neverforeverdotnet

…as this recent paper fresh out of HP’s research labs suggests. Tracking Information Epidemics in Blogspace by Eytan Adar and Lada A. Adamic study the propagation of memes through blogspace.

Tracking the click “structure” of thousands of blogs in the blogosphere, the demonstration page is capable of serving up visualizations based on crawl data from May 2003.

Beyond serving as online diaries, weblogs have evolved into a complex social structure, one which is in some ways ideal for the study of the propagation of information. As weblog authors discover and republish information, we are able to use the existing link structure of blogspace to track its flow.

Way cool.

The main paper can be found here, the FAQ here, and the analyzer proper here.

Other research papers from their Information Dynamics Lab can be found here.

Gary :: Oct.31.2005 :: A thousand words, 1337, Tech :: No Comments »

Harry the Potter and the turntable of fate
Highly moving tale of an Englishman who is forced to abandon his pottery business to seek his biological father in Italy. Set against the backdrop of the 30’s depression, the theme is universal and borderless. And, as he ultimately ends up dead in the Thames, also depressing.

Alien’s Resurrection
Involving a Mexican working the cornfields in rural Texas, who dies, then mysteriously comes back to life. The movie tracks his subsequent rise to fame as he sells his story to tabloids, makes millions, and fights extridiction; all while silently battling Tequila addiction.

Matrix: Transformations
A mathematician by day, hacker by night, New (is he is commonly known among the h4×0r d00ds) discovers one day that the world around him is not as he was led to believe since birth. To quell his anguished mind, he applys a newly- discovered AI technique to a bot, which ultimately manages to make contact with a higher being. He spends the rest of his days pushing for Intelligent Design to be taught in public schools.

Jurassic Lark
A team of scientists manage to recreate a prehistoric bird by extracting DNA from a fossilized gnat. Never mind that it sounds a little B-grade. I think it will be entertaining.

Lots of Them Pings
The year is 2048, and the world has become a hyper-connected entity since the Internet boom in the 1990’s, and the launch of Internet 3 in 2040. The collective consciousness of mankind pulses 24/7 through billions of miles of cabling, trillions of blinking diodes, screens and buttons, and pervades the airwaves through the buzzing and humming of thousands of open communications channels. This perfect world is one day threatened by a mysterious hacker who plans a DDOS on Earth’s core communications backbone.

Billion Dollar Baby
An arty pseudo-documentary expose on a couple who have commercialized their unborn child by selling the rights to the kid’s life to a major TV network. This insightful film will follow the child through life, chronicling the effects of shameless consumerism imposed on on such an innocent soul, right up till puberty, where he kills himself, because who wants to make a film for 60 years?

The Passion of the Christ
A stunning reenactment of the life of one of the world’s most prolific figures, and his fall for the sake of Manki- oh. Wait.

The Passion of Paris
A stunning reenactment of the life of one of the world’s most prolific figures, and her going down.

Gary :: Oct.31.2005 :: Movies, General :: No Comments »

Recently, Alex posted this link to a vid of two idiots on his blog, which I found hilarious. Basically two chinese guys groovin’ to Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way. (Note the guy in the background, oblivious to all the weirdness going on behind him.)

Check it out.

Of course, things like this will inevitably bring to mind Numa Numa, the legendary video which won its performer the Webtard of the Year award for 2004. Click on the link below to watch it, and also for links to some nominees for this year’s Webtard awards. =)

Continue Reading »

Gary :: Oct.30.2005 :: Funny, A thousand words, Movies, Music, WTF :: No Comments »

Anyway. The point is, when you get stuck with a wobbly table, is there any way to un-wobble-ify it? Most people attempt to stick a matchbook or piece of napkin underneath the leg. But André Martin, a physicist at CERN, would use a different trick: He’d rotate the table, working under the assumption that the legs were all the same length and that ground would eventually yield up four areas at the same level — producing a perfectly stable table. He’s always able to find a good orientation. That got him wondering: Could he mathematically prove his technique will always work?

Linky.

Stumbled across this interesting article a few days ago, and tried it out on the table my laptop’s currently resting on. Whaddaya know? it works. =) Physicists are 1337 people. You never hear of things like these getting discovered by accountants do you? Hiak.

Side note: coffee tables suck to do work on.

Gary :: Oct.30.2005 :: 1337, General, All the news that's fit to print :: 2 Comments »

It was a slow-moving Sunday afternoon when Wai Kay realised the bear was shitting numbers starting from 2. The following documents what transpired, for any of you who care to read.

I have tried to preserve formatting as much as possible, by running the thing through 2 HTML formatters. The result is raw gobbledygook which I can’t even edit plainly cos it looks like a someone just HTML-masturbated all over my source. Be grateful.

Oh God, why must it come to this? says:

why is the bear shitting primes from 2?!

Minesweeper is NP complete? says:

why not?

Minesweeper is NP complete? says:

2 IS a prime

Minesweeper is NP complete? says:

it starts counting upwards

Oh God, why must it come to this? says:

it should use memoization

Minesweeper is NP complete? says:

and calculates some stats

Minesweeper is NP complete? says:

memoization?

Oh God, why must it come to this? says:

and just start from the biggest prime it has found

Minesweeper is NP complete? says:

that’s not the point

Oh God, why must it come to this? says:

hmm.. maybe i spelt wrongly.. haha

Minesweeper is NP complete? says:

it’s not trying to find a collective largest prime

Oh God, why must it come to this? says:

then what’s the point of the shitting bear?

Minesweeper is NP complete? says:

it’s just trying to entertain you with a bear shitting primes

Oh God, why must it come to this? says:

oh so dumb

Continue Reading »

Gary :: Oct.30.2005 :: Tech :: No Comments »

Maybe you’ve been bad and went drinking the night before your exam, or maybe you’ve been spending too much on your credit card. Maybe you’ve been eating more supper than you should. Perhaps you’ve lied to your mother, cheated in a test, stolen from a child, eaten with dirty fingers, looked at dirty pictures, gossiped about someone… Or perhaps you’ve even hurt somebody?

Whatever it is, you can be sure Limecat is not pleased.

Gary :: Oct.30.2005 :: Funny, General, WTF :: No Comments »

It’s 2.30 am… I am currently in Tutorial Room 100 trying my best to study - But my tummy is growling and it’s difficult to ignore, especially since my mp3 player battery died on me 20 minutes ago, leaving me in silence. It is imperative that I return to hall at the earliest opportunity to feed it. Xinhui always says that I eat too much, but I disagree. In fact, I think I eat just enough. I naturally stop when I feel full.

Don’t you?

Hmm… Instant noodles, or MacDonald’s…?

Gary :: Oct.30.2005 :: General :: No Comments »

Was in the queue for an ATM at Jurong Point earlier today. For those not familiar with the setup, there are 7 machines, and demarcated lanes for 2 queues: one for machines 1-4, and the other for 6-8.

It was a usual uber-crowded Saturday evening when I got there, and as I got in line and waited .

A view of the usual crowd, with pirate queue
highlighted. Click to enlarge.

And waited.

And waited.

The queue I was in (machines 1-4) was moving slower than usual, and it took me till that point in time to realise (as I was heavily involved in my cheng tng in-a-cup) that there were 3 queues instead of 2. Over time, apparently, a pirate line had formed and was cunningly snaking it’s way diagonally across the lane markings ruled on the floor. Some unspoken social order had also been established, with the pirate line (leftmost) feeding machines 1 and 2, the original 1-4 queue feeding 3 and 4, and the remaining queue feeding 6,7 and 8. While itself amazing that such order could spring out of something so entirely ad-hoc, what I saw next only added to the intrigue.

Someone vacated machine 3, and due to some transient quirk in the established rules, neither queue knew if they were supposed to fill the gap. And it remained unused for the next 2-3 minutes. Each new person in the head of the queue subconsciously decided that there had to exist some really good reason for the people in front of them to choose to not use the machine, and they weren’t going to embarass themselves by trying. (Social norm in the making?)

As a result, the middle queue ended up being served by only machine 4, and when my turn came, I walked right up to machine 3 and inserted my card. When I left, the guy behind me stepped up to fill the space. The pirate line had ursurped another slot.

I’m sure there are deeper social, biological, psychological and maybe evolutionary analyses to be had regarding this situation, but I am too brane daid..

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, you should click here.

Gary :: Oct.29.2005 :: General :: No Comments »

Hello everyody! Meet the Prime Number Shitting Bear.

God, the stuff I come across at 5.20 in the morning. Time to turn in…

Gary :: Oct.29.2005 :: Funny, Entertainment, 1337, WTF :: 5 Comments »

“It’s a sign from God that there should be peace,” said Maria Trinidad, who lives on Clifford Avenue. “There is a lot of crime here. People should have faith in God. This is God giving us a sign.”

Her daughter, Keila Negron, 13, said she also believed it was a divine sign, but admitted she had trouble visualizing the image on the tree in the rain, which darkened the bark. She vowed to return in better weather and take pictures of the tree.

Personally, I don’t see shit. Is this like that picture where depending on which part of the image you choose to concentrate on, you either see a young girl or an old woman? I think I’m focusing on the part which makes me see a tree trunk.

linky.

UPDATE:

Another related piece of news just surfaced, with regards to some couple seeing Jesus on a fishbone.

linky.

Gary :: Oct.29.2005 :: All the news that's fit to print, WTF :: No Comments »