Tuesday 21 July 2009

xkcd

Remember my old diagram of intra friend-circle relationships? Well, I think this is proof enough that xkcd is a veeery good match to my humour!

Monday 20 July 2009

On perpetual motion

Some of you might have noticed my facination for symetrical shapes. Give me a ruler and a pen and I will be occupied for hours. The epitrochoid on the left is pretty much my definition of beauty. It is perfectly symmetrical and round. I do not understand the mathematics behind epitrochiods and hypotrochoids. Maybe one day I will? Another interesting fact about epitrochoids is that they are perpetual - once you have completed the cycle it will repeat itself indefinently.

The name of this blog used to be "Confusion, mostly" and that still holds true. But that doesn't really include all aspects of my life, or rather - it is too much of a simplification. As I see it life itself is a perpetual motion, as well as a series of smaller repeating cycles. Perhaps "Perpetuations" is a poorly phrased version of this - in fact it is even a bad pun. I think this is an accurate visualisation of how I think of life.


Confusing, yes?

One last note, physically there is no such thing as a machine that always produces more energy than is put into it. But disregarding the quantifiable - humans do this all the time, don't we? I for one seem to always produce more emotion and thought than I use :P

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Re: Unorthodox and politically incorrect dating ad.

In the spirit of the Iceye's dating ad and my current occupation;

Installation and Maintenance guide for the Kristin-88

1 Technical data
Sex - Female
Age - 21
Length (cm) - 173
Weight (kg) - 78
Hair color - Dark brown
Eye colour - Light blue with strands of yellow
Language support - Swedish and English (upgradable)
Function packages - Everyday, Survival, Social (to some extent) and Civil Engineering
Application - Intended for use with the Male 1980-1990 series (exceptions exist, contact support for more info)

2 Installation
2.1 Recommended dating sequence
1. Check compatibility. See chapter 2.2
2. Initiate contact. See chapter 2.3
3. Evaluate network optimisation. See chapter 2.4
4. Install docking station. See chapter 2.5

2.2 Compatibility
The Kristin-880406 is very versatile, with programmes for athletics, academics, science, applied science, music, video games and role playing among others. She has a somewhat underdeveloped social interface, but not so much that it impairs everyday activities. The operating system is Linux based and supports many add-ons. The core process is based on ambition and strives for constant development. It should be noted however, that the cultural context in which the programming was done has influenced the programme-code. Due to years of tweaking this code cannot easily be modified.

2.3 Initiating contact
There is no definite way to initiate contact. It is recommended, however, that the context is casual and the method direct. Due to the aforementioned underdeveloped social interface some of the more subtle passes and innuendo might not be registered.
Caution: This lack of registration might come off as a lack of interest or disapproval.
In order to fully establish an interface it is important that you activate your account, preferably as soon as possible.

2.4 Network optimisation
The Kristin-880406 is designed for a medium sized network with a mostly permanent client list. She is fully capable of interacting with guests and new clients, but will do so on a limited access basis. Not until the compatibility evaluation is completed will full access be granted. There are no administrator privileges. The Kristin-88 is fully installed on several networks, the most prominent being the Family and Friends WLAN's. The Family-network operate stictly on static IP numbers that might be difficult to obtain. The Friends-network utilises both static and dynamic IP addresses. In order to obtain a static IP the client has to be fully compatible with the other static clients. DHCP access is granted to anyone with an established connection with one of the static clients.

2.5 Docking station
Once the previous steps of the dating sequence have been completed it might be convenient to install a docking station for the Kristin-88, so that she has her own designated space.

3 Maintenance
The Kristin-88 is still in Beta and there is currently no information on maintenance and routine testing. We recommend that you use Common sense in order to determine what she might need.

Thursday 2 July 2009

Oh My Fucking God!

I'm trying to find EEC directives that are applicable for one of the products here at work, so I did a search in Eur-Lex for "CE märkning". I got 9 hits. The first one is a court ruling, the second is a written question about wehter CE marking is a trade barrier. The third one is a written question about CE marking for torture equipment...