1. Don’t think.

2. If you do think, don’t speak.

3. If you think and speak, don’t write.

4. If you think, speak and write, don’t sign.

5. If you think, speak, write and sign, don’t be surprised.

– being told in Poland, 1987

The End

The following is a letter from Charles Babbage (1791-1871) to Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), concerning an error in one poem of the latter.

Charles Babbage wrote:

In your otherwise beautiful poem one verse reads,

Every moment dies a man,
Every moment one is born

If this were true the population of the world would be at a standstill. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of that of death. I would suggest that the next edition of your poem should read:

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.

This letter is a great example, illustrating to us what is a nerd.

The definition of Nerd: who spends all the time worrying about details.

My two cents is that a computer is a machine with heavy emphasis on doing precisely whatever they are told to do. So nerds are perfect candidates for computer operator. On the other side, anyone who works with a computer ends up training hiself to spot minute details that are incorrect or out of place, which means the one tend to become a nerd in the end.

Our age is a computer age, also a nerd age.

(the end)

An English guy got Google’s offer, asked on a public forum if he should accept it and move to the valley.

Someone answered:

(When you accept the offer and move to the valley, …)

“If you are single, you are more likely going to stay single.

If you are in a age (35) that are looking to find a long time partner to form a family, dating in the valley is going to suck.

I mean really really bad. SF is a bit better, still not that great to find a quality life partner.”

(The End)

Feel quite low these days. Don’t have much thing to share here, just a brief post. =============================== I was shocked by the breaking news this morning: Six Apart Acquired By VideoEgg. Six Apart is a software company who provides blogging platform services — TypePad, Vox, and Movable Type. My blog is powered by Movable Type since 2003, which means I have been a user — a happy user, indeed — of Six Apart for the last 2000+ days. Now, the company is dead, bought by an advertising network. What will happen to MT? Do you really believe someone selling ad would truly support the open source software? I am worried. Continue reading →