Best Lost summary

"Okay, you see we did crash, but it was on this crazy island. And then we waited for rescue, only there wasn’t a rescue. And then there was this smoke monster. And there were other people on the island, we called them the Others, and they started attacking us. And we found these hatches, and there was a button you had to push every 108 minutes, or... well, I was never really clear on that.

"But, the Others didn’t have anything to do with the hatches, that was the Dharma Initative. But they’re all dead, the Others killed them... and now they’re trying to kill us. And then we teamed up with the Others because worse people were coming on a freighter. Desmond’s girlfriend’s father sent them to kill us. So we stole their helicopter and we flew it to their freighter, but it blew up, and we couldn’t go back to the island because it disappeared. So then we crashed into the ocean and we floated there for awhile before a boat came and picked us up. By then, there was six of us. That part was true. But the rest of the people who were on the plane... they’re still on that island..."

Thank you, Hurley, I believe we’re all caught up now. Best Lost summary ever.

And that's what I thought!

More at HoboTrashcan...

3D view of St. Julian's coast

This is a photosynth I uploaded today from a set of pictures I took in summer. It's basically a 3D scene built automatically from plain photos. It's not the best 3D experience you can have, and doesn't compare to some 3D first person game, but it's a start, and I expect to see Photosynth improve on that road.

You will need to install a plugin from Microsoft, available here. Or you can click on any of the two images below to load Photosynth, install and view, or if you have already installed Photosynth you can see a forth image underneath and navigate in it.

You can move around with the mouse, and I will list here some keyboard shortcuts (more here) to help enhance the experience:

F	Toggle fullscreen
A, D, S, W	Shift left, right, in, out
E, C	Shift up, down
L, '	Rotate left, right
Ctrl	Hide photos (point mode)
P	Switch photo/point modes

Below, the first image is a preview of the Photosynth navigation, the second is a view in point mode, and the third is a map of St Julian's/Sliema for comparison. The whole photo set covers the visible parts of Triq Gorg Borg Olivier and Triq it-Torri; but the point mode map shows the left part of the map where Triq it-Torri starts, just after Triq Gorg Borg Olivier. It includes Balluta Church, the quay, Ġnien l-Indipendenza, and the apartments in Triq it-Torri. Some parts of the onlooking land with Portomaso Tower are also visible.

Definition of phase

1. n. The offset of one's waking-sleeping schedule with respect to the standard 24-hour cycle; a useful concept among people who often work at night and/or according to no fixed schedule. It is not uncommon to change one's phase by as much as 6 hours per day on a regular basis. "What's your phase?" "I've been getting in about 8 P.M. lately, but I'm going to wrap around to the day schedule by Friday." A person who is roughly 12 hours out of phase is sometimes said to be in night mode. (The term day mode is also (but less frequently) used, meaning you're working 9 to 5 (or, more likely, 10 to 6).) The act of altering one's cycle is called changing phase; phase shifting has also been recently reported from Caltech.

2. change phase the hard way: To stay awake for a very long time in order to get into a different phase.

3. change phase the easy way: To stay asleep, etc. However, some claim that either staying awake longer or sleeping longer is easy, and that it is shortening your day or night that is really hard (wrap around). The jet lag that afflicts travelers who cross many time-zone boundaries may be attributed to two distinct causes: the strain of travel per se, and the strain of changing phase. [People] who suddenly find that they must change phase drastically in a short period of time, particularly the hard way, experience something very like jet lag without traveling.

{via Eric S. Raymond}

Spam of the day: Lost Dog

I must say, a very good description of the Dog to help us find it.

Stray family dog. How do you identify a family dog? And any dog you see in the streets is probably a stray dog. Possibly a very large search space, humanly impossible, unless you have an amazingly long life, by which time the dog is already dead.

From: ***
Subject: FW: My friend has Lost her Dog plsssss email to your friends
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008

Please forward to all your contacts.
This is a family dog.
She was a stray and was adopted.
She is not worth anything to anybody else.
For us she is a member of the family.
Please help us find her.
Thank you so much.

A boring lecture

Before me I see students taking notes on paper, or the fortunate ones on their own personal electronic device. The lecturer is a boring one, and has been discussing information quality for at least these three years I have been registered as a student in this university. The transparent slides have his typical typeface, which I have already seen in my fresher year. Everything is important in IT, and companies and businesses are adopting many practices in IT. The slides have repeating information potentially reducible to just a few words.

Bus Tour 2008

A day of fascination and awesomeness... and coolness

Memory list for 12hr Malta

Qegħdin tard. mux qed nara. tuffieħa. booklet. ilma. le Jack m'hemmx bżonn. day ticket. tridu tixtru gazzetta! bonuses. crossword. rajt ma rajtx. proof of life. Pakistan. Google. laptop. Re Karlu. aċċjola. 122 years. Venus Venus Venus. Venere. lanżiet. Torok. Toni Bajada. Il-Mensija. Il-Madonna. trittiku. tlifniha. le 65. sigarett. 42. Valletta. monti. libsa tat-tieġ. 4 euro flokk. biċċtej drapp. bargain. European Youth Week. ħafna stands. Pjazza Ħelsien. ŻAK food stand. salib ta' Malta. Caravaggio. San Ġwann. inbid tal-Marsovin. wine stands. tfajla sabiħa. 47. L-Imġarr. kastell. pjazza. ħafna nies. Kastell Żamitellu. Stef. libsa tat-tieġ. photoshoot. xemx. pjazza. 47. xemx. 47. Twistees. xemx. dell. sigarett. 47. roundabout. mixja twila. xemx. sħana. break. fejnhu Daniel? l-istorja ta' Sant'Agata. video. xemx.

It-Telgħa tas-Saqqajja. Ir-Rabat. Konti Ruġġieru. interview. mantell. bandiera. il-Knisja ta' Sant'Agata. il-qadima. il-ġdida. il-qadima. il-kripta. l-istatwa fuq iċ-ċint. play. qed jidlam. rehersals. video. play. Torok. soru rieqda. venda. sigarett. għadha ma ġietx. mhux din. 81. kulħadd rieqed. nieqfu l-Imsida. le għall-Belt. Birkirkara. pizza. Ċirklu. nies. ritratti. cameras. m'għandix card reader. gruppi. quddies. dawgħa minn wara. projector. ritratti. kulħadd happy. winners and losers. video. proset u grazzi. aħna ħa nibqgħu daqsxejn hawn. ma nistax insib il-karozza. McDonald's. dħalt nistrieħ. kemm jingħalaq tajjeb il-bieb! birra. bank. aw ġejjin. birra. bank. dawl. umdita.

Crash. Boom. Ugh.

I ride.
I paddle.
I breath.
I take another step.
I turn.
I move.
I ride.
Crash.
Boom.
Bang.
I fly.

Journey through the mountains

The trip was great, only tiring, given I brought no bike seat and I stopped for a smoke on the way. Now here I lie waiting in a park in Cusco for the others to arrive for the opening part. The sun is shining between the rainy clouds into my eyes. I feel the heat on my naked chest, and hear the church bells ringing and a couple of children playing ball in the streets. When the sun goes in I feel the cold wind rushing through the trees, and a vibrating flag pole rope, while cars pass by at random intervals. I long for the Daniels in my backpack and for the slow chopping of the sea, and I cry. I long for the phone in my backpack to hear one voice and a laugh.

Another journey lies ahead of me to Mollendo to meet the other guys, where then I can hear the choppy sea and sleep under the moonlight. Night time stories will be said, arguments will be born and die. Thoughts will fly south to the big ocean, and I will miss every part of it. A sad life this is, a hierarchy in dimensions, with no point except to be there. Time is wasted on trying to decode it, and yet, here I lie on the bench on my sleeping bag, shining sun on my naked chest, and I sleep.

GoRoC v3 Photos