Random Notes

So, another Sunday. Spent time at the Lighthouse yesterday going over use cases for software engineering: requirements gathering, UML (Unified Modeling Language), etc. It's moderately interesting, in that it can be applied to anything. (I've modeled a use case on my cat's eating behaviors... that's one complicated, ugly chart). Last week it was iterative and agile frameworks for software development - again, all very theoretical if you ask me. But kind of intriguing -- unless you are actually forced to use it, like, for work or something. Ew.

Google finally waved at me (thanks, B. Green) and I'm still trying to figure the thing out. Maybe I need more friends. Not sure it can help with that...

That's it for the tech front. I'll have more next week after Pop!Tech and trip to Maine (please let there be some foliage to ogle).

Happy Birthday, Monica McLeod* (Oct. 22), wherever you are.

Trip to Athens is back on. Yay.

* from Pilgrim Lodge summer camp, 1975.

Going with Google.. for now

We did an experiment today comparing Bing and Google. We searched for "Mouse Island Maine." Pretty straightforward, right? Bing returned 2,750,00 results, with the second one being "Naked Photos in Mouse Island, Maine, United States - World's Largest Site for Sex Seekers, Swingers, & Adult Dating!" Um, ew.

Google returned 271,000 results and all on the first page are about, well, Mouse Island, Maine.
Going with Google. For now.


Plus one link led to MyTopo, which seems cool if you're into custom maps.

* * *

Spent last two of a four-hour stint (the last until Fall) reading at the Lighthouse -- another lovely session with Dr. Richard Smith, noted African musicologist. I might have encountered him in Brooklyn if I'd managed to attend the Fema Kuti (son of Fela) concert this week, as he did and I had meant to. Darn. We went over latest pages of his book (nearly up to 300 pages) which is just fascinating and really well written. I volunteered to help with the second-phase editing process and he noted my interest on his ever-present tape recorder -- so here's hoping; I'd be honored.

First two hours were spent with W. and his new iPhone. The accessibility features (Apple's VoiceOver) are rather impressive. We also explored how to develop iPhone apps.

Bought a copy of Italo Calvino's The Baron in the Trees to re-read so Sunday is: laundry, gym, and arboreal fantasy.

Embarassing Moments and Transport Layers

First for me: forgetting how to spell the word "embarassing" (still not 100% sure). Then Googling it and getting so many funny responses that I forgot what my own hilarious tale would have been... So, my findings. Not linked, so that you too can search for other people's embarassing moments and be amused. Note: according to one source, the top embarassing things are: shyness, baldness, acne, and sex. Phew. I'm doing kinda okay. Top Google results (omitting YouTube for obvious reasons):

How to escape embarassing situations by using your mobile phone. ...

Information and excerpts from the book to help you deal with health problems that are difficult to discuss, including shyness, baldness, acne, and sex.

Embarassing. Victory_2_tiny by mlmintampa on Sep 27, 2008 4:11 PM EDT in Football. My head is literally fuming. I feel heat coming off my head right now. ...

Oct 9, 2008 ... Google just rolled out a new set of ads making the total number of ad-based revenue streams roughly equal to.

The last one I do link to as it looks kinda interesting (no, I didn't read the whole thing).

Anyway, today's topic as I read to W. at Lighthouse International was "Transport Layers." Which, for you uninformed means: a group of methods and protocols within a layered architecture of network components, within which it is responsible for encapsulating application data blocks into datagrams (packets) suitable for transfer to the network infrastructure for transmission to the destination host, or managing the reverse transaction by abstracting network datagrams and delivering them to an application. Such protocol are also referred to as "transport protocols."*

Got it? Good.

* Thank you, Wikipedia, for explaining it, like 68% better and more succinctly than the poor dude's 1994 textbook.