Simon › Comments

"What is JFGI anyway? Never mind... googled it..." - Simon from Bookmarklet

"In a perfect world... spammers would get caught, go to jail, and share a cell with many men who have enlarged their penisses, taken Viagra and are looking for a new relationship." - Simon from Bookmarklet

"An unknown producer from Uruguay, Fede Alvarez, shelled out about $300 to create a cool video of a robot invasion in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. [After uploading to Youtube] the offer he pocketed: A $30 million deal with Sam "Spiderman" Raimi's Ghost House Pictures."" - Simon from Bookmarklet

$300 and a bucket of favours... - zeroinfluencer

"some of the pioneers of the field, joined by later generations of thinkers, are gearing up for a massive “do-over” of the whole idea." - Simon from Bookmarklet

I know it's not the point of the article, but it closes with this tragically misguided statement: {“I would like to be able to download the ability to juggle,” he says. “There’s nothing more boring than learning to juggle.”} If everyone could juggle with no effort, what would be the point? How would it be satisfying or interesting? For a few people, most things are more boring than learning to juggle. These people are easy to spot, as they are often juggling. :) - Seth

Heh, I thought the same thing when reading that sentence. It didn't seem the most compelling motivation for his vision. - Simon

"During the early 20th century the game was banned in Russia due to a belief that was held by the rulers at the time that playing the game had an adverse effect on players' eyesight." - Simon from Bookmarklet

"Babbage once contacted the poet Alfred Tennyson in response to his poem: 'Every moment dies a man, Every moment one is born.' [...] "I would suggest: 'Every moment dies a man, Every moment 1 1/16 is born.' Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry."" - Simon from Bookmarklet

"On one hand, every single one of my ancestors going back billions of years has managed to figure it out. On the other hand, that's the mother of all sampling biases." - Simon from Bookmarklet

I see that xkcd subscribes to the neutral theory. - Ruchira S. Datta

""What we're seeing in the U.S. today, in terms of smart-phone penetration and 3G data," he said, "nobody else is seeing on the rest of the planet."" - Simon from Bookmarklet

"... which is reflected in his photographs and retouching." - Simon from Bookmarklet

Really have to wonder whether the use of "reflected" was the subconscious mind trying desperately to warn the author of a particular overlooked detail in this photo :) - Simon

"Our competitors at Yahoo are not Microsoft and Google. Our competitors are TV and the other ad formats, because less than 5 percent of ad spending is online" - Simon from Bookmarklet

Will we have a bail out system? - Simon

In that case: http://online.wsj.com/article... - we'll all be rich! - Jesse Stay

Congratulations :) - Simon

Congratulations, welcome on board! - Can Demirezen

"his team built a special "web interface" which "has just really caught on fire with law enforcement."" - Simon

"Google appears to be gaining ground by making knockoffs of Microsoft products and giving them away. [...] The sad truth is that Google and Microsoft care less about making cool products than they do about hurting each other. Their fighting has little to do with helping customers and a lot to do with helping themselves [...] At the end of the day, they both seem like overgrown nerdy schoolboys fighting over each other's toys." - Simon from Bookmarklet

Imran, Microsoft's (traditional) approach has been to commoditize complements in order to suck the profit margins out of adjacent markets (this ensured that the only healthy margins were in markets they dominated), even at the cost of stagnation. Google's approach (generally) leads to growth of the overall market and more competition. That's not a small detail. - Michael R. Bernstein

"There is no doubt that politics and science make uncomfortable bedfellows. Politicians sell certainty. Science lives off doubt. The creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to establish a consensus on the science [...] sits uncomfortably with a discipline that advances by disproving accepted theories and overturning orthodoxies." - Simon from Bookmarklet

"This newspaper believes that global warming is a serious threat, and that the world needs to take steps to try to avert it. That is the job of the politicians. But we do not believe that climate change is a certainty. There are no certainties in science. Prevailing theories must be constantly tested against evidence, and refined, and more evidence collected, and the theories tested... more... - Paul Buchheit

"In 1981, 84% of China’s population was below the poverty line of $1.25 a day (in 2005 prices); in 2005 the share was just 16% " - Simon from Bookmarklet

California's definition: "Any person who is otherwise not exempted and who provides, or assists in providing, or offers to provide, or offers to assist in providing, for compensation, any self-help service to a member of the public who is representing himself or herself in a legal matter, or who holds himself or herself out as someone who offers that service or has that authority, or a corporation, partnership, association, or other entity that employs or contracts with any person who is not otherwise exempted who, as part of his or her responsibilities, provides, or assists in providing, or offers to provide, or offers to assist in providing, for compensation, any self-help service to a member of the public who is representing himself or herself in a legal matter or holds himself or herself out as someone who offers that service or has that authority." - Simon from Bookmarklet

That's quite a long sentence. I wonder if flowcharts are valid definitions, or whether they must be written in prose. - Simon

Wow, wonderful shots! - Simon

Thank you! High praise indeed, if it comes from you! ;) - Aaron D'Souza

Woah. - Amit Patel

Bill: Yeah, I got the sports diff, the dynamic suspension and also the dual clutch gearbox. I'm used to a manual, but decided to go for the DSG this time and am pretty happy with the decision so far! :) - Simon

"Brazil Stocks (Drop) Climb as Dubai Debt (Concern Fuels Risk Aversion) Concerns Ease." - Simon from Bookmarklet

Seems like a UID problem - Bill Strathearn

"The fruit section of L. aegyptiaca may be allowed to mature and used as a bath or kitchen sponge after being processed to remove everything but the network of xylem. Marketed as luffa or loofah, the sponge is used like a body scrub." - Simon from Bookmarklet

I didn't realize that loofah sponges were fruit. I had previously thought they came from the sea. - Simon

"Conceptual computer artwork of the total volume of water on Earth (left) and of air in the Earth's atmosphere (right) shown as spheres." - Simon from Bookmarklet

"The prosecutors rested their case after asking for a one-year sentence for three executives — David Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal officer; Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel; and George Reyes, a former chief financial officer." - Simon from Bookmarklet

"Cummingtonite is a metamorphic amphibole. Cummingtonite was first described in 1824 for an occurrence near Cummington, Massachusetts, hence the name." - Simon from Bookmarklet

There is also a molecule called "Fucitol": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Simon

"The winner of the marathon, American Fred Lorz, was disqualified for accepting a ride in a car during the race. Initially, he was hailed a true hero at the finish. But Alice Roosevelt, the president's daughter, had photographed his ride, and he was later disqualified. Fellow American Thomas Hicks received the gold, even though he also was aided by two shots of strychnine and several glasses of cognac." - Simon from Bookmarklet

strychnine? - Private Sanjeev

"MEPs also agreed that restrictions on a user's internet access can only be taken "with due respect for the principle of presumption of innocence and the right to privacy". But an earlier amendment which ruled that any application for cutting off internet access must go through a judge was rejected." - Simon from Bookmarklet

I think I've heard of an Android app that does something similar using white pages data. Dunno about iPhone though. - Matt Cutts from iPhone

Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian all allow API access to the call log. - Hayes Haugen

What does it mean in British? - Paul Buchheit

"Fag" is another word with quite different meanings on each side of the pond. Having a fag in England means smoking a cigarette. - Gabe

"A spinster lady can, and very often does, turn into something of a battleaxe with passing years. A man usually mellows;" - ⓞnor from Android

If A. R. Taysom had a female secretary, I wonder what was going through her mind as she was typing that up. - Simon

"Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England founded in 1883, run by the students of Cambridge University " - Simon from Bookmarklet

Some former members: Douglas Adams, John Cleese, Peter Cook, David Frost, Stephen Fry, Eric Idle, Hugh Laurie, John Oliver, Emma Thompson. - Simon