"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history."
- George Bernard Shaw
Google can tell us a lot about the world. All of a sudden, there’s this collective intelligence that anyone can tap into and learn about new and current trends, and perceptions, as well as the needs and desires that people around the planet might have.
Being up to no good on a Saturday afternoon, I try to find out what people are generally waiting for in their lives. Well, I guess we know the answer now. Thanks to Google Suggest.
A soccer field in Munich. Think winning a game here would be an uphill battle? I’m inclined to agree with you.
(Another picture after the jump)
Unusual Hotels of the World is a collective website featuring places of accommodation from around the planet, ranging from unusual to outrageous.
Their categories are bizarre, and include museums, lighthouses, castles, igloos, and caves. Want to make that vacation really special? How about spending the night in an Australian prison?
If you find yourself in a foreign country every so often, here’s a web tool that lets you grasp a few polite words and common phrases that could make your stay more pleasant.
Check out travlang.com for translation dictionaries and pronunciation guides.
Kimberly wished me Happy Syttende Mai today. Syttende Mai, or May Seventeenth in Norwegian as I learned, is the National Day of Norway. The country declared independence on this day in the year 1814.
Minnesota, by the way, has one of the largest Norwegian immigrant communities in the United States. I’m sure there probably was a parade somewhere in the Twin Cities today, too bad I missed it. What a lovely day too, for a parade.
Joost is an exciting new platform that has the potential to revolutionize the way TV shows and other video content is distributed over networks. If a few more popular and informative TV networks join the system, I may never have to subscribe to cable television ever again.
If you haven’t the first clue about Joost, it’s a P2PTV-based program (by the founders of Skype and Kazaa) that lets you watch near-TV resolution video content over the internet, converting a computer into an instant on-demand TV set (without a set top box and its tight storage constraints).
Oh, and the program is still in beta testing, under the title ‘Joost for Friends’. As a beta tester, I do have a few invites, so if you’d like one, feel free to leave your name and email address in the comments. Don’t worry, I won’t send you spam. You’re not that important. Just kidding!
A compilation of the hundred greatest theorems the world has seen. This list was presented at a mathematics conference in July, 1999. Of course, there is no sane method of ranking these theorems around each other, so list preparers Paul and Jack Abad followed the following criteria: “the place the theorem holds in the literature, the quality of the proof, and the unexpectedness of the result.”
The list, however, is constrained only to theses developed circa 17th century Europe and later. Mathematical treatises authored between 1000 BC and 1000 AD in India would probably merit their own class of lists.
Open Source Mac is a simple list of free, open-source software for Mac OS X. It is not a comprehensive list, but a good point for OS X newbies to start looking for a popular and easy-to-use open source program.
FreeSmug.org, on the other hand, is a comprehensive resource. Alternatively, IUseThis.com adds a social aspect to program listings by letting you see how popular (or not) a program is.
For Windows, check out Open Source Windows. Don’t forget to get the PC Decrapifier if you just got yourself a branded computer that’s been treated more like a billboard than a personal computing device.
