watch some old series episodes, but...some of them were pretty bad. Some were bad in a funny way, but some were just...bad.
Is there any way you can DVDs of just the good episodes? Does anyone have a definitive list of the reasonably decent TOS episodes?
Looking it up on Google resulted more in lists of bad episodes--which can also be kind of fun. |
|
|
| A funny thought that's been occurring to me since January |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|07:49 pm] |
Has anybody noticed how normal it is to have a President who isn't exactly white? I always heard it was supposed to be some big deal, but now that he's in...zzzzzz...there's so much else going on.
Of course, the name "Obama" still sounds kind of funny. |
|
|
| If you know the US Navy is nearby and is watching you, |
[Apr. 12th, 2009|10:48 pm] |
pointing a gun at an American sailor might not be the best idea.
Historically speaking pirates may have been a bigger problem than not-for-profit terrorists.
I have some sympathy for Somalis who get involved because, well, it's a better living than most other things in Somalia.
Unfortunately, that makes it all the more important to correct the incentives involved. :(
More details here.
Notice something about how the world works. Relatively rich countries have navies that could easily kick pirate butt if it ever really mattered to them. However, their shippers more likely have large fast ships to begin with, which means they can (1) stay farther from pirate bases, (2) outrun pirate ships, and (3) are less-attractive targets for pirates because of their large crews and maybe the physical size of the ships (I don't claim to understand all of this, but boarding big ships may be harder for many reasons).
In contrast, small local traders are in serious danger and relatively helpless.
Some interesting history and ideas here. |
|
|
| More clothes questions |
[Mar. 20th, 2009|07:41 pm] |
OK, I'm thinking about shirts again...for a little while there's free shipping at Lands End, so let's get a few "thumbs up" or "thumbs down".
Surprise me with your color suggestions! I've never been a "clothes" person and lack imagination. Try not to make me look too stupid.
I'm thinking of...
Polos:
Men's Polos...I like the Dark Cobalt, maybe the Liberty Blue or the True Navy -- but what do you think of the Bright Clover or the Deep Hyacinth?
Slightly Different Polos (no pocket alas) I like the Cobalt and Burgundy of course...what do you think of the Red, Evergreen, and Classic Navy? (I have the swatch, and the Classic Navy looks better in person.) Deep Purple? I like the band...
I do like pockets What exactly is Jersey knit?
Hey, these have pocket too I think I have the Camel Heather, and it's not the greatest color for me. What do you think of the Garnet, the Spice Brown, Black Forest and Light Emerald?
I recently got one of these in Burgundy. I like it fine -- it doesn't have the same sheen as the all-cotton Twill version, but it presumably breathes better. How about Desert Khaki, Black Forest, or Dark Cobalt?
Pants:
Yep, a lot of mine are getting ratty. I might order a pair. Probably these -- but what color do you like?
Here's your chance -- make me wear what you like. I'm open to other suggestions too.
More office-like:
These only come in four colors, but I think I like three of them (True Navy seems darn near black, however). |
|
|
| Taking care of business |
[Feb. 22nd, 2009|08:38 pm] |
This weekend I got started on some things I've been putting off, like partly cleaning my room, living room, etc.
I also decided to take my coin jar in to one of the grocery store coin machines. The Safeway near my house had one, called Coin Master. As I walked in carrying my (closed) heavy bag, the guard pointed down to one end of the building and said "Coin machine is right down there!" I suppose he sees that often enough to recognize (1) the bag, (2) the walk, and maybe (3) some jingling from the coins (I don't remember hearing a sound but he might have).
I had to ask someone at customer service to re-start the machine for me; it had gotten stuck on somebody else's load. (Upside: I got the last few dollars for their coins.) As I was putting my own coins in, it got stuck again. I asked for help again, and it got stuck again after a couple of minutes.
I asked the "customer service" person if any of their other stores nearby had a machine that might be in better condition. She said "I don't know, but if you can find one of the original CoinStar machines, a screw can go through those and not stop them."
Having a lot more coins to go, I went to find the CoinStar website and find a nearby location. There was one not far away, and it did work without stopping (but I didn't put any screws through it either).
I found out one other nice thing: with CoinStar, instead of taking cash, you can ask for a gift certificate from Amazon.com. Then you don't have to surrender the 9% fee.
I also took pictures of a lot of items that I'll probably sell online. Trying to get the right picture is always interesting--sometimes the light isn't quite right and you have to add something else, etc. The idea is to put enough of these "pocket change" things together to get a cheap DSLR. Should be fun. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
