Links of the Week (Week #21, 2006)
I know, I know.... late again. I'm getting lazy.
- Aharef: Websites as graphs - Application that displays a websites document structure as a graph. The colors stand for different HTML structures such as links, tables, and DIVs. Not very well suited for the color blind (like myself) but interesting none the less.
- April Zero | Web Workflow - Part I - Interesting writeup describing how to design a website form scratch from pen and paper to HTML with a little photoshop in the middle. Personally I start with the back end programming first (the most interesting part for me) and work on the design later.
- BIOONE Online Journals - The nest architecture of the Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius - Amazing plaster casts of ant holes.
- Employers wiping out Net surfing on the job | Chicago Tribune - I see a story like this come up often. Employers trying to cut down on lack of productivity at work by banning the web. Personally I make it a point to keep my on-the-clock surfing to the bare minimum. I made that decision to avoid any issues related to my past time activities (surfing, programming, and blogging). Even so stories like these disturb me. As I look around my workplace for every one person I see surfing the web I see two playing solitaire, three reading the newspaper, and at least four standing by the water cooler talking about NCAA. I'm fine with banning the Internet at work as long as they also ban computer games, newspapers, water coolers, and (most importantly) NCAA.
- infinity - Photos whose pixels are photos whose pixels are photos whose...
- Land's End on Flickr - Photo Sharing! - Ever wonder what the edge of the world looks like?
- Mystery Robot Said to Solve Crimes, Find Mines in Chile - This robot seams to defy physics. I wonder if the inventor refuses to patent the design because he knows it will be deemed unsafe.
- PCWorld.com - The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time - List of the worsts product of all time starts with AOL; one of the few products that is still around. Goes to show you that you don't need a good product to have a successfull business.... marketing cures all ills.
- stupid_Atari_great_laugh.jpg (JPEG Image, 440x584 pixels) - Yeah, I get that all the time. Everyone is envious of my MICROSOFT BASIC II skillz.
- Timeline of Trends and Events (1750 to 2100) - Interesting, but extremely hard to read, chart of trends over the last 250 years and projected another 100.
- Why American College Students Hate Science - New York Times - I've always had issues with the way math and science is taught in school. I remember very clearly that up to my sophomore year in high school I hated math and science. I hated math because it was a bunch of busy work that appeared useless. What do I learn from completing 10 pages of triple digit multiplications? "When I grow up I'm going to buy a calculator!". Science was even worse. Boring teachers that obviously had no interest in teaching and arbitrary and stupid grading schemes. The worst of all was the subtle undertones of all these classes. I never heard a teacher say it directly but it was implied that only geniuses understand math and science and I am definitely not a genius. Math and science was something that we were forced to take but never really expected to learn. Somehow despite all this I still eventually found my love for science and math. I'm living proof that you don't need to be a genius to understand math and science.
- MILL VALLEY / Physics teacher under fire for gun experiment / Parent's complaint raises issue about legality of stunt - And here is one of the few teachers that try to do something to get kids interested and gets in shut down. I remember in my high school agriculture class when the teacher shot a pig in the head and gutted it in front of us. I don't hear anyone complaining about that. And if they did it would be viewed as an attack on the American way of life.
- Seed: Big in Japan - While in Japan scientists are the heroes.