On January 18, 2012 a number of websites “went dark” to protest the United States House of Representatives Stop Online Piracy Act and Senate Protect IP Act, more commonly known as SOPA and PIPA. Like many things, there are many way to go about “blacking out” one’s website. Wikipedia used JavaScript and CSS to overlay [...]
Towards the end of last year I signed up for the “basic” track of the Stanford Engineering Introduction To Artificial Intelligence class, mainly out of curiosity, but also because the instructors (Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig) and I share the same employer. I intended to follow along at a leisurely pace, unsure if I would [...]
Here’s another 1% vs. 99% that I believe has been overlooked in the media; I posit each year 1% of the population gets to give out over 20% of the candy (and 10% of the population gets to give out more than 70% of the candy) on Halloween. In cities across America, there has been [...]
For the last 5+ years I have been thinking about heading to Mt. Diablo to look for tarantulas during their October mating season (usually in November after realizing I missed it…again). Some years I had a good excuse for forgetting e.g. travelling to New York twice to watch Yankees win the ALCS and World Series [...]
Amazon.com has a no annual fee rewards Visa card with a simple points earning structure: 3 Points: For every $1 spent on Amazon.com 2 Points: For every eligible $1 spent at gas stations, restaurants, drug stores, and office supply stores 1 Point: For every other $1 spent On the plus side the card doesn’t charge [...]
My friend Meliha invited me to take part in the Tripbase My 7 Links Project which asks me to identify: My most beautiful post My most popular post My most controversial post My most helpful post A post whose success surprised me A post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved The post that [...]
Sometimes my DIY ethos gets the best of me, case in point being the need for a bench so we could host 7 guests at a BBQ in our back yard last month. For less than $50, and probably an hour of my time I could have built one with a bench kit and a [...]
During a recent United flight from San Francisco to Maui, I played the “Halfway to Hawaii Game”. The objective, determine the exact time the airplane would reach the geographical midpoint of the flight to Hawaii. Shortly after takeoff, the crew provided this flight data: Departure – 6:07a Hawaii time Duration – 4hrs 42min Distance – [...]
Every now and then it’s useful to challenge oneself, to grow, to stretch. A couple of months ago, a friend of mine noticed a McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Arby’s within spitting distance of each other, a trifecta of sorts. Then came the eureka moment, where he envisioned combining a Big Mac, Double Down and [...]
In college, I got by without a car. Whether it was going to the grocery store, a punk rock show, the airport etc. I walked, skateboarded, took public transportation or bummed a ride from a friend. Cars were an unnecessary expense and parking was a pain in the ass. When I got a job, I [...]
