Archived Posts for April 2007

Please note: The posts on this page are at least 3 years old. Links may be broken, information may be out of date, and the views expressed in the posts may no longer be held.

29
Apr 07
Sun

Slamball (0)
Basketball with trampolines. This is cool. Stolen from Pete. (Quicklink) • 5:36am •

24
Apr 07
Tue

Former Russian Leader Boris Yeltsin Dies (0)
Heart failure is the official line. (Quicklink) • 7:13am •

Creating a smoke effect in Photoshop (0)
Tutorial (Quicklink) • 7:13am •

Top Hedge Fund Managers Earn Over $240 Million (0)
NY Times article. "Raymond T. Dalio, head of Bridgewater Associates, which has more than $30 billion in hedge fund assets, for example, took home $350 million last year even though his flagship Pure Alpha Strategy fund posted a net return of just 3.4 percent for the second consecutive year." That's a complete travesty. On the other hand, "Even though [James Simons] has some of the highest fees in the business 5 percent of assets under management and 44 percent of profits [!] he trounces most of his competitors year after year. In 2006, the $6 billion Medallion fund posted gross returns of 84 percent; 44 percent after fees, explaining his $1.7 billion take." (Quicklink) • 7:13am •

Universcale (0)
Compares pictorially the scale of different objects (from atomic to galactic in scale). (Quicklink) • 7:13am •

Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels (0)
(Quicklink) • 7:13am •

Seiko’s e-ink watch (0)
Looks pretty. (Quicklink) • 7:13am •

22
Apr 07
Sun

In the New Dating Scene, the Attraction Is a Beautiful Mind (0)
Washington Post article. (Quicklink) • 6:04am •

Precursors (0)
Music from a classic game (Star Control 2) remixed. SC2 evokes a lot of fond early high school memories for me (sort of how you associate some songs with certain years of your life)! (Quicklink) • 6:04am •

Moscow’s suburb for billionaires (0)
(Quicklink) • 6:04am •

Cool wedding invite (0)
From Pete. (Quicklink) • 12:24am •

Faceball (0)
Pictures of people getting smacked in the face with a bright pink beachball. (Quicklink) • 12:24am •

21
Apr 07
Sat

Mamak

A friend opened a stall on Dixon St called Mamak. It’s a part of the Friday night markets and is open until July. Their menu is limited (roti Canai $5, roti telur $6, teh tarik $3, satay $10/dz) but tasty. Try the rotis – the satay meat was a little tough. Great for late night snacks, though unfortunately it shuts at 11pm. Still waiting for a 24 hour mamak place in Sydney.

10:46am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow • Food • Tweet This • Add a comment •

19
Apr 07
Thu

Humans hot, sweaty, natural-born runners (0)
Humans best long distance runners in the animal kingdom. "Lieberman said humans likely practiced persistence hunting, chasing a game animal during the heat of the day, making it run faster than it could maintain, tracking and flushing it if it tried to rest, and repeating the process until the animal literally overheated and collapsed." (Quicklink) • 2:02pm •

The law’s an ass (0)
What the? (Quicklink) • 5:12am •

13
Apr 07
Fri

Google to buy DoubleClick for $US3.1b (0)
(Quicklink) • 9:13pm •

11
Apr 07
Wed

Maths problem

Two minutes to solve, no calculators:

My brain’s not working – I’ve hit a mental blank with this – answer in the comments section please.

11:31pm (GMT +10.00) • Miscellaneous • Tweet This • Comments (6) •

Pearls Before Breakfast (1)
The Washington Post reports on a fascinating social experiment. A world-class violinist playing a $3.5 mill Strad as a busker in a Washington DC train station. How do people react? How much money does he make? This article is well worth the read. (Quicklink) • 2:44am •

9
Apr 07
Mon

Upon closer inspection

Was walking down Anzac Parade a while ago and there was this bright yellow poster on the wall with the title “Spreadable” emblazoned on it (along with a picture of a tub of margarine). So my initial impression was that it was another one of those ads for a dance party with a particularly creative (although somewhat graphic) name. But it turned out to be an ad for a Christian event. Maybe they should have given some thought about the name. (Or maybe I shouldn’t have!)

10:22pm (GMT +10.00) • Life • Tweet This • Add a comment •

Politics at the bookies

Some bookies/betting exchanges are quoting odds on which party will provide the Prime Minister at this year’s federal elections.

Bookie / Labor win / Coalition win
Centrebet / 1.75 / 2.00
Betfair / 1.87 / 2.12
Sportingbet / 1.75 / 2.00

So people are tipping a Labor win at the moment. I suspect that these odds are going to slide over towards the Coalition end nearer to the election (seemed to be the case in the last election), so it’ll be interesting. Coalition seems to be priced well at the moment nonetheless… hard to see them sliding substantially backwards, but I guess anything can happen in politics.

10:14pm (GMT +10.00) • Opinions & Observations • Tweet This • Add a comment •

7
Apr 07
Sat

Firm lays down law and lists on ASX (0)
I think this is the first publicly listed law firm in Australia? (Quicklink) • 8:51pm •

5
Apr 07
Thu

New Die Hard Trailer! (0)
(Quicklink) • 9:13am •

Real Estate Roller Coaster (0)
This is cool. A US home prices (inflation adjusted) graph... literally portrayed as a roller coaster ride. The last ten years are the wildest... At some point things are going to give and there's going to be pandemonium - it's already starting to happen. Mortgages are overrated. (Quicklink) • 9:13am •

Photos of offices in New York (0)
... of some prominent New Yorkers (eg, Martha Stewart, Michael Bloomberg). (Quicklink) • 9:13am •

Taking out a million dollar Strad for a test drive (0)
NY Times article. I think taking out a supercar for a spin would be scary enough from an "I might break it" perspective - but a violin worth potentially several times that? That requires chutzpah. (Quicklink) • 9:13am •

How Chinese noodles are made (0)
It's meant to be part of a science doco on atoms, but I found it interesting for other reasons. And if you haven't noticed, it's steal-links-from-Kottke day here. (Quicklink) • 9:13am •

The 4th Annual Smithsonian magazine photo contest (0)
Some gems in there. (Quicklink) • 9:13am •

4
Apr 07
Wed

USB Humping Dog (0)
Unfortunately we're a little late for April Fools, but this would have made a great office prank. (Quicklink) • 5:31am •

Listing of Dubai’s property explosion (0)
Interestingly, Dubai Airport is forecasted to become one of the most busiest airports in the world. There's something about this Emirate which will see it become a very important world city in the next couple decades. (Quicklink) • 5:31am •

38 days spent in current location
Previously	Copenhagen, Denmark
» Currently	San Francisco, CA (14/9/24 6:06pm)
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