Dave Lemen

Solar Death Ray

Witness the destruction! (Via John Robb.)

For some reason, this reminds me of Jen's cousins' experimentation with potato guns at a long-ago family reunion.

Here's an idea...

Let's say you have a wife, two small children, and a full-time job.

Don't sign up for two classes in one semester.

No. It's just not a good idea.

Happy Pi (π) Day!

Today, we celebrate that rascally, irrational mathematical constant, Pi. It primarily describes the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter, but Pi also surfaces in various other regions of mathematics -- in ways that seem magical!

What do you do on Pi Day to celebrate? Well, the ball drops at 1:59 (AM or PM is up to you). For games, you might try searching for your name or some other meaningful text in the first 4 billion binary digits! It can be like a magic eight-ball! If you're feeling more contemplative, you can gaze upon the digits for a while. And if you're hungry... well... you know.

Enjoy!

Ninety!

My grandfather, Bob Lemen, just turned 90!

I'll feel really lucky if I live so long. What's really amazing about this guy (and it's probably his secret to longevity) is that he still works full-time at the Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert, California. He works in the health club, where he still leads a 3+ mile health walk three mornings a week!

The resort made a big deal of the occasion. My grandmother passed away in January this year, and we are very grateful to grandpa's friends at the spa for being there for him during this time.

Thanks to PubSub, I discovered someone who blogged the event Here!

Giant Steps

Michael Levy animates John Coltrane's Giant Steps. You have to see it. It will blow your mind.

(Via Tim Bray, via Antipixel.)

How to Fight AutoLink

Tim Bray rants about Google's AutoLink feature here, with a tempered but still negative follow-up here.

I haven't tried out the AutoLink feature, primarily because I'm using FireFox almost exclusively now. I'm not as concerned about the potential for abuse as Tim is, but I have a lot of respect for his opinion on just about any subject.

What's MapQuest and Yahoo! to do? Well, I think we all agree that they have some work to do on their map interface. But here is something they could do quickly to improve the chance that I'll use their service:

Allow me to copy/paste an entire address into the form on their front page. This is one of the most annoying aspects of map services. If I find an address on a web page, and the webmaster hasn't created a link to a map service already, I have to go back and forth to copy/paste the address from one window to another in multiple pieces, or I have to copy/paste the street address part and then fat-finger in the city and state. Why?