So the other day I was in an event for pretty much the entire day that – horrors of horrors – was held in a location without wireless access. I kept seeing people pulling out their phones – likely to check their email – and realized that like an idiot I had left mine in my car. And then of course when I got back to my phone, the first thing I saw was a work-related email timestamped about four hours earlier asking if I could have something done, oh, half an hour ago.
For me, having my phone on me most of the time means that I stay connected – which means that I have the opportunity to get work done when I need to. Like answering emails or returning calls, or sometimes even dictating notes for myself for later. But the nice thing is that I don’t have to. We haven’t yet gotten to the point where everyone expects an email response five minutes later after working hours just because you probably have a phone on you – though when that day comes, I guess we can all kiss our personal lives goodbye.
Still, it is nice to have that option. Even when you’re on vacation you don’t have to stress about missing really important stuff. Or if you’re like me and get a little bored at family gatherings, you can always respond to emails (or play games and pretend you’re doing Very Important Work). Though sometimes a vacation means turning off the phone – also a legitimate option!
So what about you? Do you use your mobile phone to do work when you’re not at work? What about when you’re on vacation? Of course, maybe you don’t like to take your work home with you at all! In that case, maybe you’re using your phone to do fun things when you are at work.
While the major promotions in the company offer a more traditional wrestling product, the smaller-scale promotions often offer a style which is… different.
Witness this match from the SPWC promotion where Survival Tobita takes on Mokujin Ken, a competitor whose style is tough to put into any one box (skip to 1:28):
This is the same promotion which once held a match to settle the age-old argument of which type of furniture is dominant:
I’m a word geek. No way around that. I have spent literally days of my life trolling the Online Etymology Dictionary and, back when I had a university subscription, the Oxford English Dictionary. English, while being an absolute mish-mash of languages, has a delightfully wacky catalogue of words and phrases that aren’t just fun to learn about, but fun to say. Learning new words and word origins isn’t just a matter of education, it’s often hilarious.
To add to your lexicon, I thought I’d share some rather intriguing words you can use in various geeky pursuits.
floccinaucinihilipilification – is the act of estimating (something) as worthless. Floccinaucinihilipilification holds the title of official “longest real word” in the English language, and has been in use (by probably a total of eight people) since 1741. Some geeks are probably guilty of this in regard to hobbies outside our comfort zone.
benzoxycamphors, sesquioxidizing, and oxyphenbutazone – Basically, these are Scrabble jackpots. According to Wikipedia, though the words have never been used, sesquioxidizing, for instance, could result in 1674 points if placed correctly.
hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia – Anyone have an elderly aunt who screams and starts muttering prayers at the sight of ‘666’? Seen one too many horror films? This is the word you might find some use for as it is fear of the number 666. It also uses the letter x a total of three times.
aboulomania – I see this at the D&D table a great deal; aboulomania is pathological indecisiveness. I’ll admit to being an occasional aboulomaniaic. Or maybe I’m not. I don’t know. It’s just so hard to say!
grammatolatry – A rather appropriate word for this list. Grammatolatry is the worship of letters and words (but I bet some of your smarty pants people could figure that out just by looking at the word and knowing your roots).
labtebricole – Some geeks are accused of this. Those who are labtebricole are literally living in holes. We call them Geek Dens, thankyouverymuch.
omphaloskepsis – The self-reflective geek will find good use of this word. Omphaloskepsis is navel-gazing.
Pitching a perfect game in baseball is impressive. Winning a million bucks is also something to celebrate. Doing both from the comfort of your armchair is the cherry on the cake.
That’s what 23-year-old Wade McGillberry did on just his fifth attempt in the first 90 minutes playing the newly released Major League Baseball 2K10. He was smart enough to have filmed his TV screen and thus earned himself the million dollar prize offered by game producers Take Two.
A perfect game means that not a single batter from the opposing team makes it even to first base. According to the Associated Press, it’s only happened 18 times in real-life Major League Baseball. It doesn’t appear to be any easier in the game: the developers say they’ve never been able to achieve it.
McGilliberry achieved the feat in March but has only just had his claim verified (which included inspection of his X-Box) and received his prize money.
This is a guest post from D. Salmons over at TestFreaks – a one-stop resource for the real geeks. Not sure what’s the best printer to buy? TestFreaks will help you to choose the right model.
Okay, let’s play a game. Name the major web browsers in use today. If you are on a Windows machine, Internet Explorer may come to mind quickly. If you consider yourself to be web savvy, Firefox may spring from the lips. And if you are on a Mac, Safari is right there. And each of these have their strong and weak points, so there are no wrong answers. But how many of you answered Opera?
Well, if this article was as popular as the web itself, then there would have been a good chance that over 100 million of you would have chimed in. With 100 million users strong, it’s hard to believe that one could overlook Opera as the browser of choice. Yet it commands only 2% of the web, as shown below:
Where Can Opera Be Found?
According to Opera, the 100 million is split fairly even between desktop (including laptop) users and the mobile crowd. On top of that, Opera can also be found in many appliances, including game consoles, smart TVs and set-top boxes.
While it is still the web underdog, being completely dwarfed by Internet Explorer, Firefox, and even Chrome, Opera is still smiling. In fact, the Oslo, Norway based browser has a good reason to smile, and that is due to its expanding customer base.
Strong Segment Growth
In fact, Opera’s growth in the PC market, at 30% year over year, is allowing it to play catch up to the big guys at a comfortable rate. While it still leaves the top three battling it out for market supremacy, Opera is apparently doing quite well picking up the (rather voluminous) strays and building up a reputation as a solid browser alternative.
iPhone Tsunami
Just recently, Apple approved the Opera mini-browser for distribution on the App Store. The response was overwhelming, and over a MILLION copies were downloaded for the iPhone in a single day (source), allowing the app to rocket to the top of the download charts. With that kind of documented response, it is easy to imagine that there is a tidal wave of Opera users out on the web.
Opera Features
Obviously to have a 100 million plus customer base, you must have some interesting features to go on top of a fairly solid product – otherwise the fickle web will respond harshly. But if you look at the features of Opera 10, it might be easier to see why the user base is swelling.
For example, Opera Turbo allows for compression, which would help with a slow connection (perfect for mobile users?). And there are visual tabs along with a new speed dial mechanism. Plus you have a brand new JavaScript engine (named Carakan) that promises a fast execution, something browser users always welcome.
Strong Support: A Key To Steady Growth
If there is anything that could make or break a user-based piece of software, it’s software support. And as I write this article, Opera is advising upgrading to version 10.53 to fix a security threat that is present in 10.52. If you haven’t already, I strongly suggest updating your opera browser, but it does show that the folks from Oslo are responsive to issues.
After all, it is not a question of if a browser is going to have a security update need, it is a question of “when”. The response time for a solid fix is going to weigh heavy on the minds of the users when it comes to the most effective kind of advertisement, word of mouth.
Acquisition Expansion
As if the recent million plus iPhone release wasn’t enough to bump up Opera’s mobile presence, they have also recently purchased Australia’s FastMail cross-platform email and messaging provider. This has the capacity to speed up email and messaging across PCs, mobile devices, smarts televisions, and gaming consoles. In other words, you will find the Opera browser pretty much everywhere. This gives Opera an even stronger mobile tool set.
Another acquisition that may broaden the Opera name, and its bottom line, is the recent purchase of mobile ad provider Ad Marvel for roughly $23 million. This would allow for a unique ad placement channel that Opera could offer to advertisers, once the details are worked out. I hope that Opera does not roll ads into the browser itself, but it could be used in other ways that still have value add to the user. For example, in the instance that a compressed web page is being delivered to the mobile user, the compressions actually takes place on Opera’s servers. To offset this expense, it would be easy to insert an ad.
Poised for Growth?
It would appear that Opera is positioning itself for a strong growth period. It has expanded its user base to over 100 million, strongly placed itself as a substantial mobile browser of choice, and purchased major mobile market tools (messaging and mobile ads). If anything, it would seem that Opera is happy to be working to expand its user base – even if they are not the major browser on the web. But they just might be bigger than you think.
Some 80 to 90 percent of undersea creatures make light — and we know very little about how or why. In the following video, bioluminescence expert Edith Widder explores this glowing, sparkling, luminous world, sharing glorious images and insight into the unseen depths (and brights) of the ocean.
As you can see, this project involves papier-mâché. What do you do with it once you’ve gone through this step-by-step photo essay? You might laugh when you see!
This cardboard sculpture by Koukichi Sugihara of the Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences in Japan won the first prize at the 2010 Illusion of the Year competition. The illusion shown is all the more remarkable in that it is a solid object whereas most entries were computer-generated. See the top ten finalists from the competition, and marvel at what your brain will make you see. Which one do you like best?
While the Fat Duck is well known in culinary circles, Blumenthal is best known for his TV work. As would be expected from the visual world of television, when it comes to his series of “Feast” shows, practicality is far from a prerequisite. The emphasis is on the spectacular, including in some cases spectacular failures, and on upending expectations.
Perhaps my favorite example, and sadly one for which a clip is not yet online, was his attempts to bring the 70s classic duck à l’orange. Blumenthal initially tried visiting a fire brigade training tower to attempt to cook a duck in what was effectively an orange-infused smokebomb inferno. The results were neither appetizing nor in any way safe.
Instead, Blumenthal quite literally inverted the dish, producing a duck parfait encased in an orange jelly (Jello), packaged in the style of the British confectionery classic of a Chocolate Orange. (To round out the confectionery theme, he also served duck flavored pastilles and smokey duck flavored potato chips.)
Here are some other examples of the pure insanity of Heston Blumenthal’s cookery:
Pitching a perfect game in baseball is impressive. Winning a million bucks is also something to celebrate. Doing both from the comfort of your armchair is the cherry on the cake.
Okay, let’s play a game. Name the major web browsers in use today. If you are on a Windows machine, Internet Explorer may come to mind quickly. If you consider yourself to be web savvy, Firefox may spring from the lips. And if you are on a Mac, Safari is right there. And each of these have their strong and weak points, so there are no wrong answers. But how many of you answered Opera?
