Following up on my previous posting about what you can buy with a trillion dollars, I actually bid on some Zimbabwean currency on ebay.. I just received my freshly minted Zimbabwean currency and can officially say that I am a trillionaire :).. As any trillionaire would wonder.. what do I do with all this money now :)..
If your website is a target of web scrapers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_scraping), here’s a simple way to keep them on their toes..
Every few days (or weeks) make a small change to the web page format. The trick is to make the change in such a way so that your users do not notice it or are not annoyed by the change. Most of the simple scrapers use, screen scraping and this would confuse the hell out of them 🙂 and usually deters the most abusive ones. The smart ones would have approached you in the first place, requesting permission to scrape or get authorized for an interface.
Comment by a colleague about how useful your contributions are at work..
Yesterdays recipe is today’s shit
In other words, there is no end to the race :)..
If you have ever worked in an IT shop, you will know that the one thing you cannot escape from is issues related to Database performance. Now, I am no DBA in any way or fashion, but thought I should record some of the common issues and ways they have been overcome in my career so far. More for self records than trying to teach someone :).
Did you run into any strange situations and figured out a solution? Please feel free to add your comments below…
Here’s a picture from a BBC photo essay about the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team by terrorists in Pakistan
(Bomb Disposal Expert working on disarming a bomb : Credit – BBC)
Need I say more? I admire the bravery of the expert, but the guy is “disarming” a bomb without any protection..For comparision, look at the outfit of a bomb disposal in the US..
(Credit – Chad Davis)
i.e. Can you still write with your hand? I ran across this article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7907888.stm) on the BBC, which predicts that we will have forgotten the art of handwriting in another 100 years or so. Imagine, a specialist having to decipher handwritten notes, although I should confess that I think it takes a specialist to read my handwriting now :).
As with most people of my age, I actually went through a formal “handwriting” class. I remember, we used to have special assignments, where all you did was write 🙂 . I used to write a lot of handwritten letters during my childhood, but as I grew up and started to use computers, my need to hand write something became less and less. If I remember correctly, the last handwritten letter I wrote was ~6 years ago!! It is so easy to type up an e-mail and send it off, but writing a letter makes you think and reflect on what you are writing. I do miss it 🙂
Speaking of things that are going to be “things of past”, I also think that most of the regional languages in this world will fade away in another 200-300 years. Everyone will speak some form of English :)..
So when was the last time, you wrote something (meaningful) with a pen or pencil?
I have been looking at getting an e-book reader for some time now (yes.. even though I don’t have time, I still like to think I can read 🙂 ).. My sister and brother in law surprised me by getting me the newly released Kindle 2.0 (Thx Guys!!).. I think I am one of the first few people to receive it!!. Here are some pictures of the unpacking and the device itself
The Kindle in it’s original packing.. Getting pretty close to being as cool as Apple packaging
The most amazing thing (for me).. the USB/Power Cable.. Look how small the power brick is!!
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First Thoughts??
Since, I didn’t have a previous e-book or the Kindle 1.0, I don’t have anything to compare it to. I think the styling of the device is very sleek and sexy. I like the alumunium backend (Reminds you of the first gen iPhone). The interface is OK.. Was not very impressed with it. I love the fact that you can browse Wikipedia anytime/anywhere with the built-in wireless connection for free!!
My next task is to figure out a way to get some content onto this baby. There are several books in the public domain (like the ones on Gutenberg.org) that I would like to get onto the Kindle first. Once, I feel comfortable with the unit, I will try some e-books from the Kindle store.
Nothing fancy.. but here is a simple perl script to open a file, search for specific content in the a line and replace it with some other content.
open (SOURCE, "< source.xml")
or die "Could not open file source.xml: $!\n";
open (DESTINATION, ">modfile.xml")
or die "Could not open file modfile.xml: $!\n";
while (defined($line =
if ($line =~ m/YYYYYYYY/i) {
$line = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\n";
}
print DESTINATION "$line";
}
close (SOURCE);
close (DESTINATION);
You are opening a file named source.xml, reading every line and if there is some text that matches “YYYYYYYY”, you are replacing the whole line with “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”. I am sure there are more elegant ways to write this :).. but this will do the trick too..
Here’s an example
ORIGINAL
AFTER PLAYING AROUND IN BEFUNKY
What am I listening to now a days on my runs? This classic from the 1982 movie “Disco Dancer“..
Love the bling bling shiny dress of Mithun and the side kick girls with their saxophones and shorts 🙂
Check out two crazy moves… One is at 4:35 and the other at 7:10
And yes.. I love Disco 🙂
