The Major

Blog

  • CNN Pipeline

    CNN.com has launched a new service called CNN Pipeline. I have waited a long time for something like this. What a beautiful concept. On-demand, low-cost, commercial-free, online news. Four simultaneous video streams, three of which are unedited. It is $25 for a whole year. I will be signing up for this when I get home, especially since it has a free trial.

    I have always thought that our high-speed Internet connections weren’t really being utilized. But now we’re getting there. I think we’re really seeing the beginning of something big here. If I could get this kind of service for other shows, I would be all over it.

    Reviews here (news.com) and here (PC Magazine).

  • Holy Crap

    Holy crap – the range of things you can find online sometimes really amazes me. 2 hours of table tennis.

    By the way, if you haven’t checked it out yet, Google Video is an amazing resource.

  • John Hall Rocks

    Redskins kicker John Hall is freaking awesome. You generally don’t see a kicker getting rough like he does. Earlier in the season I remember seeing him completely level a guy on a kickoff return. And now from yesterday’s game recap:

    …kicker John Hall elbowed Cardinals defensive end R-Kal Truluck, forcing Truluck to sit out the second half with a bruised jaw.

    Violence in sports is so much fun.

  • Typing Speed

    Woo and I type at 65 words per minute. How fast do you type?

  • Reading Speed

    I read at 253 words per minute. How fast do you read?

  • Fermat’s Last Theorem

    Wow, this article just really gets me pumped up and makes me want to do math.

    Pierre de Fermat, a famous number theorist of the 17th century, rarely published his work – instead, he would often write comments in the margins of books. In one margin Fermat proposed that xn + yn = zn has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y and z when n > 2. However, rather than providing a proof, he only offered this taunting sentence: “I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain.”
    …
    “It was so indescribably beautiful,” said Wiles about the moment he solved the problem. “It was so simple and so elegant, and I just stared in disbelief for twenty minutes.” Thus, in 1994 the final proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem was complete, weighing it at 200 pages, more complex than most people can understand.

    That second paragraph I quoted is what really gets me pumped up. The “beautiful”, “simple”, and “elegant” part is something you can really appreciate when you love math.

  • One Red Paperclip

    One red paperclip is an amazingly entertaining and creative website. It documents the efforts of one man to start with a red paperclip, and trade up to a better item. He is attempting to continue this process until he ends up with a house. He currently has a snowmobile out of the deal.

    You may want to start reading the website from the beginning so it makes more sense. Click on the links on the left of the site to progress through the trades.

  • Don’t Swallow That Gum

    I happened to stumble upon this story. It isn’t for the faint of heart. Let’s just say you won’t ever catch me swallowing my gum.

  • Wikipedia decision making

    Today, it was announced that Wikipedia is restricting article creation to registered users only. Many might choose to argue one position or the other on this issue. I happen to not feel strongly either way. However, I find the process by which it was decided to be questionable.

    A week after being contacted by John Seigenthaler Sr. about an inaccurate article, Jimmy Wales (the founder of Wikipedia) made the change to an official built-in policy of Wikipedia. He logged on to the Wikipedia chat to discuss the change, but it is clear that this was not required prior to making his decision.

    Wikipedia is:

    a multi-lingual Web-based free-content encyclopedia. It is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing articles to be changed by anyone with an internet connection and added by anyone with a Wikipedia member account.
    wikipedia.org

    Because of its very nature, it is clear that Wikipedia should not be considered to be owned or controlled by one man alone. Yet this is exactly how some high-level decisions are made.

    Of course, this situation would be different if elections were held for every position. Currently, only two of the five members of the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation (the parent organization of Wikipedia) are elected. Jimmy Wales is on the board, but also has additional arbitrary powers over the direction of Wikipedia.

    A rudimentary search turned up no substantial results with discussion about the decision making processes and leadership of Wikipedia. This discussion must take place. If it does not take place now, the possibility exists that our community will devolve into something which few of us find acceptable.

    Essentially, what is needed is an official handing over of the community to the community. The new structure should also be decided upon by the community. Wikipedia should not continue to run with arbitrary processes governing its decision making. Jimmy Wales may be a “benevolent dictator”, but we cannot rely on his or his successors’ benevolence indefinitely.

  • freezer

    Only Alyssa and I will get this . . .

    We’re so very proud of Mr. Freezer . . .