Inspiration for the design of the study was to determine the effect of the drug in the treatment of the subject matter of the present invention is to provide a method for the determination of the amount of the compound of formula I wherein R is a hydrogen atom or a methyl group at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Berkeley . . . .

When I gave it the starting word “Inspiration” it assumed I was writing a paper about a study on a drug at the University of California Berkeley, and they got stuck in a recursive loop. What if I try a different word?

Writing and Editing Professional in Human Resources Management and Development of the National Association of Realtors and the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States and Canada for the first time in the future and the future of the country and the world of the living room and dining room with a view to the sea and the mountains of the world and the world of the living room and dining room with a view to the sea and the mountains of the world . . . .

Not sure where it was going with that one. I gave it the word “Writing” and it started talking about organizations and departments and countries then got in a weird loop about rooms with views . . . It doesn’t seem that it will ever suggest punctuation, which leads to run on sentences. I wonder what Scibe wants to say about “Google” . . .

Google Earth and Google Maps to find the best deals on the best way to get the best of the best in the world of the living room and dining room with a view to the sea and the mountains of the world and the world of the living room . . .

Interesting that it listed Google Earth and Google Maps specifically, but then got stuck in the room with a view loop again. It clearly isn’t looking only at word pairs since Google would have matched Earth both times, but at the same time the context is shorter in other situations since it really likes that room with a view loop.

It does have an option to give multiple suggestions, so the user could steer the conversation in different directions. Plus the addition of the occasional period would allow for the introduction of new chains of thought.

Conclusion: It does look at more than just the previous word, but still can get stuck in a recursive loop. No punctuation is suggested. It is clearly still a labs toy, but I’ve seen predictive correction before that works, so this may evolve and show up in more places. You can install the extension today and play with it on your favorite web text box.

He told me about a gift he made for his mother-in-law.  It was a very involved project.  He took a great piece of Onyx, cut it like a heart and polished it up.  Then he mounted it in a necklace.  I forget the exact number of hours he spent on it, but it was quite a few.  When he was done it was beautiful.  It got a nice jewelry box and put a little note it in, then mailed it to his mother-in-law.

When she got it she called him to say how much she loved it, but she was a bit confused about the note.

“Why do I need to keep it in the freezer when I am not wearing it?” she asked.

“Well,” he said, “onyx is a very hard and darkly colored stone.  So if you keep it cold, then I can tell everyone that my mother-in-law has a very cold, hard, black little heart.”

She thought it was very funny, and it is one of her most treasured pieces of jewelry.  She even keeps it in the freezer too.

It is good to have family with a sense of humor.

BTW, if you have a mother-in-law with a good sense of humor you can buy an onyx necklace for her.

I just watched Dr. Horrible Act 1 and 2 again.  I can hardly wait for Act 3 this Friday night at midnight (9 PM PST – Yippie!)  It looks like I will be buying all three on iTunes, my first iTunes purchase ever.

First of all I really want to support Joss in making this available.  I want it to be so wildly successful that he and others will make more good quality programming available like this.  But probably more importantly, I don’t want to wait for the DVD to come out to see it again after Sunday when it goes offline. . . .

Besides the campy songs, catchy one-liners and cheese character names, the thing I really like is the complex Dr. Horrible character played by Neil Patrick Harris and the contrast with his arch nemisis Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillian.  We have a protagonist and an antagonist, but in this case, the protagonist is Dr. Horrible, the super-villain wanna-be.

In the first act we are introduced to the main character, who happens to be a “bad guy.”  We meet the good guy, but we are really rooting for the bad guy, and we are OK with that.

Interestingly, by the end of the second act we see that even though Dr. Horrible is on the wrong side of the law, he is the better man.  While Captain Hammer is good buddies with the mayor, he is really not a very nice guy.  So while we thought we were rooting for the bad guy, we were rooting for the good guy.

Now the only question is what will happen next.  Will Dr. Horrible prove he is evil enough to Bad Horse to enter the Evil League of Evil?  What will Penny think when she realizes that “Billy” is positively motivated, but willing to step outside the law to get there?  What will become of Captain Hammer?

At the end of Act 1, before I saw Act 2, I actually entertained the idea that maybe Penny was a secret plant from the Evil League of Evil, sent to observe Dr. Horrible.  After Act 2 I am pretty sure she is who she appears to be, but I am OK with being surprised in Act 3.

I just hope the sound track comes out soon.

I think that video is a great example of ordinary people (well, engineers, which I guess is a handicap) making an educationand and entertaining video about an ordinary thing.  Maybe I will make a software developers guide to children. . . .

So if I ever forget to send you a greeting / gift for an occassion you were expecting one from me, just realize that I actually was thinking about getting you something the other 364 days of the year.

(Click on them for a nice break down of what is in there!)

What’s in my right pocket right now? And I cleaned it out a little bit this morning. Keys (Says “Always do the thing you think you can’t do”), comb, wallet (from www.all-ett.com), hands free for cell-phone and room 311 key card for my hotel.

What’s in my left pocket right now? And I cleaned it out a little bit the morning. Chap Stick (original), 1 GB USB flash drive (SanDisk Cruizer Mini) on lanyard that gets easily tangled in my pocket, 2 GB USB flash drive (SanDisk Cruizer Micro with U3 – which is cool), iPod Nano in case with ear buds and data cable (accessories from www.dealextreme.com) and a nice company branded pen from a previous employer. My cell phone was in here too, but I used it to take the picture.

Milk is actually one of the poorest sources of calcium (that actually contains calcium). Your body has a hard time using it. Same for the protein in it. I like my calcium from broccoli.

• Miracle Max: Beat it or I’ll call the Brute Squad.
• Fezzik: I’m on the Brute Squad.
• Miracle Max: You are the Brute Squad.

Fast forward to modern day. My brother asked me to come troubleshoot some computer issues and let him know if he had everything he needed to setup a wireless network. I fixed the computer issue quickly. Then I looked at the hardware he purchased for the network and let him know it would work for a wireless network. He told his fiance that they had everything they needed for a wireless network. Here is the actual conversation that followed:

• Fiance: So I guess we should call the Geek Squad and have them set it up.
• My Brother: Jim is the geek squad.
• Fiance: You’re on the Geek Squad?
• Me: No, but I can get your wireless network setup.

I am not on the actual Best Buy Geek Squad, but “Geek squad” is a pretty generic term obviously.  This conversation just reminded me so much of that scene from Princess Bride.  Needless to say the wireless network was really easy and quick to get setup.

So lets look at the constants in the formula:

• ?: Most people are familiar with ? (or pi), which is the ratio to a circle to its diameter.  It allows you to move between the diameter of a circle and its circumference.  It is an irrational number, meaning it cannot be represented completely in decimal notation.  It is approximately 3.14159265. . . .
• i:Is the imaginary result of the square root of negative one, or i^2 = -1.  Since a negative number multiplied by a negative number results in a positive number, without imaginary numbers, this would impossible.
• e: The one less people are familiar with is is Euler’s number or e.  It is the base of the natural logarithm.  It is also irrational with the approximate value of 2.71828 18284 59045 23536. . .

Mathematically speaking ?, e and i are considered some of the most important constants along with 0 and 1.  Pretty exciting eh?

So it turns out this formula is called Euler’s identity.  I still don’t understand how it works though.  According to Carl Friedrich Gauss, since this formula is not immediately apparent to to me (as a student), I will never be a first-class mathematician.  That is OK.  I just enjoy math as a hobby right now.