Broadband!

Ooo...DSL is fast! Now I need something to do with it...

Schrodinger's Gate

An actual conversation I had this morning, as my brother Alvin and I were on our way back home (by foot) from somewhere. (Paraphrased somewhat, mostly because we don't really speak in English all the time.)

Alvin: Shall we take the shortcut through the seminary? Do you think the gate is open?
Roy: I don't think so, let's just take the direct route.
Alvin: Oh come on, I think it's still open, we can take the risk.
Roy: I don't think the risk is worth it. If the gate is open, we save around two minutes of walking, otherwise we have to spend some extra five to ten minutes walking back.
Alvin: But it's probably open!
Roy: We don't know that. We don't have enough information on the gate's state to determine whether it's open or not. Right now, according to quantum mechanics, that gate is both open and closed, and we can't determine whether we should take it or not until we actually walk up to the gate! It's Schrodinger's gate!
Alvin: Tell you what, when we get to the seminary, we'll split up, you take the direct route, I'll go for the gate.
Roy: Huh? I don't see what your experiment would prove. It makes no sense to compare the travel time of a person taking the direct route and a person going through either the closed or open gate. We know the outcome depends only on the current state of the gate. A more sensible experiment would be to have two people try to go through the gate, but one of them will find it closed, one of them will find it open, and...
Alvin: Let's just do it.
Roy: Okay.

We split up.

When I get home, I ring the doorbell. Alvin answers the door.

Alvin: Ahead by a bit under two minutes. Told ya!
Roy: Okay, you were right, it was open. But I don't see what this little experiment proves, after all, if we were in the same situation again later, this experiment doesn't help us make a decision.
Alvin: Basta. I was right.

Movie-ID puzzle

Boing Boing: Movie-ID puzzle: name the films in these disembodied scenes

Hint: One of them is "Trading Places" That's the hardest one I got so far, after about ten minutes of answering. :D

To the Tale, and Other Such Concerns: The Hunt is On

To the Tale, and Other Such Concerns: The Hunt is On

Check the link for the puzzle, then highlight the box below for the answers. (Answers found with the help of Switch)

Metapuzzle answer: Michael Jackson

Geller Building Puzzle: Answer is Daughter of Elvis - Jacko's ex-wife
Apollo Street: Answer is "John Jay Smith" - One of Jacko's screen names
Club Bubbles: Answer is Men In Black 2 - Jacko had a cameo in this movie

Edit: Looks like we didn't answer in time, the solutions are already posted on his blog.

It was fun, though.

Sleep

I seem to be slightly more alert in the morning and a bit more agressive throughout the day with less sleep (around 6 hours). Taking eight or more hours of sleep seems to leave me slightly laid-back for the rest of the day. I'm trying to be more aware of my sleep dependencies, as I'm probably going to have to work 12-hour days for a while (maybe up to the end of April) :(

Books: More Bob Ong

A while back I blogged about Bob Ong's first book. A short while after, I also picked up his next two books, Bakit Baliktad Magbasa ng Libro Ang Mga Pilipino? (Why Do Filipinos Read Backwards?) and Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas (Judas' Favorite Book).

"Bakit Baligtad" focuses on the Philippines, its people, its quirks and its problems. "Paboritong Libro" is a lot harder to classify, as it jumps across several topics, with the unifying theme being the chapters named after anagrams of the seven deadly sins. At least I think that's the unifying theme...

"Paboritong Libro" is also the better of the two books. Or at least the easier read, as "Bakit Baligtad" had a tendency to be a lot more serious and preachy, which might turn off people looking for a light read. Also, "Bakit Baligtad" contains a significant amount of non-original material, from the apparently-now-defunct Bobong Pinoy website and from several online forums.

In fact, after reading "Bakit Baligtad", I realized the particular appeal of Bob Ong's books...all of them, including the first one, read like they were written on the internet. Maybe in a blog or something. Each book is like some sort of running commentary on some part of life in general; (the first book was about education, the second about the Philippines; I'm still not sure what the third book was about) That's why it's so hard to pin down, it leaves you with that internet feeling of "hey-when's-the-next-update?"

Both books are generally hit-or-miss though, with a bit more hit than miss, same as the first one. Some good parts, some you'd want to sleep through. They're good for the price they're at. In any case, I'll probably pick up his next book as an impulse buy if I see it.

My favorite part of these two books (I'm not sure which book it was in anymore) was a list of amusing signs found all over the Philippines. One of them is described as such:

on a cracked lopsided wall along Libis, QC: Danger Wall is Falling!

Hehe, that cracks me up, and I'm not sure why. I'd like to see that wall.

My First Nigerian Spam

No seriously, I don't remember having received any before.

Click to view

Edit: Okay, it's the first one that I actually received in my inbox. I don't actually know if Yahoo or Gmail's filters killed one before i saw it.