Looking Back at Retro Phones

 

 

A Relevant Tale: How Google Killed Inktomi

 

 

 

On March 20th, 2000 Inktomi had a market capitalization of 25 billion dollars. As a relatively early employee, I was a multimillionaire on paper. Life was good. In the next year and a half the stock went down by 99.9%. In the end, Inktomi was acquired by Yahoo for 250M. What happened? Among other things, Google. Grab some popcorn and enjoy this story.

Inktomi was the #1 search engine in the world for a while. When I joined we had just won the Yahoo contract, and were serving search results for HotBot (there is still a search page there!) At first I worked on developing crawling and indexing tools written in C++. Our main goal at the time was to grow our index size, and at the same time to improve relevance. It became clear that as our document base grew, relevance would play a more important role. For ten million documents you may be able to filter out all but a handful of documents with a few well-chosen keywords. In that case any relevance algorithm would do; your desired result would be present in the one and only result page. You wouldn’t miss it. For a billion documents however, the handful would become hundreds or thousands. Without a good relevance algorithm, your desired result might be on page 17. You’d give up before getting to it.

At first we were using a classic tf-idf based model, enhanced by emphasizing certain features of pages or urls that correlated with “goodness.” For example, yahoo.com is probably more relevant to the query yahoo than yahoo.com/some/deep/page.html. We thought shorter urls were better. Of course this query was very popular, so spammers started creating pages stuffed with the word Yahoo. This was the beginning of an arms race that continues today. Back then we were the main target because we processed more searches than anyone else.

Enter The Google

Yahoo had been complaining to us about not being result #1 for yahoo for a while. We fixed that special case, but we couldn’t do the same for many other sites or pages. In 1999 Google was gaining popularity because they were solving exactly this problem. We didn’t perceive them as a threat yet, but we did realize that we had to do our own version of PageRank. I was assigned to that task.

My small contribution to improving our relevance was coming up with a simple formula to take into account the occurrences of words in links pointing to pages. The insight was realizing that this followed a power law: at the time Yahoo.com had about 1M instances of the word yahoo in links pointing to it. Nobody else came close. Other Yahoo properties had an order of magnitude less, and then came a long tail of other sites. I decided to use the logarithm of the count as a boost for the word in the document. This wasn’t as sophisticated as PageRank (we’d get to that later), but it was a huge improvement. Our relevance got much better over time as other people spent countless hours implementing our own link analysis algorithms. We had a clear mandate from the execs; our priorities at search were:

1) relevance

2) relevance

3) relevance

Doug Cook built a tool to quickly measure the relevance effects of algorithmic changes based on precomputed human judgments. For example: it was clear that Yahoo.com was the definitive result for the query “yahoo” so it would score a 10. Other Yahoo pages would be ok (perhaps a 5 or  6). Irrelevant pages stuffed with Yahoo-related keywords would be spam, and humans would give them a negative score if they showed up for that query. Given ten results and a query, we could instantly evaluate the goodness of the results based on the human rankings.

We had a sample corpus of links and queries for which we could run this test as often as we wanted, and compare ourselves against Google. We did this for months until it became clear that we were “as good as Google.” Our executives were happy.

Relevance Is Only So Relevant

I thought about why I was using Google myself, and I’m sure it’s obvious to everyone now: theexperience was superior.

• Inktomi didn’t control the front-end. We provided results via our API to our customers. This caused latency. In contrast, Google controlled the rendering speed of their results.
• Inktomi didn’t have snippets or caching. Our execs claimed that we didn’t need caching because our crawling cycle was much shorter than Google’s. Instead of snippets, we had algorithmically-generated abstracts. Those abstracts were useless when you were looking for something like new ipad screen resolution. An abstract wouldn’t let you see that it’s 2048×1536, you’d have to click a result.

In short, Google had realized that a search engine wasn’t about finding ten links for you to click on. It was about satisfying a need for information. For us engineers who spent our day thinking about search, this was obvious. Unfortunately, we were unable to sell this to our executives. Doug built a clutter-free UI for internal use, but our execs didn’t want to build a destination search engine to compete with our customers. I still have an email in which I outlined a proposal to build a snippets and caching cluster, which was nixed because of costs.

Are there any lessons to be learned from this? For one, if you work at a company where everyone wants to use a competitor’s product instead of its own, be very worried. If I were an executive at such a company I would follow Yoda’s advice: “Do or do not. There is no try.” If you’re not willing to put in the effort to compete, you might as well cut your losses (like Google did with Buzz, for example).

A Primer On Fountain Pens

 

“To sit at one’s table on a sunny morning, with four clear hours of uninterruptible security, plenty of nice white paper, and a [fountain] pen — that is true happiness.” –Winston Churchill

Taking a break from click-clacking away at one’s keyboard to write something out by hand — a thank you note, a journal entry, a page of copywork — is a uniquely pleasurable activity.

And there are a few things one can do to heighten this pleasure, and its feeling of ritual.

One is applying your writing utensil to a handsome journal or quality stationery.

Another is improving your handwriting.

And then there’s using a fountain pen.

Putting aside one’s ballpoint and picking up a fountain pen is akin to making the switch from shaving with a cartridge razor to using a safety or straight razor. The nature of the tool requires more skill and attention on your part, but the experience is richer and the result sharper.

If you’ve always wanted to see what it’s like to literally get the ink flowing, this article offers an accessible primer on the basics you need to know to get started.

A Brief History of Fountain Pens

While the earliest record of a fountain-like pen dates from the 10th century, fountain pens as we know them today didn’t exist until the late 19th century. In 1884, an American named Lewis Waterman patented the first practical model after supposedly having a sales contract ruined by a leaky precursor. Before Waterman’s version, fountain pens were plagued with ink spills and blots, and were unreliable and inconvenient.

The main problem of earlier fountain pens centered on airflow — there wasn’t enough. Fountain pens work by managing the rate at which the ink flows through the pen. When the pen is held at an upright angle, ink from the reservoir is drawn downward by gravity, and goes through the feed and to the nib in a controlled fashion. Unless air is brought into the reservoir to replace the ink as it is used, a vacuum will build up that stops the flow.

Waterman solved this airflow issue by cutting a series of three fissures in the pen’s feed. This created a capillary-esque mechanism that functioned by drawing ink into these small channels at the same time that air came back in over the fissures and entered the reservoir. The modern fountain pen was born.

Though Waterman’s innovation made fountain pens much more effective and convenient to write with, filling the pen remained a messy and tedious affair. You had to unscrew a portion of the barrel and use an eyedropper to fill the reservoir drop by drop. At the turn of the 20^th century, companies began introducing self-filling reservoirs that allowed users to put the nib in the inkbottle and fill the reservoir by pulling a lever or twisting the barrel.

Despite the introduction of the ballpoint pen in the early 1900s, fountain pens maintained their dominance as the go-to writing instrument up until the mid-point of the century. It was not until the 1960s, when the ballpoint pen’s reliability increased, and its price decreased, that fountain pen sales began their long and steady decline in the United States. While they’re still widely used by students in private schools in England and the rest of Europe, in America the fountain pen is largely seen as more of a collector’s item, a status symbol, or the focus of a twee hobby. However, thanks to the internet’s ability to connect enthusiasts, the fountain pen has seen something of a resurgence in the U.S. Today you can find countless forums and blogs dedicated to the virtues of this classic writing instrument.

Why Write With a Fountain Pen

Think you might like to branch out from your ballpoint? Here are a few reasons to give fountain pens a try:

It feels better. Because you don’t have to press down as hard to write as you do with a ballpoint pen, writing with the fountain variety is much easier on the hand. It allows for extended periods of writing without fatigue. It’s easier to get in the flow, when using something that truly flows.

It’s better for the environment. With a ballpoint pen, once you use up all the ink, you toss it into the trash. While you can buy disposable fountain pens, most fountain pens aren’t meant to be thrown away. When you run out of ink, just refill the reservoir and you’re back in business.

More economical in the long run. I don’t want to think about the amount of money I’ve thrown away or lost in the form of half-used ballpoint pens. Because of their disposable nature, I’m pretty careless with them. If I lose one, oh well, I can buy a whole new pack of ‘em.

There’s something about a fountain pen that inspires you to take care of it. The hefty price tag of some models certainly has something to do with that. But the fountain pen’s storied tradition provides an aura of timelessness and permanence that encourages the owner to safeguard it; it may even become a family heirloom.

The result is that, besides the initial investment of the pen, the only recurring expense you’ll accrue is just buying more ink every now and then. Consequently, you save money in the long run with a fountain pen compared to a ballpoint.

It makes cursive handwriting look better. Besides reducing fatigue, the light touch and flowing hand movements that are necessitated by a fountain pen make your handwriting look better.

It makes you feel like a sir. I’ll admit it — one of the appeals of writing with a fountain pen is that it just makes you feel awesome. There’s something about writing with the same implement that Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill used that makes you feel like a true gentleman and scholar.

The Anatomy of a Fountain Pen

The fountain pen’s design is sophisticatedly simple. It consists of three main parts: the nib, the feed, and the filling system.

Nibs

Notice the slit down the middle and the breather hole.

The nib is the metal tip of the fountain pen that touches the paper. Early fountain pen nibs were fashioned from gold due to the element’s flexibility and resistance to corrosion. However, most modern nibs are made with stainless steel or gold alloys because of their strength and durability.

If a nib is made from pure gold, it’s usually tipped with a hard-wearing metal like iridium or some metal from the platinum family. Steel nibs already have a hard tip, so tipping them with another metal isn’t necessary.

Along the center of the nib runs a small slit that helps bring ink down the tip by way of the aforementioned capillary action. You’ll also find a “breather hole” bored into the top of the nib to help bring air back into the reservoir to prevent a vacuum from forming. The breather hole also serves a structural purpose by acting as a stress-relieving point, which helps prevent the nib from cracking with the repeated flexing that occurs during use.

Nibs come in varying tip shapes and grades. The three basic shapes are round, stub, and italic. Round is the most common shape and provides a fairly uniform-looking line on the paper. Stub and italic nibs are typically used in calligraphy.

Nib grades designate the size of the tip. Five basic grades exist: extra fine (XF), fine (F), medium (M), broad (B), and double broad (BB). The most common nib grades are fine and extra fine.

Feeds

Part of the feed hugging the bottom of the nib.

The feed is the piece of black plastic (or ebonite on antique pens) that hugs the bottom of the nib. It might not look like it, but the feed is the most important part of a fountain pen. It provides the route by which ink travels from the reservoir to the nib, and by which air fills the reservoir.

Ever since Waterman patented his feed design in 1884, pen makers have strived to create better and more efficient feeds. In 1941, the Parker Company introduced one of the most notable upgrades by adding a “collector” to the feed. On modern fountain pens, the collector is a visible set of grooves or fins just beneath the nib. The collector acts as a second reservoir and keeps the nib well supplied with ink while also preventing too much ink from flowing out at once.

Reservoir or Filling Systems

The reservoir is the cavity inside the fountain pen that holds the ink. This part has seen the most innovations over the course of the pen’s evolution. We could devote an entire article to the various types of reservoirs and filling systems that you can find on antique fountain pens, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll stick to the most common ones you’ll find in modern models:

Cartridge. This is the most common type of reservoir in fountain pens today. A cartridge is a small, sealed disposable plastic tube that holds the fountain pen ink. When a cartridge runs out of ink, you simply remove the old cartridge and put in a new one. The main benefit of cartridge reservoirs is the convenience. The downside is that you often have to rely on the propriety cartridge made for your particular pen. Consequently, your choices of ink will be more limited. Also, there’s the cost factor. While cartridges aren’t too expensive, refilling your pen yourself can save you money in the long run.

Converter. If you don’t like the idea of having to buy new cartridges every time you run out of ink, consider buying a cartridge converter for your fountain pen. A cartridge converter looks pretty much like a cartridge and can fit most cartridge pens, but it has a filling mechanism that allows you to refill it with ink whenever you run out. The upside is that you open yourself up to a variety of inks to use, the downside is convenience; while it’s not hard to fill your cartridge converter, it’s certainly more of a hassle than simply throwing away an old cartridge and installing a new one. Here’s how to fill a cartridge converter.

Piston. This filling system relies on a screw mechanism that draws a piston up the barrel, sucking in ink through the nib and into the reservoir. It’s basically a built-in converter. The only downside (if you can call it a downside) on a pen with a piston filling mechanism, is that you’ll never be able to use cartridges with it. You have to fill it up manually every single time. Here’s how to fill a piston style pen.

Best Fountain Pens for Beginners

If want to give fountain pens a try, but aren’t ready to drop $100 for a fancy pen, consider trying the following three models:

Varsity Fountain Pen by Pilot. These are disposable, so you’re not going to get the “true” fountain pen experience with them. But at $8 for a pack of three, it’s a great way to give fountain pens a try without much investment. The big downside I’ve found is that the ink feathers on most types of paper, causing my handwriting to sometimes become less legible.

Lamy Safari. After lurking on several fountain pen forums and polling the aficionados among my Twitter followers, it became clear that the Lamy Safari was hands down the most recommend fountain pen for beginners. With a ~$20 price tag, it’s a great reusable/refillable fountain pen for the man just getting started.

Pilot Metropolitan. Right behind the chorus of recommendations for the Lamy Safari was the Pilot Metropolitan. It’s a sharp looking pen that writes well and costs a mere $15.

How to Write With a Fountain Pen

Post your cap (or not). Posting your cap means putting the cap on the end of your pen while you’re writing. The pen usually feels more balanced in the hand when you have it posted. Of course, some folks prefer to write with the cap set aside. Experiment and find what works for you.

Hold it at the correct angle. The pen should make a 40 to 55-degree angle with your writing surface. A fountain pen’s “sweet spot” is usually in this range, as ink flows more easily at these angles. The exception is a pen with a round nib; in this case, you want the nib’s top to point straight up and not be rotated to either side.

Use less pressure. You don’t need to press down to get the ink to flow like you do with a ballpoint pen. In fact, too much pressure can prevent the ink from flowing properly or can damage the nib. Keep your strokes light.

Use your arm. Most people are “finger writers,” meaning that they just move their fingers to write. Finger writing has a tendency to cause you to apply too much pressure to the pen, which rotates it and in turn causes ink flow problems. Instead, focus on using your shoulder and arm more while you’re writing. It will feel weird at first, but this style of writing keeps your nib steady and helps reduce the pressure on it.

How to Take Care of Your Fountain Pen

Always keep your pen’s cap on when not in use.

Keep the cap on when the pen is not in use.This prevents the ink on your nib from drying up and protects the nib from damage. If you do happen to leave your pen uncapped and find that the ink has dried up, you’ll need to remove the dried ink that’s blocking the flow. Soaking the nib with water can often do the trick. If that doesn’t work, consider doing a complete flush of your pen — repeatedly filling it and emptying it with cool water.

Don’t let others borrow your pen. As you use your pen, the nib will adapt to your writing style. If you let someone else borrow it for extended periods and apply their own style to it, the nib can get out of whack. If they just need to sign something, let them borrow it; it’s a gentlemanly gesture. If they need to write an essay, lend them a cheap-o ballpoint.

Give your pen a regular flush. It’s recommended that you give your fountain pen a flush once a month. It ensures proper ink flow by removing any build-up in the nib or feed. Here’s how you do it.

In addition to flushing, you might consider soaking your nib in a cup of cool water overnight to remove any stubborn ink build-up.

Becoming a Fountain Pen Aficionado

This post just scratched (see what I did there?) the surface of the fountain pen world. We didn’t even get into antique fountain pens. Hopefully, a true fountain pen aficionado will be up for writing that article for us. (Nudge, nudge.) If you want to learn more about fountain pens, I highly recommend you check out the following sources:

Richardspens.com. This is THE source on fountain pens on the web. I spent hours just reading through the in-depth articles he has on every aspect of fountain pens. This site is a must-read for anyone wanting to learn more about them.

The Fountain Pen Network. A forum dedicated to fountain pens. The folks there are super helpful with beginners, so if you have a question, ask. They also have lists of groups, meetings and events dedicated to fountain penning (yeah, I just used fountain pen as a verb), as well as a marketplace where you can buy or trade new fountain pens.

Fountain Pen Board. A smaller, more tight-knit forum than Fountain Pen Network. Ask questions or buy or sell your antique fountain pens.

Fountain Pen Geeks. Another fountain pen forum with an accompanying podcast (which looks like it’s been shut down, but has plenty of great archived episodes).

How does the calculator percent key work?

 

The Windows calculator percent sign works the same way as those cheap pocket calculators (which are often called four-function calculators even though they have around six function nowadays). What you first have to understand is that the percent key on those pocket calculators was not designed for mathematicians and engineers. It was designed for your everyday person doing some simple calculations. Therefore, the behavior of the key to you, an engineer, seems bizarrely counter-intuitive and even buggy. But to an everyday person, it makes perfect sense. Or at least that's the theory.

Let's look at it from the point of view of that everyday person. Suppose you want to compute how much a $72 sweater will cost after including 5% tax.¹ Pull out your handy pocket calculator² (or fire up Calc if you don't have a pocket calculator) and type

72 + 5% =

The result is 75.6, or $75.60, which is the correct answer, because 5% of 72 is 3.6. Add that to 72 and you get 75.6.

Similarly, suppose that sweater was on sale at 20% off. What is the sale price?

72 − 20% =

The result is 57.6 or $57.60. This is the correct answer, because 20% of 72 is 14.4. Subtract that from 72 and you get 57.6.

You can chain these percentage operations, too. For example, how much will you have to pay for that 20%-off sweater after adding 5% tax?

72 − 20% + 5% =

The result is 60.48. A mathematician or engineer would have calculated the same result via the equivalent computation:

72 × 0.80 × 1.05 =

Okay, now that we see how the calculator product designer intended the percent key to be used, let's look at what the calculator engineer it has to do in order to match the specification. When the user enters A + B % =, the result should be A × (1 + B/100) or A + (A × B/100) after you distribute the multiplication over the addition. Similarly, when the user enters A − B % =, the result should be A × (1 − B/100) or A − (A × B/100).

Aha, the calculator engineer says, we can achieve this result by defining the percent key as follows:

When the user enters a value, an operator, a second value, and then the percent key, the first two values are multiplied and the product divided by 100, and that result replaces the second value in the ongoing computation.

Let's walk through that algorithm with our first example.

You type
Remarks

72
First value is 72

+
Operation is addition

5
Second value is 5

%
72 × 5 ÷ 100 = 3.6

3.6 becomes the new second value

=
72 + 3.6 = 75.6, the final result

If you watch the display as you go through this exercise, you will even see the number 3.6 appear in the display once you press the % key. The percentage is calculated and replaces the original value in the ongoing computation.

This algorithm also works for the chained percentages.

You type
Remarks

72
First value is 72

−
Operation is subtraction

20
Second value is 20

%
72 × 20 ÷ 100 = 14.4

14.4 becomes the new second value

+
72 − 14.4 = 57.6, intermediate result

57.6 is the new first value

Operation is addition

5
Second value is 5

%
57.6 × 5 ÷ 100 = 2.88

2.88 becomes the new second value

=
57.6 + 2.88 = 60.48, the final result

This even works for multiplication and division, but there is much less call for multiplying or dividing a number by a percentage of itself.

500 × 5 % =

The result of this is 12,500 because you are multiplying 500 by 5% of 500 (which is 25). The result of 500 × 25 is 12,500. You aren't computing five percentof 500. You're multiplying 500 by 5% of 500. (It appears that the authors of this Knowledge Base article didn't consult with the calculator engineer before writing up their analysis. The percent key is behaving as designed. The problem is that the percent key is not designed for engineers.)

What if you want to compute 5% of 500? Just pick a dummy operation and view the result when you press the percent key.

500 + 5 %

When you hit the percent key, the answer appears: 25. You could've used the minus key, multiplication key, or division key instead of the addition key. It doesn't matter since all you care about is the percentage, not the combined operation. Once you hit the % key, you get your answer, and then you can hit Clear to start a new calculation.

Jurassic Park 4 - the one that didn't get made

Before we begin, a little back-story to fill you in: In 1993, Jurassic Parkwas unleashed upon an unsuspecting public and it took the world by storm. Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, the film was noteworthy for its Oscar-winning special effects and incredible score by John Williams. It was suspenseful, funny, horrifying, exciting; everything you could ever want from a Hollywood blockbuster. Soon after, a sequel followed, and after that, another one. The third film was panned by critics, but it was still a success at the box office, and that was enough reason for the studio to want to put together a fourth.

Jurassic Park 4 introduces us to ex-Navy Seal Nick Harris, who has been contacted by John Hammond to complete a very important task. Harris must voyage out to Isla Nubar to retrieve the shaving cream can filled with dino embryos that Dennis Nedry left behind after he was killed on the island. It appears that, while many of the dinosaurs have been wiped out, some have managed to make it to the mainland, and attacks are becoming quite a problem. The United Nations has outlawed the mining of amber, so Hammond is left with only one solution: use the embryos inside the can of shaving cream to create younger, sterile female predators to take on the remaining species on the island. The problem is, though, that the UN has also outlawed the creation of any new dinosaurs, and a corporation called Grendel International now has full ownership of the island and has equipped it with a security force. So Harris is going to have to be extra careful in finding this can.

When Harris reaches Isla Nubar, he has no problem finding Nedry’s bony remains. Soon, Harris is able to find the target Barbasol can in no time. Activating a homing device he left on the beach, he quickly begins to make his way back, when he hears a rustling behind him, and soon realizes he’s surrounded by camouflaged security rangers. He quietly drops his weapons as they command, but before anyone can think, a colony of excavaraptors attack. Amidst the barrage of the rangers’ gunfire, Harris manages to escape, a raptor hot on his trail. When he finally manages to hide behind an abandoned Jeep, a group of compsognathus strike, and he quickly runs for a nearby building, accidentally leaving his gun behind. Inside the building, which turns out to be an old staff bunker, Harris finds a map which has a layout of all the staff quarters on the island, and it looks like the control center isn’t too far from the beach. With a raptor hot on his trail, Harris begins his journey through the underground utility tunnels. After a brief run in with some dilophosaurs, and the ever-persistent raptor, Harris finally makes it to the beach where a pilot has been waiting for him. Harris begins swimming out into the ocean, where the raptor doesn’t dare venture, but when a kronosaurus catches the lifeline from the plane and destroys it, killing the pilot, Harris is now trapped in the ocean. Luckily, at that moment, a helicopter arrives and Harris grabs hold of its rescue ladder, saving him just in the nick of time. Too bad the helicopter belongs to the Grendel Corporation.

Fortunately, Harris manages to grab the Barbasol can and jump out of the helicopter, landing in the ocean and swimming toward a nearby beach where a Capt. Overton is waiting for him. Pursued by Grendel’s thugs, Harris manages to hide the Barbasol can in the ancient Coca-Cola cooler of a nearby cafe, which he’ll come back to later. Harris finds a hotel he thinks it’ll be safe to stay at, but of course it isn’t. Grendel Corp.’s men have tracked him down once again and bring him to Sweden, where Harris is met by Adrien Joyce, a criminal Harris managed to get kicked out of Honduras for selling weaponry who now works for Grendel. Joyce wants the Barbasol can, offering to match Hammond’s offer, but Harris won’t budge. Instead, Joyce explains he would like Harris’ help with Grendel’s newest project. Grendel has secretly been breeding dinosaurs and splicing their DNA with other species as well as domestic dogs and humans to make them obedient to commands. With proper training, Grendel plans to use these genetically-engineered dinos to act as soldiers—SWAT teams, riot control, that sort of thing—and Harris is the perfect man for the job. Why do they need these genetically-enhanced dino-hybrids? To save Isabel Chartiers—daughter of Bertrand Chartiers, chairman of the Duhamel Group—who is being held for ransom by a group call the North African Liberation Front. Using humans to save her would take far too long; these dinos, with their natural predatory instincts, will find the culprits in no time. Harris gives in and agrees to train the dino-soldiers, who are marvelously fast learners.

When Harris and the dino-soldiers find the kidnappers’ hideout, the dinos go to work tearing the kidnappers to shreds. Not a single one is left alive. And, thankfully, they are able to rescue little Isabel. Job well done. But Grendel’s work is not over. This is just the beginning. They have other missions in mind, and they want Harris on board for good. Their next mission: take down Pepe Aguilar, a drug lord who is holding a number of innocent people prisoner, including the President’s niece. For this mission, they’ll need more than just the genetically-altered raptors. They’re employing the spitters too. Their training goes smoothly at first, until one of the raptors goes a bit berserk and kills a Grendel mercenary. Finally, the beast calms down, but no one is quite sure what went wrong. Later that night, Harris strikes up a deal with Baron von Drax, head of Grendel. He’ll tell von Drax where he hid the embryos as long as they let Maya—a female scientist of theirs who Harris has started to develop feelings for—off the island, free from Grendel. Von Drax agrees, and when Harris breaks the news to her, she is shocked. Realizing there’s not much she can do, she reveals a damning bit of information: It was Grendel Corp. who kidnapped Isabel Chartier in the first place. Harris is horrified, but no matter, because this plot point is never brought up again. And it isn’t long before Grendel send some men out to retrieve the Barbasol can that Harris hid in that Coke cooler. But the DNA inside is not at all what von Drax has been waiting for. They found a decoy. The can was filled with the genes of toads.

Everyone feels good when the mission to take down Pepe Aguilar is a success; everyone but the dinosaurs. It seems that the raptors have become too sentient. They quickly destroy the cameras mounted to their bodies and smash the control-implants placed in their ears. This is their rebellion. The raptors strike on the convoy, with intent to kill. And they do. Carnage ensues as the raptors get their revenge on the humans who held them captive for so long. It isn’t long before the dinos target Harris and Maya, but to these two, they make an exception. It’s almost as if the dinos understand that they were the good guys the whole time, and they leave them alone, disappearing into the jungle, free at last. But what of the real Barbasol can? Well, maybe I missed it somewhere, but that actually managed to get to John Hammond at some point. The end. Really. The end.

 

cleartext.blogspot.com

http://greatestmovies-nevermade.tumblr.com/post/115492212475/jurassic-park-4

Carry A Pocket Knife

 

It used to be that a pocket knife was an essential item that a man carried with him. You had your wallet, your keys, and your trusty pocket knife.

The History of the Pocket Knife

1^st Century Romans created the first folding pocket knife. They made for easy carrying for soldiers and other explorers on their journeys and conquests. However, as the use of sheathed knives became more popular, the use of pocket knives fell somewhat into disfavor.

By the late 16th Century, pocket knives began to regain popularity. They were especially popular in the American colonies. From farmers to lawyers, men from all walks of life started to carry them. The ultimate portable tool, the pocket knife was a useful aid in various tasks, including eating on the go.
Pocket knives have been an essential tool for soldiers throughout American history. New York and New Hampshire required their militias to carry pocket knives during the American Revolution. Even George Washington toted one around as he led his troops. The U.S. Navy began issuing pocket knives to sailors during the Civil War. During WWII, the pocket knife was standard issue for American GIs.

Men have been carrying pocket knives for centuries. But with increased security at the airport and other buildings, knives have been disappearing from men’s pockets. Yet these minor obstacles are not sufficient reason to give up carrying a knife completely. The carrying of a pocket knife is a man tradition that should be continued.

Why a Man Should Carry a Pocket Knife

How many times have you been in a situation where you’ve said to yourself, “Damn, a knife would be really handy now!” Here are a few instances when a pocket knife can come in handy or just make the simple things in life more enjoyable:

1. Opening a box.

2. Cutting rope, tags, and string.

3. Cutting an apple. I love eating an apple that I’ve cut with my pocket knife, slice by slice. You feel like a bad ass doing it. You hold the apple in your non-dominant hand and then make a slice with the knife using your dominant hand. After you make the slice, pinch it between your thumb and knife blade. Bring the blade to your mouth and deposit the apple slice.

4. Opening a letter. Sure, you could use your finger, but using a knife is just more manly.

5. Weapon. Not the most effective, but it’s better than nothing.

6. Camping. How else will you sharpen the point of a stick in preparation for stabbing your prey? And by prey I mean hot dog.

7. You never know when you’re going to have to MacGyver your way out of a crisis. Be prepared.

8. You need something to clench in your teeth when swinging from a rope.

What kind of pocket knife should you get?

Picking out a knife is a personal thing. It’s like picking out a wallet. It all comes down to personal taste. Men have a bond with their tools. Pick something that feels good in your hand, and that you’ll take pride in and want to carry around.

There are three common designs of pocket knives: the jack knife, the pen knife, and the multi-purpose knife. We’ll discuss the features and benefits of each one, in order to help you decide what kind of knife you should get.

Jack knife. A jack knife has a simple hinge at one end, and may have more than one blade. The jack knife is popular among hunters, fishermen, and campers.

Pen knife. A pen knife is hinged at both ends of the handle, and usually has two or three blades at each end. The pen knife was originally designed to cut or sharpen pen quills for writing. The pen knife is good if you want more than one type of blade. It’s also small and lightweight and won’t be noticeable in the pocket of dress clothes.

Multi-purpose knife. These are probably the most popular pocketknives. The Swiss Army knife and the Handyman are probably the most well known of the multi-purpose knives. Boy Scout knives are also multi-purpose knives. In addition to the knife blade, multi-purpose knives have can openers, scissors, leather punchers, tweezers, or even screwdrivers. These can come in handy on camping trips. However, if all you’re looking for is a sharp blade, the extra features will probably annoy you.

There are variations of these knife designs that you should take into account as well. Here are few to think about:Lock blade knife. The name of the blade explains it all. When you open the blade fully on this type of knife, the blade locks in place. Closing the blade requires you to release the blade by pressing down on a lever located near the back of the knife handle to disengage the hook from the notch that keeps the blade in place. A lock blade is useful for more heavy duty use. A good example of a lock blade knife is the Buck knife.Slipjoint knife. On a slip joint knife, the blade doesn’t lock, but is held in place by a spring device that allows the blade to fold only if a certain amount of pressure is applied. Most pen knives or multi-purpose knives use the slipjoint blade. Because the blade is less stable, it should only be used for light jobs.

Friction folder knife. This is another method of a non-locking blade. Friction folder knives use friction between the blade and the scales to hold the blade in place once opened.

One handed opening. Newer knives have a feature that allows for one handed opening. On the top of the blade, there is a hole that enables you to place the pad of your thumb in. Just press up and BAM, you got an open knife. This feature makes using a pocket knife much easier, especially when you have your hands full.

Where to Get a Pocket Knife

The best pocket knifes to have are the ones with a sense of history. I carry around a pocket knife that my father gave to me. It’s still in really good shape, and with regular sharpening cuts like new. It’s something tangible that reminds me of my father. One day I hope to pass it down to my son. So ask your dad if he has an old pocket knife that he can give to you. I’m sure he’ll be happy to pass it along.

If you can’t get a hand on an old pocket knife, or the one your dad or grandpa gave you is no longer usable, pick yourself up a new one. You can find pocket knives at any outdoor store. Better yet, find a knife store in town so you have a wider selection to choose from.

25 Funny Situations Of A Programmer's Life

 

1. When the project manager enters the office

2. When I try to fix a bug at 3 in the morning

3. When I'm told that the module on which I have worked all the week will never be used

4. When the code that I have not tested on dev works perfectly in production

5. When the sales people announce they have sold our product to the customer

6. When sysadmin finally gives us the root access

7. When I launch my script for the first time after several hours of development

8. When I go off for the weekend while everyone else is still trying to fix bugs

9. When the boss is looking for someone to urgently fix a difficult bug

10. When a thing that worked on Friday no longer works on Monday

11. When a bug goes unnoticed during a presentation

12. When a newbie suggests to add a new feature to project

13. When I realize that I have been blocked for two hours because of a forgotten semicolon

14. When the project manager suddenly looks on my screen

15. When customer wants to change specification 2 days before pushing to production

16. When my script finally worked

17. When I'm told that my code is broken in production

18. When I find a solution without searching Google

19. When the intern tells me that "the tests are for those who can not program"

20. When I manage to replace 200 lines of the algorithm by only 10 lines

21. When I return to development of my code that wasn't commented

22. When they tell me the website has to be supported by IE6

23. When a misformed sql query actually returns me the correct results

24. When I start coding without doing analysis first

25. When project manager thinks that I can handle whole project all by myself

Gadget Goodies From He's Just Not That Into You

 

Conor Is a BB Boy

The loveable real estate agent Conor (Kevin Connolly) used his black BlackBerry Pearl for both business and pleasure.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Gigi Rocked Modern and Vintage

I was lovin' Gigi's (Ginnifer Goodwin's) choice of telephones. By day she rocked the pink retro hand held, and by night, she was all about — what appeared to be — a LG Lotus. Who can forget the bathroom scene when she called Alex for guy advice?

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Ben Is a BlackBerry Bad Boy

Ben, played by Bradley Cooper, was both naughty and nice in the movie. And what else did he drag into his escapades besides women? His BlackBerry Curve.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Janine Flipped Out With the BB 8220

I couldn't exactly make out Janine's cell phone, but it did closely resemble a BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 — one smokin' hot phone!

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Alex Is a Total Gadget Guy

If we weren't watching Alex play Xbox 360 and PS2 games with friends on his big flatscreen TV, we were keeping track of his hilarious back-and-forth phone conversations with Gigi on his Motorola MOTO W755.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Mary Goes High-Tech

Drew Barrymore's character Mary, was so up in arms about technology the entire movie, yet she was the most "connected" out of anyone. If she wasn't MySpacing dates on her iMac, she was texting and chatting on her red BlackBerry Curve!