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September 27, 2006
flags as visual representation of facts
wow.
we have all heard how strong visual representations are, but here's just another example. This website has taken a number of country flags and have found data that correspond to the relative sizes of the different colors in the flag. Don't worry, you'll understand when you see it...
Meet The World
Posted by lara at 12:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 25, 2006
Patenting gone wrong
Patenting is good, right? I mean, most anyone who has taken a basic economics class has been through the argument that explains how the royalties received on a patent act as an incentive for the development or creation of a new product/method/whatever. Of course, we have all probably also heard of some of the downsides of patents - anti-retroviral drugs aren't viable as a method of preventing the advancement of HIV in Africa, because the patented drugs come with an astronomical price-tag.
ok, so patents act as incentives for the development of new things, but the prices of said patented products vastly limit the spread of the products. what's more important?
how about your thoughts? does it sound ridiculous that you could be sued for just thinking about something? well, this matter, and a number of other thought-provoking issues - are being considered by the Supreme Court. Read one author's (you might have heard of Michael Crichton, he wrote that really famous movie about dinosaurs...) opnion on the notion of patenting the biological relationship between a medical condition and vitamin deficiency (absurd) and the future of a patent system gone wrong (very absurd):
This Essay Breaks the Law
Posted by lara at 12:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
a little dose of hindsight and some thoughts on who is the bad guy
Here's an article that looks back on the real successes and shortcomings of Windows XP - not the sales figures or numbers of copies installed. If Only We Knew Then What We Know Now About Windows XP
This article actually suprised me, by shedding light on who is actually to blame for some of the annoying things about XP. I am guilty of mumbling prophanities under my breath when I have just installed new software on my computer and return to my desktop to find 10 new shortcuts placed there presumably "for my convenience". I tend to direct my mumblings towards the creators of XP, but I now know that I should save these insults for others - XP was originally intended to clean up the look of Windows
The very interesting parting thought from the author,
What's the ugly flaw in Windows Vista that people will be screaming about in 2010, but is escaping people's attention right now?"
sums up the gist of the article quite nicely - the flaws we now regularly complain about in XP weren't even on the horizon when it was being developed (who had heard of security threats??). So how can we think that the developers of Vista are any more competent at foreseeing the future?anyways, it's an interesting read...
Posted by lara at 10:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 16, 2006
what else?
teary eyes
reflecting
on wonderful memories
bla bla bla
Posted by lara at 06:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
