Cocaine Destroys the Environment, Caffeine Saves it.

Snort coke, shaft the environment, say boffins | The Register

Interesting :-)

MacBook Air Parody

Rather amusing :-)

Study = Language not Facts

Study is not important for the facts it teaches you, what it is important for is that it provides you with a language and framework you can use to think about what you see and want to do. A framework and language with which to communicate your intentions and desires with regards to a specific field to others.

When I hear others discussing mathematics or I try some my self or utilize statistics, other than the basics I'm left unable comprehend, not because I'm incapable of understanding what is being discussed, but because the words used MEAN absolutely NOTHING to me. I might as well be listening to the singing of birds or the barking of Dogs.

More and more I regret not continuing to study mathematics at university, a choice that was made not because I didn't enjoy and understand Math, but because there were too many things I found interesting. Which made a 12point paper impractical to fit into my schedule.

I don't suppose any one knows of any good resources for mathematics that start around Newtonian Algebra and build from there to cover more advanced and modern forms of mathematics, or provide a theoretical basis for stats? Any of the first year mathematics text's worth looking at as a way to reintroduce ones self to mathematics, any one got one lying around from uni they no longer want?

Windwos Vista + Macbook Air

Macbook Air running Vista

Games

Hmm just had a look at all the computer games I've bought over the last 11 years, a rather decent pile. Any way set them all out on the floor in roughly the order I bought them and decided might be cool (Geeky) to take a photo so here you are most of the games I've bought, It's not all the games I own though some are only electronic downloads and others game free on gaming magazine cd's.

Excuse the quick paint job on the background couldn't be bothered doing it any better.

Some of these games are rather amazing others are just average.

The Best Games by Genre:

FPS/RPG: (In order of preference)
Deus Ex (Best Game EVER)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R

FPS:
Knights of the Old Republic 2 (in the Starwars game pack)
Unreal Tournament original and 2004 (sure no story but fun none the less)
Deus Ex II (sucked compared to the first still reasonable though)
BIOSHOCK (NOT! what are people on it's just a linear shooter with a somewhat better than average story?)

RPGs:
Baldur's Gate II + xpack (at up to 250hrs it's the longest game I own, 2nd best game)
Oblivion
NWN2 + xpack
Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2
Fallout 1 and 2 (though admittedly never managed to finish 2 yet)
NWN, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale 1 and 2

Strategy:
Age of Kings and Age of Empires + xpacks (by amount of time spent playing it)
Total Annihilation (it's still fun to play after 10 years)
Star Craft (Best RTS campaign)
Sins of a Solar Empire

SIMS:
Starlancer (But it's so insanely hard with out in mission saves)
Independence war II Edge of Chaos

Any way how many of these have you played? What do you think?

PC game Piracy

A rather interesting post by the semi indie game studio Stardock about Piracy and PC games, about how it can be painful buts not the end of the world for game development. They've just published the rather popular game "Sins of a Solar Empire" a RTS 4x strategy game.

Google/Privacy :-)

Hmm with regards to the previous post and google and privacy it's good to see that doing a search for my name provides very little useful information and no link to this blog or most of my other web related stuff.

How about the rest of you? Does searching for your real name drag up your blog, facebook/bebo, photos of you or other information your'd rather it didn't?

A quick update:

Well I finally got back my results for my MSc (Biochemistry) ~8months after handing in the thesis, as expected I passed with average grades (which considering how things went is acceptable...). Which of course means I need to start putting serious effort into the annoying process of trying to find and apply for jobs. So far I've currently been keeping an eye on seek.co.nz and the newspaper (which never has anything of interest), does any one know of any other good sites or resources for looking for jobs especially those in the scientific field?

Also I'd welcome any tips or suggeststions on how to produce a decent cover letter and CV :-), seeing I find they're both a major pain to deal with.

Heh any way so after 6 years of study I can finally use: Aeonsim (no I'm not going to stick my real name on the blog, especially not when applying for jobs), BSc (Biochemistry), MSc (Biochemistry).

A New Biology for a New Century??

A New Biology for a New Century
Carl R. Woese

Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Biology today is at a crossroads. The molecular paradigm, which so successfully guided the discipline throughout most of the 20th century, is no longer a reliable guide. Its vision of biology now realized, the molecular paradigm has run its course. Biology, therefore, has a choice to make, between the comfortable path of continuing to follow molecular biology's lead or the more invigorating one of seeking a new and inspiring vision of the living world, one that addresses the major problems in biology that 20th century biology, molecular biology, could not handle and, so, avoided. The former course, though highly productive, is certain to turn biology into an engineering discipline. The latter holds the promise of making biology an even more fundamental science, one that, along with physics, probes and defines the nature of reality. This is a choice between a biology that solely does society's bidding and a biology that is society's teacher.

The entire paper is available for free from here: A New Biology for a New Century

An interesting paper from a few years back arguing that the way we understand and study biology needs to change focus, shifting from a molecular focus and a reductionist view of organisms to a wider view (which the author does not actually define). Any way if this sort of thing interests you I'd suggest reading it, and I would be interested in your opinion.

EEE PC The future

Well it looks like the EEE PC has some interesting changes coming up in the near future.
Bigger screen (1024x600), more storage (8GB, 12GB, 20GB), a change in CPU (Intel Atom), quick battery recharging, longer battery life (up to 8hours) etc

This could make things rather interesting, If they manage to get one out with 4+ hours battery, and an Atom CPU I think I'll be picking one up rather quickly!

For more info Eee PC to Get Intel’s Diamondville, Hard Drives, and Fashion Forward Style.

Aikido AKA "The Art of Becoming One with the Mat"

Well a somewhat more serious post this time, as some people managed to workout or asked about the "Art of Becoming One with the Mat" is Aikidoa defensively focused Martial art. It relies more on using your opponent's attacks against them rather than attacking it's self. Seeing one of the ideas underlying it is that if they're not attacking you don't need to be fighting them.

As a result it's an art that tends towards flexibility rather raw strength. Anyway in addition to learning means to defend your self, it's a good way to get fit.

If your interested there are 3 Basic classes a week Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, starting at 6pm and going through to ~7:15, where new comers are welcome. Once you learn how to fall properly there are general classes at a range of times including 6am-7:30am for the early birds.

Any way first Lesson is free, and after that it's usually 40 a month for which you can go to as many classes as you like (~20 running a week).

If you are interested in going along I'm going to all three basics classes at the moment (6pm Mon, Wed, Fri).

Any way if your interested in heading along let me know :-).
The dojo is on Clyde Rd, about a 15min bike ride from most peoples flats.

For more info have a look here Aikido Christchurch.

PS: they also do weapons training a few nights each week which is alot of fun!

PPS: Gals are welcome as well and make up ~30% of some classes, and hey Gals surely learning to throw Guys around the Mat is at least somewhat tempting :)

PPPS: The source of The Art of Becoming One with the Mat