Echo Binary

There are times that I want to hang a wind chime outside the window of my bedroom to call for The Haitian, a fictional character on the NBC television series Heroes, who has the ability to manipulate memories and suppress power.

Don’t you want to forget your enemies, forget that you’ve done something terribly wrong, embarrassed, publicly humiliated, traumatized, or even heart-broken? I’m sure everyone has some kind of bitter memories that he or she wants to forget entirely.

There’s one episode in the series that dealt about this idea when Claire wanted to forget his father (I won’t spoil the details). I can connect and sympathize in Claire’s character in that episode (Truth & Consequences) because It’s really hard to lose someone you love dearly. Sometimes, the pain is so much to bear that you wish you have no memory of that person anymore.

Foolish thoughts…

My interest in science was rekindled by Absolute Zero, a documentary from BBC. Back in high school days, I really love Chemistry experiments. Physics is not my favorite Science but Physics experiments are very interactive so I liked it a lot, too. Physics deals a lot with the principle of matter and energy when you are dealing with elements and atoms so it influences Chemistry experiments, too.

The most interesting part of this two-part documentary is the race to reach absolute zero. In The Conquest of Cold (first part), the invention of refrigerator shows how the use of ice influenced the industry and world economy at large. In The Race for Absolute Zero (second part), the documentary reviewed the details on how great scientists raced in reaching the illusive zero Kelvin, and how they competed to create the first Bose-Einstein Condensate.

Scientists have not reached zero Kelvin yet but they are very darn close to achieving it and they are still experimenting on how to get there. The lowest so far is at 100 pK achieved at Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. That might be outdated because there must be on-going experiments now that have achieved even lower temperature.

I am not a scientist but I always keep an inquiring mind about the mysteries of nature and the universe.

Absolute Zero BBC documentary is based on Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold book written by Tom Shachtman.

Link: BBC Four Documentaries: Absolute Zero

I’m terribly annoyed when a borrower returns my stuff broken. They could have been more careful. Even worse, I have encountered some borrowers who didn’t tell me they have broken my stuff while on their possession — and still claim they didn’t break it even if they were the last person who used it. What a shame. I admit that I have broken some things I borrowed from my friends and my relatives in the past; however, before I returned the broken items, I tell them the truth no matter what the consequences were. It’s my fault after all. Some people however, prefer keeping their dirty little secrets and claim that they returned the borrowed item in perfect working condition. When the hapless owner is about to use the borrowed item already, he or she will be utterly surprised that it was broken. It’s a pity, really.

Here are the things that I suggest you do when someone want to borrow your belongings, whether at school, office or neighborhood:

1. Lend your belongings to trusted person only. When you have doubts, get a collateral (just like what most lending companies do)
2. When the person borrowing has no collateral and you don’t trust the shit out of him, but you still want to act like a good Samaritan — pray hard that he will even bother caring for your stuff. Don’t expect he will even care. Actually, you shouldn’t be expecting anything in return since you’re a good Samaritan.
3. Be selective. Don’t lend anyone who has a reputation for being irresponsible. It’s harsh but you rather be selfish so you don’t have to worry about your things being broken.
4. Whenever you decide to lend your belongings, always test the item before lending it to the borrower. Then, after the borrower return your stuff, test it again in front of him to check that your stuff is still in good condition. This acts as a proof that the item works fine when you lend it and when you received it back.
5. Finally, when you discover that the borrowed item was broken, tell the last borrower right away. It’s better when you work on #4 so you can act sooner. You certainly don’t want that person to get away so easily. As much as possible, make a bold statement that you lent the item in good condition and pressure him to act responsibly to the problem. In the end, you don’t want to compromise your belonging just because it was returned broken. When you let that happen, you’re being too kind or just dumb.

There are a handful of good Samaritans out there willing to lend you their stuffs whenever possible. However, not all of us are meant to be good Samaritans. I tried being a good Samaritan before. It initially feels good. When people begin abusing your goodwill you start to realize that lending whatever-you-have is not always a good idea. You have to set boundaries.

You have to be practical. Otherwise, leechers will simply suck the very last marrow out of your bone until you have nothing.

There’s a lot of buzz going in the internet about the so-called “Gphone” since late December 2006. Google is yet to reveal a true Google phone. For now, we get the Android platformwhich is part of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) that was announced yesterday.

What is Android? From what I know so far, it is an OS, middleware and key mobile applications. In other words, it’s a software stack. It’s open source. It’s based from Linux kernel. It should be able to optimize and maximize the potential of the mobile phone’s hardware resources. There’s an SDK to be released so users (more or less developers) can customize the phone in different ways they can imagine. It will enable the phone to access the web. It can combine information from the web with the individual’s mobile phone to create relevant user experience. Android can also provide access to many libraries and tools that can be used to develop rich applications such as a P2P social application on your phone.

Now that you have a platform, partner that with a stunning touch-sensitive mobile phone and you’ve got a true iPhone competitor. Way to go Google. I’m not a fan of Apple iPhone so Android is definitely welcome. It’s just disappointing that after all the hype, news and raves about Google finally releasing the “Gphone,” that we only get to see the tip of the iceberg. If Android becomes a success, and if the Open Handset Alliance lives up to its expectation, I’ll buy it.

I think what’s more exciting is how many enthusiasts will create application for OHA, and will OHA create a new revolution in cellphone industry much like how Linux competed with Microsoft in desktops and servers? Only time will tell.

Source:
Open Handset Alliance
Google Blog: Where’s my Gphone?

I really wonder why I’m still stuck with my old ATI Radeon 9550 graphics card after reading this review. It is already aged and it still uses AGP. Unbelievable. I totally skipped PCI-e version 1 because I’ve read that new graphics cards are now shipping for PCI-e 2.0 already.

As much as I like to upgrade, I pushed back my computer upgrade this coming Christmas ‘07 instead of last year’s. Then I’ll ask this question again. Do I really need an upgrade? My cheap-o-meter will instantly tell me that I don’t need an upgrade soon because my computer is still good for my work. Most of the times I’m running 3 different web browsers (Mozilla, Opera, IE) and a couple of multimedia applications. Overall, I’m still satisfied with the speed of my computer in image manipulation and compressing or uncompressing zipped files. I could play games in medium settings smoothly. Maybe I’m just excited with all these technologies that I am missing so I’m itching to get my hands on these products. What makes me excited are the following: Intel Core 2 Duo, Nvidia 8800 series, DDR3 Corsair memory modules and liquid cooling system. Man, if I can just buy all these on December, I’ll be so happy. Then, I’ll ask myself again. What will I do after 6 months? Will I buy the newer Intel microprocessors? I’m sure that 8800 series will be cheaper and there might be DDR4 as well. Will I still need to buy now?

I really hate how fast hardware gets outdated. Don’t let me start with cellphones. It’s just ridiculous how fast a cellphone with a price tag of P40,000 drops value after 6 to 9 months. Computer hardwares are more forgiving as they decrease in value slower than a cellphone unit but it’s disturbing if you want to invest on a gadget for a long term.

Nevermind how slow my computer is — the fact that I can still post in my blog using this good-old computer means that I don’t really need an upgrade yet. I play console games so why would I invest in P10,000++ graphics card when I can use that money to buy a PSP or PS3. The only reasonable thing I have in my mind to buy a new CPU this year is to get a fresh hardware to run my work-related stuffs and use my old hardware to run a local Linux file server.

So will I still buy a new computer this coming Christmas? Maybe.